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A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term

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Title: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term

Editor: James D. Richardson


        
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS. VOLUME 2, PART 3: ANDREW JACKSON, 1ST TERM ***

MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS:

ANDREW JACKSON

March 4, 1829, to March 4, 1833

Edited by James D. Richardson




ANDREW JACKSON


Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw Settlement, North or South
Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1767. He was a son of Andrew Jackson, an
Irishman, who emigrated to America in 1765 and died in 1767. The name of
his mother was Elizabeth Hutchinson. There is little definite
information about the schools that he attended. According to Parton, "He
learned to read, to write, and cast accounts--little more." Having taken
arms against the British in 1781, he was captured, and afterwards
wounded by an officer because he refused to clean the officer's boots.
About 1785 he began to study law at Salisbury, N.C. In 1788 removed to
Nashville, Tenn., where he began to practice law. About 1791 he married
Rachel Robards, originally Rachel Donelson, whose first husband was
living and had taken preliminary measures to obtain a divorce, which was
legally completed in 1793. The marriage ceremony was again performed in
1794. He was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of
Tennessee in 1796, and in the autumn of that year was elected
Representative to Congress by the people of Tennessee, which State was
then entitled to only one member. Supported Thomas Jefferson in the
Presidential election of 1796. In 1797 became a Senator of the United
States for the State of Tennessee. Resigned his seat in the Senate in
1798; was a judge of the supreme court of Tennessee from 1798 till 1804.
After war had been declared against Great Britain, General Jackson (who
several years before had been appointed major-general of militia)
offered his services and those of 2,500 volunteers in June, 1812. He was
ordered to New Orleans, and led a body of 2,070 men in that direction;
but at Natchez he received an order, dated February 6, 1813, by which
his troops were dismissed from public service. In October, 1813, he took
the field against the Creek Indians, whom he defeated at Talladega in
November. By his services in this Creek war, which ended in 1814, he
acquired great popularity, and in May, 1814, was appointed a
major-general in the Regular Army; was soon afterwards ordered to the
Gulf of Mexico, to oppose an expected invasion of the British. In
November he seized Pensacola, which belonged to Spain, but was used by
the British as a base of operations. About the 1st of December he moved
his army to New Orleans, where he was successful in two engagements with
the British, and afterwards gained his famous victory on January 8,
1815. This was the last battle of the war, a treaty of peace having been
signed on December 24, 1814. In 1817-18 he waged a successful war
against the Seminoles in Florida, seized Pensacola, and executed
Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British subjects, accused of inciting the
savages to hostile acts against the Americans. He was appointed governor
of Florida in 1821. In 1823 was elected a Senator of the United States,
and nominated as candidate for the Presidency by the legislature of
Tennessee. His competitors were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and
William H. Crawford. Jackson received 99 electoral votes, Adams 84,
Crawford 41, and Clay 37. As no candidate had a majority, the election
devolved on the House of Representatives, and it resulted in the choice
of Mr. Adams. In 1828 Jackson was elected President, receiving 178
electoral votes, while Adams received 83; was reelected in 1832,
defeating Henry Clay. Retired to private life March 4, 1837. He died at
the Hermitage on the 8th of June, 1845, and was buried there.




LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.

CITY OF WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1829._
J.C. CALHOUN,
_Vice-President of the United States_.

Sir: Through you I beg leave to inform the Senate that on Wednesday, the
4th instant, at 12 o'clock, I shall be ready to take the oath prescribed
by the Constitution previously to entering on a discharge of my official
duties, and at such place as the Senate may think proper to designate.

I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

ANDREW JACKSON.




FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Fellow-Citizens: About to undertake the arduous duties that I have been
appointed to perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of
this customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their
confidence inspires and to acknowledge the accountability which my
situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces me
that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they have conferred, it
admonishes me that the best return I can make is the zealous dedication
of my humble abilities to their service and their good.

As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on me for
a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, to superintend
their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage their revenue,
to command their forces, and, by communications to the Legislature, to
watch over and to promote their interests generally. And the principles
of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish this circle of duties
it is now proper for me briefly to explain.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the
limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting
thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its
authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace
and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the
adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the
forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility
belonging to a gallant people.

In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the rights
of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper respect for
those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the
powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to
the Confederacy.

The management of the public revenue--that searching operation in all
governments--is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours,
and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official
solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would
appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and
faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it
will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary
duration of which is incompatible with real independence, and because it
will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy which a
profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to
engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable end
are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress
for the specific appropriation of public money and the prompt
accountability of public officers.

With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a view
to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and
compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great
interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally
favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should consist
in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may
be found essential to our national independence.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can
be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of
high importance.

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of
peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor
disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches
that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The
gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes
our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation of our
forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive
improvements in the discipline and science of both branches of our
military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be
excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their
importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia,
which in the present state of our intelligence and population must
render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for the
good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it
secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of
conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as
it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an
impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we
may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the
means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just
system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of
the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.

It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian
tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that
humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which
is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our
people.

The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list of
Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task
of _reform_, which will require particularly the correction of those
abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those
causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment and have
placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.

In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall endeavor
to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in their
respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending for the
advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the
public officers than on their numbers.

A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach me
to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my
illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow
from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The
same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the
coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and
support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the
goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our
national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various
vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He
will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care
and gracious benediction.

MARCH 4, 1829.




SPECIAL MESSAGES.


_March 6, 1829_.
_the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: The Executive nominations made during the past session of
Congress, and which remain unacted on by the Senate, I hereby withdraw
from their consideration.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_March 6, 1829_.
_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

The treaty of commerce and navigation concluded at Washington on the 1st
of May, 1828, between the United States and the King of Prussia, was
laid before the Senate, who, by their resolution of the 14th of that
month, advised and consented to its ratification by the President.

By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was agreed that the exchange
of ratifications should be made within nine months from its date.

On the 15th day of February last, being fifteen days after the time
stipulated for the exchange by the terms of the treaty, the chargé
d'affaires of the King of Prussia informed the Secretary of State that
he had received the Prussian ratification and was ready to exchange it
for that of the United States. In reply he was informed of the intention
of the President, my late predecessor, not to proceed to the exchange in
consequence of the expiration of the time within which it was to be
made.

Under these circumstances I have thought it my duty, in order to avoid
all future questions, to ask the advice and consent of the Senate to
make the proposed exchange.

I send you the original of the treaty, together with a printed copy of
it.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_March 11, 1829_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: Brevet rank for ten years' faithful service has produced much
confusion in the Army. For this reason the discretion vested in the
President of the United States on this subject would not be exercised by
any submission of those cases to the Senate but that it has been
heretofore the practice to do so. They are accordingly submitted, with
other nominations, to fill the offices respectively annexed to their
names in the inclosed lists,[1] for the consideration of the Senate.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 1: Omitted.]




PROCLAMATIONS.

By the President of the United States of America.


A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 7th of
January, 1824, entitled "An act concerning discriminating duties of
tonnage and impost," it is provided that upon satisfactory evidence
being given to the President of the United States by the government of
any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost
are imposed or levied within the ports of the said nation upon vessels
belonging wholly to citizens of the United States, or upon merchandise
the produce or manufacture thereof imported in the same, the President
is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that the
foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United
States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects
the vessels of the said nation and the merchandise of its produce or
manufacture imported into the United States in the same, the said
suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given
to the President of the United States and to continue so long as the
reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United
States, and merchandise, as aforesaid, therein laden, shall be
continued, and no longer; and

Whereas satisfactory evidence has been received by me from His Imperial
Majesty the Emperor of Austria, through the Baron de Lederer, his
consul-general in the United States, that vessels wholly belonging to
citizens of the United States are not, nor shall be, on their entering
any Austrian port, from and after the 1st day of January last, subject
to the payment of higher duties of tonnage than are levied on Austrian
ships:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts
imposing duties on the tonnage of ships arriving in the United States as
imposed a discriminating duty between the vessels of the Empire of
Austria and vessels of the United States are suspended and discontinued,
the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned and to
continue henceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels
of the United States shall be continued in the ports of the imperial
dominions of Austria.

(SEAL.)

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 11th day of May,
A.D. 1829, and the fifty-second[2] of the Independence of the United
States.

ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President:
M. Van Buren,
_Secretary of State_.

[Footnote 2: Should be "third" instead of "second."]


BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of
May, 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act
concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost,' and to equalize
the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is provided that
upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United
States by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating
duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the
said nation upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United
States, or upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in
the same from the United States or from any foreign country, the
President is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that
the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the
United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as
respects the vessels of the said foreign nation and the produce,
manufactures, or merchandise imported into the United States in the same
from the said foreign nation or from any other foreign country, the said
suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given
to the President of the United States and to continue so long as the
reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United
States, and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no
longer; and

Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me from His
Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria, through an official
communication of the Baron de Lederer, his consul-general in the United
States, under date of the 29th of May, 1829, that no other or higher
duties of tonnage and impost are imposed or levied since the 1st day of
January last in the ports of Austria upon vessels wholly belonging to
citizens of the United States and upon the produce, manufactures, or
merchandise imported in the same from the United States and from any
foreign country whatever than are levied on Austrian ships and their
cargoes in the same ports under like circumstances:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts
imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United
States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects
the vessels of Austria and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise
imported into the United States in the same from the dominions of
Austria and from any other foreign country whatever, the said suspension
to take effect from the day above mentioned and to continue
thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the
United States and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported
into the dominions of Austria in the same, as aforesaid, shall be
continued on the part of the Government of His Imperial Majesty the
Emperor of Austria.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 3d day of June,
A.D. 1829, and the fifty-third of the Independence of the United States.

ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President:
M. VAN BUREN,
_Secretary of State_.


EXECUTIVE ORDER.

In all applications by any invalid to obtain a pension in consequence of
any disability incurred, no payment therefor shall commence until proof
shall be filed in the Department and the decision of the Secretary had
thereon; and no pension will be allowed to anyone while acting as an
officer of the Army except in cases which have been heretofore adjudged.

Approved, 8th April, 1829.

ANDREW JACKSON.


FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings to you on the
occasion of your assembling at the seat of Government to enter upon the
important duties to which you have been called by the voice of our
countrymen. The task devolves on me, under a provision of the
Constitution, to present to you, as the Federal Legislature of
twenty-four sovereign States and 12,000,000 happy people, a view of our
affairs, and to propose such measures as in the discharge of my official
functions have suggested themselves as necessary to promote the objects
of our Union.

In communicating with you for the first time it is to me a source of
unfeigned satisfaction, calling for mutual gratulation and devout thanks
to a benign Providence, that we are at peace with all mankind, and that
our country exhibits the most cheering evidence of general welfare and
progressive improvement. Turning our eyes to other nations, our great
desire is to see our brethren of the human race secured in the blessings
enjoyed by ourselves, and advancing in knowledge, in freedom, and in
social happiness.

Our foreign relations, although in their general character pacific and
friendly, present subjects of difference between us and other powers of
deep interest as well to the country at large as to many of our
citizens. To effect an adjustment of these shall continue to be the
object of my earnest endeavors, and notwithstanding the difficulties of
the task, I do not allow myself to apprehend unfavorable results.
Blessed as our country is with everything which constitutes national
strength, she is fully adequate to the maintenance of all her interests.
In discharging the responsible trust confided to the Executive in this
respect it is my settled purpose to ask nothing that is not clearly
right and to submit to nothing that is wrong; and I flatter myself that,
supported by the other branches of the Government and by the
intelligence and patriotism of the people, we shall be able, under the
protection of Providence, to cause all our just rights to be respected.

Of the unsettled matters between the United States and other powers, the
most prominent are those which have for years been the subject of
negotiation with England, France, and Spain. The late periods at which
our ministers to those Governments left the United States render it
impossible at this early day to inform you of what has been done on the
subjects with which they have been respectively charged. Relying upon
the justice of our views in relation to the points committed to
negotiation and the reciprocal good feeling which characterizes our
intercourse with those nations, we have the best reason to hope for a
satisfactory adjustment of existing differences.

With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and war, we may look
forward to years of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition.
Everything in the condition and history of the two nations is calculated
to inspire sentiments of mutual respect and to carry conviction to the
minds of both that it is their policy to preserve the most cordial
relations. Such are my own views, and it is not to be doubted that such
are also the prevailing sentiments of our constituents. Although neither
time nor opportunity has been afforded for a full development of the
policy which the present cabinet of Great Britain designs to pursue
toward this country, I indulge the hope that it will be of a just and
pacific character; and if this anticipation be realized we may look with
confidence to a speedy and acceptable adjustment of our affairs.

Under the convention for regulating the reference to arbitration of the
disputed points of boundary under the fifth article of the treaty of
Ghent, the proceedings have hitherto been conducted in that spirit of
candor and liberality which ought ever to characterize the acts of
sovereign States seeking to adjust by the most unexceptionable means
important and delicate subjects of contention. The first statements of
the parties have been exchanged, and the final replication on our part
is in a course of preparation. This subject has received the attention
demanded by its great and peculiar importance to a patriotic member of
this Confederacy.

The exposition of our rights already made is such as, from the high
reputation of the commissioners by whom it has been prepared, we had a
right to expect. Our interests at the Court of the Sovereign who has
evinced his friendly disposition by assuming the delicate task of
arbitration have been committed to a citizen of the State of Maine,
whose character, talents, and intimate acquaintance with the subject
eminently qualify him for so responsible a trust. With full confidence
in the justice of our cause and in the probity, intelligence, and
uncompromising independence of the illustrious arbitrator, we can have
nothing to apprehend from the result.

From France, our ancient ally, we have a right to expect that justice
which becomes the sovereign of a powerful, intelligent, and magnanimous
people. The beneficial effects produced by the commercial convention of
1822, limited as are its provisions, are too obvious not to make a
salutary impression upon the minds of those who are charged with the
administration of her Government. Should this result induce a
disposition to embrace to their full extent the wholesome principles
which constitute our commercial policy, our minister to that Court will
be found instructed to cherish such a disposition and to aid in
conducting it to useful practical conclusions. The claims of our
citizens for depredations upon their property, long since committed
under the authority, and in many instances by the express direction, of
the then existing Government of France, remain unsatisfied, and must
therefore continue to furnish a subject of unpleasant discussion and
possible collision between the two Governments. I cherish, however, a
lively hope, founded as well on the validity of those claims and the
established policy of all enlightened governments as on the known
integrity of the French Monarch, that the injurious delays of the past
will find redress in the equity of the future. Our minister has been
instructed to press these demands on the French Government with all the
earnestness which is called for by their importance and irrefutable
justice, and in a spirit that will evince the respect which is due to
the feelings of those from whom the satisfaction is required.

Our minister recently appointed to Spain has been authorized to assist
in removing evils alike injurious to both countries, either by
concluding a commercial convention upon liberal and reciprocal terms or
by urging the acceptance in their full extent of the mutually beneficial
provisions of our navigation acts. He has also been instructed to make a
further appeal to the justice of Spain, in behalf of our citizens, for
indemnity for spoliations upon our commerce committed under her
authority--an appeal which the pacific and liberal course observed on
our part and a due confidence in the honor of that Government authorize
us to expect will not be made in vain.

With other European powers our intercourse is on the most friendly
footing. In Russia, placed by her territorial limits, extensive
population, and great power high in the rank of nations, the United
States have always found a steadfast friend. Although her recent
invasion of Turkey awakened a lively sympathy for those who were exposed
to the desolations of war, we can not but anticipate that the result
will prove favorable to the cause of civilization and to the progress of
human happiness. The treaty of peace between these powers having been
ratified, we can not be insensible to the great benefit to be derived by
the commerce of the United States from unlocking the navigation of the
Black Sea, a free passage into which is secured to all merchant vessels
bound to ports of Russia under a flag at peace with the Porte. This
advantage, enjoyed upon conditions by most of the powers of Europe, has
hitherto been withheld from us. During the past summer an antecedent but
unsuccessful attempt to obtain it was renewed under circumstances which
promised the most favorable results. Although these results have
fortunately been thus in part attained, further facilities to the
enjoyment of this new field for the enterprise of our citizens are, in
my opinion, sufficiently desirable to insure to them our most zealous
attention.

Our trade with Austria, although of secondary importance, has been
gradually increasing, and is now so extended as to deserve the fostering
care of the Government. A negotiation, commenced and nearly completed
with that power by the late Administration, has been consummated by a
treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce, which will be laid before the
Senate.

During the recess of Congress our diplomatic relations with Portugal
have been resumed. The peculiar state of things in that country caused a
suspension of the recognition of the representative who presented
himself until an opportunity was had to obtain from our official organ
there information regarding the actual and, as far as practicable,
prospective condition of the authority by which the representative in
question was appointed. This information being received, the application
of the established rule of our Government in like cases was no longer
withheld.

Considerable advances have been made during the present year in the
adjustment of claims of our citizens upon Denmark for spoliations, but
all that we have a right to demand from that Government in their behalf
has not yet been conceded. From the liberal footing, however, upon which
this subject has, with the approbation of the claimants, been placed by
the Government, together with the uniformly just and friendly
disposition which has been evinced by His Danish Majesty, there is a
reasonable ground to hope that this single subject of difference will
speedily be removed.

Our relations with the Barbary Powers continue, as they have long been,
of the most favorable character. The policy of keeping an adequate force
in the Mediterranean, as security for the continuance of this
tranquillity, will be persevered in, as well as a similar one for the
protection of our commerce and fisheries in the Pacific.

The southern Republics of our own hemisphere have not yet realized all
the advantages for which they have been so long struggling. We trust,
however, that the day is not distant when the restoration of peace and
internal quiet, under permanent systems of government, securing the
liberty and promoting the happiness of the citizens, will crown with
complete success their long and arduous efforts in the cause of
self-government, and enable us to salute them as friendly rivals in all
that is truly great and glorious.

The recent invasion of Mexico, and the effect thereby produced upon her
domestic policy, must have a controlling influence upon the great
question of South American emancipation. We have seen the fell spirit of
civil dissension rebuked, and perhaps forever stifled, in that Republic
by the love of independence. If it be true, as appearances strongly
indicate, that the spirit of independence is the master spirit, and if a
corresponding sentiment prevails in the other States, this devotion to
liberty can not be without a proper effect upon the counsels of the
mother country. The adoption by Spain of a pacific policy toward her
former colonies--an event consoling to humanity, and a blessing to the
world, in which she herself can not fail largely to participate--may be
most reasonably expected.

The claims of our citizens upon the South American Governments generally
are in a train of settlement, while the principal part of those upon
Brazil have been adjusted, and a decree in council ordering bonds to be
issued by the minister of the treasury for their amount has received the
sanction of His Imperial Majesty. This event, together with the exchange
of the ratifications of the treaty negotiated and concluded in 1828,
happily terminates all serious causes of difference with that power.

Measures have been taken to place our commercial relations with Peru
upon a better footing than that upon which they have hitherto rested,
and if met by a proper disposition on the part of that Government
important benefits may be secured to both countries.

Deeply interested as we are in the prosperity of our sister Republics,
and more particularly in that of our immediate neighbor, it would be
most gratifying to me were I permitted to say that the treatment which
we have received at her hands has been as universally friendly as the
early and constant solicitude manifested by the United States for her
success gave us a right to expect. But it becomes my duty to inform you
that prejudices long indulged by a portion of the inhabitants of Mexico
against the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the
United States have had an unfortunate influence upon the affairs of the
two countries, and have diminished that usefulness to his own which was
justly to be expected from his talents and zeal. To this cause, in a
great degree, is to be imputed the failure of several measures equally
interesting to both parties, but particularly that of the Mexican
Government to ratify a treaty negotiated and concluded in its own
capital and under its own eye. Under these circumstances it appeared
expedient to give to Mr. Poinsett the option either to return or not, as
in his judgment the interest of his country might require, and
instructions to that end were prepared; but before they could be
dispatched a communication was received from the Government of Mexico,
through its chargé d'affaires here, requesting the recall of our
minister. This was promptly complied with, and a representative of a
rank corresponding with that of the Mexican diplomatic agent near this
Government was appointed. Our conduct toward that Republic has been
uniformly of the most friendly character, and having thus removed the
only alleged obstacle to harmonious intercourse, I can not but hope that
an advantageous change will occur in our affairs.

In justice to Mr. Poinsett it is proper to say that my immediate
compliance with the application for his recall and the appointment of a
successor are not to be ascribed to any evidence that the imputation of
an improper interference by him in the local politics of Mexico was well
founded, nor to a want of confidence in his talents or integrity, and to
add that the truth of that charge has never been affirmed by the federal
Government of Mexico in its communications with this.

I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties to bring to your
attention the propriety of amending that part of our Constitution which
relates to the election of President and Vice-President. Our system of
government was by its framers deemed an experiment, and they therefore
consistently provided a mode of remedying its defects.

To the people belongs the right of electing their Chief Magistrate; it
was never designed that their choice should in any case be defeated,
either by the intervention of electoral colleges or by the agency
confided, under certain contingencies, to the House of Representatives.
Experience proves that in proportion as agents to execute the will of
the people are multiplied there is danger of their wishes being
frustrated. Some may be unfaithful; all are liable to err. So far,
therefore, as the people can with convenience speak, it is safer for
them to express their own will.

The number of aspirants to the Presidency and the diversity of the
interests which may influence their claims leave little reason to expect
a choice in the first instance, and in that event the election must
devolve on the House of Representatives, where it is obvious the will of
the people may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not be
regarded. From the mode of voting by States the choice is to be made by
24 votes, and it may often occur that one of these will be controlled by
an individual Representative. Honors and offices are at the disposal of
the successful candidate. Repeated ballotings may make it apparent that
a single individual holds the cast in his hand. May he not be tempted to
name his reward? But even without corruption, supposing the probity of
the Representative to be proof against the powerful motives by which it
may be assailed, the will of the people is still constantly liable to be
misrepresented. One may err from ignorance of the wishes of his
constituents; another from a conviction that it is his duty to be
governed by his own judgment of the fitness of the candidates; finally,
although all were inflexibly honest, all accurately informed of the
wishes of their constituents, yet under the present mode of election a
minority may often elect a President, and when this happens it may
reasonably be expected that efforts will be made on the part of the
majority to rectify this injurious operation of their institutions. But
although no evil of this character should result from such a perversion
of the first principle of our system--_that the majority is to
govern_--it must be very certain that a President elected by a minority
can not enjoy the confidence necessary to the successful discharge of
his duties.

In this as in all other matters of public concern policy requires that
as few impediments as possible should exist to the free operation of the
public will. Let us, then, endeavor so to amend our system that the
office of Chief Magistrate may not be conferred upon any citizen but in
pursuance of a fair expression of the will of the majority.

I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the Constitution as may
remove all intermediate agency in the election of the President and
Vice-President. The mode may be so regulated as to preserve to each
State its present relative weight in the election, and a failure in the
first attempt may be provided for by confining the second to a choice
between the two highest candidates. In connection with such an amendment
it would seem advisable to limit the service of the Chief Magistrate to
a single term of either four or six years. If, however, it should not be
adopted, it is worthy of consideration whether a provision disqualifying
for office the Representatives in Congress on whom such an election may
have devolved would not be proper.

While members of Congress can be constitutionally appointed to offices
of trust and profit it will be the practice, even under the most
conscientious adherence to duty, to select them for such stations as
they are believed to be better qualified to fill than other citizens;
but the purity of our Government would doubtless be promoted by their
exclusion from all appointments in the gift of the President, in whose
election they may have been officially concerned. The nature of the
judicial office and the necessity of securing in the Cabinet and in
diplomatic stations of the highest rank the best talents and political
experience should, perhaps, except these from the exclusion.

There are, perhaps, few men who can for any great length of time enjoy
office and power without being more or less under the influence of
feelings unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their public duties.
Their integrity may be proof against improper considerations immediately
addressed to themselves, but they are apt to acquire a habit of looking
with indifference upon the public interests and of tolerating conduct
from which an unpracticed man would revolt. Office is considered as a
species of property, and government rather as a means of promoting
individual interests than as an instrument created solely for the
service of the people. Corruption in some and in others a perversion of
correct feelings and principles divert government from its legitimate
ends and make it an engine for the support of the few at the expense of
the many. The duties of all public officers are, or at least admit of
being made, so plain and simple that men of intelligence may readily
qualify themselves for their performance; and I can not but believe that
more is lost by the long continuance of men in office than is generally
to be gained by their experience. I submit, therefore, to your
consideration whether the efficiency of the Government would not be
promoted and official industry and integrity better secured by a general
extension of the law which limits appointments to four years.

In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the
people no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than
another. Offices were not established to give support to particular men
at the public expense. No individual wrong is, therefore, done by
removal, since neither appointment to nor continuance in office is
matter of right. The incumbent became an officer with a view to public
benefits, and when these require his removal they are not to be
sacrificed to private interests. It is the people, and they alone, who
have a right to complain when a bad officer is substituted for a good
one. He who is removed has the same means of obtaining a living that are
enjoyed by the millions who never held office. The proposed limitation
would destroy the idea of property now so generally connected with
official station, and although individual distress may be sometimes
produced, it would, by promoting that rotation which constitutes a
leading principle in the republican creed, give healthful action to the
system.

No very considerable change has occurred during the recess of Congress
in the condition of either our agriculture, commerce, or manufactures.
The operation of the tariff has not proved so injurious to the two
former or as beneficial to the latter as was anticipated. Importations
of foreign goods have not been sensibly diminished, while domestic
competition, under an illusive excitement, has increased the production
much beyond the demand for home consumption. The consequences have been
low prices, temporary embarrassment, and partial loss. That such of our
manufacturing establishments as are based upon capital and are prudently
managed will survive the shock and be ultimately profitable there is no
good reason to doubt.

To regulate its conduct so as to promote equally the prosperity of these
three cardinal interests is one of the most difficult tasks of
Government; and it may be regretted that the complicated restrictions
which now embarrass the intercourse of nations could not by common
consent be abolished, and commerce allowed to flow in those channels to
which individual enterprise, always its surest guide, might direct it.
But we must ever expect selfish legislation in other nations, and are
therefore compelled to adapt our own to their regulations in the manner
best calculated to avoid serious injury and to harmonize the conflicting
interests of our agriculture, our commerce, and our manufactures. Under
these impressions I invite your attention to the existing tariff,
believing that some of its provisions require modification.

The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties upon articles of
foreign growth or manufacture is that which will place our own in fair
competition with those of other countries; and the inducements to
advance even a step beyond this point are controlling in regard to those
articles which are of primary necessity in time of war. When we reflect
upon the difficulty and delicacy of this operation, it is important that
it should never be attempted but with the utmost caution. Frequent
legislation in regard to any branch of industry, affecting its value,
and by which its capital may be transferred to new channels, must always
be productive of hazardous speculation and loss.

In deliberating, therefore, on these interesting subjects local feelings
and prejudices should be merged in the patriotic determination to
promote the great interests of the whole. All attempts to connect them
with the party conflicts of the day are necessarily injurious, and
should be discountenanced. Our action upon them should be under the
control of higher and purer motives. Legislation subjected to such
influences can never be just, and will not long retain the sanction of a
people whose active patriotism is not bounded by sectional limits nor
insensible to that spirit of concession and forbearance which gave life
to our political compact and still sustains it. Discarding all
calculations of political ascendency, the North, the South, the East,
and the West should unite in diminishing any burthen of which either may
justly complain.

The agricultural interest of our country is so essentially connected
with every other and so superior in importance to them all that it is
scarcely necessary to invite to it your particular attention. It is
principally as manufactures and commerce tend to increase the value of
agricultural productions and to extend their application to the wants
and comforts of society that they deserve the fostering care of
Government.

Looking forward to the period, not far distant, when a sinking fund will
no longer be required, the duties on those articles of importation which
can not come in competition with our own productions are the first that
should engage the attention of Congress in the modification of the
tariff. Of these, tea and coffee are the most prominent. They enter
largely into the consumption of the country, and have become articles of
necessity to all classes. A reduction, therefore, of the existing duties
will be felt as a common benefit, but like all other legislation
connected with commerce, to be efficacious and not injurious it should
be gradual and certain.

The public prosperity is evinced in the increased revenue arising from
the sales of the public lands and in the steady maintenance of that
produced by imposts and tonnage, notwithstanding the additional duties
imposed by the act of 19th May, 1828, and the unusual importations in
the early part of that year.

The balance in the Treasury on January 1, 1829, was $5,972,435.81. The
receipts of the current year are estimated at $24,602,230 and the
expenditures for the same time at $26,164,595, leaving a balance in the
Treasury on the 1st of January next of $4,410,070.81.

There will have been paid on account of the public debt during the
present year the sum of $12,405,005.80, reducing the whole debt of the
Government on the 1st of January next to $48,565,406.50, including seven
millions of 5 per cent stock subscribed to the Bank of the United
States. The payment on account of public debt made on the 1st of July
last was $8,715,462.87. It was apprehended that the sudden withdrawal of
so large a sum from the banks in which it was deposited, at a time of
unusual pressure in the money market, might cause much injury to the
interests dependent on bank accommodations. But this evil was wholly
averted by an early anticipation of it at the Treasury, aided by the
judicious arrangements of the officers of the Bank of the United States.

This state of the finances exhibits the resources of the nation in an
aspect highly flattering to its industry and auspicious of the ability
of Government in a very short time to extinguish the public debt. When
this shall be done our population will be relieved from a considerable
portion of its present burthens, and will find not only new motives to
patriotic affection, but additional means for the display of individual
enterprise. The fiscal power of the States will also be increased, and
may be more extensively exerted in favor of education and other public
objects, while ample means will remain in the Federal Government to
promote the general weal in all the modes permitted to its authority.

After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable that any
adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the people of
the Union will until a remote period, if ever, leave the Government
without a considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond what may be
required for its current service. As, then, the period approaches when
the application of the revenue to the payment of debt will cease, the
disposition of the surplus will present a subject for the serious
deliberation of Congress; and it may be fortunate for the country that
it is yet to be decided. Considered in connection with the difficulties
which have heretofore attended appropriations for purposes of internal
improvement, and with those which this experience tells us will
certainly arise whenever power over such subjects may be exercised by
the General Government, it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of
some plan which will reconcile the diversified interests of the States
and strengthen the bonds which unite them. Every member of the Union, in
peace and in war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland
navigation and the construction of highways in the several States. Let
us, then, endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode which will be
satisfactory to all. That hitherto adopted has by many of our
fellow-citizens been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution,
while by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has
been employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils.

To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and
federal disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue would be
its apportionment among the several States according to their ratio of
representation, and should this measure not be found warranted by the
Constitution that it would be expedient to propose to the States an
amendment authorizing it. I regard an appeal to the source of power in
cases of real doubt, and where its exercise is deemed indispensable to
the general welfare, as among the most sacred of all our obligations.
Upon this country more than any other has, in the providence of God,
been cast the special guardianship of the great principle of adherence
to written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in regard to it will
be extinguished. That this was intended to be a government of limited
and specific, and not general, powers must be admitted by all, and it is
our duty to preserve for it the character intended by its framers. If
experience points out the necessity for an enlargement of these powers,
let us apply for it to those for whose benefit it is to be exercised,
and not undermine the whole system by a resort to overstrained
constructions. The scheme has worked well. It has exceeded the hopes of
those who devised it, and become an object of admiration to the world.
We are responsible to our country and to the glorious cause of
self-government for the preservation of so great a good. The great mass
of legislation relating to our internal affairs was intended to be left
where the Federal Convention found it--in the State governments. Nothing
is clearer, in my view, than that we are chiefly indebted for the
success of the Constitution under which we are now acting to the
watchful and auxiliary operation of the State authorities. This is not
the reflection of a day, but belongs to the most deeply rooted
convictions of my mind. I can not, therefore, too strongly or too
earnestly, for my own sense of its importance, warn you against all
encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty. Sustained
by its healthful and invigorating influence the federal system can never
fall.

In the collection of the revenue the long credits authorized on goods
imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope are the chief cause of the
losses at present sustained. If these were shortened to six, nine, and
twelve months, and warehouses provided by Government sufficient to
receive the goods offered in deposit for security and for debenture, and
if the right of the United States to a priority of payment out of the
estates of its insolvent debtors were more effectually secured, this
evil would in a great measure be obviated. An authority to construct
such houses is therefore, with the proposed alteration of the credits,
recommended to your attention.

It is worthy of notice that the laws for the collection and security of
the revenue arising from imposts were chiefly framed when the rates of
duties on imported goods presented much less temptation for illicit
trade than at present exists. There is reason to believe that these laws
are in some respects quite insufficient for the proper security of the
revenue and the protection of the interests of those who are disposed to
observe them. The injurious and demoralizing tendency of a successful
system of smuggling is so obvious as not to require comment, and can not
be too carefully guarded against. I therefore suggest to Congress the
propriety of adopting efficient measures to prevent this evil, avoiding,
however, as much as possible, every unnecessary infringement of
individual liberty and embarrassment of fair and lawful business.

On an examination of the records of the Treasury I have been forcibly
struck with the large amount of public money which appears to be
outstanding. Of the sum thus due from individuals to the Government a
considerable portion is undoubtedly desperate, and in many instances has
probably been rendered so by remissness in the agents charged with its
collection. By proper exertions a great part, however, may yet be
recovered; and whatever may be the portions respectively belonging to
these two classes, it behooves the Government to ascertain the real
state of the fact. This can be done only by the prompt adoption of
judicious measures for the collection of such as may be made available.
It is believed that a very large amount has been lost through the
inadequacy of the means provided for the collection of debts due to the
public, and that this inadequacy lies chiefly in the want of legal skill
habitually and constantly employed in the direction of the agents
engaged in the service. It must, I think, be admitted that the
supervisory power over suits brought by the public, which is now vested
in an _accounting_ officer of the Treasury, not selected with a view to
his legal knowledge, and encumbered as he is with numerous other duties,
operates unfavorably to the public interest.

It is important that this branch of the public service should be
subjected to the supervision of such professional skill as will give it
efficiency. The expense attendant upon such a modification of the
executive department would be justified by the soundest principles of
economy. I would recommend, therefore, that the duties now assigned to
the agent of the Treasury, so far as they relate to the superintendence
and management of legal proceedings on the part of the United States, be
transferred to the Attorney-General, and that this officer be placed on
the same footing in all respects as the heads of the other Departments,
receiving like compensation and having such subordinate officers
provided for his Department as may be requisite for the discharge of
these additional duties.

The professional skill of the Attorney-General, employed in directing
the conduct of marshals and district attorneys, would hasten the
collection of debts now in suit and hereafter save much to the
Government. It might be further extended to the superintendence of all
criminal proceedings for offenses against the United States. In making
this transfer great care should be taken, however, that the power
necessary to the Treasury Department be not impaired, one of its
greatest securities consisting in a control over all accounts until they
are audited or reported for suit.

In connection with the foregoing views I would suggest also an inquiry
whether the provisions of the act of Congress authorizing the discharge
of the persons of debtors to the Government from imprisonment may not,
consistently with the public interest, be extended to the release of the
debt where the conduct of the debtor is wholly exempt from the
imputation of fraud. Some more liberal policy than that which now
prevails in reference to this unfortunate class of citizens is certainly
due to them, and would prove beneficial to the country. The continuance
of the liability after the means to discharge it have been exhausted can
only serve to dispirit the debtor; or, where his resources are but
partial, the want of power in the Government to compromise and release
the demand instigates to fraud as the only resource for securing a
support to his family. He thus sinks into a state of apathy, and becomes
a useless drone in society or a vicious member of it, if not a feeling
witness of the rigor and inhumanity of his country. All experience
proves that oppressive debt is the bane of enterprise, and it should be
the care of a republic not to exert a grinding power over misfortune and
poverty.

Since the last session of Congress numerous frauds on the Treasury have
been discovered, which I thought it my duty to bring under the
cognizance of the United States court for this district by a criminal
prosecution. It was my opinion and that of able counsel who were
consulted that the cases came within the penalties of the act of the
Seventeenth Congress approved 3d March, 1823, providing for the
punishment of frauds committed on the Government of the United States.
Either from some defect in the law or in its administration every
effort, to bring the accused to trial under its provisions proved
ineffectual, and the Government was driven to the necessity of resorting
to the vague and inadequate provisions of the common law. It is
therefore my duty to call your attention to the laws which have been
passed for the protection of the Treasury. If, indeed, there be no
provision by which those who may be unworthily intrusted with its
guardianship can be punished for the most flagrant violation of duty,
extending even to the most fraudulent appropriation of the public funds
to their own use, it is time to remedy so dangerous an omission; or if
the law has been perverted from its original purposes, and criminals
deserving to be punished under its provisions have been rescued by legal
subtleties, it ought to be made so plain by amendatory provisions as to
baffle the arts of perversion and accomplish the ends of its original
enactment.

In one of the most flagrant cases the court decided that the prosecution
was barred by the statute which limits prosecutions for fraud to two
years. In this case all the evidences of the fraud, and, indeed, all
knowledge that a fraud had been committed, were in possession of the
party accused until after the two years had elapsed. Surely the statute
ought not to run in favor of any man while he retains all the evidences
of his crime in his own possession, and least of all in favor of a
public officer who continues to defraud the Treasury and conceal the
transaction for the brief term of two years. I would therefore recommend
such an alteration of the law as will give the injured party and the
Government two years after the disclosure of the fraud or after the
accused is out of office to commence their prosecution.

In connection with this subject I invite the attention of Congress to a
general and minute inquiry into the condition of the Government, with a
view to ascertain what offices can be dispensed with, what expenses
retrenched, and what improvements may be made in the organization of its
various parts to secure the proper responsibility of public agents and
promote efficiency and justice in all its operations.

The report of the Secretary of War will make you acquainted with the
condition of our Army, fortifications, arsenals, and Indian affairs. The
proper discipline of the Army, the training and equipment of the
militia, the education bestowed at West Point, and the accumulation of
the means of defense applicable to the naval force will tend to prolong
the peace we now enjoy, and which every good citizen, more especially
those who have felt the miseries of even a successful warfare, must
ardently desire to perpetuate.

The returns from the subordinate branches of this service exhibit a
regularity and order highly creditable to its character. Both officers
and soldiers seem imbued with a proper sense of duty, and conform to the
restraints of exact discipline with that cheerfulness which becomes the
profession of arms. There is need, however, of further legislation to
obviate the inconveniences specified in the report under consideration,
to some of which it is proper that I should call your particular
attention.

The act of Congress of the 2d March, 1821, to reduce and fix the
military establishment, remaining unexecuted as it regards the command
of one of the regiments of artillery, can not now be deemed a guide to
the Executive in making the proper appointment. An explanatory act,
designating the class of officers out of which this grade is to be
filled--whether from the military list as existing prior to the act of
1821 or from it as it has been fixed by that act--would remove this
difficulty. It is also important that the laws regulating the pay and
emoluments of officers generally should be more specific than they now
are. Those, for example, in relation to the Paymaster and Surgeon
General assign to them an annual salary of $2,500, but are silent as to
allowances which in certain exigencies of the service may be deemed
indispensable to the discharge of their duties. This circumstance has
been the authority for extending to them various allowances at different
times under former Administrations, but no uniform rule has been
observed on the subject. Similar inconveniences exist in other cases, in
which the construction put upon the laws by the public accountants may
operate unequally, produce confusion, and expose officers to the odium
of claiming what is not their due.

I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our safest means of
national defense, the Military Academy. This institution has already
exercised the happiest influence upon the moral and intellectual
character of our Army; and such of the graduates as from various causes
may not pursue the profession of arms will be scarcely less useful as
citizens. Their knowledge of the military art will be advantageously
employed in the militia service, and in a measure secure to that class
of troops the advantages which in this respect belong to standing
armies.

I would also suggest a review of the pension law, for the purpose of
extending its benefits to every Revolutionary soldier who aided in
establishing our liberties, and who is unable to maintain himself in
comfort. These relics of the War of Independence have strong claims upon
their country's gratitude and bounty. The law is defective in not
embracing within its provisions all those who were during the last war
disabled from supporting themselves by manual labor. Such an amendment
would add but little to the amount of pensions, and is called for by the
sympathies of the people as well as by considerations of sound policy.
It will be perceived that a large addition to the list of pensioners has
been occasioned by an order of the late Administration, departing
materially from the rules which had previously prevailed. Considering it
an act of legislation, I suspended its operation as soon as I was
informed that it had commenced. Before this period, however,
applications under the new regulation had been preferred to the number
of 154, of which, on the 27th March, the date of its revocation, 87 were
admitted. For the amount there was neither estimate nor appropriation;
and besides this deficiency, the regular allowances, according to the
rules which have heretofore governed the Department, exceed the estimate
of its late Secretary by about $50,000, for which an appropriation is
asked.

Your particular attention is requested to that part of the report of the
Secretary of War which relates to the money held in trust for the Seneca
tribe of Indians. It will be perceived that without legislative aid the
Executive can not obviate the embarrassments occasioned by the
diminution of the dividends on that fund, which originally amounted to
$100,000, and has recently been invested in United States 3 per cent
stock.

The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within the
limits of some of our States have become objects of much interest and
importance. It has long been the policy of Government to introduce among
them the arts of civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming them
from a wandering life. This policy has, however, been coupled with
another wholly incompatible with its success. Professing a desire to
civilize and settle them, we have at the same time lost no opportunity
to purchase their lands and thrust them farther into the wilderness. By
this means they have not only been kept in a wandering state, but been
led to look upon us as unjust and indifferent to their fate. Thus,
though lavish in its expenditures upon the subject, Government has
constantly defeated its own policy, and the Indians in general, receding
farther and farther to the west, have retained their savage habits. A
portion, however, of the Southern tribes, having mingled much with the
whites and made some progress in the arts of civilized life, have lately
attempted to erect an independent government within the limits of
Georgia and Alabama. These States, claiming to be the only sovereigns
within their territories, extended their laws over the Indians, which
induced the latter to call upon the United States for protection.

Under these circumstances the question presented was whether the General
Government had a right to sustain those people in their pretensions. The
Constitution declares that "no new State shall be formed or erected
within the jurisdiction of any other State" without the consent of its
legislature. If the General Government is not permitted to tolerate the
erection of a confederate State within the territory of one of the
members of this Union against her consent, much less could it allow a
foreign and independent government to establish itself there. Georgia
became a member of the Confederacy which eventuated in our Federal Union
as a sovereign State, always asserting her claim to certain limits,
which, having been originally defined in her colonial charter and
subsequently recognized in the treaty of peace, she has ever since
continued to enjoy, except as they have been circumscribed by her own
voluntary transfer of a portion of her territory to the United States in
the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was admitted into the Union on
the same footing with the original States, with boundaries which were
prescribed by Congress. There is no constitutional, conventional, or
legal provision which allows them less power over the Indians within
their borders than is possessed by Maine or New York. Would the people
of Maine permit the Penobscot tribe to erect an independent government
within their State? And unless they did would it not be the duty of the
General Government to support them in resisting such a measure? Would
the people of New York permit each remnant of the Six Nations within her
borders to declare itself an independent people under the protection of
the United States? Could the Indians establish a separate republic on
each of their reservations in Ohio? And if they were so disposed would
it be the duty of this Government to protect them in the attempt? If the
principle involved in the obvious answer to these questions be
abandoned, it will follow that the objects of this Government are
reversed, and that it has become a part of its duty to aid in destroying
the States which it was established to protect.

Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the Indians inhabiting
parts of Georgia and Alabama that their attempt to establish an
independent government would not be countenanced by the Executive of the
United States, and advised them to emigrate beyond the Mississippi or
submit to the laws of those States.

Our conduct toward these people is deeply interesting to our national
character. Their present condition, contrasted with what they once were,
makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies. Our ancestors found them
the uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions. By persuasion and
force they have been made to retire from river to river and from
mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and
others have left but remnants to preserve for awhile their once terrible
names. Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization, which
by destroying the resources of the savage doom him to weakness and
decay, the fate of the Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the Delaware is
fast overtaking the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and the Creek. That this fate
surely awaits them if they remain within the limits of the States does
not admit of a doubt. Humanity and national honor demand that every
effort should be made to avert so great a calamity. It is too late to
inquire whether it was just in the United States to include them and
their territory within the bounds of new States, whose limits they could
control. That step can not be retraced. A State can not be dismembered
by Congress or restricted in the exercise of her constitutional power.
But the people of those States and of every State, actuated by feelings
of justice and a regard for our national honor, submit to you the
interesting question whether something can not be done, consistently
with the rights of the States, to preserve this much-injured race.

As a means of effecting this end I suggest for your consideration the
propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi,
and without the limits of any State or Territory now formed, to be
guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it, each
tribe having a distinct control over the portion designated for its use.
There they may be secured in the enjoyment of governments of their own
choice, subject to no other control from the United States than such as
may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier and between the
several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts
of civilization, and, by promoting union and harmony among them, to
raise up an interesting commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race
and to attest the humanity and justice of this Government.

This emigration should be voluntary, for it would be as cruel as unjust
to compel the aborigines to abandon the graves of their fathers and seek
a home in a distant land. But they should be distinctly informed that if
they remain within the limits of the States they must be subject to
their laws. In return for their obedience as individuals they will
without doubt be protected in the enjoyment of those possessions which
they have improved by their industry. But it seems to me visionary to
suppose that in this state of things claims can be allowed on tracts of
country on which they have neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely
because they have seen them from the mountain or passed them in the
chase. Submitting to the laws of the States, and receiving, like other
citizens, protection in their persons and property, they will ere long
become merged in the mass of our population.

The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy will make you
acquainted with the condition and useful employment of that branch of
our service during the present year. Constituting as it does the best
standing security of this country against foreign aggression, it claims
the especial attention of Government. In this spirit the measures which
since the termination of the last war have been in operation for its
gradual enlargement were adopted, and it should continue to be cherished
as the offspring of our national experience. It will be seen, however,
that notwithstanding the great solicitude which has been manifested for
the perfect organization of this arm and the liberality of the
appropriations which that solicitude has suggested, this object has in
many important respects not been secured.

In time of peace we have need of no more ships of war than are requisite
to the protection of our commerce. Those not wanted for this object must
lay in the harbors, where without proper covering they rapidly decay,
and even under the best precautions for their preservation must soon
become useless. Such is already the case with many of our finest
vessels, which, though unfinished, will now require immense sums of
money to be restored to the condition in which they were when committed
to their proper element. On this subject there can be but little doubt
that our best policy would be to discontinue the building of ships of
the first and second class, and look rather to the possession of ample
materials, prepared for the emergencies of war, than to the number of
vessels which we can float in a season of peace, as the index of our
naval power. Judicious deposits in navy-yards of timber and other
materials, fashioned under the hands of skillful workmen and fitted for
prompt application to their various purposes, would enable us at all
times to construct vessels as fast as they can be manned, and save the
heavy expense of repairs, except to such vessels as must be employed in
guarding our commerce. The proper points for the establishment of these
yards are indicated with so much force in the report of the Navy Board
that in recommending it to your attention I deem it unnecessary to do
more than express my hearty concurrence in their views. The yard in this
District, being already furnished with most of the machinery necessary
for shipbuilding, will be competent to the supply of the two selected by
the Board as the best for the concentration of materials, and, from the
facility and certainty of communication between them, it will be useless
to incur at those depots the expense of similar machinery, especially
that used in preparing the usual metallic and wooden furniture of
vessels.

Another improvement would be effected by dispensing altogether with the
Navy Board as now constituted, and substituting in its stead bureaus
similar to those already existing in the War Department. Each member of
the Board, transferred to the head of a separate bureau charged with
specific duties, would feel in its highest degree that wholesome
responsibility which can not be divided without a far more than
proportionate diminution of its force. Their valuable services would
become still more so when separately appropriated to distinct portions
of the great interests of the Navy, to the prosperity of which each
would be impelled to devote himself by the strongest motives. Under such
an arrangement every branch of this important service would assume a
more simple and precise character, its efficiency would be increased,
and scrupulous economy in the expenditure of public money promoted.

I would also recommend that the Marine Corps be merged in the artillery
or infantry, as the best mode of curing the many defects in its
organization. But little exceeding in number any of the regiments of
infantry, that corps has, besides its lieutenant-colonel commandant,
five brevet lieutenant-colonels, who receive the full pay and emoluments
of their brevet rank, without rendering proportionate service. Details
for marine service could as well be made from the artillery or infantry,
there being no peculiar training requisite for it.

With these improvements, and such others as zealous watchfulness and
mature consideration may suggest, there can be little doubt that under
an energetic administration of its affairs the Navy may soon be made
everything that the nation wishes it to be. Its efficiency in the
suppression of piracy in the West India seas, and wherever its squadrons
have been employed in securing the interests of the country, will appear
from the report of the Secretary, to which I refer you for other
interesting details. Among these I would bespeak the attention of
Congress for the views presented in relation to the inequality between
the Army and Navy as to the pay of officers. No such inequality should
prevail between these brave defenders of their country, and where it
does exist it is submitted to Congress whether it ought not to be
rectified.

The report of the Postmaster General is referred to as exhibiting a
highly satisfactory administration of that Department. Abuses have been
reformed, increased expedition in the transportation of the mail
secured, and its revenue much improved. In a political point of view
this Department is chiefly important as affording the means of diffusing
knowledge. It is to the body politic what the veins and arteries are to
the natural--conveying rapidly and regularly to the remotest parts of
the system correct information of the operations of the Government, and
bringing back to it the wishes and feelings of the people. Through its
agency we have secured to ourselves the full enjoyment of the blessings
of a free press.

In this general survey of our affairs a subject of high importance
presents itself in the present organization of the judiciary. An uniform
operation of the Federal Government in the different States is certainly
desirable, and existing as they do in the Union on the basis of perfect
equality, each State has a right to expect that the benefits conferred
on the citizens of others should be extended to hers. The judicial
system of the United States exists in all its efficiency in only fifteen
members of the Union; to three others the circuit courts, which
constitute an important part of that system, have been imperfectly
extended, and to the remaining six altogether denied. The effect has
been to withhold from the inhabitants of the latter the advantages
afforded (by the Supreme Court) to their fellow-citizens in other States
in the whole extent of the criminal and much of the civil authority of
the Federal judiciary. That this state of things ought to be remedied,
if it can be done consistently with the public welfare, is not to be
doubted. Neither is it to be disguised that the organization of our
judicial system is at once a difficult and delicate task. To extend the
circuit courts equally throughout the different parts of the Union, and
at the same time to avoid such a multiplication of members as would
encumber the supreme appellate tribunal, is the object desired. Perhaps
it might be accomplished by dividing the circuit judges into two
classes, and providing that the Supreme Court should be held by these
classes alternately, the Chief Justice always presiding.

If an extension of the circuit-court system to those States which do not
now enjoy its benefits should be determined upon, it would of course be
necessary to revise the present arrangement of the circuits; and even if
that system should not be enlarged, such a revision is recommended.

A provision for taking the census of the people of the United States
will, to insure the completion of that work within a convenient time,
claim the early attention of Congress.

The great and constant increase of business in the Department of State
forced itself at an early period upon the attention of the Executive.
Thirteen years ago it was, in Mr. Madison's last message to Congress,
made the subject of an earnest recommendation, which has been repeated
by both of his successors; and my comparatively limited experience has
satisfied me of its justness. It has arisen from many causes, not the
least of which is the large addition that has been made to the family of
independent nations and the proportionate extension of our foreign
relations. The remedy proposed was the establishment of a home
department--a measure which does not appear to have met the views of
Congress on account of its supposed tendency to increase, gradually and
imperceptibly, the already too strong bias of the federal system toward
the exercise of authority not delegated to it. I am not, therefore,
disposed to revive the recommendation, but am not the less impressed
with the importance of so organizing that Department that its Secretary
may devote more of his time to our foreign relations. Clearly satisfied
that the public good would be promoted by some suitable provision on the
subject, I respectfully invite your attention to it.

The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its
stockholders will most probably apply for a renewal of their privileges.
In order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy in a measure
involving such important principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I
feel that I can not, in justice to the parties interested, too soon
present it to the deliberate consideration of the Legislature and the
people. Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the law
creating this bank are well questioned by a large portion of our
fellow-citizens, and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in
the great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency.

Under these circumstances, if such an institution is deemed essential to
the fiscal operations of the Government, I submit to the wisdom of the
Legislature whether a national one, founded upon the credit of the
Government and its revenues, might not be devised which would avoid all
constitutional difficulties and at the same time secure all the
advantages to the Government and country that were expected to result
from the present bank.

I can not close this communication without bringing to your view the
just claim of the representatives of Commodore Decatur, his officers and
crew, arising from the recapture of the frigate _Philadelphia_ under the
heavy batteries of Tripoli. Although sensible, as a general rule, of the
impropriety of Executive interference under a Government like ours,
where every individual enjoys the right of directly petitioning
Congress, yet, viewing this case as one of very peculiar character, I
deem it my duty to recommend it to your favorable consideration. Besides
the justice of this claim, as corresponding to those which have been
since recognized and satisfied, it is the fruit of a deed of patriotic
and chivalrous daring which infused life and confidence into our infant
Navy and contributed as much as any exploit in its history to elevate
our national character. Public gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal
upon it, and the meed should not be withheld which may hereafter operate
as a stimulus to our gallant tars.

I now commend you, fellow-citizens, to the guidance of Almighty God,
with a full reliance on His merciful providence for the maintenance of
our free institutions, and with an earnest supplication that whatever
errors it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties
which have devolved on me will find a remedy in the harmony and wisdom
of your counsels.

ANDREW JACKSON.
December 8, 1829.




SPECIAL MESSAGES.


_December 14, 1829_.
_The Vice-President of the United States and President of
the Senate_:

In pursuance of the resolution of the Senate of the 2d March, 1829,
requesting the President of the United States to communicate to it
"copies of the journal of the commissioners under the first article of
the treaty of Ghent for the months of October and November, 1817, or so
much thereof as in his opinion may be safely communicated, not including
the agreement or evidence offered by the agents," I have the honor
herewith to transmit a report from the Secretary of State, accompanying
the document referred to in said resolution.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1829_.
_The Vice-President of the United States and President of
the Senate_:

I transmit to the Senate, for their advice and consent as to the
ratification of it, a treaty of commerce and navigation between the
United States of America and His Majesty the Emperor of Austria,
concluded and signed in this city on the 2d of August in the present
year.

ANDREW JACKSON


_December 15, 1829_.
_The Speaker of the House of Representatives_:

A deputation from the Passamaquoddy Indians resident within the limits
of Maine have arrived in this city and presented a memorial soliciting
the aid of the Government in providing them the means of support.
Recollecting that this tribe when strong and numerous fought with us for
the liberty which we now enjoy, I could not refuse to present to the
consideration of Congress their supplication for a small portion of the
bark and timber of the country which once belonged to them.

It is represented that from individuals who own the lands adjoining the
present small possession of this tribe purchases can be made
sufficiently extensive to secure the objects of the memorial in this
respect, as will appear from the papers herewith transmitted. Should
Congress deem it proper to make them, it will be necessary to provide
for their being held in trust for the use of the tribe during its
existence as such.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_December 16, 1829_.
_The Speaker of the House of Representatives_:

I have the honor to transmit herewith to the House of Representatives a
report of the Secretary of War, accompanying copies of surveys[3] made
in pursuance of the acts of Congress passed the 30th of April, 1824, and
the 2d of March, 1829, and to request that the House cause them to be
laid before the Senate, as there are no duplicates prepared.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 3: Of Deep Creek, Virginia; Pasquotank River, North Carolina;
entrance of the river Teche, Louisiana; passes at mouth of the
Mississippi, Louisiana; water tract between Lake Pontchartrain and
Mobile Bay; Des Moines and Rock River rapids in the Mississippi; with a
view to the location of a railroad from Charleston to Hamburg, S.C.]


_December 22, 1829_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

I herewith transmit two treaties--one concluded with the Winnebago tribe
of Indians at Prairie du Chien on the 1st of August, 1829, and the other
with the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattamie tribes at the same place on
the 29th of July, 1829--which, with the documents explanatory thereof,
are submitted to the Senate for consideration whether they will advise
and consent to their ratification.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_December 29, 1829_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith a treaty concluded with the Delaware tribe of
Indians on the 3d of August, 1829, which, with the documents explanatory
thereof, is submitted to the consideration of the Senate for their
advice and consent as to the ratification of the same.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_December 30, 1829_.
_The Speaker of the House of Representatives_:

I transmit herewith to the House the report and estimate of the survey
made in pursuance of the act of the 30th April, 1824, in order to
ascertain the practicability of connecting the waters of the Altamaha
and Tennessee rivers by a canal and railroad, and request, as there is
no duplicate of the same prepared, that the House will cause it to be
laid before the Senate.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_January 4, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

I have been requested by the legislature of South Carolina, as will
appear from the documents accompanying this communication, to submit to
the consideration of Congress certain claims against the United States
for advances made by that State during the last war. It is conceded that
the redress sought for can only be obtained through the interposition of
Congress. The only agency allowed to me is to present such facts in
relation to the subject as are in the possession of the Executive, in
order that the whole may be fairly considered.

This duty I perform with great pleasure, being well satisfied that no
inducement will be wanting to secure to the claims of a member of the
Confederacy that has under all circumstances shewn an ardent devotion to
the cause of the country the most ample justice.

By a reference to the Department of War for information as to the nature
and extent of these claims it appears that they consist of--

First. Interest upon moneys advanced for the United States which have
been heretofore reimbursed.

Second. Certain advances which on a settlement of accounts between South
Carolina and the United States were disallowed or suspended by the
accounting officers of the Treasury.

In regard to the former, the rule hitherto adopted by Congress has been
to allow to the States interest only where they had paid it on money
borrowed, and had applied it to the use of the United States. The case
of South Carolina does not come strictly within this rule, because
instead of borrowing, as she alleges, for the use of the United States,
upon interest, she applied to the use of the United States funds for
which she was actually receiving an interest; and she is understood to
insist that the loss of interest in both cases being equal, and the
relief afforded equally meritorious, the same principle of remuneration
should be applied.

Acting upon an enlightened sense of national justice and gratitude, it
is confidently believed that Congress will be as mindful of this claim
as it has been of others put forward by the States that in periods of
extreme peril generously contributed to the service of the Union and
enabled the General Government to discharge its obligations. The grounds
upon which certain portions of it have been suspended or rejected will
appear from the communications of the Secretary of War and Third Auditor
herewith submitted.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_January 4, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit herewith a supplement to the treaty made with the Delaware
tribe on the 3d of October, 1818, which, with the accompanying papers,
is submitted to the Senate for their advice and consent as to the
ratification of the same.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_January 5, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_:

The subject of the inclosed memorial[4] having been adjudicated by the
courts of the country, and decided against the memorialists, it is
respectfully laid before Congress, the only power now to which they can
appeal for relief.

ANDREW JACKSON

[Footnote 4: Of certain purchasers of land in Louisiana from the
Government of Spain.]


_January 5, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit herewith a report[5] from the Secretary of the Treasury, giving
the information called for by a resolution of the Senate of the 24th
December, 1828.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 5: Transmitting statements of moneys appropriated and lands
granted to the several States for purposes of education and construction
of roads and canals, etc., since the adoption of the Constitution.]


WASHINGTON, _January 14, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to Congress copies of three Indian treaties, which have been
duly ratified:

1. A treaty with the nation of Winnebago Indians, concluded on the 1st
of August, 1829, at Prairie du Chien, in the Territory of Michigan,
between General John McNeil, Colonel Pierre Menard, and Caleb At-water,
esq., commissioners on the part of the United States, and certain chiefs
and warriors on the part of the nation of Winnebago Indians.

2. A treaty with the united nations of Chippewa, Ottowa, and
Pottawatomie Indians, concluded on the 29th of July, 1829, at Prairie du
Chien, between General John McNeil, Colonel Pierre Menard, and Caleb
Atwater, esq., commissioners on the part of the United States, and
certain chiefs and warriors of the said united nations on the part of
said nations.

3. Articles of agreement between the United States of America and the
band of Delaware Indians upon the Sandusky River, in the State of Ohio,
entered into on the 3d of August, 1829, at Little Sandusky, in the State
of Ohio, by John McElvain, commissioner on the part of the United
States, and certain chiefs on the part of said band of Delaware Indians.

I transmit also the estimates of appropriation necessary to carry them
into effect.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_January 19, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: The accompanying gold medal, commemorative of the delivery of
the Liberator President of the Republic of Colombia from the daggers of
assassins on the night of the 25th of September last, has been offered
for my acceptance by that Government. The respect which I entertain as
well for the character of the Liberator President as for the people and
Government over which he presides renders this mark of their regard most
gratifying to my feelings; but I am prevented from complying with their
wishes by the provision of our Constitution forbidding the acceptance of
presents from a foreign state by officers of the United States, and it
is therefore placed at the disposal of Congress.

The powerful influence in the affairs of his country which the
sacrifices and heroic deeds of General Bolivar have acquired for him
creates an anxiety as to his future course in which the friends of
liberal institutions throughout the world deeply participate. The
favorable estimate which I have formed of the nature of the services
rendered by him, and of his personal character, impresses me with the
strongest confidence that his conduct in the present condition of his
country will be such as may best promote her true interest and best
secure his own permanent fame.

I deem the present a suitable occasion to inform you that shortly after
my communication to Congress at the opening of the session dispatches
were received from Mr. Moore, the envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary of the United States to Colombia, stating that he had
succeeded in obtaining the assent of the council of ministers to the
allowance of the claims of our citizens upon that Government in the
cases of the brig _Josephine_ and her cargo and the schooner _Ranger_
and part of her cargo. An official copy of the convention subsequently
entered into between Mr. Moore and the secretary of foreign affairs,
providing for the final settlement of those claims, has just been
received at the Department of State. By an additional article of this
convention the claim in the case of the brig _Morris_ is suspended until
further information is obtained by the Colombian Government from the
Court at Carracas; and Mr. Moore anticipates its early and satisfactory
adjustment. The convention only waited the ratification of the Liberator
President, who was at the time absent from Bogota, to be binding upon
the Colombian Government. Although these claims are not, comparatively,
of a large amount, yet the prompt and equitable manner in which the
application of Mr. Moore in behalf of our injured citizens was met by
that Government entitles its conduct to our approbation, and promises
well for the future relations of the two countries.

It gives me pleasure to add an expression of my entire satisfaction with
the conduct of Mr. Moore since his arrival at Bogota. The judgment and
discretion evinced by him on occasions of much interest and delicacy,
the assiduity displayed in bringing so nearly to a conclusion within
five weeks after his arrival claims which had been pending for years,
and the promptitude and capacity with which he has entered upon other
and more important portions of his official duty are calculated to
inspire strong confidence in his future usefulness.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_January 20, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives._

GENTLEMEN: I respectfully submit to your consideration the accompanying
communication from the Secretary or the Treasury, showing that according
to the terms of an agreement between the United States and the United
Society of Christian Indians the latter have a claim to an annuity of
$400, commencing from the 1st of October, 1826, for which an
appropriation by law for this amount, as long as they are entitled to
receive it, will be proper.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _January 26, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I submit to Congress a communication from the Secretary of State,
together with the report of the Superintendent of the Patent Office, to
which it refers, showing the present condition of that office and
suggesting the necessity of further legislative provisions in regard to
it, and I recommend the subjects it embraces to the particular attention
of Congress.

It will be seen that there is an unexplained deficiency in the accounts
which have been rendered at the Treasury of the fees received at the
office, amounting to $4,290, and that precautions have been provided to
guard against similar delinquencies in future. Congress will decide on
their sufficiency and whether any legislative aid is necessary upon this
branch of the subject referred to in the report.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_January 26, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I find it necessary to recommend to Congress a revision of the laws
relating to the direct and contingent expenses of our intercourse with
foreign nations, and particularly of the act of May 1, 1810, entitled
"An act fixing the compensation of public ministers and of consuls
residing on the coast of Barbary, and for other purposes."

A letter from the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury to the Secretary of
State, herewith transmitted, which notices the difficulties incident to
the settlement of the accounts of certain diplomatic agents of the
United States, serves to show the necessity of this revision. This
branch of the Government is incessantly called upon to sanction
allowances which not unfrequently appear to have just and equitable
foundations in usage, but which are believed to be incompatible with the
provisions of the act of 1810. The letter from the Fifth Auditor
contains a description of several claims of this character which are
submitted to Congress as the only tribunal competent to afford the
relief to which the parties consider themselves entitled.

Among the most prominent questions of this description are the
following:

_I. Claims for outfits by ministers and charges d'affaires duly
appointed by the President and Senate_.

The act of 1790, regulating the expenditures for foreign intercourse,
provided "that, exclusive of an outfit, which shall in no case exceed
one year's full salary to the minister plenipotentiary or chargé
d'affaires to whom the same may be allowed, the President shall not
allow to any minister plenipotentiary a greater sum than at the rate of
$9,000 per annum as a compensation for all his personal services and
other expenses, nor a greater sum for the same than $4,500 per annum to
a chargé d'affaires." By this provision the maximum of allowance only
was fixed, leaving the question as to any outfit, either in whole or in
part, to the discretion of the President, to be decided according to
circumstances. Under it a variety of cases occurred, in which outfits
having been given to diplomatic agents on their first appointment,
afterwards, upon their being transferred to other courts or sent upon
special and distinct missions, full or half outfits were again allowed.

This act, it will be perceived, although it fixes the maximum of outfit,
is altogether silent as to the circumstances under which outfits might
be allowed; indeed, the authority to allow them at all is not expressly
conveyed, but only incidentally adverted to in limiting the amount. This
limitation continued to be the only restriction upon the Executive until
1810, the act of 1790 having been kept in force till that period by five
successive reenactments, in which it is either referred to by means of
its title or its terms are repeated verbatim. In 1810 an act passed
wherein the phraseology which had been in use for twenty years is
departed from. Fixing the same limits precisely to the _amount_ of
salaries and outfits to ministers and chargés as had been six times
fixed since 1790, it differs from preceding acts by formally conveying
an authority to allow an outfit to "a minister plenipotentiary or chargé
d'affaires _on going from the United States to any foreign country_;"
and, in addition to this specification of the circumstances under which
the outfit may be allowed, it contains one of the conditions which shall
be requisite to entitle a chargé or secretary to the compensation
therein provided.

Upon a view of all the circumstances connected with the subject I can
not permit myself to doubt that it was with reference to the practice of
multiplying outfits to the same person and in the intention of
prohibiting it in future that this act was passed.

It being, however, frequently deemed advantageous to transfer ministers
already abroad from one court to another, or to employ those who were
resident at a particular court upon special occasions elsewhere, it
seems to have been considered that it was not the intention of Congress
to restrain the Executive from so doing. It was further contended that
the President being left free to select for ministers citizens, whether
at home or abroad, a right on the part of such ministers to the usual
emoluments followed as a matter of course. This view was sustained by
the opinion of the law officer of the Government, and the act of 1810
was construed to leave the whole subject of salary and outfit where it
found it under the law of 1790; that is to say, completely at the
discretion of the President, without any other restriction than the
maximum already fixed by that law. This discretion has from time to time
been exercised by successive Presidents; but whilst I can not but
consider the restriction in this respect imposed by the act of 1810 as
inexpedient, I can not feel myself justified in adopting a construction
which defeats the only operation of which this part of it seems
susceptible; at least, not unless Congress, after having the subject
distinctly brought to their consideration, should virtually give their
assent to that construction. Whatever may be thought of the propriety of
giving an outfit to secretaries of legation or others who may be
considered as only temporarily charged with, the affairs intrusted to
them, I am impressed with the justice of such an allowance in the case
of a citizen who happens to be abroad when first appointed, and that of
a minister already in place, when the public interest requires his
transfer, and, from the breaking up of his establishment and other
circumstances connected with the change, he incurs expenses to which he
would not otherwise have been subjected.

_II. Claims for outfits and salaries by chargés d'affaires and
secretaries of legation who have not been appointed by the President by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate_.

By the second section of the act of 1810 it is provided--

    That to entitle any chargé d'affaires or secretary of any legation
    or embassy to any foreign country, or secretary of any minister
    plenipotentiary, to the compensation hereinbefore provided they
    shall respectively be appointed by the President of the United
    States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; but in the
    recess of the Senate the President is hereby authorized to make such
    appointments, which shall be submitted to the Senate at the next
    session thereafter for their advice and consent; and no compensation
    shall be allowed to any chargé d'affaires or any of the secretaries
    hereinbefore described who shall not be appointed as aforesaid.

Notwithstanding the explicit language of this act, claims for outfits
and salaries have been made--and allowed at the Treasury--by chargés
d'affaires and secretaries of legation who had not been appointed in the
manner specified. Among the accompanying documents will be found several
claims of this description, of which a detailed statement is given in
the letter of the Fifth Auditor. The case of Mr. William B. Lawrence,
late chargé d'affaires at London, is of a still more peculiar character,
in consequence of his having actually drawn his outfit and salary from
the bankers employed by the Government, and from the length of time he
officiated in that capacity. Mr. Lawrence's accounts were rendered to
the late Administration, but not settled. I have refused to sanction the
allowance claimed, because the law does not authorize it, but have
refrained from directing any proceedings to compel a reimbursement of
the money thus, in my judgment, illegally received until an opportunity
should be afforded to Congress to pass upon the equity of the claim.

Appropriations are annually and necessarily made "for the contingent
expenses of all the missions abroad" and "for the contingent expenses of
foreign intercourse," and the expenditure of these funds intrusted to
the discretion of the President. It is out of those appropriations that
allowances of this character have been claimed, and, it is presumed,
made. Deeming, however, that the discretion thus committed to the
Executive does not extend to the allowance of charges prohibited by
express law, I have felt it my duty to refer all existing claims to the
action of Congress, and to submit to their consideration whether any
alteration of the law in this respect is necessary.

_III. The allowance of a quarter's salary to ministers and chargés
d'affaires to defray their expenses home_.

This allowance has been uniformly made, but is without authority by law.
Resting in Executive discretion, it has, according to circumstances,
been extended to cases where the ministers died abroad, to defray the
return of his family, and was recently claimed in a case where the
minister had no family, on grounds of general equity. A charge of this
description can hardly be regarded as a contingent one, and if allowed
at all must be in lieu of salary. As such it is altogether arbitrary,
although it is not believed that the interests of the Treasury are, upon
the whole, much affected by the substitution. In some cases the
allowance is for a longer period than is occupied in the return of the
minister; in others, for one somewhat less; and it seems to do away all
inducement to unnecessary delay. The subject is, however, susceptible of
positive regulation by law, and it is, on many accounts, highly
expedient that it should be placed on that footing. I have therefore,
without directing any alteration in the existing practice, felt it my
duty to bring it to your notice.

_IV. Traveling and other expenses in following the court in cases where
its residence is not stationary_.

The only legations by which expenses of this description are incurred
and charged are those to Spain and the Netherlands, and to them they
have on several occasions been allowed. Among the documents herewith
communicated will be found, with other charges requiring legislative
interference, an account for traveling expenses, with a statement of the
grounds upon which their reimbursement is claimed. This account has been
suspended by the officer of the Treasury to whom its settlement belongs;
and as the question will be one of frequent recurrence, I have deemed
the occasion a fit one to submit the whole subject to the revision of
Congress. The justice of these charges for extraordinary expenses
unavoidably incurred has been admitted by former Administrations and the
claims allowed. My difficulty grows out of the language of the act of
1810, which expressly declares that the salary and outfit it authorizes
to the minister and chargé d'affaires shall be "a compensation for all
his personal services and expenses." The items which ordinarily form the
contingent expenses of a foreign mission are of a character distinct
from the _personal_ expenses of the minister. The difficulty of
regarding those now referred to in that light is obvious. There are
certainly strong considerations of equity in favor of a remuneration for
them at the two Courts where they are alone incurred, and if such should
be the opinion of Congress it is desirable that authority to make it
should be expressly conferred by law rather than continue to rest upon
doubtful construction.

_V. Charges of consuls for discharging diplomatic functions, without
appointment, during a temporary vacancy in the office of chargé
d'affaires._

It has sometimes happened that consuls of the United States, upon the
occurrence of vacancies at their places of residence in the diplomatic
offices of the United States by the death or retirement of our minister
or chargé d'affaires, have taken under their care the papers of such
missions and usefully discharged diplomatic functions in behalf of their
Government and fellow-citizens till the vacancies were regularly filled.
In some instances this is stated to have been done to the abandonment of
other pursuits and at a considerably increased expense of living. There
are existing claims of this description, which can not be finally
adjusted or allowed without the sanction of Congress. A particular
statement of them accompanies this communication.

The nature of this branch of the public service makes it necessary to
commit portions of the expenses incurred in it to Executive discretion;
but it is desirable that such portions should be as small as possible.
The purity and permanent success of our political institutions depend in
a great measure upon definite appropriations and a rigid adherence to
the enactments of the Legislature disposing of public money. My desire
is to have the subject placed upon a more simple and precise, but not
less liberal, footing than it stands on at present, so far as that may
be found practicable. An opinion that the salaries allowed by law to our
agents abroad are in many cases inadequate is very general, and it is
reasonable to suppose that this impression has not been without its
influence in the construction of the laws by which those salaries are
fixed. There are certainly motives which it is difficult to resist to an
increased expense on the part of some of our functionaries abroad
greatly beyond that which would be required at home.

Should Congress be of opinion that any alteration for the better can be
made, either in the rate of salaries now allowed or in the rank and
gradation of our diplomatic agents, or both, the present would be a fit
occasion for a revision of the whole subject.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: I transmit herewith the annual report of the inspectors of
the penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and beg leave to recommend
the propriety of providing by law a reasonable compensation for the
service of those officers. The act of Congress under which they were
commissioned, though it imposes upon them important duties, in the
performance of which much time and labor are necessary, is silent as to
the compensation which they ought to receive.

ANDREW JACKSON.
_February 1, 1830_.


_February 5, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

I herewith communicate to the Senate a letter from the Secretary of War,
with the papers which accompany it, in answer to the resolution of the
Senate of the 2d February, requesting "so much of a report received from
the officer of the United States Army who had command of the detachment
for the protection of the caravan of traders to Santa Fe of New Mexico
during the last summer as may be proper to be made public and material
to be known, devising further means for the security of the inland trade
between Missouri and Mexico."

ANDREW JACKSON.


_February 12, 1830_.
_The Speaker of the House of Representatives_:

I forward to the House of Representatives, for the information and
decision of Congress, a communication to me from the Secretary of War on
the subject of the continuation of the Cumberland road.

There being but one plan of the surveys made produces the necessity of
making this communication to but one branch of the Legislature. When the
question shall be disposed of, I request that the map may be returned to
the Secretary of War.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_February 18, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_:

In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 9th
instant, requesting information respecting the accounts of William B.
Lawrence as chargé d'affaires of the United States to Great Britain, I
have the honor to communicate a report of the Secretary of State,
furnishing the desired information.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_February 20, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: Having seen a report from the Treasury Department, just made
to me, that General John Campbell, lately nominated Indian agent, stands
recorded as a public defaulter on the books of the Treasury, and being
unapprised of this fact when he was nominated to the Senate, I beg leave
to withdraw this nomination.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_March 1, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: In compliance with your resolution of the 4th ultimo,
relating to the boundary line between the United States and the Cherokee
Nation of Indians, I have duly examined the same, and find that the
Executive has no power to alter or correct it.

I therefore return the papers, with a report from the Secretary of War
on the subject, for the further deliberation of Congress.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1830_.
_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

I submit to the consideration of Congress a letter of the governor of
Virginia, transmitting two acts of the general assembly of that State,
respecting the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _March 9, 1830_.
_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

I submit to your consideration the memorials of Francis H. Nicoll and
John Conard, the latter marshal of the eastern district of Pennsylvania,
praying for the interposition and aid of Congress in the discharge of a
judgment recovered against him by the said Nicoll, alleging, as
defendant in the suit, that he was the mere organ of the United States,
and acted by and under the instructions of the Government.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_March 10, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 6th
instant, requesting me to "send a copy of the bond entered into and
executed by Israel T. Canfield as receiver of public moneys in the now
Crawfordsville district, Indiana, together with the names of his
securities, to the Senate," I herewith transmit a certified copy of the
official bond of Israel T. Canby, and a letter from the Secretary of the
Treasury, from which it appears that this is the officer referred to in
the resolution.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _March 15, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In pursuance of a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 27th
ultimo, calling for information respecting the report of the
commissioner for running and marking the line between the United States
and Florida under the treaty of 1795, I herewith communicate a report
from the Secretary of State, containing the desired information.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_March 18, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_:

GENTLEMEN: I transmit, for the consideration of Congress, a report from
the War Department of a survey[6] authorized by the act of the 2d of
March, 1829.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 6: Of ship channel of Penobscot River from Whitehead to
Bangor, Me.]


_March 27, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: I transmit, for the consideration of Congress, a letter of
the Secretary of the Navy, accompanying the reports of Lieutenants
Tattnall and Gedney, who were detailed to make a survey of the Dry
Tortugas, and beg leave to call your attention to the importance of the
position to the United States as a naval station. I also respectfully
recommend that the appropriation necessary to make a scientific
examination of its capacities for defense may be granted.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_March 31, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: I respectfully submit to your consideration the accompanying
report from the War Department, exhibiting the state of the
fortifications at Pea Patch Island and the necessity of further
appropriations for the security of that site. The report specifies the
improvements deemed proper, and the estimate of their cost.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_April 2, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: In compliance with a resolution of the House of the 22nd
ultimo, "requesting the President of the United States to communicate to
it any correspondence or information in possession of the Government,
and which, in his judgment, the public service will admit of being
communicated, touching intrusions, or alleged intrusions, on lands the
possession of which is claimed by the Cherokee tribe of Indians, the
number of intrusions, if any, and the reasons why they have not been
removed; and also any correspondence or information touching outrages
alleged to have been committed by Cherokee Indians on citizens of
Georgia occupying lands to which the Indian claim has not been
extinguished, or by citizens of Georgia on Cherokee Indians," I transmit
herewith a report from the Secretary of War, containing the information
required.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_April 6, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 5th
instant, requesting the President of the United States to transmit to
the Senate any record or other information in the Department of War or
before the President respecting the conviction of Wharton Rector of any
crime in Missouri before his departure for Arkansas, or touching his
fitness for the office to which he has been nominated, and any other
evidence in the Department relative to the fitness of Wharton Rector for
the office of Indian agent, I inclose herewith a report from the
Secretary of War.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_April 13, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: I transmit herewith a report from the War Department, in
compliance with the resolution of the House of the 18th ultimo, calling
for information in relation to the expenses incident to the removal and
support of the Indians west of the Mississippi, etc.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_April 15, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: I submit to the Senate, in compliance with the request in
their resolution of the 12th instant, all the communications found in
the Department of State touching the character, conduct, and
qualifications of John Hamm, which appear or are supposed to have been
made while the said Hamm was an applicant for reappointment to the
office of marshal of the district of Ohio, in the year 1822.

As that individual has been recently nominated to the Senate to be
chargé d'affaires of the United States to the Government of Central
America, I take advantage of the occasion to request the Senate to
postpone a final decision on his nomination, upon the following grounds:
That information, though not official, has just been received at the
Department of State of a change having been lately effected in the
Government of Central America, which, if confirmed, may make a
correspondent change in the appointment necessary, or perhaps render it
altogether unnecessary that this Government, under present
circumstances, should send a diplomatic agent to that country at all.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_April 22, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: I transmit, for the consideration of Congress, a report from
the War Department of a survey[7] authorized by the act of 2d March,
1829.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 7: Of the harbor of St. Augustine, Fla.]


_April, 23, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 20th
instant, I transmit herewith a report[8] from the Secretary of War.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 8: Transmitting correspondence of June, 1825, relative to
treaties with the Osage and Kansas Indians.]


_April 23, 1830_.
_Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: I transmit herewith a report from the Department of War of
the survey made of Sandy Bay, Massachusetts, in conformity to the act of
2d March, 1829.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 1, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: Finding from the inclosed letter from the Secretary of the
Treasury that James C. Dickson, lately nominated to be receiver of
public moneys at Mount Salus, Miss., is a defaulter, I beg leave to
withdraw his nomination, and to nominate in his place Hiram G. Rennels.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 6, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: The accompanying propositions, in the form of a treaty, have
been recently sent to me by special messenger from the Choctaw Nation of
Indians, and since it was received a protest against it has been
forwarded. Both evince a desire to cede to the United States all their
country east of the Mississippi, and both are here submitted. These
measures are the voluntary acts of the Indians themselves. The
Government was not represented in the councils which adopted them, nor
had it any previous intimation that such steps were in contemplation.
The Indians convened of their own accord, settled and executed the
propositions contained in the treaty presented to me, and agreed to be
bound by them if within three months they should receive the approbation
of the President and Senate. The other measure is equally their own.

It is certainly desirous, on various and very pressing accounts, as will
appear from the accompanying documents, that some agreement should be
concluded with the Indians by which an object so important as their
removal beyond the territorial limits of the States may be effected. In
settling the terms of such an agreement I am disposed to exercise the
utmost liberality, and to concur in any which are consistent with the
Constitution and not incompatible with the interests of the United
States and their duties to the Indians. I can not, however, regard the
terms proposed by the Choctaws to be in all respects of this character;
but desirous of concluding an arrangement upon such as are, I have drawn
up the accompanying amendments, which I propose to offer to the Choctaws
if they meet the approbation of the Senate. The conditions which they
offer are such as, in my judgment, will be most likely to be acceptable
to both parties and are liable to the fewest objections. Not being
tenacious, though, on the subject, I will most cheerfully adopt any
modifications which on a frank interchange of opinions my constitutional
advisers may suggest and which I shall be satisfied are reconcilable
with my official duties.

With these views, I ask the opinion of the Senate upon the following
questions:

Will the Senate advise the conclusion of a treaty with the Choctaw
Nation according to the terms which they propose? Or will the Senate
advise the conclusion of a treaty with that tribe as modified by the
alterations suggested by me? If not, what further alteration or
modification will the Senate propose?

I am fully aware that in thus resorting to the early practice of the
Government, by asking the previous advice of the Senate in the discharge
of this portion of my duties, I am departing from a long and for many
years an unbroken usage in similar cases. But being satisfied that this
resort is consistent with the provisions of the Constitution, that it is
strongly recommended in this instance by considerations of expediency,
and that the reasons which have led to the observance of a different
practice, though very cogent in negotiations with foreign nations, do
not apply with equal force to those made with Indian tribes, I flatter
myself that it will not meet the disapprobation of the Senate. Among the
reasons for a previous expression of the views of the Senate the
following are stated as most prominent:

1. The Indians have requested that their propositions should be
submitted to the Senate.

2. The opinion of the Senate in relation to the terms to be proposed
will have a salutary effect in a future negotiation, if one should be
deemed proper.

3. The Choctaw is one of the most numerous and powerful tribes within
our borders, and as the conclusion of a treaty with them may have a
controlling effect upon other tribes it is important that its terms
should be well considered. Those now proposed by the Choctaws, though
objectionable, it is believed are susceptible of modifications which
will leave them conformable to the humane and liberal policy which the
Government desires to observe toward the Indian tribes, and be at the
same time acceptable to them. To be possessed of the views of the Senate
on this important and delicate branch of our future negotiations would
enable the President to act much more effectively in the exercise of his
particular functions. There is also the best reason to believe that
measures in this respect emanating from the united counsel of the
treaty-making power would be more satisfactory to the American people
and to the Indians.

It will be seen that the pecuniary stipulations are large; and in
bringing this subject to the consideration of the Senate I may be
allowed to remark that the amount of money which may be secured to be
paid should, in my judgment, be viewed as of minor importance. If a fund
adequate to the object in view can be obtained from the lands which they
cede, all the purposes of the Government should be regarded as answered.
The great desideratum is the removal of the Indians and the settlement
of the perplexing question involved in their present location--a
question in which several of the States of this Union have the deepest
interest, and which, if left undecided much longer, may eventuate in
serious injury to the Indians.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 13, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: The inclosed documents will present to Congress the necessity
of some legislative provision by which to prevent the offenses to which
they refer. At present it appears there is no law existing for the
punishment of persons guilty of interrupting the public surveyors when
engaged in the performance of the trusts confided to them. I suggest,
therefore, for your consideration the propriety of adopting some
provision, with adequate penalties, to meet the case.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 13, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: I have the honor, in compliance with a resolution of your
House of the 10th ultimo, to transmit the inclosed documents, which
furnish all the information of the steps that have been taken and plans
procured for the erection of a radiating marine railway for the repair
of sloops of war at the navy-yard at Pensacola.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 14, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: I herewith transmit to Congress the report of the engineer
employed to survey the bar at the mouth of Sag Harbor, to ascertain the
best method of preventing the harbor being filled up with sand, and the
cost of the same, authorized by the act of the 2d of March, 1829.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 21, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: It having been represented to me that some of the members of
the Senate voted against the confirmation of the appointment of Major
M.M. Noah as surveyor of the port of New York through misapprehension,
and having received the accompanying letter and memorial from a number
of the most respectable merchants and citizens of that city, setting
forth his fitness for the office, I therefore renominate him to the
Senate as surveyor of the customs for the port of New York.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 25, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: I transmit herewith, for the use of the House, the report of
a survey[9] made in compliance with the act of the 2d of March, 1829.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 9: Of the harbors of Stamford and Norwalk, Conn.]


WASHINGTON, _May 26, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: I think it my duty to inform you that I am daily expecting
the definitive answer of the British Government to a proposition which
has been submitted to it by this, upon the subject of the colonial
trade.

This communication has been delayed by a confident belief that the
answer referred to would have been received early enough to have
admitted of its submission to you in sufficient season for the final
action of Congress at its present session, and is now induced by an
apprehension that although the packet by which it was intended to be
sent is hourly expected, its arrival may, nevertheless, be delayed until
after your adjournment.

Should this branch of the negotiation committed to our minister be
successful, the present interdict would, nevertheless, be necessarily
continued until the next session of Congress, as the President has in no
event authority to remove it.

Although no decision had been made at the date of our last advices from
Mr. McLane, yet from the general character of the interviews between him
and those of His Majesty's ministers whose particular duty it was to
confer with him on the subject there is sufficient reason to expect a
favorable result to justify me in submitting to you the propriety of
providing for a decision in the recess.

This may be done by authorizing the President, in case an arrangement
can be effected upon such terms as Congress would approve, to carry the
same into effect on our part by proclamation, or, if it should be
thought advisable, to execute the views of Congress by like means in the
event of an unfavorable decision.

Any information in the possession of the Executive which you may deem
necessary to guide your deliberations, and which it may, under existing
circumstances, be proper to communicate, shall be promptly laid before
you, if required.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _May 27, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

It is gratifying to me to be able to communicate to the Senate before
the termination of its present session, for its advice and consent as to
the ratification of it, a convention just received at the Department of
State between the United States and His Majesty the King of Denmark,
which was negotiated on the part of the former by Mr. Henry Wheaton,
their chargé d'affaires at the Court of Denmark, and on that of the
latter by the Sieurs Henry Count de Schemmelman, his minister of foreign
affairs, and Paul Christian de Stemann, president of his chancery, and
concluded and signed by these plenipotentiaries at Copenhagen on the
28th of March of the present year.

The convention provides by compromise for the adjustment and payment of
indemnities to no inconsiderable amount, long sought from the Government
of Denmark by that of the United States, in behalf of their citizens who
had preferred claims for the same, relating to the seizure, detention,
and condemnation or confiscation of their vessels, cargoes, or property
by the public armed ships or by the tribunals of Denmark or in the
states subject to the Danish scepter; and there is every reason to
believe, as the Senate will infer from the correspondence which
accompanies this communication, that the proposed arrangement will prove
entirely satisfactory to them.

ANDREW JACKSON.


_May 28, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: For the reasons expressed in the inclosed note, I renominate
Wharton Rector to be agent for the Shawnee and Delaware Indians.

ANDREW JACKSON.


The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

SIR: The rejection of Colonel Rector by the Senate took place in the
absence of Mr. McLean and myself. We were both confined to our rooms by
illness. Had we been present his nomination would have been confirmed. I
believe that if he were again placed before the Senate his nomination
would be confirmed, and should therefore be pleased if he could be again
nominated.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
J. ROWAN.


_May 29, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

GENTLEMEN: Having approved and signed a resolution, originating in the
House of Representatives, which provides "that the pay, subsistence,
emoluments, and allowances received by the officers of the Marine Corps
previous to the 1st of April, 1829, be, and the same is hereby, directed
to be continued to them from that date up to the 28th of February,
1831," it becomes my duty to call the attention of Congress to the fact
that the estimates for that branch of the public service submitted to
them at the commencement of the present session were made with reference
to the pay, subsistence, emoluments, and allowances provided for by law,
and excluding those which previously to the 1st of April, 1829, had been
made on the authority of the Department alone, and to suggest the
propriety of an appropriation to meet the increased expenditure.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _May 29, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit herewith a report[10] from the Secretary of the Treasury,
giving the information called for by a resolution of the Senate of the
3d of March, 1829.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 10: Transmitting statements of lands appropriated by Congress
for specific objects within the several States, etc.; disbursements made
within the several States and Territories from the commencement of the
Government to December 31, 1828; value of exports from the commencement
of the Government to September 30, 1828. ]


_May 30, 1830_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_.

Gentlemen: I have approved and signed the bill entitled "An act making
appropriations for examinations and surveys, and also for certain works
of internal improvement," but as the phraseology of the section which
appropriates the sum of $8,000 for the road from Detroit to Chicago may
be construed to authorize the application of the appropriation for the
continuance of the road beyond the limits of the Territory of Michigan,
I desire to be understood as having approved this bill with the
understanding that the road authorized by this section is not to be
extended beyond the limits of the said Territory.

ANDREW JACKSON.




VETO MESSAGES.


_May 27, 1830_.
_To the House of Representatives_.

Gentlemen: I have maturely considered the bill proposing to authorize "a
subscription of stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington
Turnpike Road Company," and now return the same to the House of
Representatives, in which it originated, with my objections to its
passage.

Sincerely friendly to the improvement of our country by means of roads
and canals, I regret that any difference of opinion in the mode of
contributing to it should exist between us; and if in stating this
difference I go beyond what the occasion may be deemed to call for, I
hope to find an apology in the great importance of the subject, an
unfeigned respect for the high source from which this branch of it has
emanated, and an anxious wish to be correctly understood by my
constituents in the discharge of all my duties. Diversity of sentiment
among public functionaries actuated by the same general motives, on the
character and tendency of particular measures, is an incident common to
all Governments, and the more to be expected in one which, like ours,
owes its existence to the freedom of opinion, and must be upheld by the
same influence. Controlled as we thus are by a higher tribunal, before
which our respective acts will be canvassed with the indulgence due to
the imperfections of our nature, and with that intelligence and unbiased
judgment which are the true correctives of error, all that our
responsibility demands is that the public good should be the measure of
our views, dictating alike their frank expression and honest
maintenance.

In the message which was presented to Congress at the opening of its
present session I endeavored to exhibit briefly my views upon the
important and highly interesting subject to which our attention is now
to be directed. I was desirous of presenting to the representatives of
the several States in Congress assembled the inquiry whether some mode
could not be devised which would reconcile the diversity of opinion
concerning the powers of this Government over the subject of internal
improvement, and the manner in which these powers, if conferred by the
Constitution, ought to be exercised. The act which I am called upon to
consider has, therefore, been passed with a knowledge of my views on
this question, as these are expressed in the message referred to. In
that document the following suggestions will be found:

    After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable that any
    adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the people
    of the Union will until a remote period, if ever, leave the
    Government without a considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond
    what may be required for its current service. As, then, the period
    approaches when the application of the revenue to the payment of
    debt will cease, the disposition of the surplus will present a
    subject for the serious deliberation of Congress; and it may be
    fortunate for the country that it is yet to be decided. Considered
    in connection with the difficulties which have heretofore attended
    appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, and with those
    which this experience tells us will certainly arise whenever power
    over such subjects may be exercised by the General Government, it is
    hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some plan which will
    reconcile the diversified interests of the States and strengthen the
    bonds which unite them. Every member of the Union, in peace and in
    war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland navigation and
    the construction of highways in the several States. Let us, then,
    endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode which will be satisfactory
    to all. That hitherto adopted has by many of our fellow-citizens
    been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution, while by
    others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has been
    employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils.

And adverting to the constitutional power of Congress to make what I
considered a proper disposition of the surplus revenue, I subjoined the
following remarks:

    To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and
    federal disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue would
    be its apportionment among the several States according to their
    ratio of representation, and should this measure not be found
    warranted by the Constitution that it would be expedient to propose
    to the States an amendment authorizing it.

The constitutional power of the Federal Government to construct or
promote works of internal improvement presents itself in two points of
view--the first as bearing upon the sovereignty of the States within
whose limits their execution is contemplated, if jurisdiction of the
territory which they may occupy be claimed as necessary to their
preservation and use; the second as asserting the simple right to
appropriate money from the National Treasury in aid of such works when
undertaken by State authority, surrendering the claim of jurisdiction.
In the first view the question of power is an open one, and can be
decided without the embarrassments attending the other, arising from the
practice of the Government. Although frequently and strenuously
attempted, the power to this extent has never been exercised by the
Government in a single instance. It does not, in my opinion, possess it;
and no bill, therefore, which admits it can receive my official
sanction.

But in the other view of the power the question is differently situated.
The ground taken at an early period of the Government was "that whenever
money has been raised by the general authority and is to be applied to a
particular measure, a question arises whether the particular measure be
within the enumerated authorities vested in Congress. If it be, the
money requisite for it may be applied to it; if not, no such application
can be made." The document in which this principle was first advanced is
of deservedly high authority, and should be held in grateful remembrance
for its immediate agency in rescuing the country from much existing
abuse and for its conservative effect upon some of the most valuable
principles of the Constitution. The symmetry and purity of the
Government would doubtless have been better preserved if this
restriction of the power of appropriation could have been maintained
without weakening its ability to fulfill the general objects of its
institution, an effect so likely to attend its admission,
notwithstanding its apparent fitness, that every subsequent
Administration of the Government, embracing a period of thirty out of
the forty-two years of its existence, has adopted a more enlarged
construction of the power. It is not my purpose to detain you by a
minute recital of the acts which sustain this assertion, but it is
proper that I should notice some of the most prominent in order that the
reflections which they suggest to my mind may be better understood.

In the Administration of Mr. Jefferson we have two examples of the
exercise of the right of appropriation, which in the considerations that
led to their adoption and in their effects upon the public mind have had
a greater agency in marking the character of the power than any
subsequent events. I allude to the payment of $15,000,000 for the
purchase of Louisiana and to the original appropriation for the
construction of the Cumberland road, the latter act deriving much weight
from the acquiescence and approbation of three of the most powerful of
the original members of the Confederacy, expressed through their
respective legislatures. Although the circumstances of the latter case
may be such as to deprive so much of it as relates to the actual
construction of the road of the force of an obligatory exposition of the
Constitution, it must, nevertheless, be admitted that so far as the mere
appropriation of money is concerned they present the principle in its
most imposing aspect. No less than twenty-three different laws have been
passed, through all the forms of the Constitution, appropriating upward
of $2,500,000 out of the National Treasury in support of that
improvement, with the approbation of every President of the United
States, including my predecessor, since its commencement.

Independently of the sanction given to appropriations for the Cumberland
and other roads and objects under this power, the Administration of Mr.
Madison was characterized by an act which furnishes the strongest
evidence of his opinion of its extent. A bill was passed through both
Houses of Congress and presented for his approval, "setting apart and
pledging certain funds for constructing roads and canals and improving
the navigation of water courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and
give security to internal commerce among the several States and to
render more easy and less expensive the means and provisions for the
common defense." Regarding the bill as asserting a power in the Federal
Government to construct roads and canals within the limits of the States
in which they were made, he objected to its passage on the ground of its
unconstitutionality, declaring that the assent of the respective States
in the mode provided by the bill could not confer the power in question;
that the only cases in which the consent and cession of particular
States can extend the power of Congress are those specified and provided
for in the Constitution, and superadding to these avowals his opinion
that "a restriction of the power 'to provide for the common defense and
general welfare' to cases which are to be provided for by the
expenditure of money would still leave within the legislative power of
Congress all the great and most important measures of Government, money
being the ordinary and necessary means of carrying them into execution."
I have not been able to consider these declarations in any other point
of view than as a concession that the right of appropriation is not
limited by the power to carry into effect the measure for which the
money is asked, as was formerly contended.

The views of Mr. Monroe upon this subject were not left to inference.
During his Administration a bill was passed through both Houses of
Congress conferring the jurisdiction and prescribing the mode by which
the Federal Government should exercise it in the case of the Cumberland
road. He returned it with objections to its passage, and in assigning
them took occasion to say that in the early stages of the Government he
had inclined to the construction that it had no right to expend money
except in the performance of acts authorized by the other specific
grants of power, according to a strict construction of them, but that on
further reflection and observation his mind had undergone a change; that
his opinion then was "that Congress have an unlimited power to raise
money, and that in its appropriation they have a discretionary power,
restricted only by the duty to appropriate it to purposes of common
defense, and of general, not local, national, not State, benefit;" and
this was avowed to be the governing principle through the residue of his
Administration. The views of the last Administration are of such recent
date as to render a particular reference to them unnecessary. It is well
known that the appropriating power, to the utmost extent which had been
claimed for it, in relation to internal improvements was fully
recognized and exercised by it.

This brief reference to known facts will be sufficient to show the
difficulty, if not impracticability, of bringing back the operations of
the Government to the construction of the Constitution set up in 1798,
assuming that to be its true reading in relation to the power under
consideration, thus giving an admonitory proof of the force of
implication and the necessity of guarding the Constitution with
sleepless vigilance against the authority of precedents which have not
the sanction of its most plainly defined powers; for although it is the
duty of all to look to that sacred instrument instead of the statute
book, to repudiate at all times encroachments upon its spirit, which are
too apt to be effected by the conjuncture of peculiar and facilitating
circumstances, it is not less true that the public good and the nature
of our political institutions require that individual differences should
yield to a well-settled acquiescence of the people and confederated
authorities in particular constructions of the Constitution on doubtful
points. Not to concede this much to the spirit of our institutions would
impair their stability and defeat the objects of the Constitution
itself.

The bill before me does not call for a more definite opinion upon the
particular circumstances which will warrant appropriations of money by
Congress to aid works of internal improvement, for although the
extension of the power to apply money beyond that of carrying into
effect the object for which it is appropriated has, as we have seen,
been long claimed and exercised by the Federal Government, yet such
grants have always been professedly under the control of the general
principle that the works which might be thus aided should be "of a
general, not local, national, not State," character. A disregard of this
distinction would of necessity lead to the subversion of the federal
system. That even this is an unsafe one, arbitrary in its nature, and
liable, consequently, to great abuses, is too obvious to require the
confirmation of experience. It is, however, sufficiently definite and
imperative to my mind to forbid my approbation of any bill having the
character of the one under consideration. I have given to its provisions
all the reflection demanded by a just regard for the interests of those
of our fellow-citizens who have desired its passage, and by the respect
which is due to a coordinate branch of the Government, but I am not able
to view it in any other light than as a measure of purely local
character; or, if it can be considered national, that no further
distinction between the appropriate duties of the General and State
Governments need be attempted, for there can be no local interest that
may not with equal propriety be denominated national. It has no
connection with any established system of improvements; is exclusively
within the limits of a State, starting at a point on the Ohio River and
running out 60 miles to an interior town, and even as far as the State
is interested conferring partial instead of general advantages.

Considering the magnitude and importance of the power, and the
embarrassments to which, from the very nature of the thing, its exercise
must necessarily be subjected, the real friends of internal improvement
ought not to be willing to confide it to accident and chance. What is
properly _national_ in its character or otherwise is an inquiry which is
often extremely difficult of solution. The appropriations of one year
for an object which is considered national may be rendered nugatory by
the refusal of a succeeding Congress to continue the work on the ground
that it is local. No aid can be derived from the intervention of
corporations. The question regards the character of the work, not that
of those by whom it is to be accomplished. Notwithstanding the union of
the Government with the corporation by whose immediate agency any work
of internal improvement is carried on, the inquiry will still remain. Is
it national and conducive to the benefit of the whole, or local and
operating only to the advantage of a portion of the Union?

But although I might not feel it to be my official duty to interpose the
Executive veto to the passage of a bill appropriating money for the
construction of such works as are authorized by the States and are
national in their character, I do not wish to be understood as
expressing an opinion that it is expedient at this time for the General
Government to embark in a system of this kind; and anxious that my
constituents should be possessed of my views on this as well as on all
other subjects which they have committed to my discretion, I shall state
them frankly and briefly. Besides many minor considerations, there are
two prominent views of the subject which have made a deep impression
upon my mind, which, I think, are well entitled to your serious
attention, and will, I hope, be maturely weighed by the people.

From the official communication submitted to you it appears that if no
adverse and unforeseen contingency happens in our foreign relations and
no unusual diversion be made of the funds set apart for the payment of
the national debt we may look with confidence to its entire
extinguishment in the short period of four years. The extent to which
this pleasing anticipation is dependent upon the policy which may be
pursued in relation to measures of the character of the one now under
consideration must be obvious to all, and equally so that the events of
the present session are well calculated to awaken public solicitude upon
the subject. By the statement from the Treasury Department and those
from the clerks of the Senate and House of Representatives, herewith
submitted, it appears that the bills which have passed into laws, and
those which in all probability will pass before the adjournment of
Congress, anticipate appropriations which, with the ordinary
expenditures for the support of Government, will exceed considerably the
amount in the Treasury for the year 1830. Thus, whilst we are
diminishing the revenue by a reduction of the duties on tea, coffee, and
cocoa the appropriations for internal improvement are increasing beyond
the available means of the Treasury. And if to this calculation be added
the amounts contained in bills which are pending before the two Houses,
it may be safely affirmed that $10,000,000 would not make up the excess
over the Treasury receipts, unless the payment of the national debt be
postponed and the means now pledged to that object applied to those
enumerated in these bills. Without a well-regulated system of internal
improvement this exhausting mode of appropriation is not likely to be
avoided, and the plain consequence must be either a continuance of the
national debt or a resort to additional taxes.

Although many of the States, with a laudable zeal and under the
influence of an enlightened policy, are successfully applying their
separate efforts to works of this character, the desire to enlist the
aid of the General Government in the construction of such as from their
nature ought to devolve upon it, and to which the means of the
individual States are inadequate, is both rational and patriotic, and if
that desire is not gratified now it does not follow that it never will
be. The general intelligence and public spirit of the American people
furnish a sure guaranty that at the proper time this policy will be made
to prevail under circumstances more auspicious to its successful
prosecution than those which now exist. But great as this object
undoubtedly is, it is not the only one which demands the fostering care
of the Government. The preservation and success of the republican
principle rest with us. To elevate its character and extend its
influence rank among our most important duties, and the best means to
accomplish this desirable end are those which will rivet the attachment
of our citizens to the Government of their choice by the comparative
lightness of their public burthens and by the attraction which the
superior success of its operations will present to the admiration and
respect of the world. Through the favor of an overruling and indulgent
Providence our country is blessed with general prosperity and our
citizens exempted from the pressure of taxation, which other less
favored portions of the human family are obliged to bear; yet it is true
that many of the taxes collected from our citizens through the medium of
imposts have for a considerable period been onerous. In many particulars
these taxes have borne severely upon the laboring and less prosperous
classes of the community, being imposed on the necessaries of life, and
this, too, in cases where the burthen was not relieved by the
consciousness that it would ultimately contribute to make us independent
of foreign nations for articles of prime necessity by the encouragement
of their growth and manufacture at home. They have been cheerfully borne
because they were thought to be necessary to the support of Government
and the payment of the debts unavoidably incurred in the acquisition and
maintenance of our national rights and liberties. But have we a right to
calculate on the same cheerful acquiescence when it is known that the
necessity for their continuance would cease were it not for irregular,
improvident, and unequal appropriations of the public funds? Will not
the people demand, as they have a right to do, such a prudent system of
expenditure as will pay the debts of the Union and authorize the
reduction of every tax to as low a point as the wise observance of the
necessity to protect that portion of our manufactures and labor whose
prosperity is essential to our national safety and independence will
allow? When the national debt is paid, the duties upon those articles
which we do not raise may be repealed with safety, and still leave, I
trust, without oppression to any section of the country, an accumulating
surplus fund, which may be beneficially applied to some well-digested
system of improvement.

Under this view the question as to the manner in which the Federal
Government can or ought to embark in the construction of roads and
canals, and the extent to which it may impose burthens on the people for
these purposes, may be presented on its own merits, free of all disguise
and of every embarrassment, except such as may arise from the
Constitution itself. Assuming these suggestions to be correct, will not
our constituents require the observance of a course by which they can be
effected? Ought they not to require it? With the best disposition to
aid, as far as I can conscientiously, in furtherance of works of
internal improvement, my opinion is that the soundest views of national
policy at this time point to such a course. Besides the avoidance of an
evil influence upon the local concerns of the country, how solid is the
advantage which the Government will reap from it in the elevation of its
character! How gratifying the effect of presenting to the world the
sublime spectacle of a Republic of more than 12,000,000 happy people, in
the fifty-fourth year of her existence, after having passed through two
protracted wars--the one for the acquisition and the other for the
maintenance of liberty--free from debt and with all her immense
resources unfettered! What a salutary influence would not such an
exhibition exercise upon the cause of liberal principles and free
government throughout the world! Would we not ourselves find in its
effect an additional guaranty that our political institutions will be
transmitted to the most remote posterity without decay? A course of
policy destined to witness events like these can not be benefited by a
legislation which tolerates a scramble for appropriations that have no
relation to any general system of improvement, and whose good effects
must of necessity be very limited. In the best view of these
appropriations, the abuses to which they lead far exceed the good which
they are capable of promoting. They may be resorted to as artful
expedients to shift upon the Government the losses of unsuccessful
private speculation, and thus, by ministering to personal ambition and
self-aggrandizement, tend to sap the foundations of public virtue and
taint the administration of the Government with a demoralizing
influence.

In the other view of the subject, and the only remaining one which it is
my intention to present at this time, is involved the expediency of
embarking in a system of internal improvement without a previous
amendment of the Constitution explaining and defining the precise powers
of the Federal Government over it. Assuming the right to appropriate
money to aid in the construction of national works to be warranted by
the cotemporaneous and continued exposition of the Constitution, its
insufficiency for the successful prosecution of them must be admitted by
all candid minds. If we look to usage to define the extent of the right,
that will be found so variant and embracing so much that has been
overruled as to involve the whole subject in great uncertainty and to
render the execution of our respective duties in relation to it replete
with difficulty and embarrassment. It is in regard to such works and the
acquisition of additional territory that the practice obtained its first
footing. In most, if not all, other disputed questions of appropriation
the construction of the Constitution may be regarded as unsettled if the
right to apply money in the enumerated cases is placed on the ground of
usage.

This subject has been one of much, and, I may add, painful, reflection
to me. It has bearings that are well calculated to exert a powerful
influence upon our hitherto prosperous system of government, and which,
on some accounts, may even excite despondency in the breast of an
American citizen. I will not detain you with professions of zeal in the
cause of internal improvements. If to be their friend is a virtue which
deserves commendation, our country is blessed with an abundance of it,
for I do not suppose there is an intelligent citizen who does not wish
to see them flourish. But though all are their friends, but few, I
trust, are unmindful of the means by which they should be promoted; none
certainly are so degenerate as to desire their success at the cost of
that sacred instrument with the preservation of which is indissolubly
bound our country's hopes. If different impressions are entertained in
any quarter; if it is expected that the people of this country, reckless
of their constitutional obligations, will prefer their local interest to
the principles of the Union, such expectations will in the end be
disappointed; or if it be not so, then indeed has the world but little
to hope from the example of free government. When an honest observance
of constitutional compacts can not be obtained from communities like
ours, it need not be anticipated elsewhere, and the cause in which there
has been so much martyrdom, and from which so much was expected by the
friends of liberty, may be abandoned, and the degrading truth that man
is unfit for self-government admitted. And this will be the case if
_expediency_ be made a rule of construction in interpreting the
Constitution. Power in no government could desire a better shield for
the insidious advances which it is ever ready to make upon the checks
that are designed to restrain its action.

But I do not entertain such gloomy apprehensions. If it be the wish of
the people that the construction of roads and canals should be conducted
by the Federal Government, it is not only highly expedient, but
indispensably necessary, that a previous amendment of the Constitution,
delegating the necessary power and defining and restricting its exercise
with reference to the sovereignty of the States, should be made. Without
it nothing extensively useful can be effected. The right to exercise as
much jurisdiction as is necessary to preserve the works and to raise
funds by the collection of tolls to keep them in repair can not be
dispensed with. The Cumberland road should be an instructive admonition
of the consequences of acting without this right. Year after year
contests are witnessed, growing out of efforts to obtain the necessary
appropriations for completing and repairing this useful work. Whilst one
Congress may claim and exercise the power, a succeeding one may deny it;
and this fluctuation of opinion must be unavoidably fatal to any scheme
which from its extent would promote the interests and elevate the
character of the country. The experience of the past has shown that the
opinion of Congress is subject to such fluctuations.

If it be the desire of the people that the agency of the Federal
Government should be confined to the appropriation of money in aid of
such undertakings, in virtue of State authorities, then the occasion,
the manner, and the extent of the appropriations should be made the
subject of constitutional regulation. This is the more necessary in
order that they may be equitable among the several States, promote
harmony between different sections of the Union and their
representatives, preserve other parts of the Constitution from being
undermined by the exercise of doubtful powers or the too great extension
of those which are not so, and protect the whole subject against the
deleterious influence of combinations to carry by concert measures
which, considered by themselves, might meet but little countenance.

That a constitutional adjustment of this power upon equitable principles
is in the highest degree desirable can scarcely be doubted, nor can it
fail to be promoted by every sincere friend to the success of our
political institutions. In no government are appeals to the source of
power in cases of real doubt more suitable than in ours. No good motive
can be assigned for the exercise of power by the constituted
authorities, while those for whose benefit it is to be exercised have
not conferred it and may not be willing to confer it. It would seem to
me that an honest application of the conceded powers of the General
Government to the advancement of the common weal present a sufficient
scope to satisfy a reasonable ambition. The difficulty and supposed
impracticability of obtaining an amendment of the Constitution in this
respect is, I firmly believe, in a great degree unfounded. The time has
never yet been when the patriotism and intelligence of the American
people were not fully equal to the greatest exigency, and it never will
when the subject calling forth their interposition is plainly presented
to them. To do so with the questions involved in this bill, and to urge
them to an early, zealous, and full consideration of their deep
importance, is, in my estimation, among the highest of our duties.

A supposed connection between appropriations for internal improvement
and the system of protecting duties, growing out of the anxieties of
those more immediately interested in their success, has given rise to
suggestions which it is proper I should notice on this occasion. My
opinions on these subjects have never been concealed from those who had
a right to know them. Those which I have entertained on the latter have
frequently placed me in opposition to individuals as well as communities
whose claims upon my friendship and gratitude are of the strongest
character, but I trust there has been nothing in my public life which
has exposed me to the suspicion of being thought capable of sacrificing
my views of duty to private considerations, however strong they may have
been or deep the regrets which they are capable of exciting.

As long as the encouragement of domestic manufactures is directed to
national ends it shall receive from me a temperate but steady support.
There is no necessary connection between it and the system of
appropriations. On the contrary, it appears to me that the supposition
of their dependence upon each other is calculated to excite the
prejudices of the public against both. The former is sustained on the
grounds of its consistency with the letter and spirit of the
Constitution, of its origin being traced to the assent of all the
parties to the original compact, and of its having the support and
approbation of a majority of the people, on which account it is at least
entitled to a fair experiment. The suggestions to which I have alluded
refer to a forced continuance of the national debt by means of large
appropriations as a substitute for the security which the system derives
from the principles on which it has hitherto been sustained. Such a
course would certainly indicate either an unreasonable distrust of the
people or a consciousness that the system does not possess sufficient
soundness for its support if left to their voluntary choice and its own
merits. Those who suppose that any policy thus founded can be long
upheld in this country have looked upon its history with eyes very
different from mine. This policy, like every other, must abide the will
of the people, who will not be likely to allow any device, however
specious, to conceal its character and tendency.

In presenting these opinions I have spoken with the freedom and candor
which I thought the occasion for their expression called for, and now
respectfully return the bill which has been under consideration for your
further deliberation and judgment.

ANDREW JACKSON.


WASHINGTON, _May 31, 1830_.
_To the Senate of the United States_.

GENTLEMEN: I have considered the bill proposing "to authorize a
subscription of stock in the Washington Turnpike Road Company," and now
return the same to the Senate, in which it originated.

I am unable to approve this bill, and would respectfully refer the
Senate to my message to the House of Representatives on returning to
that House the bill "to authorize a subscription of stock in the
Maysville, Washington, Paris and Lexington Turnpike Road Company" for a
statement of my objections to the bill herewith returned. The message
referred to bears date on the 27th instant, and a printed copy of the
same is herewith transmitted,

ANDREW JACKSON.

(NOTE.--For reasons for the pocket vetoes of "An act for making
appropriations for building light-houses, light-boats, beacons, and
monuments, placing buoys, and for improving harbors and directing
surveys," and "An act to authorize a subscription for stock in the
Louisville and Portland Canal Company," see Second Annual Message, dated
December 6, 1830, p. 508.)




PROCLAMATIONS.


BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas it has been represented that many uninformed or evil-disposed
persons have taken possession of or made a settlement on the public
lands of the United States within the district of lands subject to sale
at Huntsville, in the State of Alabama, which have not been previously
sold, ceded, or leased by the United States, or the claim to which lands
by such persons has not been previously recognized and confirmed by the
United States, which possession or settlement is, by the act of Congress
passed on the 3d day of March, 1807, expressly prohibited; and

Whereas the due execution of the said act of Congress, as well as the
general interest, requires that such illegal practices should be
promptly repressed:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, have
thought proper to issue this my proclamation, commanding and strictly
enjoining all persons who have unlawfully taken possession of or made
any settlement on, or who now unlawfully occupy, any of the public lands
within the district of lands subject to sale at Huntsville, in the State
of Alabama, as aforesaid, forthwith to remove therefrom; and I do hereby
further command and enjoin the marshal, or officer acting as marshal, in
that State, where such possession shall have been taken or settlement
made, to remove, from and after the 1st day of September, 1830, all or
any of the said unlawful occupants; and to effect the said service I do
hereby authorize the employment of such military force as may become
necessary in pursuance of the provisions of the act of Congress
aforesaid, warning the offenders, moreover, that they will be prosecuted
in all such other ways as the law directs.

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States of
America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my
hand.

(SEAL.)

Done at the city of Washington, the 6th day of March, A.D. 1830, and of
the Independence of the United States of America the fifty-fourth.

ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President:
M. VAN BUREN,
_Secretary of State_.


(From original in General Land Office.)

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

In pursuance of law, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States
of America, do hereby declare and make known that public sales will be
held at the under-mentioned land offices, in the State of Louisiana, at
the periods designated, to wit:

At the land office at New Orleans on the first Monday in November next,
for the disposal of such of the public lands within the limits of the
under-mentioned fractional townships as are not covered by private land
claims, viz:

Fractional townships 6, 7, and 9 south, of range 12 east; fractional
townships 9 and 10 south, of range 13 east; fractional township 11
south, of range 15 east; fractional township 12 south, of range 16 east;
fractional township 12 south, of ranges 20 and 21 east; fractional
township 13 south, of range 21 east.

The above-described lands are adjacent to and binding on the Mississippi
River.

At the land office at Ouachita, on the third Monday in November next,
for the disposal of the public lands within the limits of the
undermentioned townships and fractional townships, viz:

Fractional townships 3 and 4 north, of range 1 east; fractional
townships 2 and 3 and townships 19 and 20 north, of range 2 east;
fractional townships 2 and 3 and townships 7, 13, 14, 19, and 20 north,
of range 3 east; fractional township 3 and townships 8, 9, 13, 14, and
19 north, of range 4 east; township 9 north, of ranges 5 and 6 east;
township 10 north, of range 7 east; townships 10, 11, and 12 north, of
range 8 east; also township 8 north, of range 9 east, and townships 8
and 9 north, of range 10 east, including the Lake St. John and part of
Lake Concordia, near Natchez; township 21 and fractional township 22
north, of range 12 east; fractional townships 21, 22, and 23, of range
13 east, in the vicinity of Lake Providence; fractional township 4
north, of range 1 west; fractional townships 5 and 6 north, of range 2
west; fractional townships 5 and 6 and township 7 north, of range 3
west.

At the land office at St. Helena on the third Monday in November next,
for the disposal of the public lands within the limits of the
undermentioned townships and fractional townships, viz:

Township 4 and fractional townships 5 and 7, of range 1 west; townships
1 and 2 and fractional townships 3, 4, and 5, of range 2 west; townships
1 and 2 and fractional township 3, of range 3 west; fractional townships
1 and 2, of range 4 west; townships 4 and 5, of range 1 east; township
4, of range 2 east; township 4 and fractional townships 7 and 8, of
range 10 east; townships 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and fractional township 8, of
range 11 east; townships 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and fractional township 8, of
range 12 east; townships 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8 and fractional townships 4
and 9, of range 13 east; fractional townships 1, 2, 3, and 10, of range
14 east; fractional township 10, of ranges 15, 16, and 17 east.

The townships and fractional townships will be offered in the order in
which they are above designated, beginning with the lowest number of
section in each.

The lands reserved by law for the use of schools or for other purposes
are to be excluded from sale.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 5th day of June,
1830.

ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President:
GEORGE GRAHAM,
_Commissioner of the General Land Office_.


BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of
May, 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act
concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost,' and to equalize
the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is provided that
upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United
States by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating
duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the
said nation upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United
States, or upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in
the same from the United States or from any foreign country, the
President is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that
the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the
United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as
respects the vessels of the said foreign nation and the produce,
manufactures, or merchandise imported into the United States in the same
from the said foreign nation or from any other foreign country, the said
suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given
to the President of the United States and to continue so long as the
reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United
States, and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no
longer; and

Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me from His
Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, through an official
communication of F.A. Mensch, his consul in the United States, under
date of the 15th of September, 1830, that no discriminating duties of
tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the Grand
Dukedom of Oldenburg upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the
United States or upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported
in the same from the United States or from any other country:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts
imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United
States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects
the vessels of the Grand Dukedom of Oldenburg and the produce,
manufactures, and merchandise imported into the United States in the
same from the Grand Dukedom of Oldenburg and from any other foreign
country whatever, the said suspension to take effect from the day above
mentioned and to continue thenceforward so long as the reciprocal
exemption of the vessels of the United States and the produce,
manufactures, and merchandise imported into the Grand Dukedom of
Oldenburg in the same, as aforesaid, shall be continued on the part of
the Government of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Oldenburg.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the 18th day of
September, A.D. 1830, and the fifty-fifth of the Independence of the
United States.

ANDREW JACKSON.

By the President:
M. VAN BUREN, _Secretary of State_.


BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States passed on the
29th day of May, 1830, it is provided that whenever the President of the
United States shall receive satisfactory evidence that the Government of
Great Britain will open the ports in its colonial possessions in the
West Indies, on the continent of South America, the Bahama Islands, the
Caicos, and the Bermuda or Somer Islands to the vessels of the United
States for an indefinite or for a limited term; that the vessels of the
United States, and their cargoes, on entering the colonial ports
aforesaid, shall not be subject to other or higher duties of tonnage or
impost or charges of any other description than would be imposed on
British vessels or their cargoes arriving in the said colonial
possessions from the United States; that the vessels of the United
States may import into the said colonial possessions from the United
States any article or articles which could be imported in a British
vessel into the said possessions from the United States; and that the
vessels of the United States may export from the British colonies
aforementioned, to any country whatever other than the dominions or
possessions of Great Britain, any article or articles that can be
exported therefrom in a British vessel to any country other than the
British dominions or possessions as aforesaid, leaving the commercial
intercourse of the United States with all other parts of the British
dominions or possessions on a footing not less favorable to the United
States than it now is--that then, and in such case, the President of the
United States shall be authorized, at any time before the next session
of Congress, to issue his proclamation declaring that he has received
such evidence, and that thereupon, and from the date of such
proclamation, the ports of the United States shall be opened
indefinitely or for a term fixed, as the case may be, to British vessels
coming from the said British colonial possessions, and their cargoes,
subject to no other or higher duty of tonnage or impost or charge of any
description whatever than would be levied on the vessels of the United
States or their cargoes arriving from the said British possessions; and
that it shall be lawful for the said British vessels to import into the
United States and to export therefrom any article or articles which may
be imported or exported in vessels of the United States; and that the
act entitled "An act concerning navigation," passed on the 18th day of
April, 1818, an act supplementary thereto, passed the 15th day of May,
1820, and an act entitled "An act to regulate the commercial intercourse
between the United States and certain British ports," passed on the 1st
day of March, 1823, shall in such case be suspended or absolutely
repealed, as the case may require; and

Whereas by the said act it is further provided that whenever the ports
of the United States shall have been opened under the authority thereby
given, British vessels and their cargoes shall be admitted to an entry
in the ports of the United States from the islands, provinces, or
colonies of Great Britain on or near the North American continent and
north or east of the United States; and

Whereas satisfactory evidence has been received by the President of the
United States that whenever he shall give effect to the provisions of
the act aforesaid the Government of Great Britain will open for an
indefinite period the ports in its colonial possessions in the West
Indies, on the continent of South America, the Bahama Islands, the
Caicos, and the Bermuda or Somer Islands to the vessels of the United
States, and their cargoes, upon the terms and according to the
requisitions of the aforesaid act of Congress:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of
America, do hereby declare and proclaim that such evidence has been
received by me, and that by the operation of the act of Congress passed
on the 29th day of May, 1830, the ports of the United States are from
the date of this proclamation open to British vessels coming from the
said British possessions, and their cargoes, upon the terms set forth in
the said act. The act entitled "An act concerning navigation," passed on
the 18th day of April, 1818, the act supplementary thereto, passed the
15th day of May, 1820, and the act entitled "An act to regulate the
commercial intercourse between the United States and certain British
ports," passed the 1st day of March, 1823, are absolutely repealed, and
British vessels and their cargoes are admitted to an entry in the ports
of the United States from the islands, provinces, and colonies of Great
Britain on or near the North American continent and north or east of the
United States.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the 5th day of October,
A.D. 1830, and the fifty-fifth of the Independence of the United States.

ANDREW JACKSON.
By the President:
M. VAN BUREN,
_Secretary of State_.




EXECUTIVE ORDER.


ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, June 12, 1830_.

ORDER 29.

The following general order has been received from the War Department.
It is published for the information of all concerned:

DEPARTMENT OF WAR,
_Washington, June 12, 1830_.

GENERAL ORDER.

Congress at their last session passed an act repealing so much of the
military law as imposes the penalty of death on those who "in time of
peace" shall be found guilty of the crime of desertion. To give complete
effect to the benevolent designs of said act, and that the Army may be
correctly informed, it is hereby proclaimed that a free and full pardon
is extended to those who at the date of this order stand in the
character of deserters. All who are under arrest for this offense at the
different posts and garrisons will be forthwith liberated, and return to
their duty. Such as are roaming at large and those who are under
sentence of death are discharged, and are not again to be permitted to
enter the Army, nor at any time hereafter to be enlisted in the service
of the country. It is desirable and highly important that the ranks of
the Army should be composed of respectable, not degraded, materials.
Those who can be so lost to the obligations of a soldier as to abandon a
country which morally they are bound to defend, and which solemnly they
have sworn to serve, are unworthy, and should be confided in no more. By
order of the President of the United States:

JOHN H. EATON,
_Secretary of War_.

Communicated by order of Alexander Macomb, Major-General Commanding the
Army.

R. JONES, _Adjutant-General._




SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.

_December 6, 1830_.
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

The pleasure I have in congratulating you upon your return to your
constitutional duties is much heightened by the satisfaction which the
condition of our beloved country at this period justly inspires. The
beneficent Author of All Good has granted to us during the present year
health, peace, and plenty, and numerous causes for joy in the wonderful
success which attends the progress of our free institutions.

With a population unparalleled in its increase, and possessing a
character which combines the hardihood of enterprise with the
considerateness of wisdom, we see in every section of our happy country
a steady improvement in the means of social intercourse, and
correspondent effects upon the genius and laws of our extended Republic.

The apparent exceptions to the harmony of the prospect are to be
referred rather to inevitable diversities in the various interests which
enter into the composition of so extensive a whole than to any want of
attachment to the Union--interests whose collisions serve only in the
end to foster the spirit of conciliation and patriotism so essential to
the preservation of that Union which I most devoutly hope is destined to
prove imperishable.

In the midst of these blessings we have recently witnessed changes in
the condition of other nations which may in their consequences call for
the utmost vigilance, wisdom, and unanimity in our councils, and the
exercise of all the moderation and patriotism of our people.

The important modifications of their Government, effected with so much
courage and wisdom by the people of France, afford a happy presage of
their future course, and have naturally elicited from the kindred
feelings of this nation that spontaneous and universal burst of applause
in which you have participated. In congratulating you, my
fellow-citizens, upon an event so auspicious to the dearest interests of
mankind I do no more than respond to the voice of my country, without
transcending in the slightest degree that salutary maxim of the
illustrious Washington which enjoins an abstinence from all interference
with the internal affairs of other nations. From a people exercising in
the most unlimited degree the right of self-government, and enjoying, as
derived from this proud characteristic, under the favor of Heaven, much
of the happiness with which they are blessed; a people who can point in
triumph to their free institutions and challenge comparison with the
fruits they bear, as well as with the moderation, intelligence, and
energy with which they are administered--from such a people the deepest
sympathy was to be expected in a struggle for the sacred principles of
liberty, conducted in a spirit every way worthy of the cause, and
crowned by a heroic moderation which has disarmed revolution of its
terrors. Notwithstanding the strong assurances which the man whom we so
sincerely love and justly admire has given to the world of the high
character of the present King of the French, and which if sustained to
the end will secure to him the proud appellation of Patriot King, it is
not in his success, but in that of the great principle which has borne
him to the throne--the paramount authority of the public will--that the
American people rejoice.

I am happy to inform you that the anticipations which were indulged at
the date of my last communication on the subject of our foreign affairs
have been fully realized in several important particulars.

An arrangement has been effected with Great Britain in relation to the
trade between the United States and her West India and North American
colonies which has settled a question that has for years afforded matter
for contention and almost uninterrupted discussion, and has been the
subject of no less than six negotiations, in a manner which promises
results highly favorable to the parties.

The abstract right of Great Britain to monopolize the trade with her
colonies or to exclude us from a participation therein has never been
denied by the United States. But we have contended, and with reason,
that if at any time Great Britain may desire the productions of this
country as necessary to her colonies they must be received upon
principles of just reciprocity, and, further, that it is making an
invidious and unfriendly distinction to open her colonial ports to the
vessels of other nations and close them against those of the United
States.

Antecedently to 1794 a portion of our productions was admitted into the
colonial islands of Great Britain by particular concessions, limited to
the term of one year, but renewed from year to year. In the
transportation of these productions, however, our vessels were not
allowed to engage, this being a privilege reserved to British shipping,
by which alone our produce could be taken to the islands and theirs
brought to us in return. From Newfoundland and her continental
possessions all our productions, as well as our vessels, were excluded,
with occasional relaxations, by which, in seasons of distress, the
former were admitted in British bottoms.

By the treaty of 1794 she offered to concede to us for a limited time
the right of carrying to her West India possessions in our vessels not
exceeding 70 tons burthen, and upon the same terms as British vessels,
any productions of the United States which British vessels might import
therefrom. But this privilege was coupled with conditions which are
supposed to have led to its rejection by the Senate; that is, that
American vessels should land their return cargoes in the United States
only, and, moreover, that they should during the continuance of the
privilege be precluded from carrying molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or
cotton either from those islands or from the United States to any other
part of the world. Great Britain readily consented to expunge this
article from the treaty, and subsequent attempts to arrange the terms of
the trade either by treaty stipulations or concerted legislation having
failed, it has been successively suspended and allowed according to the
varying legislation of the parties.

The following are the prominent points which have in later years
separated the two Governments: Besides a restriction whereby all
importations into her colonies in American vessels are confined to our
own products carried hence, a restriction to which it does not appear
that we have ever objected, a leading object on the part of Great
Britain has been to prevent us from becoming the carriers of British
West India commodities to any other country than our own. On the part of
the United States it has been contended, first, that the subject should
be regulated by treaty stipulation in preference to separate
legislation; second, that our productions, when imported into the
colonies in question, should not be subject to higher duties than the
productions of the mother country or of her other colonial possessions,
and, third, that our vessels should be allowed to participate in the
circuitous trade between the United States and different parts of the
British dominions.

The first point, after having been for a long time strenuously insisted
upon by Great Britain, was given up by the act of Parliament of July,
1825, all vessels suffered to trade with the colonies being permitted to
clear from thence with any articles which British vessels might export
and proceed to any part of the world, Great Britain and her dependencies
alone excepted. On our part each of the above points had in succession
been explicitly abandoned in negotiations preceding that of which the
result is now announced.

This arrangement secures to the United States every advantage asked by
them, and which the state of the negotiation allowed us to insist upon.
The trade will be placed upon a footing decidedly more favorable to this
country than any on which it ever stood, and our commerce and navigation
will enjoy in the colonial ports of Great Britain every privilege
allowed to other nations.

That the prosperity of the country so far as it depends on this trade
will be greatly promoted by the new arrangement there can be no doubt.
Independently of the more obvious advantages of an open and direct
intercourse, its establishment will be attended with other consequences
of a higher value. That which has been carried on since the mutual
interdict under all the expense and inconvenience unavoidably incident
to it would have been insupportably onerous had it not been in a great
degree lightened by concerted evasions in the mode of making the
trans-shipments at what are called the neutral ports. These indirections
are inconsistent with the dignity of nations that have so many motives
not only to cherish feelings of mutual friendship, but to maintain such
relations as will stimulate their respective citizens and subjects to
efforts of direct, open, and honorable competition only, and preserve
them from the influence of seductive and vitiating circumstances.

When your preliminary interposition was asked at the close of the last
session, a copy of the instructions under which Mr. McLane has acted,
together with the communications which had at that time passed between
him and the British Government, was laid before you. Although there has
not been anything in the acts of the two Governments which requires
secrecy, it was thought most proper in the then state of the negotiation
to make that communication a confidential one. So soon, however, as the
evidence of execution on the part of Great Britain is received the whole
matter shall be laid before you, when it will be seen that the
apprehension which appears to have suggested one of the provisions of
the act passed at your last session, that the restoration of the trade
in question might be connected with other subjects and was sought to be
obtained at the sacrifice of the public interest in other particulars,
was wholly unfounded, and that the change which has taken place in the
views of the British Government has been induced by considerations as
honorable to both parties as I trust the result will prove beneficial.

This desirable result was, it will be seen, greatly promoted by the
liberal and confiding provisions of the act of Congress of the last
session, by which our ports were upon the reception and annunciation by
the President of the required assurance on the part of Great Britain
forthwith opened to her vessels before the arrangement could be carried
into effect on her part, pursuing in this act of prospective legislation
a similar course to that adopted by Great Britain in abolishing, by her
act of Parliament in 1825, a restriction then existing and permitting
our vessels to clear from the colonies on their return voyages for any
foreign country whatever before British vessels had been relieved from
the restriction imposed by our law of returning directly from the United
States to the colonies, a restriction which she required and expected
that we should abolish. Upon each occasion a limited and temporary
advantage has been given to the opposite party, but an advantage of no
importance in comparison with the restoration of mutual confidence and
good feeling, and the ultimate establishment of the trade upon fair
principles.

It gives me unfeigned pleasure to assure you that this negotiation has
been throughout characterized by the most frank and friendly spirit on
the part of Great Britain, and concluded in a manner strongly indicative
of a sincere desire to cultivate the best relations with the United
States. To reciprocate this disposition to the fullest extent of my
ability is a duty which I shall deem it a privilege to discharge.

Although the result is itself the best commentary on the services
rendered to his country by our minister at the Court of St. James, it
would be doing violence to my feelings were I to dismiss the subject
without expressing the very high sense I entertain of the talent and
exertion which have been displayed by him on the occasion.

The injury to the commerce of the United States resulting from the
exclusion of our vessels from the Black Sea and the previous footing of
mere sufferance upon which even the limited trade enjoyed by us with
Turkey has hitherto been placed have for a long time been a source of
much solicitude to this Government, and several endeavors have been made
to obtain a better state of things. Sensible of the importance of the
object, I felt it my duty to leave no proper means unemployed to acquire
for our flag the same privileges that are enjoyed by the principal
powers of Europe. Commissioners were consequently appointed to open a
negotiation with the Sublime Porte. Not long after the member of the
commission who went directly from the United States had sailed, the
account of the treaty of Adrianople, by which one of the objects in view
was supposed to be secured, reached this country. The Black Sea was
understood to be opened to us. Under the supposition that this was the
case, the additional facilities to be derived from the establishment of
commercial regulations with the Porte were deemed of sufficient
importance to require a prosecution of the negotiation as originally
contemplated. It was therefore persevered in, and resulted in a treaty,
which will be forthwith laid before the Senate.

By its provisions a free passage is secured, without limitation of time,
to the vessels of the United States to and from the Black Sea, including
the navigation thereof, and our trade with Turkey is placed on the
footing of the most favored nation. The latter is an arrangement wholly
independent of the treaty of Adrianople, and the former derives much
value, not only from the increased security which under any
circumstances it would give to the right in question, but from the fact,
ascertained in the course of the negotiation, that by the construction
put upon that treaty by Turkey the article relating to the passage of
the Bosphorus is confined to nations having treaties with the Porte. The
most friendly feelings appear to be entertained by the Sultan, and an
enlightened disposition is evinced by him to foster the intercourse
between the two countries by the most liberal arrangements. This
disposition it will be our duty and interest to cherish.

Our relations with Russia are of the most stable character. Respect for
that Empire and confidence in its friendship toward the United States
have been so long entertained on our part and so carefully cherished by
the present Emperor and his illustrious predecessor as to have become
incorporated with the public sentiment of the United States. No means
will be left unemployed on my part to promote these salutary feelings
and those improvements of which the commercial intercourse between the
two countries is susceptible, and which have derived increased
importance from our treaty with the Sublime Porte.

I sincerely regret to inform you that our minister lately commissioned
to that Court, on whose distinguished talents and great experience in
public affairs I place great reliance, has been compelled by extreme
indisposition to exercise a privilege which, in consideration of the
extent to which his constitution had been impaired in the public
service, was committed to his discretion--of leaving temporarily his
post for the advantage of a more genial climate.

If, as it is to be hoped, the improvement of his health should be such
as to justify him in doing so, he will repair to St. Petersburg and
resume the discharge of his official duties. I have received the most
satisfactory assurances that in the meantime the public interest in that
quarter will be preserved from prejudice by the intercourse which he
will continue through the secretary of legation with the Russian
cabinet.

You are apprised, although the fact has not yet been officially
announced to the House of Representatives, that a treaty was in the
month of March last concl

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