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ADDRESSES, MESSAGES, AND REPLIES
by Thomas Jefferson
_Response to the Citizens of Albemarle_
February 12, 1790
GENTLEMEN,
The testimony of esteem with which you are pleased to honour my
return to my native country fills me with gratitude and pleasure.
While it shews that my absence has not lost me your friendly
recollection, it holds out the comfortable hope that when the hour of
retirement shall come, I shall again find myself amidst those with
whom I have long lived, with whom I wish to live, and whose affection
is the source of my purest happiness. Their favor was the door thro'
which I was ushered on the stage of public life; and while I have
been led on thro' it's varying scenes, I could not be unmindful of
those who assigned me my first part.
My feeble and obscure exertions in their service, and in the
holy cause of freedom, have had no other merit than that they were my
best. We have all the same. We have been fellow-labourers and
fellow-sufferers, and heaven has rewarded us with a happy issue from
our struggles. It rests now with ourselves alone to enjoy in peace
and concord the blessings of self-government, so long denied to
mankind: to shew by example the sufficiency of human reason for the
care of human affairs and that the will of the majority, the Natural
law of every society, is the only sure guardian of the rights of man.
Perhaps even this my sometimes err. But it's errors are honest,
solitary and short-lived. -- Let us then, my dear friends, for ever
bow down to the general reason of the society. We are safe with
that, even in it's deviations, for it soon returns again to the right
way. These are lessons we have learnt together. We have prospered
in their practice, and the liberality with which you are pleased to
approve my attachment to the general rights of mankind assures me we
are still together in these it's kindred sentiments.
Wherever I may be stationed, by the will of my country, it will
be my delight to see, in the general tide of happiness, that yours
too flows on in just place and measure. That it may flow thro' all
times, gathering strength as it goes, and spreading the happy
influence of reason and liberty over the face of the earth, is my
fervent prayer to heaven.
_First Inaugural Address_
March 4, 1801
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,
Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive
office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of that portion
of my fellow-citizens which is here assembled to express my grateful
thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to look toward
me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the task is above my
talents, and that I approach it with those anxious and awful
presentiments which the greatness of the charge and the weakness of
my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and
fruitful land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of
their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel power and
forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of
mortal eye -- when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see
the honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country
committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from
the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the
undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I despair did not the presence
of many whom I here see remind me that in the other high authorities
provided by our Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of
virtue, and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you,
then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign functions of
legislation, and to those associated with you, I look with
encouragement for that guidance and support which may enable us to
steer with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst the
conflicting elements of a troubled world.
During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the
animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an
aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to
speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the
voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the
Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will
of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All,
too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of
the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful
must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights,
which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind.
Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection
without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.
And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious
intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have
yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as
despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody
persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient
world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking through
blood and slaughter his long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that
the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and
peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and
less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of safety.
But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We
have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We
are all Republicans, we are all Federalists. If there be any among
us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican
form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with
which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to
combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a
republican government can not be strong, that this Government is not
strong enough; but would the honest patriot, in the full tide of
successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us
free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this
Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to
preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the
strongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every
man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law,
and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal
concern. Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the
government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government
of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern
him? Let history answer this question.
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own
Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and
representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide
ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too
high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a
chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the
thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our
equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of
our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens,
resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of
them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and
practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty,
truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and
adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations
proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater
happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is
necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one
thing more, fellow-citizens -- a wise and frugal Government, which
shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them
otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and
improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it
has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is
necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties
which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it is proper
you should understand what I deem the essential principles of our
Government, and consequently those which ought to shape its
Administration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass
they will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its
limitations. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state
or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest
friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the
support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most
competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest
bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies; the preservation of the
General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet
anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the
right of election by the people -- a mild and safe corrective of
abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable
remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions of
the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no
appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of
despotism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and
for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them; the
supremacy of the civil over the military authority; economy in the
public expense, that labor may be lightly burthened; the honest
payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith;
encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the
diffusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of
the public reason; freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and
freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and
trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the
bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps
through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our
sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment.
They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic
instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we
trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of
alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road
which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.
I repair, then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have assigned
me. With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the
difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect
that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from
this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into
it. Without pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in our
first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services
had entitled him to the first place in his country's love and
destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history,
I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the
legal administration of your affairs. I shall often go wrong through
defect of judgment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by
those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. I
ask your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be
intentional, and your support against the errors of others, who may
condemn what they would not if seen in all its parts. The
approbation implied by your suffrage is a great consolation to me for
the past, and my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion
of those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of
others by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental
to the happiness and freedom of all.
Relying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance
with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you
become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make.
And may that Infinite Power which rules the destinies of the universe
lead our councils to what is best, and give them a favorable issue
for your peace and prosperity.
_To Elias Shipman and Others, a Committee of the Merchants of
New Haven_
Washington, July 12, 1801
GENTLEMAN,
I have received the remonstrance you were pleased to address to
me, on the appointment of Samuel Bishop to the office of collector of
New Haven, lately vacated by the death of David Austin. The right of
our fellow citizens to represent to the public functionaries their
opinion on proceedings interesting to them, is unquestionably a
constitutional right, often useful, sometimes necessary, and will
always be respectfully acknoleged by me.
Of the various executive duties, no one excites more anxious
concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow citizens in
the hands of honest men, with understandings sufficient for their
station. No duty, at the same time, is more difficult to fulfil.
The knolege of characters possessed by a single individual is, of
necessity, limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union, we
must resort to other information, which, from the best of men, acting
disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect.
In the case of Samuel Bishop, however, the subject of your
remonstrance, time was taken, information was sought, & such obtained
as could leave no room for doubt of his fitness. From private
sources it was learnt that his understanding was sound, his integrity
pure, his character unstained. And the offices confided to him
within his own State, are public evidences of the estimation in which
he is held by the State in general, and the city & township
particularly in which he lives. He is said to be the town clerk, a
justice of the peace, mayor of the city of New Haven, an office held
at the will of the legislature, chief judge of the court of common
pleas for New Haven county, a court of high criminal and civil
jurisdiction wherein most causes are decided without the right of
appeal or review, and sole judge of the court of probates, wherein he
singly decides all questions of wills, settlement of estates, testate
and intestate, appoints guardians, settles their accounts, and in
fact has under his jurisdiction and care all the property real and
personal of persons dying. The two last offices, in the annual gift
of the legislature, were given to him in May last. Is it possible
that the man to whom the legislature of Connecticut has so recently
committed trusts of such difficulty & magnitude, is `unfit to be the
collector of the district of New Haven,' tho' acknoleged in the same
writing, to have obtained all this confidence `by a long life of
usefulness?' It is objected, indeed, in the remonstrance, that he is
77. years of age; but at a much more advanced age, our Franklin was
the ornament of human nature. He may not be able to perform in
person, all the details of his office; but if he gives us the benefit
of his understanding, his integrity, his watchfulness, and takes care
that all the details are well performedby himself or his necessary
assistants, all public purposes will be answered. The remonstrance,
indeed, does not allege that the office _has been_ illy conducted,
but only apprehends that it _will be_ so. Should this happen in
event, be assured I will do in it what shall be just and necessary
for the public service. In the meantime, he should be tried without
being prejudged.
The removal, as it is called, of Mr. Goodrich, forms another
subject of complaint. Declarations by myself in favor of _political
tolerance_, exhortations to _harmony_ and affection in social
intercourse, and to respect for the _equal rights_ of the minority,
have, on certain occasions, been quoted & misconstrued into
assurances that the tenure of offices was to be undisturbed. But
could candor apply such a construction? It is not indeed in the
remonstrance that we find it; but it leads to the explanations which
that calls for. When it is considered, that during the late
administration, those who were not of a particular sect of politics
were excluded from all office; when, by a steady pursuit of this
measure, nearly the whole offices of the U S were monopolized by that
sect; when the public sentiment at length declared itself, and burst
open the doors of honor and confidence to those whose opinions they
more approved, was it to be imagined that this monopoly of office was
still to be continued in the hands of the minority? Does it violate
their _equal rights_, to assert some rights in the majority also? Is
it _political intolerance_ to claim a proportionate share in the
direction of the public affairs? Can they not _harmonize_ in society
unless they have everything in their own hands? If the will of the
nation, manifested by their various elections, calls for an
administration of government according with the opinions of those
elected; if, for the fulfilment of that will, displacements are
necessary, with whom can they so justly begin as with persons
appointed in the last moments of an administration, not for its own
aid, but to begin a career at the same time with their successors, by
whom they had never been approved, and who could scarcely expect from
them a cordial cooperation? Mr. Goodrich was one of these. Was it
proper for him to place himself in office, without knowing whether
those whose agent he was to be would have confidence in his agency?
Can the preference of another, as the successor to Mr. Austin, be
candidly called a removal of Mr. Goodrich? If a due participation of
office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? Those
by death are few; by resignation, none. Can any other mode than that
of removal be proposed? This is a painful office; but it is made my
duty, and I meet it as such. I proceed in the operation with
deliberation & inquiry, that it may injure the best men least, and
effect the purposes of justice & public utility with the least
private distress; that it may be thrown, as much as possible, on
delinquency, on oppression, on intolerance, on incompetence, on
ante-revolutionary adherence to our enemies.
The remonstrance laments "that a change in the administration
must produce a change in the subordinate officers;" in other words,
that it should be deemed necessary for all officers to think with
their principal. But on whom does this imputation bear? On those
who have excluded from office every shade of opinion which was not
theirs? Or on those who have been so excluded? I lament sincerely
that unessential differences of political opinion should ever have
been deemed sufficient to interdict half the society from the rights
and the blessings of self-government, to proscribe them as characters
unworthy of every trust. It would have been to me a circumstance of
great relief, had I found a moderate participation of office in the
hands of the majority. I would gladly have left to time and accident
to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion calls
for prompter correctives. I shall correct the procedure; but that
done, disdain to follow it, shall return with joy to that state of
things, when the only questions concerning a candidate shall be, is
he honest? Is he capable? Is he faithful to the Constitution?
I tender you the homage of my high respect.
_First Annual Message_
December 8, 1801
FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me that on
meeting the great council of our nation, I am able to announce to
them, on the grounds of reasonable certainty, that the wars and
troubles which have for so many years afflicted our sister nations
have at length come to an end, and that the communications of peace
and commerce are once more opening among them. While we devoutly
return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been pleased to breathe
into them the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness, we are bound
with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to him that our own peace has
been preserved through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted
quietly to cultivate the earth and to practice and improve those arts
which tend to increase our comforts. The assurances, indeed, of
friendly disposition, received from all the powers with whom we have
principal relations, had inspired a confidence that our peace with
them would not have been disturbed. But a cessation of the
irregularities which had effected the commerce of neutral nations,
and of the irritations and injuries produced by them, cannot but add
to this confidence; and strengthens, at the same time, the hope, that
wrongs committed on offending friends, under a pressure of
circumstances, will now be reviewed with candor, and will be
considered as founding just claims of retribution for the past and
new assurances for the future.
Among our Indian neighbors, also, a spirit of peace and
friendship generally prevailing and I am happy to inform you that the
continued efforts to introduce among them the implements and the
practice of husbandry, and of the household arts, have not been
without success; that they are becoming more and more sensible of the
superiority of this dependence for clothing and subsistence over the
precarious resources of hunting and fishing; and already we are able
to announce, that instead of that constant diminution of their
numbers, produced by their wars and their wants, some of them begin
to experience an increase of population.
To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed,
one only exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the
Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in
right or in compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war, on our
failure to comply before a given day. The style of the demand
admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into
the Mediterranean, with assurances to that power of our sincere
desire to remain in peace, but with orders to protect our commerce
against the threatened attack. The measure was seasonable and
salutary. The bey had already declared war in form. His cruisers
were out. Two had arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce in the
Mediterranean was blockaded, and that of the Atlantic in peril. The
arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger. One of the Tripolitan
cruisers having fallen in with, and engaged the small schooner
Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant Sterret, which had gone as a
tender to our larger vessels, was captured, after a heavy slaughter
of her men, without the loss of a single one on our part. The
bravery exhibited by our citizens on that element, will, I trust, be
a testimony to the world that it is not the want of that virtue which
makes us seek their peace, but a conscientious desire to direct the
energies of our nation to the multiplication of the human race, and
not to its destruction. Unauthorized by the constitution, without
the sanction of Congress, to go out beyond the line of defence, the
vessel being disabled from committing further hostilities, was
liberated with its crew. The legislature will doubtless consider
whether, by authorizing measures of offence, also, they will place
our force on an equal footing with that of its adversaries. I
communicate all material information on this subject, that in the
exercise of the important function considered by the constitution to
the legislature exclusively, their judgment may form itself on a
knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of weight.
I wish I could say that our situation with all the other
Barbary states was entirely satisfactory. Discovering that some
delays had taken place in the performance of certain articles
stipulated by us, I thought it my duty, by immediate measures for
fulfilling them, to vindicate to ourselves the right of considering
the effect of departure from stipulation on their side. From the
papers which will be laid before you, you will be enabled to judge
whether our treaties are regarded by them as fixing at all the
measure of their demands, or as guarding from the exercise of force
our vessels within their power; and to consider how far it will be
safe and expedient to leave our affairs with them in their present
posture.
I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our
inhabitants, to a conformity with which we are to reduce the ensuing
rates of representation and taxation. You will perceive that the
increase of numbers during the last ten years, proceeding in
geometrical ratio, promises a duplication in little more than
twenty-two years. We contemplate this rapid growth, and the prospect
it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries it may enable us
to do to others in some future day, but to the settlement of the
extensive country still remaining vacant within our limits, to the
multiplications of men susceptible of happiness, educated in the love
of order, habituated to self-government, and value its blessings
above all price.
Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers,
have produced an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption, in
a ratio far beyond that of population alone, and though the changes
of foreign relations now taking place so desirably for the world, may
for a season affect this branch of revenue, yet, weighing all
probabilities of expense, as well as of income, there is reasonable
ground of confidence that we may now safely dispense with all the
internal taxes, comprehending excises, stamps, auctions, licenses,
carriages, and refined sugars, to which the postage on newspapers may
be added, to facilitate the progress of information, and that the
remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the
support of government to pay the interest on the public debts, and to
discharge the principals in shorter periods than the laws or the
general expectations had contemplated. War, indeed, and untoward
events, may change this prospect of things, and call for expenses
which the imposts could not meet; but sound principles will not
justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate
treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not
perhaps happen but from the temptations offered by that treasure.
These views, however, of reducing our burdens, are formed on
the expectation that a sensible, and at the same time a salutary
reduction, may take place in our habitual expenditures. For this
purpose, those of the civil government, the army, and navy, will need
revisal.
When we consider that this government is charged with the
external and mutual relations only of these states; that the states
themselves have principal care of our persons, our property, and our
reputation, constituting the great field of human concerns, we may
well doubt whether our organization is not too complicated, too
expensive; whether offices or officers have not been multiplied
unnecessarily, and sometimes injuriously to the service they were
meant to promote. I will cause to be laid before you an essay toward
a statement of those who, under public employment of various kinds,
draw money from the treasury or from our citizens. Time has not
permitted a perfect enumeration, the ramifications of office being
too multipled and remote to be completely traced in a first trial.
Among those who are dependent on executive discretion, I have begun
the reduction of what was deemed necessary. The expenses of
diplomatic agency have been considerably diminished. The inspectors
of internal revenue who were found to obstruct the accountability of
the institution, have been discontinued. Several agencies created by
executive authority, on salaries fixed by that also, have been
suppressed, and should suggest the expediency of regulating that
power by law, so as to subject its exercises to legislative
inspection and sanction. Other reformations of the same kind will be
pursued with that caution which is requisite in removing useless
things, not to injure what is retained. But the great mass of public
offices is established by law, and, therefore, by law alone can be
abolished. Should the legislature think it expedient to pass this
roll in review, and try all its parts by the test of public utility,
they may be assured of every aid and light which executive
information can yield. Considering the general tendency to multiply
offices and dependencies, and to increase expense to the ultimate
term of burden which the citizen can bear, it behooves us to avail
ourselves of every occasion which presents itself for taking off the
surcharge; that it may never be seen here that, after leaving to
labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can subsist,
government shall itself consume the residue of what it was instituted
to guard.
In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted to our
direction, it would be prudent to multiply barriers against their
dissipation, by appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose
susceptible of definition; by disallowing applications of money
varying from the appropriation in object, or transcending it in
amount; by reducing the undefined field of contingencies, and thereby
circumscribing discretionary powers over money; and by bringing back
to a single department all accountabilities for money where the
examination may be prompt, efficacious, and uniform.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last year,
as prepared by the secretary of the treasury, will as usual be laid
before you. The success which has attended the late sales of the
public lands, shows that with attention they may be made an important
source of receipt. Among the payments, those made in discharge of
the principal and interest of the national debt, will show that the
public faith has been exactly maintained. To these will be added an
estimate of appropriations necessary for the ensuing year. This last
will of course be effected by such modifications of the systems of
expense, as you shall think proper to adopt.
A statement has been formed by the secretary of war, on mature
consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be
expedient, and of the number of men requisite for each garrison. The
whole amount is considerably short of the present military
establishment. For the surplus no particular use can be pointed out.
For defence against invasion, their number is as nothing; nor is it
conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in
time of peace for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the
particular point in our circumference where an enemy may choose to
invade us, the only force which can be ready at every point and
competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring citizens as
formed into a militia. On these, collected from the parts most
convenient, in numbers proportioned to the invading foe, it is best
to rely, not only to meet the first attack, but if it threatens to be
permanent, to maintain the defence until regulars may be engaged to
relieve them. These considerations render it important that we
should at every session continue to amend the defects which from time
to time show themselves in the laws for regulating the militia, until
they are sufficiently perfect. Nor should we now or at any time
separate, until we can say we have done everything for the militia
which we could do were an enemy at our door.
The provisions of military stores on hand will be laid before
you, that you may judge of the additions still requisite.
With respect to the extent to which our naval preparations
should be carried, some difference of opinion may be expected to
appear; but just attention to the circumstances of every part of the
Union will doubtless reconcile all. A small force will probably
continue to be wanted for actual service in the Mediterranean.
Whatever annual sum beyond that you may think proper to appropriate
to naval preparations, would perhaps be better employed in providing
those articles which may be kept without waste or consumption, and be
in readiness when any exigence calls them into use. Progress has
been made, as will appear by papers now communicated, in providing
materials for seventy-four gun ships as directed by law.
How far the authority given by the legislature for procuring
and establishing sites for naval purposes has been perfectly
understood and pursued in the execution, admits of some doubt. A
statement of the expenses already incurred on that subject, shall be
laid before you. I have in certain cases suspended or slackened
these expenditures, that the legislature might determine whether so
many yards are necessary as have been contemplated. The works at
this place are among those permitted to go on; and five of the seven
frigates directed to be laid up, have been brought and laid up here,
where, besides the safety of their position, they are under the eye
of the executive administration, as well as of its agents and where
yourselves also will be guided by your own view in the legislative
provisions respecting them which may from time to time be necessary.
They are preserved in such condition, as well the vessels as whatever
belongs to them, as to be at all times ready for sea on a short
warning. Two others are yet to be laid up so soon as they shall have
reserved the repairs requisite to put them also into sound condition.
As a superintending officer will be necessary at each yard, his
duties and emoluments, hitherto fixed by the executive, will be a
more proper subject for legislation. A communication will also be
made of our progress in the execution of the law respecting the
vessels directed to be sold.
The fortifications of our harbors, more or less advanced,
present considerations of great difficulty. While some of them are
on a scale sufficiently proportioned to the advantages of their
position, to the efficacy of their protection, and the importance of
the points within it, others are so extensive, will cost so much in
their first erection, so much in their maintenance, and require such
a force to garrison them, as to make it questionable what is best now
to be done. A statement of those commenced or projected, of the
expenses already incurred, and estimates of their future cost, so far
as can be foreseen, shall be laid before you, that you may be enabled
to judge whether any attention is necessary in the laws respecting
this subject.
Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four
pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free
to individual enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments,
however, may sometimes be seasonably interposed. If in the course of
your observations or inquiries they should appear to need any aid
within the limits of our constitutional powers, your sense of their
importance is a sufficient assurance they will occupy your attention.
We cannot, indeed, but all feel an anxious solicitude for the
difficulties under which our carrying trade will soon be placed. How
far it can be relieved, otherwise than by time, is a subject of
important consideration.
The judiciary system of the United States, and especially that
portion of it recently erected, will of course present itself to the
contemplation of Congress: and that they may be able to judge of the
proportion which the institution bears to the business it has to
perform, I have caused to be procured from the several States, and
now lay before Congress, an exact statement of all the causes decided
since the first establishment of the courts, and of those which were
depending when additional courts and judges were brought in to their
aid.
And while on the judiciary organization, it will be worthy your
consideration, whether the protection of the inestimable institution
of juries has been extended to all the cases involving the security
of our persons and property. Their impartial selection also being
essential to their value, we ought further to consider whether that
is sufficiently secured in those States where they are named by a
marshal depending on executive will, or designated by the court or by
officers dependent on them.
I cannot omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject
of naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a
denial of citizenship under a residence of fourteen years is a denial
to a great proportion of those who ask it, and controls a policy
pursued from their first settlement by many of these States, and
still believed of consequence to their prosperity. And shall we
refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the
savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this
land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? The
constitution, indeed, has wisely provided that, for admission to
certain offices of important trust, a residence shall be required
sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the
general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely
communicated to every one manifesting a _bona fide_ purpose of
embarking his life and fortunes permanently with us? with
restrictions, perhaps, to guard against the fraudulent usurpation of
our flag; an abuse which brings so much embarrassment and loss on the
genuine citizen, and so much danger to the nation of being involved
in war, that no endeavor should be spared to detect and suppress it.
These, fellow citizens, are the matters respecting the state of
the nation, which I have thought of importance to be submitted to
your consideration at this time. Some others of less moment, or not
yet ready for communication, will be the subject of separate
messages. I am happy in this opportunity of committing the arduous
affairs of our government to the collected wisdom of the Union.
Nothing shall be wanting on my part to inform, as far as in my power,
the legislative judgment, nor to carry that judgment into faithful
execution. The prudence and temperance of your discussions will
promote, within your own walls, that conciliation which so much
befriends national conclusion; and by its example will encourage
among our constituents that progress of opinion which is tending to
unite them in object and in will. That all should be satisfied with
any one order of things is not to be expected, but I indulge the
pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens will
cordially concur in honest and disinterested efforts, which have for
their object to preserve the general and State governments in their
constitutional form and equilibrium; to maintain peace abroad, and
order and obedience to the laws at home; to establish principles and
practices of administration favorable to the security of liberty and
prosperity, and to reduce expenses to what is necessary for the
useful purposes of government.
_To Messrs. Nehemiah Dodge and Others, a Committee of the
Danbury Baptist Association, in the State of Connecticut_
January 1, 1802
GENTLEMAN,
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you
are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury
Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties
dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my
constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity
to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more
pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely
between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his
faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach
actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign
reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that
their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a
wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this
expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights
of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of
those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights,
convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing
of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for
yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high
respect and esteem.
_Third Annual Message_
October 17, 1803
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED
STATES:
In calling you together, fellow citizens, at an earlier day
than was contemplated by the act of the last session of Congress, I
have not been insensible to the personal inconve-niences necessarily
resulting from an unexpected change in your arrangements. But
matters of great public concernment have rendered this call
necessary, and the interest you feel in these will supersede in your
minds all private considerations.
Congress witnessed, at their last session, the extraordinary
agitation produced in the public mind by the suspension of our right
of deposit at the port of New Orleans, no assignment of another place
having been made according to treaty. They were sensible that the
continuance of that privation would be more injurious to our nation
than any consequences which could flow from any mode of redress, but
reposing just confidence in the good faith of the government whose
officer had committed the wrong, friendly and reasonable
representations were resorted to, and the right of deposit was
restored.
Previous, however, to this period, we had not been unaware of
the danger to which our peace would be perpetually exposed while so
important a key to the commerce of the western country remained under
foreign power. Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves as to
the navigation of other streams, which, arising within our
territories, pass through those adjacent. Propositions had,
therefore, been authorized for obtaining, on fair conditions, the
sovereignty of New Orleans, and of other possessions in that quarter
interesting to our quiet, to such extent as was deemed practicable;
and the provisional appropriation of two millions of dollars, to be
applied and accounted for by the president of the United States,
intended as part of the price, was considered as conveying the
sanction of Congress to the acquisition proposed. The enlightened
government of France saw, with just discernment, the importance to
both nations of such liberal arrangements as might best and
permanently promote the peace, friendship, and interests of both; and
the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana, which had been
restored to them, have on certain conditions been transferred to the
United States by instruments bearing date the 30th of April last.
When these shall have received the constitutional sanction of the
senate, they will without delay be communicated to the
representatives also, for the exercise of their functions, as to
those conditions which are within the powers vested by the
constitution in Congress. While the property and sovereignty of the
Mississippi and its waters secure an independent outlet for the
produce of the western States, and an uncontrolled navigation through
their whole course, free from collision with other powers and the
dangers to our peace from that source, the fertility of the country,
its climate and extent, promise in due season important aids to our
treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and a wide-spread
field for the blessings of freedom and equal laws.
With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior
measures which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and
temporary government of the country; for its incorporation into our
Union; for rendering the change of government a blessing to our
newly-adopted brethren; for securing to them the rights of conscience
and of property: for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their
occupancy and self-government, establishing friendly and commercial
relations with them, and for ascertaining the geography of the
country acquired. Such materials for your information, relative to
its affairs in general, as the short space of time has permitted me
to collect, will be laid before you when the subject shall be in a
state for your consideration.
Another important acquisition of territory has also been made
since the last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia
Indians with which we have never had a difference, reduced by the
wars and wants of savage life to a few individuals unable to defend
themselves against the neighboring tribes, has transferred its
country to the United States, reserving only for its members what is
sufficient to maintain them in an agricultural way. The
considerations stipulated are, that we shall extend to them our
patronage and protection, and give them certain annual aids in money,
in implements of agriculture, and other articles of their choice.
This country, among the most fertile within our limits, extending
along the Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois to and up the
Ohio, though not so necessary as a barrier since the acquisition of
the other bank, may yet be well worthy of being laid open to
immediate settlement, as its inhabitants may descend with rapidity in
support of the lower country should future circumstances expose that
to foreign enterprise. As the stipulations in this treaty also
involve matters within the competence of both houses only, it will be
laid before Congress as soon as the senate shall have advised its
ratification.
With many other Indian tribes, improvements in agriculture and
household manufacture are advancing, and with all our peace and
friendship are established on grounds much firmer than heretofore.
The measure adopted of establishing trading houses among them, and of
furnishing them necessaries in exchange for their commodities, at
such moderated prices as leave no gain, but cover us from loss, has
the most conciliatory and useful effect upon them, and is that which
will best secure their peace and good will.
The small vessels authorized by Congress with a view to the
Mediterranean service, have been sent into that sea, and will be able
more effectually to confine the Tripoline cruisers within their
harbors, and supersede the necessity of convoy to our commerce in
that quarter. They will sensibly lessen the expenses of that service
the ensuing year.
A further knowledge of the ground in the north-eastern and
north-western angles of the United States has evinced that the
boundaries established by the treaty of Paris, between the British
territories and ours in those parts, were too imperfectly described
to be susceptible of execution. It has therefore been thought worthy
of attention, for preserving and cherishing the harmony and useful
intercourse subsisting between the two nations, to remove by timely
arrangements what unfavorable incidents might otherwise render a
ground of future misunderstanding. A convention has therefore been
entered into, which provides for a practicable demarkation of those
limits to the satisfaction of both parties.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the year ending
30th September last, with the estimates for the service of the
ensuing year, will be laid before you by the secretary of the
treasury so soon as the receipts of the last quarter shall be
returned from the more distant States. It is already ascertained
that the amount paid into the treasury for that year has been between
eleven and twelve millions of dollars, and that the revenue accrued
during the same term exceeds the sum counted on as sufficient for our
current expenses, and to extinguish the public debt within the period
heretofore proposed.
The amount of debt paid for the same year is about three
millions one hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of interest, and
making, with the payment of the preceding year, a discharge of more
than eight millions and a half of dollars of the principal of that
debt, besides the accruing interest; and there remain in the treasury
nearly six millions of dollars. Of these, eight hundred and eighty
thousand have been reserved for payment of the first instalment due
under the British convention of January 8th, 1802, and two millions
are what have been before mentioned as placed by Congress under the
power and accountability of the president, toward the price of New
Orleans and other territories acquired, which, remaining untouched,
are still applicable to that object, and go in diminution of the sum
to be funded for it.
Should the acquisition of Louisiana be constitutionally
confirmed and carried into effect, a sum of nearly thirteen millions
of dollars will then be added to our public debt, most of which is
payable after fifteen years; before which term the present existing
debts will all be discharged by the established operation of the
sinking fund. When we contemplate the ordinary annual augmentation
of imposts from increasing population and wealth, the augmentation of
the same revenue by its extension to the new acquisition, and the
economies which may still be introduced into our public expenditures,
I cannot but hope that Congress in reviewing their resources will
find means to meet the intermediate interests of this additional debt
without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this object only the
ordinary progression of our revenue. Its extraordinary increase in
times of foreign war will be the proper and sufficient fund for any
measures of safety or precaution which that state of things may
render necessary in our neutral position.
Remittances for the instalments of our foreign debt having been
found impracticable without loss, it has not been thought expedient
to use the power given by a former act of Congress of continuing them
by reloans, and of redeeming instead thereof equal sums of domestic
debt, although no difficulty was found in obtaining that
accommodation.
The sum of fifty thousand dollars appropriated by Congress for
providing gun-boats, remains unexpended. The favorable and peaceful
turn of affairs on the Mississippi rendered an immediate execution of
that law unnecessary, and time was desirable in order that the
institution of that branch of our force might begin on models the
most approved by experience. The same issue of events dispensed with
a resort to the appropriation of a million and a half of dollars
contemplated for purposes which were effected by happier means.
We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up
again in Europe, and nations with which we have the most friendly and
useful relations engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret the
miseries in which we see others involved let us bow with gratitude to
that kind Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and moderation our
late legislative councils while placed under the urgency of the
greatest wrongs, guarded us from hastily entering into the sanguinary
contest, and left us only to look on and to pity its ravages. These
will be heaviest on those immediately engaged. Yet the nations
pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil. In the course of
this conflict, let it be our endeavor, as it is our interest and
desire, to cultivate the friendship of the belligerent nations by
every act of justice and of incessant kindness; to receive their
armed vessels with hospitality from the distresses of the sea, but to
administer the means of annoyance to none; to establish in our
harbors such a police as may maintain law and order; to restrain our
citizens from embarking individually in a war in which their country
takes no part; to punish severely those persons, citizen or alien,
who shall usurp the cover of our flag for vessels not entitled to it,
infecting thereby with suspicion those of real Americans, and
committing us into controversies for the redress of wrongs not our
own; to exact from every nation the observance, toward our vessels
and citizens, of those principles and practices which all civilized
people acknowledge; to merit the character of a just nation, and
maintain that of an independent one, preferring every consequence to
insult and habitual wrong. Congress will consider whether the
existing laws enable us efficaciously to maintain this course with
our citizens in all places, and with others while within the limits
of our jurisdiction, and will give them the new modifications
necessary for these objects. Some contraventions of right have
already taken place, both within our jurisdictional limits and on the
high seas. The friendly disposition of the governments from whose
agents they have proceeded, as well as their wisdom and regard for
justice, leave us in reasonable expectation that they will be
rectified and prevented in future; and that no act will be
countenanced by them which threatens to disturb our friendly
intercourse. Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe,
and from the political interests which entangle them together, with
productions and wants which render our commerce and friendship useful
to them and theirs to us, it cannot be the interest of any to assail
us, nor ours to disturb them. We should be most unwise, indeed, were
we to cast away the singular blessings of the position in which
nature has placed us, the opportunity she has endowed us with of
pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions, the paths of
industry, peace, and happiness; of cultivating general friendship,
and of bringing collisions of interest to the umpirage of reason
rather than of force. How desirable then must it be, in a government
like ours, to see its citizens adopt individually the views, the
interests, and the conduct which their country should pursue,
divesting themselves of those passions and partialities which tend to
lessen useful friendships, and to embarrass and embroil us in the
calamitous scenes of Europe. Confident, fellow citizens, that you
will duly estimate the importance of neutral dispositions toward the
observance of neutral conduct, that you will be sensible how much it
is our duty to look on the bloody arena spread before us with
commiseration indeed, but with no other wish than to see it closed, I
am persuaded you will cordially cherish these dispositions in all
discussions among yourselves, and in all communications with your
constituents; and I anticipate with satisfaction the measures of
wisdom which the great interests now committed to _you_ will give you
an opportunity of providing, and _myself_ that of approving and
carrying into execution with the fidelity I owe to my country.
_Second Inaugural Address_
March 4, 1805
Proceeding, fellow citizens, to that qualification which the
constitution requires, before my entrance on the charge again
conferred upon me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I
entertain of this new proof of confidence from my fellow citizens at
large, and the zeal with which it inspires me, so to conduct myself
as may best satisfy their just expectations.
On taking this station on a former occasion, I declared the
principles on which I believed it my duty to administer the affairs
of our commonwealth. My conscience tells me that I have, on every
occasion, acted up to that declaration, according to its obvious
import, and to the understanding of every candid mind.
In the transaction of your foreign affairs, we have endeavored
to cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially of those
with which we have the most important relations. We have done them
justice on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and
cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms.
We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with
nations, as with individuals, our interests soundly calculated, will
ever be found inseparable from our moral duties; and history bears
witness to the fact, that a just nation is taken on its word, when
recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others.
At home, fellow citizens, you best know whether we have done
well or ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless
establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal
taxes. These covering our land with officers, and opening our doors
to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary
vexation which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from
reaching successively every article of produce and property. If
among these taxes some minor ones fell which had not been
inconvenient, it was because their amount would not have paid the
officers who collected them, and because, if they had any merit, the
state authorities might adopt them, instead of others less approved.
The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles,
is paid cheerfully by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to
domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboards and frontiers
only, and incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile
citizens, it may be the pleasure and pride of an American to ask,
what farmer, what mechanic, what laborer, ever sees a tax-gatherer of
the United States? These contributions enable us to support the
current expenses of the government, to fulfil contracts with foreign
nations, to extinguish the native right of soil within our limits, to
extend those limits, and to apply such a surplus to our public debts,
as places at a short day their final redemption, and that redemption
once effected, the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just
repartition among the states, and a corresponding amendment of the
constitution, be applied, _in time of peace_, to rivers, canals,
roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within
each state. _In time of war_, if injustice, by ourselves or others,
must sometimes produce war, increased as the same revenue will be
increased by population and consumption, and aided by other resources
reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the
expenses of the year, without encroaching on the rights of future
generations, by burdening them with the debts of the past. War will
then be but a suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of
peace, a return to the progress of improvement.
I have said, fellow citizens, that the income reserved had
enabled us to extend our limits; but that extension may possibly pay
for itself before we are called on, and in the meantime, may keep
down the accruing interest; in all events, it will repay the advances
we have made. I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been
disapproved by some, from a candid apprehension that the enlargement
of our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the
extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively?
The larger our association, the less will it be shaken by local
passions; and in any view, is it not better that the opposite bank of
the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children,
than by strangers of another family? With which shall we be most
likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse?
In matters of religion, I have considered that its free
exercise is placed by the constitution independent of the powers of
the general government. I have therefore undertaken, on no occasion,
to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it; but have left
them, as the constitution found them, under the direction and
discipline of state or church authorities acknowledged by the several
religious societies.
The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded
with the commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the
faculties and the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty
and independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire
but to be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from
other regions directed itself on these shores; without power to
divert, or habits to contend against, they have been overwhelmed by
the current, or driven before it; now reduced within limits too
narrow for the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach them
agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry
which alone can enable them to maintain their place in existence, and
to prepare them in time for that state of society, which to bodily
comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals. We have
therefore liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry
and household use; we have placed among them instructors in the arts
of first necessity; and they are covered with the aegis of the law
against aggressors from among ourselves.
But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits
their present course of life, to induce them to exercise their
reason, follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the
change of circumstances, have powerful obstacles to encounter; they
are combated by the habits of their bodies, prejudice of their minds,
ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and crafty
individuals among them, who feel themselves something in the present
order of things, and fear to become nothing in any other. These
persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their
ancestors; that whatsoever they did, must be done through all time;
that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its counsel, in
their physical, moral, or political condition, is perilous
innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made them,
ignorance being safety, and knowledge full of danger; in short, my
friends, among them is seen the action and counteraction of good
sense and bigotry; they, too, have their anti-philosophers, who find
an interest in keeping things in their present state, who dread
reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the ascendency
of habit over the duty of improving our reason, and obeying its
mandates.
In giving these outlines, I do not mean, fellow citizens, to
arrogate to myself the merit of the measures; that is due, in the
first place, to the reflecting character of our citizens at large,
who, by the weight of public opinion, influence and strengthen the
public measures; it is due to the sound discretion with which they
select from among themselves those to whom they confide the
legislative duties; it is due to the zeal and wisdom of the
characters thus selected, who lay the foundations of public happiness
in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains for others;
and it is due to the able and faithful auxiliaries, whose patriotism
has associated with me in the executive functions.
During this course of administration, and in order to disturb
it, the artillery of the press has been levelled against us, charged
with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These
abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science, are
deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its
usefulness, and to sap its safety; they might, indeed, have been
corrected by the wholesome punishments reserved and provided by the
laws of the several States against falsehood and defamation; but
public duties more urgent press on the time of public servants, and
the offenders have therefore been left to find their punishment in
the public indignation.
Nor was it uninteresting to the world, that an experiment
should be fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion,
unaided by power, is not sufficient for the propagation and
protection of truth -- whether a government, conducting itself in the
true spirit of its constitution, with zeal and purity, and doing no
act which it would be unwilling the whole world should witness, can
be written down by falsehood and defamation. The experiment has been
tried; you have witnessed the scene; our fellow citizens have looked
on, cool and collected; they saw the latent source from which these
outrages proceeded; they gathered around their public functionaries,
and when the constitution called them to the decision by suffrage,
they pronounced their verdict, honorable to those who had served
them, and consolatory to the friend of man, who believes he may be
intrusted with his own affairs.
No inference is here intended, that the laws, provided by the
State against false and defamatory publications, should not be
enforced; he who has time, renders a service to public morals and
public tranquillity, in reforming these abuses by the salutary
coercions of the law; but the experiment is noted, to prove that,
since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false
opinions in league with false facts, the press, confined to truth,
needs no other legal restraint; the public judgment will correct
false reasonings and opinions, on a full hearing of all parties; and
no other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty
of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. If there be still
improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its supplement must
be sought in the censorship of public opinion.
Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so
generally, as auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I
offer to our country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not
yet rallied to the same point, the disposition to do so is gaining
strength; facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them; and
our doubting brethren will at length see, that the mass of their
fellow citizens, with whom they cannot yet resolve to act, as to
principles and measures, think as they think, and desire what they
desire; that our wish, as well as theirs, is, that the public efforts
may be directed honestly to the public good, that peace be
cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order
preserved; equality of rights maintained, and that state of property,
equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry,
or that of his fathers. When satisfied of these views, it is not in
human nature that they should not approve and support them; in the
meantime, let us cherish them with patient affection; let us do them
justice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest; and
we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own interests, will
at length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country,
and will complete their entire union of opinion, which gives to a
nation the blessing of harmony, and the benefit of all its strength.
I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow citizens
have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those
principles which they have approved. I fear not that any motives of
interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could
seduce me knowingly from the path of justice; but the weakness of
human nature, and the limits of my own understanding, will produce
errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests. I shall
need, therefore, all the indulgence I have heretofore experienced --
the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I
shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who
led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and
planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and
comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his providence,
and our riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness
I ask you to join with me in supplications, that he will so enlighten
the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their
measures, that whatsoever they do, shall result in your good, and
shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all
nations.
_Sixth Annual Message_
December 2, 1806
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES
IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:
It would have given me, fellow citizens, great satisfaction to
announce in the moment of your meeting that the difficulties in our
foreign relations, existing at the time of your last separation, had
been amicably and justly terminated. I lost no time in taking those
measures which were most likely to bring them to such a termination,
by special missions charged with such powers and instructions as in
the event of failure could leave no imputation on either our
moderation or forbearance. The delays which have since taken place
in our negotiations with the British government appears to have
proceeded from causes which do not forbid the expectation that during
the course of the session I may be enabled to lay before you their
final issue. What will be that of the negotiations for settling our
differences with Spain, nothing which had taken place at the date of
the last despatches enables us to pronounce. On the western side of
the Mississippi she advanced in considerable force, and took post at
the settlement of Bayou Pierre, on the Red river. This village was
originally settled by France, was held by her as long as she held
Louisiana, and was delivered to Spain only as a part of Louisiana.
Being small, insulated, and distant, it was not observed, at the
moment of redelivery to France and the United States, that she
continued a guard of half a dozen men which had been stationed there.
A proposition, however, having been lately made by our
commander-in-chief, to assume the Sabine river as a temporary line of
separation between the troops of the two nations until the issue of
our negotiations shall be known; this has been referred by the
Spanish commandant to his superior, and in the meantime, he has
withdrawn his force to the western side of the Sabine river. The
correspondence on this subject, now communicated, will exhibit more
particularly the present state of things in that quarter.
The nature of that country requires indispensably that an
unusual proportion of the force employed there should be cavalry or
mounted infantry. In order, therefore, that the commanding officer
might be enabled to act with effect, I had authorized him to call on
the governors of Orleans and Mississippi for a corps of five hundred
volunteer cavalry. The temporary arrangement he has proposed may
perhaps render this unnecessary. But I inform you with great
pleasure of the promptitude with which the inhabitants of those
territories have tendered their services in defence of their country.
It has done honor to themselves, entitled them to the confidence of
their fellow-citizens in every part of the Union, and must strengthen
the general determination to protect them efficaciously under all
circumstances which may occur.
Having received information that in another part of the United
States a great number of private individuals were combining together,
arming and organizing themselves contrary to law, to carry on
military expeditions against the territories of Spain, I thought it
necessary, by proclamations as well as by special orders, to take
measures for preventing and suppressing this enterprise, for seizing
the vessels, arms, and other means provided for it, and for arresting
and bringing to justice its authors and abettors. It was due to that
good faith which ought ever to be the rule of action in public as
well as in private transactions; it was due to good order and regular
government, that while the public force was acting strictly on the
defensive and merely to protect our citizens from aggression, the
criminal attempts of private individuals to decide for their country
the question of peace or war, by commencing active and unauthorized
hostilities, should be promptly and efficaciously suppressed.
Whether it will be necessary to enlarge our regular force will
depend on the result of our negotiation with Spain; but as it is
uncertain when that result will be known, the provisional measures
requisite for that, and to meet any pressure intervening in that
quarter, will be a subject for your early consideration.
The possession of both banks of the Mississippi reducing to a
single point the defence of that river, its waters, and the country
adjacent, it becomes highly necessary to provide for that point a
more adequate security. Some position above its mouth, commanding
the passage of the river, should be rendered sufficiently strong to
cover the armed vessels which may be stationed there for defence, and
in conjunction with them to present an insuperable obstacle to any
force attempting to pass. The approaches to the city of New Orleans,
from the eastern quarter also, will require to be examined, and more
effectually guarded. For the internal support of the country, the
encouragement of a strong settlement on the western side of the
Mississippi, within reach of New Orleans, will be worthy the
consideration of the legislature.
The gun-boats authorized by an act of the last session are so
advanced that they will be ready for service in the ensuing spring.
Circumstances permitted us to allow the time necessary for their more
solid construction. As a much larger number will still be wanting to
place our seaport towns and waters in that state of defence to which
we are competent and they entitled, a similar appropriation for a
further provision for them is recommended for the ensuing year.
A further appropriation will also be necessary for repairing
fortifications already established, and the erection of such works as
may have real effect in obstructing the approach of an enemy to our
seaport towns, or their remaining before them.
In a country whose constitution is derived from the will of the
people, directly expressed by their free suffrages; where the
principal executive functionaries, and those of the legislature, are
renewed by them at short periods; where under the characters of
jurors, they exercise in person the greatest portion of the judiciary
powers; where the laws are consequently so formed and administered as
to bear with equal weight and favor on all, restraining no man in the
pursuits of honest industry, and securing to every one the property
which that acquires, it would not be supposed that any safeguards
could be needed against insurrection or enterprise on the public
peace or authority. The laws, however, aware that these should not
be trusted to moral restraints only, have wisely provided punishments
for these crimes when committed. But would it not be salutary to
give also the means of preventing their commission? Where an
enterprise is meditated by private individuals against a foreign
nation in amity with the United States, powers of prevention to a
certain extent are given by the laws; would they not be as reasonable
and useful were the enterprise preparing against the United States?
While adverting to this branch of the law, it is proper to observe,
that in enterprises meditated against foreign nations, the ordinary
process of binding to the observance of the peace and good behavior,
could it be extended to acts to be done out of the jurisdiction of
the United States, would be effectual in some cases where the
offender is able to keep out of sight every indication of his purpose
which could draw on him the exercise of the powers now given by law.
The states on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at
present to respect our peace and friendship; with Tunis alone some
uncertainty remains. Persuaded that it is our interest to maintain
our peace with them on equal terms, or not at all, I propose to send
in due time a reinforcement into the Mediterranean, unless previous
information shall show it to be unnecessary.
We continue to receive proofs of the growing attachment of our
Indian neighbors, and of their disposition to place all their
interests under the patronage of the United States. These
dispositions are inspired by their confidence in our justice, and in
the sincere concern we feel for their welfare; and as long as we
discharge these high and honorable functions with the integrity and
good faith which alone can entitle us to their continuance, we may
expect to reap the just reward in their peace and friendship.
The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, for exploring the
river Missouri, and the best communication from that to the Pacific
ocean, has had all the success which could have been expected. They
have traced the Missouri nearly to its source, descended the Columbia
to the Pacific ocean, ascertained with accuracy the geography of that
interesting communication across our continent, learned the character
of the country, of its commerce, and inhabitants; and it is but
justice to say that Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, and their brave
companions, have by this arduous service deserved well of their
country.
The attempt to explore the Red river, under the direction of
Mr. Freeman, though conducted with a zeal and prudence meriting
entire approbation, has not been equally successful. After
proceeding up it about six hundred miles, nearly as far as the French
settlements had extended while the country was in their possession,
our geographers were obliged to return without completing their work.
Very useful additions have also been made to our knowledge of
the Mississippi by Lieutenant Pike, who has ascended to its source,
and whose journal and map, giving the details of the journey, will
shortly be ready for communication to both houses of Congress. Those
of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, and Freeman, will require further time
to be digested and prepared. These important surveys, in addition to
those before possessed, furnish materials for commencing an accurate
map of the Mississippi, and its western waters. Some principal
rivers, however, remain still to be explored, toward which the
authorization of Congress, by moderate appropriations, will be
requisite.
I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the
period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to
withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further
participation in those violations of human rights which have been so
long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which
the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country,
have long been eager to proscribe. Although no law you may pass can
take prohibitory effect till the first day of the year one thousand
eight hundred and eight, yet the intervening period is not too long
to prevent, by timely notice, expeditions which cannot be completed
before that day.
The receipts at the treasury during the year ending on the 30th
of September last, have amounted to near fifteen millions of dollars,
which have enabled us, after meeting the current demands, to pay two
millions seven hundred thousand dollars of the American claims, in
part of the price of Louisiana; to pay of the funded debt upward of
three millions of principal, and nearly four of interest; and in
addition, to reimburse, in the course of the present month, near two
millions of five and a half per cent. stock. These payments and
reimbursements of the funded debt, with those which have been made in
the four years and a half preceding, will, at the close of the
present year, have extinguished upwards of twenty-three millions of
principal.
The duties composing the Mediterranean fund will cease by law
at the end of the present season. Considering, however, that they
are levied chiefly on luxuries, and that we have an impost on salt, a
necessary of life, the free use of which other-wise is so important,
I recommend to your consideration the suppression of the duties on
salt, and the continuation of the Mediterranean fund, instead
thereof, for a short time, after which that also will become
unnecessary for any purpose now within contemplation.
When both of these branches of revenue shall in this way be
relinquished, there will still ere long be an accumulation of moneys
in the treasury beyond the instalments of public debt which we are
permitted by contract to pay. They cannot, then, without a
modification assented to by the public creditors, be applied to the
extinguishment of this debt, and the complete liberation of our
revenues -- the most desirable of all objects; nor, if our peace
continues, will they be wanting for any other existing purpose. The
question, therefore, now comes forward, -- to what other objects
shall these surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of
impost, after the entire discharge of the public debt, and during
those intervals when the purposes of war shall not call for them?
Shall we suppress the impost and give that advantage to foreign over
domestic manufactures? On a few articles of more general and
necessary use, the suppression in due season will doubtless be right,
but the great mass of the articles on which impost is paid is foreign
luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford
themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer
its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public
education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public
improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional
enumeration of federal powers. By these operations new channels of
communication will be opened between the States; the lines of
separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and
their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. Education is here
placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be
proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private
enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it
is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences
which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the
circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the
country, and some of them to its preservation. The subject is now
proposed for the consideration of Congress, because, if approved by
the time the State legislatures shall have deliberated on this
extension of the federal trusts, and the laws shall be passed, and
other arrangements made for their execution, the necessary funds will
be on hand and without employment. I suppose an amendment to the
constitution, by consent of the States, necessary, because the
objects now recommended are not among those enumerated in the
constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys to be
applied.
The present consideration of a national establishment for
education, particularly, is rendered proper by this circumstance
also, that if Congress, approving the proposition, shall yet think it
more eligible to found it on a donation of lands, they have it now in
their power to endow it with those which will be among the earliest
to produce the necessary income. This foundation would have the
advantage of being independent on war, which may suspend other
improvements by requiring for its own purposes the resources destined
for them.
This, fellow citizens, is the state of the public interest at
the present moment, and according to the information now possessed.
But such is the situation of the nations of Europe, and such too the
predicament in which we stand with some of them, that we cannot rely
with certainty on the present aspect of our affairs that may change
from moment to moment, during the course of your session or after you
shall have separated. Our duty is, therefore, to act upon things as
they are, and to make a reasonable provision for whatever they may
be. Were armies to be raised whenever a speck of war is visible in
our horizon, we never should have been without them. Our resources
would have been exhausted on dangers which have never happened,
instead of being reserved for what is really to take place. A
steady, perhaps a quickened pace in preparations for the defence of
our seaport towns and waters; an early settlement of the most exposed
and vulnerable parts of our country; a militia so organized that its
effective portions can be called to any point in the Union, or
volunteers instead of them to serve a sufficient time, are means
which may always be ready yet never preying on our resources until
actually called into use. They will maintain the public interests
while a more permanent force shall be in course of preparation. But
much will depend on the promptitude with which these means can be
brought into activity. If war be forced upon us in spite of our long
and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and vigorous
movements in its outset will go far toward securing us in its course
and issue, and toward throwing its burdens on those who render
necessary the resort from reason to force.
The result of our negotiations, or such incidents in their
course as may enable us to infer their probable issue; such further
movements also on our western frontiers as may show whether war is to
be pressed there while negotiation is protracted elsewhere, shall be
communicated to you from time to time as they become known to me,
with whatever other information I possess or may receive, which may
aid your deliberations on the great national interests committed to
your charge.
_Special Message on the Burr Conspiracy_
January 22, 1807
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED
STATES:
Agreeably to the request of the House of Representatives,
communicated in their resolution of the sixteenth instant, I proceed
to state under the reserve therein expressed, information received
touching an illegal combination of private individuals against the
peace and safety of the Union, and a military expedition planned by
them against the territories of a power in amity with the United
States, with the measures I have pursued for suppressing the same.
I had for some time been in the constant expectation of
receiving such further information as would have enabled me to lay
before the legislature the termination as well as the beginning and
progress of this scene of depravity, so far it has been acted on the
Ohio and its waters. From this the state and safety of the lower
country might have been estimated on probable grounds, and the delay
was indulged the rather, because no circumstance had yet made it
necessary to call in the aid of the legislative functions.
Information now recently communicated has brought us nearly to the
period contemplated. The mass of what I have received, in the course
of these transactions, is voluminous, but little has been given under
the sanction of an oath, so as to constitute formal and legal
evidence. It is chiefly in the form of letters, often containing
such a mixture of rumors, conjectures, and suspicions, as render it
difficult to sift out the real facts, and unadvisable to hazard more
than general outlines, strengthened by concurrent information, or the
particular credibility of the relater. In this state of the
evidence, delivered sometimes too under the restriction of private
confidence, neither safety nor justice will permit the exposing
names, except that of the principal actor, whose guilt is placed
beyond question.
Some time in the latter part of September, I received
intimations that designs were in agitation in the western country,
unlawful and unfriendly to the peace of the Union; and that the prime
mover in these was Aaron Burr, heretofore distinguished by the favor
of his country. The grounds of these intimations being inconclusive,
the objects uncertain, and the fidelity of that country known to be
firm, the only measure taken was to urge the informants to use their
best endeavors to get further insight into the designs and
proceedings of the suspected persons, and to communicate them to me.
It was not until the latter part of October, that the objects
of the conspiracy began to be perceived, but still so blended and
involved in mystery that nothing distinct could be singled out for
pursuit. In this state of uncertainty as to the crime contemplated,
the acts done, and the legal course to be pursued, I thought it best
to send to the scene where these things were principally in
transaction, a person, in whose integrity, understanding, and
discretion, entire confidence could be reposed, with instructions to
investigate the plots going on, to enter into conference (for which
he had sufficient credentials) with the governors and all other
officers, civil and military, and with their aid to do on the spot
whatever should be necessary to discover the designs of the
conspirators, arrest their means, bring their persons to punishment,
and to call out the force of the country to suppress any unlawful
enterprise in which it should be found they were engaged. By this
time it was known that many boats were under preparation, stores of
provisions collecting, and an unusual number of suspicious characters
in motion on the Ohio and its waters. Besides despatching the
confidential agent to that quarter, orders were at the same time sent
to the governors of the Orleans and Mississippi territories, and to
the commanders of the land and naval forces there, to be on their
guard against surprise, and in constant readiness to resist any
enterprise which might be attempted on the vessels, posts, or other
objects under their care; and on the 8th of November, instructions
were forwarded to General Wilkinson to hasten an accommodation with
the Spanish commander on the Sabine, and as soon as that was
effected, to fall back with his principal force to the hither bank of
the Mississippi, for the defence of the intersecting points on that
river. By a letter received from that officer on the 25th of
November, but dated October 21st, we learn that a confidential agent
of Aaron Burr had been deputed to him, with communications partly
written in cipher and partly oral, explaining his designs,
exaggerating his resources, and making such offers of emolument and
command, to engage him and the army in his unlawful enterprise, as he
had flattered himself would be successful. The general, with the
honor of a soldier and fidelity of a good citizen, immediately
despatched a trusty officer to me with information of what had
passed, proceeding to establish such an understanding with the
Spanish commandant on the Sabine as permitted him to withdraw his
force across the Mississippi, and to enter on measures for opposing
the projected enterprise.
The general's letter, which came to hand on the 25th of
November, as has been mentioned, and some other information received
a few days earlier, when brought together, developed Burr's general
designs, different parts of which only had been revealed to different
informants. It appeared that he contemplated two distinct objects,
which might be carried on either jointly or separately, and either
the one or the other first, as circumstances should direct. One of
these was the severance of the Union of these States by the Alleghany
mountains; the other, an attack on Mexico. A third object was
provided, merely ostensible, to wit: the settlement of a pretended
purchase of a tract of country on the Washita, claimed by a Baron
Bastrop. This was to serve as the pretext for all his preparations,
an allurement for such followers as really wished to acquire
settlements in that country, and a cover under which to retreat in
the event of final discomfiture of both branches of his real design.
He found at once that the attachment of the western country to
the present Union was not to be shaken; that its dissolution could
not be effected with the consent of its inhabitants, and that his
resources were inadequate, as yet, to effect it by force. He took
his course then at once, determined to seize on New Orleans, plunder
the bank there, possess himself of the military and naval stores, and
proceed on his expedition to Mexico; and to this object all his means
and preparations were now directed. He collected from all the
quarters where himself or his agents possessed influence, all the
ardent, restless, desperate, and disaffected persons who were ready
for any enterprise analogous to their characters. He seduced good
and well-meaning citizens, some by assurances that he possessed the
confidence of the government and was acting under its secret
patronage, a pretence which obtained some credit from the state of
our differences with Spain; and others by offers of land in Bastrop's
claim on the Washita.
This was the state of my information of his proceedings about
the last of November, at which time, therefore, it was first possible
to take specific measures to meet them. The proclamation of November
27th, two days after the receipt of General Wilkinson's information,
was now issued. Orders were despatched to every intersecting point
on the Ohio and Mississippi, from Pittsburg to New Orleans, for the
employment of such force either of the regulars or of the militia,
and of such proceedings also of the civil authorities, as might
enable them to seize on all the boats and stores provided for the
enterprise, to arrest the persons concerned, and to suppress
effectually the further progress of the enterprise. A little before
the receipt of these orders in the State of Ohio, our confidential
agent, who had been diligently employed in investigating the
conspiracy, had acquired sufficient information to open himself to
the governor of that State, and apply for the immediate exertion of
the authority and power of the State to crush the combination.
Governor Tiffin and the legislature, with a promptitude, an energy,
and patriotic zeal, which entitle them to a distinguished place in
the affection of their sister States, effected the seizure of all the
boats, provisions, and other preparations within their reach, and
thus gave a first blow, materially disabling the enterprise in its
outset.
In Kentucky, a premature attempt to bring Burr to justice,
without sufficient evidence for his conviction, had produced a
popular impression in his favor, and a general disbelief of his
guilt. This gave him an unfortunate opportunity of hastening his
equipments. The arrival of the proclamation and orders, and the
application and information of our confidential agent, at length
awakened the authorities of that State to the truth, and then
produced the same promptitude and energy of which the neighboring
State had set the example. Under an act of their legislature of
December 23d, militia was instantly ordered to different important
points, and measures taken for doing whatever could yet be done.
Some boats (accounts vary from five to double or treble that number)
and persons (differently estimated from one to three hundred) had in
the meantime passed the falls of the Ohio, to rendezvous at the mouth
of the Cumberland, with others expected down that river.
Not apprized, till very late, that any boats were building on
Cumberland, the effect of the proclamation had been trusted to for
some time in the State of Tennessee; but on the 19th of December,
similar communications and instructions with those of the neighboring
States were despatched by express to the governor, and a general
officer of the western division of the State, and on the 23d of
December our confidential agent left Frankfort for Nashville, to put
into activity the means of that State also. But by information
received yesterday I learn that on the 22d of December, Mr. Burr
descended the Cumberland with two boats merely of accommodation,
carrying with him from that State no quota toward his unlawful
enterprise. Whether after the arrival of the proclamation, of the
orders, or of our agent, any exertion which could be made by that
State, or the orders of the governor of Kentucky for calling out the
militia at the mouth of Cumberland, would be in time to arrest these
boats, and those from the falls of the Ohio, is still doubtful.
On the whole, the fugitives from Ohio, with their associates
from Cumberland, or any other place in that quarter, cannot threaten
serious danger to the city of New Orleans.
By the same express of December nineteenth, orders were sent to
the governors of New Orleans and Mississippi, supplementary to those
which had been given on the twenty-fifth of November, to hold the
militia of their territories in readiness to co-operate for their
defence, with the regular troops and armed vessels then under command
of General Wilkinson. Great alarm, indeed, was excited at New
Orleans by the exaggerated accounts of Mr. Burr, disseminated through
his emissaries, of the armies and navies he was to assemble there.
General Wilkinson had arrived there himself on the 24th of November
and had immediately put into activity the resources of the place for
the purpose of its defence; and on the tenth of December he was
joined by his troops from the Sabine. Great zeal was shown by the
inhabitants generally, the merchants of the place readily agreeing to
the most laudable exertions and sacrifices for manning the armed
vessels with their seamen, and the other citizens manifesting
unequivocal fidelity to the Union, and a spirit of determined
resistance to their expected assailants.
Surmises have been hazarded that this enterprise is to receive
aid from certain foreign powers. But these surmises are without
proof or probability. The wisdom of the measures sanctioned by
Congress at its last session had placed us in the paths of peace and
justice with the only powers with whom we had any differences, and
nothing has happened since which makes it either their interest or
ours to pursue another course. No change of measures has taken place
on our part; none ought to take place at this time. With the one,
friendly arrangement was then proposed, and the law deemed necessary
on the failure of that was suspended to give time for a fair trial of
the issue. With the same power, negotiation is still preferred and
provisional measures only are necessary to meet the event of rupture.
While, therefore, we do not deflect in the slightest degree from the
course we then assumed, and are still pursuing, with mutual consent,
to restore a good understanding, we are not to impute to them
practices as irreconcilable to interest as to good faith, and
changing necessarily the relations of peace and justice between us to
those of war. These surmises are, therefore, to be imputed to the
vauntings of the author of this enterprise, to multiply his partisans
by magnifying the belief of his prospects and support.
By letters from General Wilkinson, of the 14th and 18th of
September, which came to hand two days after date of the resolution
of the House of Representatives, that is to say, on the morning of
the 18th instant, I received the important affidavit, a copy of which
I now communicate, with extracts of so much of the letters as come
within the scope of the resolution. By these it will be seen that of
three of the principal emissaries of Mr. Burr, whom the general had
caused to be apprehended, one had been liberated by _habeas corpus_,
and the two others, being those particularly employed in the endeavor
to corrupt the general and army of the United States, have been
embarked by him for our ports in the Atlantic States, probably on the
consideration that an impartial trial could not be expected during
the present agitations of New Orleans, and that that city was not as
yet a safe place of confinement. As soon as these persons shall
arrive, they will be delivered to the custody of the law, and left to
such course of trial, both as to place and process, as its
functionaries may direct. The presence of the highest judicial
authorities, to be assembled at this place within a few days, the
means of pursuing a sounder course of proceedings here than
elsewhere, and the aid of the executive means, should the judges have
occasion to use them, render it equally desirable for the criminals
as for the public, that being already removed from the place where
they were first apprehended, the first regular arrest should take
place here, and the course of proceedings receive here its proper
direction.
_Special Message on Gun-Boats_
February 10, 1807
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES
In compliance with the request of the House of Representatives,
expressed in their resolution of the 5th instant, I proceed to give
such information as is possessed, of the effect of gun-boats in the
protection and defense of harbors, of the numbers thought necessary,
and of the proposed distribution of them among the ports and harbors
of the United States.
Under the present circumstances, and governed by the intentions
of the legislature, as manifested by their annual appropriations of
money for the purposes of defence, it has been concluded to combine
-- 1st, land batteries, furnished with heavy cannon and mortars, and
established on all the points around the place favorable for
preventing vessels from lying before it; 2d, movable artillery which
may be carried, as an occasion may require, to points unprovided with
fixed batteries; 3d, floating batteries; and 4th, gun-boats, which
may oppose an enemy at its entrance and co-operate with the batteries
for his expulsion.
On this subject professional men were consulted as far as we
had opportunity. General Wilkinson, and the late General Gates, gave
their opinions in writing, in favor of the system, as will be seen by
their letters now communicated. The higher officers of the navy gave
the same opinions in separate conferences, as their presence at the
seat of government offered occasions of consulting them, and no
difference of judgment appeared on the subjects. Those of Commodore
Barron and Captain Tingey, now here, are recently furnished in
writing, and transmitted herewith to the legislature.
The efficacy of gun-boats for the defence of harbors, and of
other smooth and enclosed waters, may be estimated in part from that
of galleys, formerly much used, but less powerful, more costly in
their construction and maintenance, and requiring more men. But the
gun-boat itself is believed to be in use with every modern maritime
nation for the purpose of defence. In the Mediterranean, on which
are several small powers, whose system like ours is peace and
defence, few harbors are without this article of protection. Our own
experience there of the effect of gun-boats for harbor service, is
recent. Algiers is particularly known to have owed to a great
provision of these vessels the safety of its city, since the epoch of
their construction. Before that it had been repeatedly insulted and
injured. The effect of gun-boats at present in the neighborhood of
Gibraltar, is well known, and how much they were used both in the
attack and defence of that place during a former war. The extensive
resort to them by the two greatest naval powers in the world, on an
enterprise of invasion not long since in prospect, shows their
confidence in their efficacy for the purposes for which they are
suited. By the northern powers of Europe, whose seas are
particularly adapted to them, they are still more used. The
remarkable action between the Russian flotilla of gun-boats and
galleys, and a Turkish fleet of ships-of-the-line and frigates, in
the Liman sea, 1788, will be readily recollected. The latter,
commanded by their most celebrated admiral, were completely defeated,
and several of their ships-of-the-line destroyed.
From the opinions given as to the number of gun-boats necessary
for some of the principal seaports, and from a view of all the towns
and ports from Orleans to Maine inclusive, entitled to protection, in
proportion to their situation and circumstances, it is concluded,
that to give them a due measure of protection in time of war, about
two hundred gun-boats will be requisite. According to first ideas,
the following would be their general distribution, liable to be
varied on more mature examination, and as circumstances shall vary,
that is to say: --
To the Mississippi and its neighboring waters, forty gun-boats.
To Savannah and Charleston, and the harbors on each side, from
St. Mary's to Currituck, twenty-five.
To the Chesapeake and its waters, twenty.
To Delaware bay and river, fifteen.
To New York, the Sound, and waters as far as Cape Cod, fifty.
To Boston and the harbors north of Cape Cod, fifty.
The flotilla assigned to these several stations, might each be
under the care of a particular commandant, and the vessels composing
them would, in ordinary, be distributed among the harbors within the
station in proportion to their importance.
Of these boats a proper proportion would be of the larger size,
such as those heretofore built, capable of navigating any seas, and
of reinforcing occasionally the strength of even the most distant
port when menaced with danger. The residue would be confined to
their own or the neighboring harbors, would be smaller, less
furnished for accommodation, and consequently less costly. Of the
number supposed necessary, seventy-three are built or building, and
the hundred and twenty-seven still to be provided, would cost from
five to six hundred thousand dollars. Having regard to the
convenience of the treasury, as well as to the resources of building,
it has been thought that one half of these might be built in the
present year, and the other half the next. With the legislature,
however, it will rest to stop where we are, or at any further point,
when they shall be of opinion that the number provided shall be
sufficient for the object.
At times when Europe as well as the United States shall be at
peace, it would not be proposed that more than six or eight of these
vessels should be kept afloat. When Europe is in war, treble that
number might be necessary to be distributed among those particular
harbors which foreign vessels of war are in the habit of frequenting,
for the purpose of preserving order therein.
But they would be manned, in ordinary, with only their
complement for navigation, relying on the seamen and militia of the
port if called into action on sudden emergency. It would be only
when the United States should themselves be at war, that the whole
number would be brought into actual service, and would be ready in
the first moments of the war to co-operate with other means for
covering at once the line of our seaports. At all times, those
unemployed would be withdrawn into places not exposed to sudden
enterprise, hauled up under sheds from the sun and weather, and kept
in preservation with little expense for repairs or maintenance.
It must be superfluous to observe, that this species of naval
armament is proposed merely for defensive operation; that it can have
but little effect toward protecting our commerce in the open seas
even on our coast; and still less can it become an excitement to
engage in offensive maritime war, toward which it would furnish no
means.
_Eighth Annual Message_
November 8, 1808
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED
STATES:
It would have been a source, fellow citizens, of much
gratification, if our last communications from Europe had enabled me
to inform you that the belligerent nations, whose disregard of
neutral rights has been so destructive to our commerce, had become
awakened to the duty and true policy of revoking their unrighteous
edicts. That no means might be omitted to produce this salutary
effect, I lost no time in availing myself of the act authorizing a
suspension, in whole or in part, of the several embargo laws. Our
ministers at London and Paris were instructed to explain to the
respective governments there, our disposition to exercise the
authority in such manner as would withdraw the pretext on which the
aggressions were originally founded, and open a way for a renewal of
that commercial intercourse which it was alleged on all sides had
been reluctantly obstructed. As each of those governments had
pledged its readiness to concur in renouncing a measure which reached
its adversary through the incontestable rights of neutrals only, and
as the measure had been assumed by each as a retaliation for an
asserted acquiescence in the aggressions of the other, it was
reasonably expected that the occasion would have been seized by both
for evincing the sincerity of their profession, and for restoring to
the commerce of the United States its legitimate freedom. The
instructions to our ministers with respect to the different
belligerents were necessarily modified with reference to their
different circumstances, and to the condition annexed by law to the
executive power of suspension, requiring a degree of security to our
commerce which would not result from a repeal of the decrees of
France. Instead of a pledge, therefore, of a suspension of the
embargo as to her in case of such a repeal, it was presumed that a
sufficient inducement might be found in other considerations, and
particularly in the change produced by a compliance with our just
demands by one belligerent, and a refusal by the other, in the
relations between the other and the United States. To Great Britain,
whose power on the ocean is so ascendant, it was deemed not
inconsistent with that condition to state explicitly, that on her
rescinding her orders in relation to the United States their trade
would be opened with her, and remain shut to her enemy, in case of
his failure to rescind his decrees also. From France no answer has
been received, nor any indication that the requisite change in her
decrees is contemplated. The favorable reception of the proposition
to Great Britain was the less to be doubted, as her orders of council
had not only been referred for their vindication to an acquiescence
on the part of the United States no longer to be pretended, but as
the arrangement proposed, while it resisted the illegal decrees of
France, involved, moreover, substantially, the precise advantages
professedly aimed at by the British orders. The arrangement has
nevertheless been rejected.
This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and no
other event having occurred on which a suspension of the embargo by
the executive was authorized, it necessarily remains in the extent
originally given to it. We have the satisfaction, however, to
reflect, that in return for the privations by the measure, and which
our fellow citizens in general have borne with patriotism, it has had
the important effects of saving our mariners and our vast mercantile
property, as well as of affording time for prosecuting the defensive
and provisional measures called for by the occasion. It has
demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and firmness which
govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of uniting in
support of the laws and the rights of their country, and has thus
long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations which, if resisted,
involve war; if submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our
national independence.
Under a continuance of the belligerent measures which, in
defiance of laws which consecrate the rights of neutrals, overspread
the ocean with danger, it will rest with the wisdom of Congress to
decide on the course best adapted to such a state of things; and
bringing with them, as they do, from every part of the Union, the
sentiments of our constituents, my confidence is strengthened, that
in forming this decision they will, with an unerring regard to the
essential rights and interests of the nation, weigh and compare the
painful alternatives out of which a choice is to be made. Nor should
I do justice to the virtues which on other occasions have marked the
character of our fellow citizens, if I did not cherish an equal
confidence that the alternative chosen, whatever it may be, will be
maintained with all the fortitude and patriotism which the crisis
ought to inspire.
The documents containing the correspondences on the subject of
the foreign edicts against our commerce, with the instructions given
to our ministers at London and Paris, are now laid before you.
The communications made to Congress at their last session
explained the posture in which the close of the discussion relating
to the attack by a British ship of war on the frigate Chesapeake left
a subject on which the nation had manifested so honorable a
sensibility. Every view of what had passed authorized a belief that
immediate steps would be taken by the British government for
redressing a wrong, which, the more it was investigated, appeared the
more clearly to require what had not been provided for in the special
mission. It is found that no steps have been taken for the purpose.
On the contrary, it will be seen, in the documents laid before you,
that the inadmissible preliminary which obstructed the adjustment is
still adhered to; and, moreover, that it is now brought into
connection with the distinct and irrelative case of the orders in
council. The instructions which had been given to our ministers at
London with a view to facilitate, if necessary, the reparation
claimed by the United States, are included in the documents
communicated.
Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone no
material changes since your last session. The important negotiations
with Spain, which had been alternately suspended and resumed,
necessarily experience a pause under the extraordinary and
interesting crisis which distinguished her internal situation.
With the Barbary powers we continue in harmony, with the
exception of an unjustifiable proceeding of the dey of Algiers toward
our consul to that regency. Its character and circumstances are now
laid before you, and will enable you to decide how far it may, either
now or hereafter, call for any measures not within the limits of the
executive authority.
With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily
maintained. Some instances of individual wrong have, as at other
times, taken place, but in nowise implicating the will of the nation.
Beyond the Mississippi, the Iowas, the Sacs, and the Alabamas, have
delivered up for trial and punishment individuals from among
themselves accused of murdering citizens of the United States. On
this side of the Mississippi, the Creeks are exerting themselves to
arrest offenders of the same kind; and the Choctaws have manifested
their readiness and desire for amicable and just arrangements
respecting depredations committed by disorderly persons of their
tribe. And, generally, from a conviction that we consider them as
part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and
interests, the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining strength
daily -- is extending from the nearer to the more remote, and will
amply requite us for the justice and friendship practised towards
them. Husbandry and household manufacture are advancing among them,
more rapidly with the southern than the northern tribes, from
circumstances of soil and climate; and one of the two great divisions
of the Cherokee nation have now under consideration to solicit the
citizenship of the United States, and to be identified with us in
laws and government, in such progressive manner as we shall think
best.
In consequence of the appropriations of the last session of
Congress for the security of our seaport towns and harbors, such
works of defence have been erected as seemed to be called for by the
situation of the several places, their relative importance, and the
scale of expense indicated by the amount of the appropriation. These
works will chiefly be finished in the course of the present season,
except at New York and New Orleans, where most was to be done; and
although a great proportion of the last appropriation has been
expended on the former place, yet some further views will be
submitted by Congress for rendering its security entirely adequate
against naval enterprise. A view of what has been done at the
several places, and of what is proposed to be done, shall be
communicated as soon as the several reports are received.
Of the gun-boats authorized by the act of December last, it has
been thought necessary to build only one hundred and three in the
present year. These, with those before possessed, are sufficient for
the harbors and waters exposed, and the residue will require little
time for their construction when it is deemed necessary.
Under the act of the last session for raising an additional
military force, so many officers were immediately appointed as were
necessary for carrying on the business of recruiting, and in
proportion as it advanced, others have been added. We have reason to
believe their success has been satisfactory, although such returns
have not yet been received as enable me to present to you a statement
of the numbers engaged.
I have not thought it necessary in the course of the last
season to call for any general detachments of militia or volunteers
under the law passed for that purpose. For the ensuing season,
however, they will require to be in readiness should their services
be wanted. Some small and special detachments have been necessary to
maintain the laws of embargo on that portion of our northern frontier
which offered peculiar facilities for evasion, but these were
replaced as soon as it could be done by bodies of new recruits. By
the aid of these, and of the armed vessels called into actual service
in other quarters, the spirit of disobedience and abuse which
manifested itself early, and with sensible effect while we were
unprepared to meet it, has been considerably repressed.
Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which
we live, our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of
our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a
well-organized and armed militia is their best security. It is,
therefore, incumbent on us, at every meeting, to revise the condition
of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a
powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion.
Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object; but
every degree of neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone
have power to produce a uniform state of preparation in this great
organ of defence; the interests which they so deeply feel in their
own and their country's security will present this as among the most
important objects of their deliberation.
Under the acts of March 11th and April 23d, respecting arms,
the difficulty of procuring them from abroad, during the present
situation and dispositions of Europe, induced us to direct our whole
efforts to the means of internal supply. The public factories have,
therefore, been enlarged, additional machineries erected, and in
proportion as artificers can be found or formed, their effect,
already more than doubled, may be increased so as to keep pace with
the yearly increase of the militia. The annual sums appropriated by
the latter act, have been directed to the encouragement of private
factories of arms, and contracts have been entered into with
individual undertakers to nearly the amount of the first year's
appropriation.
The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the
injustice of the belligerent powers, and the consequent losses and
sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern. The
situation into which we have thus been forced, has impelled us to
apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures
and improvements. The extent of this conversion is daily increasing,
and little doubt remains that the establishments formed and forming
will -- under the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the
freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and
prohibitions -- become permanent. The commerce with the Indians,
too, within our own boundaries, is likely to receive abundant aliment
from the same internal source, and will secure to them peace and the
progress of civilization, undisturbed by practices hostile to both.
The accounts of the receipts and expenditures during the year
ending on the 30th day of September last, being not yet made up, a
correct statement will hereafter be transmitted from the Treasury.
In the meantime, it is ascertained that the receipts have amounted to
near eighteen millions of dollars, which, with the eight millions and
a half in the treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled us,
after meeting the current demands and interest incurred, to pay two
millions three hundred thousand dollars of the principal of our
funded debt, and left us in the treasury, on that day, near fourteen
millions of dollars. Of these, five millions three hundred and fifty
thousand dollars will be necessary to pay what will be due on the
first day of January next, which will complete the reimbursement of
the eight per cent. stock. These payments, with those made in the
six years and a half preceding, will have extinguished thirty-three
millions five hundred and eighty thousand dollars of the principal of
the funded debt, being the whole which could be paid or purchased
within the limits of the law and our contracts; and the amount of
principal thus discharged will have liberated the revenue from about
two millions of dollars of interest, and added that sum annually to
the disposable surplus. The probable accumulation of the surpluses
of revenue beyond what can be applied to the payment of the public
debt, whenever the freedom and safety of our commerce shall be
restored, merits the consideration of Congress. Shall it lie
unproductive in the public vaults? Shall the revenue be reduced? Or
shall it rather be appropriated to the improvements of roads, canals,
rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity and
union, under the powers which Congress may already possess, or such
amendment of the constitution as may be approved by the States?
While uncertain of the course of things, the time may be
advantageously employed in obtaining the powers necessary for a
system of improvement, should that be thought best.
Availing myself of this the last occasion which will occur of
addressing the two houses of the legislature at their meeting, I
cannot omit the expression of my sincere gratitude for the repeated
proofs of confidence manifested to me by themselves and their
predecessors since my call to the administration, and the many
indulgences experienced at their hands. The same grateful
acknowledgments are due to my fellow citizens generally, whose
support has been my great encouragement under all embarrassments. In
the transaction of their business I cannot have escaped error. It is
incident to our imperfect nature. But I may say with truth, my
errors have been of the understanding, not of intention; and that the
advancement of their rights and interests has been the constant
motive for every measure. On these considerations I solicit their
indulgence. Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies,
I trust that, in their steady character unshaken by difficulties, in
their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the public
authorities, I see a sure guaranty of the permanence of our republic;
and retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the
consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for our
beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.
_To the Inhabitants of Albemarle County, in Virginia_
April 3, 1809
Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the
society of those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear
to me, I receive, fellow citizens and neighbors, with inexpressible
pleasure, the cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long
absent on duties which the history of a wonderful era made incumbent
on those called to them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle and
splendor of office, have drawn but deeper sighs for the tranquil and
irresponsible occupations of private life, for the enjoyment of an
affectionate intercourse with you, my neighbors and friends, and the
endearments of family love, which nature has given us all, as the
sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay down the distressing
burthen of power, and seek, with my fellow citizens, repose and
safety under the watchful cares, the labors, and perplexities of
younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express to administer to
my happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness; and the
measure will be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in the
several public stations to which I have been called, have obtained
for me the approbation of my country. The part which I have acted on
the theatre of public life, has been before them; and to their
sentence I submit it; but the testimony of my native country, of the
individuals who have known me in private life, to my conduct in its
various duties and relations, is the more grateful, as proceeding
from eye witnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinage. Of
you, then, my neighbors, I may ask, in the face of the world, "whose
ox have I taken, or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed, or
of whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?"
On your verdict I rest with conscious security. Your wishes for my
happiness are received with just sensibility, and I offer sincere
prayers for your own welfare and prosperity.