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diff --git a/5013-h/5013-h.htm b/5013-h/5013-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f816a26 --- /dev/null +++ b/5013-h/5013-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3248 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> + +<head> + +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> + +<title> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of State of the Union Addresses, by James Madison +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +body { color: black; + background: white; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +p {text-indent: 4% } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +p.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +p.t3b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +p.t4b {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + font-weight: bold; + text-align: center } + +p.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 60%; + text-align: center } + +h1 { text-align: center } +h2 { text-align: center } +h3 { text-align: center } +h4 { text-align: center } +h5 { text-align: center } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +p.contents {text-indent: -3%; + margin-left: 5% } + +p.thought {text-indent: 0% ; + letter-spacing: 4em ; + text-align: center } + +p.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.footnote {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +p.transnote {text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.intro {font-size: 90% ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.quote {text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +p.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of James +Madison, by James Madison + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: State of the Union Addresses of James Madison + +Author: James Madison + +Posting Date: November 21, 2014 [EBook #5013] +Release Date: February, 2004 +First Posted: April 11, 2002 +Last Updated: December 16, 2004 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESSES *** + + + + +Produced by James Linden. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +<br /><br /><br /> +State of the Union Addresses of James Madison +</h1> + +<p class="noindent"> +<br /><br /> +The addresses are separated by three asterisks: *** +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Dates of addresses by James Madison in this eBook: +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> + <a href="#nov1809">November 29, 1809</a><br /> + <a href="#dec1810">December 5, 1810</a><br /> + <a href="#nov1811">November 5, 1811</a><br /> + <a href="#nov1812">November 4, 1812</a><br /> + <a href="#dec1813">December 7, 1813</a><br /> + <a href="#sep1814">September 20, 1814</a><br /> + <a href="#dec1815">December 5, 1815</a><br /> + <a href="#dec1816">December 3, 1816</a><br /> +</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="nov1809"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +November 29, 1809<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +At the period of our last meeting I had the satisfaction of communicating +an adjustment with one of the principal belligerent nations, highly +important in itself, and still more so as presaging a more extended +accommodation. It is with deep concern I am now to inform you that the +favorable prospect has been over-clouded by a refusal of the British +Government to abide by the act of its minister plenipotentiary, and by its +ensuing policy toward the United States as seen through the communications +of the minister sent to replace him. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever pleas may be urged for a disavowal of engagements formed by +diplomatic functionaries in cases where by the terms of the engagements a +mutual ratification is reserved, or where notice at the time may have been +given of a departure from instructions, or in extraordinary cases +essentially violating the principles of equity, a disavowal could not have +been apprehended in a case where no such notice or violation existed, where +no such ratification was reserved, and more especially where, as is now in +proof, an engagement to be executed without any such ratification was +contemplated by the instructions given, and where it had with good faith +been carried into immediate execution on the part of the United States. +</p> + +<p> +These considerations not having restrained the British Government from +disavowing the arrangement by virtue of which its orders in council were to +be revoked, and the event authorizing the renewal of commercial intercourse +having thus not taken place, it necessarily became a question of equal +urgency and importance whether the act prohibiting that intercourse was not +to be considered as remaining in legal force. This question being, after +due deliberation, determined in the affirmative, a proclamation to that +effect was issued. It could not but happen, however, that a return to this +state of things from that which had followed an execution of the +arrangement by the United States would involve difficulties. With a view to +diminish these as much as possible, the instructions from the Secretary of +the Treasury now laid before you were transmitted to the collectors of the +several ports. If in permitting British vessels to depart without giving +bonds not to proceed to their own ports it should appear that the tenor of +legal authority has not been strictly pursued, it is to be ascribed to the +anxious desire which was felt that no individuals should be injured by so +unforeseen an occurrence; and I rely on the regard of Congress for the +equitable interests of our own citizens to adopt whatever further +provisions may be found requisite for a general remission of penalties +involuntarily incurred. +</p> + +<p> +The recall of the disavowed minister having been followed by the +appointment of a successor, hopes were indulged that the new mission would +contribute to alleviate the disappointment which had been produced, and to +remove the causes which had so long embarrassed the good understanding of +the two nations. It could not be doubted that it would at least be charged +with conciliatory explanations of the step which had been taken and with +proposals to be substituted for the rejected arrangement. +</p> + +<p> +Reasonable and universal as this expectation was, it also has not been +fulfilled. From the first official disclosures of the new minister it was +found that he had received no authority to enter into explanations relative +to either branch of the arrangement disavowed nor any authority to +substitute proposals as to that branch which concerned the British orders +in council, and, finally, that his proposals with regard to the other +branch, the attack on the frigate Chesapeake, were founded on a +presumption repeatedly declared to be inadmissible by the United States, +that the first step toward adjustment was due from them, the proposals +at the same time omitting even a reference to the officer answerable for +the murderous aggression, and asserting a claim not less contrary to the +British laws and British practice than to the principles and obligations +of the United States. +</p> + +<p> +The correspondence between the Department of State and this minister will +show how unessentially the features presented in its commencement have been +varied in its progress. It will show also that, forgetting the respect due +to all governments, he did not refrain from imputations on this, which +required that no further communications should be received from him. The +necessity of this step will be made known to His Britannic Majesty through +the minister plenipotentiary of the United States in London; and it would +indicate a want of the confidence due to a Government which so well +understands and exacts what becomes foreign ministers near it not to infer +that the misconduct of its own representative will be viewed in the same +light in which it has been regarded here. The British Government will learn +at the same time that a ready attention will be given to communications +through any channel which may be substituted. It will be happy if the +change in this respect should be accompanied by a favorable revision of the +unfriendly policy which has been so long pursued toward the United States. +</p> + +<p> +With France, the other belligerent, whose trespasses on our commercial +rights have long been the subject of our just remonstrances, the posture of +our relations does not correspond with the measures taken on the part of +the United States to effect a favorable change. The result of the several +communications made to her Government, in pursuance of the authorities +vested by Congress in the Executive, is contained in the correspondence of +our minister at Paris now laid before you. +</p> + +<p> +By some of the other belligerents, although professing just and amicable +dispositions, injuries materially affecting our commerce have not been duly +controlled or repressed. In these cases the interpositions deemed proper on +our part have not been omitted. But it well deserves the consideration of +the Legislature how far both the safety and the honor of the American flag +may be consulted, by adequate provisions against that collusive +prostitution of it by individuals unworthy of the American name which has +so much flavored the real or pretended suspicions under which the honest +commerce of their fellow citizens has suffered. +</p> + +<p> +In relation to the powers on the coast of Barbary, nothing has occurred +which is not of a nature rather to inspire confidence than distrust as to +the continuance of the existing amity. With our Indian neighbors, the just +and benevolent system continued toward them has also preserved peace, and +is more and more advancing habits favorable to their civilization and +happiness. +</p> + +<p> +From a statement which will be made by the Secretary of War it will be seen +that the fortifications on our maritime frontier are in many of the ports +completed, affording the defense which was contemplated, and that a further +time will be required to render complete the works in the harbor of New +York and in some other places. By the enlargement of the works and the +employment of a greater number of hands at the public armories the supply +of small arms of an improving quality appears to be annually increasing at +a rate that, with those made on private contract, may be expected to go far +toward providing for the public exigency. +</p> + +<p> +The act of Congress providing for the equipment of our vessels of war +having been fully carried into execution, I refer to the statement of the +Secretary of the Navy for the information which may be proper on that +subject. To that statement is added a view of the transfers of +appropriations authorized by the act of the session preceding the last and +of the grounds on which the transfers were made. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever may be the course of your deliberations on the subject of our +military establishments, I should fail in my duty in not recommending to +your serious attention the importance of giving to our militia, the great +bulwark of our security and resource of our power, an organization best +adapted to eventual situations for which the United States ought to be +prepared. +</p> + +<p> +The sums which had been previously accumulated in the Treasury, together +with the receipts during the year ending on the 30th of September last (and +amounting to more than $9 millions), have enabled us to fulfill all our +engagements and to defray the current expenses of Government without +recurring to any loan. But the insecurity of our commerce and the +consequent diminution of the public revenue will probably produce a +deficiency in the receipts of the ensuing year, for which and for other +details I refer to the statements which will be transmitted from the +Treasury. +</p> + +<p> +In the state which has been presented of our affairs with the great parties +to a disastrous and protracted war, carried on in a mode equally injurious +and unjust to the United States as a neutral nation, the wisdom of the +National Legislature will be again summoned to the important decision on +the alternatives before them. That these will be met in a spirit worthy the +councils of a nation conscious both of its rectitude and of its rights, and +careful as well of its honor as of its peace, I have an entire confidence; +and that the result will be stamped by a unanimity becoming the occasion, +and be supported by every portion of our citizens with a patriotism +enlightened and invigorated by experience, ought as little to be doubted. +</p> + +<p> +In the midst of the wrongs and vexations experienced from external causes +there is much room for congratulation on the prosperity and happiness +flowing from our situation at home. The blessing of health has never been +more universal. The fruits of the seasons, though in particular articles +and districts short of their usual redundancy, are more than sufficient for +our wants and our comforts. The face of our country ever presents evidence +of laudable enterprise, of extensive capital, and of durable improvement. +In a cultivation of the materials and the extension of useful manufactures, +more especially in the general application to household fabrics, we behold +a rapid diminution of our dependence on foreign supplies. Nor is it +unworthy of reflection that this revolution in our pursuits and habits is +in no slight degree a consequence of those impolitic and arbitrary edicts +by which the contending nations, in endeavoring each of them to obstruct +our trade with the other, have so far abridged our means of procuring the +productions and manufactures of which our own are now taking the place. +</p> + +<p> +Recollecting always that for every advantage which may contribute to +distinguish our lot from that to which others are doomed by the unhappy +spirit of the times we are indebted to that Divine Providence whose +goodness has been so remarkably extended to this rising nation, it becomes +us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore from the same omnipotent +source a blessing on the consultations and measures about to be undertaken +for the welfare of our beloved country. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="dec1810"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +December 5, 1810<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign relations, and so +much employed the deliberations of Congress, make it a primary duty in +meeting you to communicate whatever may have occurred in that branch of our +national affairs. +</p> + +<p> +The act of the last session of Congress concerning the commercial +intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and +their dependencies having invited in a new form a termination of their +edicts against our neutral commerce, copies of the act were immediately +forwarded to our ministers at London and Paris, with a view that its object +might be within the early attention of the French and British Governments. +</p> + +<p> +By the communication received through our minister at Paris it appeared +that knowledge of the act by the French Government was followed by a +declaration that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked, and would cease +to have effect on the first day of November ensuing. These being the only +known edicts of France within the description of the act, and the +revocation of them being such that they ceased at that date to violate our +neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by law, was announced by a +proclamation bearing date the 2nd of November. +</p> + +<p> +It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views indicated by this +proceeding on the part of France to have extended them to all the grounds +of just complaint which now remain unadjusted with the United States. It +was particularly anticipated that, as a further evidence of just +dispositions toward them, restoration would have been immediately made of +the property of our citizens under a misapplication of the principle of +reprisals combined with a misconstruction of a law of the United States. +This expectation has not been fulfilled. +</p> + +<p> +From the British Government no communication on the subject of the act has +been received. To a communication from our minister at London of a +revocation by the French Government of its Berlin and Milan decrees it was +answered that the British system would be relinquished as soon as the +repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken effect and the +commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the condition in which it +stood previously to the promulgation of those decrees. This pledge, +although it does not necessarily import, does not exclude the intention of +relinquishing, along with the others in council, the practice of those +novel blockades which have a like effect of interrupting our neutral +commerce, and this further justice to the United States is the rather to be +looked for, in as much as the blockades in question, being not more +contrary to the established law of nations than inconsistent with the rules +of blockade formally recognized by Great Britain herself, could have no +alleged basis other than the plea of retaliation alleged as the basis of +the orders in council. +</p> + +<p> +Under the modification of the original orders of November, 1807, into the +orders of April, 1809, there is, indeed, scarcely a nominal distinction +between the orders and the blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades, +bearing date in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still +unrescinded, and to be in effect comprehended in the orders in council, was +too distinctly brought within the purview of the act of Congress not to be +comprehended in the explanation of the requisites to a compliance with it. +The British Government was accordingly apprised by our minister near it +that such was the light in which the subject was to be regarded. +</p> + +<p> +On the other important subjects depending between the United States and the +Government no progress has been made from which an early and satisfactory +result can be relied on. +</p> + +<p> +In this new posture of our relations with those powers the consideration of +Congress will be properly turned to a removal of doubts which may occur in +the exposition and of difficulties in the execution of the act above +cited. +</p> + +<p> +The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe, heretofore much +vexed by licentious cruisers, particularly under the Danish flag, has +latterly been visited with fresh and extensive depredations. The measures +pursued in behalf of our injured citizens not having obtained justice for +them, a further and more formal interposition with the Danish Government is +contemplated. The principles which have been maintained by that Government +in relation to neutral commerce, and the friendly professions of His Danish +Majesty toward the United States, are valuable pledges in favor of a +successful issue. +</p> + +<p> +Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish Monarchy, our +attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in that +portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the United +States, had remained in the possession of Spain awaiting the result of +negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish authority was +subverted and a situation produced exposing the country to ulterior events +which might essentially affect the rights and welfare of the Union. In such +a conjuncture I did not delay the interposition required for the occupancy +of the territory west of the river Perdido, to which the title of the +United States extends, and to which the laws provided for the Territory of +Orleans are applicable. With this view, the proclamation of which a copy is +laid before you was confided to the governor of that Territory to be +carried into effect. The legality and necessity of the course pursued +assure me of the favorable light in which it will present itself to the +Legislature, and of the promptitude with which they will supply whatever +provisions may be due to the essential rights and equitable interests of +the people thus brought into the bosom of the American family. +</p> + +<p> +Our amity with the powers of Barbary, with the exception of a recent +occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just received, appears to +have been uninterrupted and to have become more firmly established. +</p> + +<p> +With the Indian tribes also the peace and friendship of the United States +are found to be so eligible that the general disposition to preserve both +continues to gain strength. +</p> + +<p> +I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior view of our +country presents us with grateful proofs of its substantial and increasing +prosperity. To a thriving agriculture and the improvements related to it is +added a highly interesting extension of useful manufactures, the combined +product of professional occupations and of household industry. Such indeed +is the experience of economy as well as of policy in these substitutes for +supplies heretofore obtained by foreign commerce that in a national view +the change is justly regarded as of itself more than a recompense for those +privations and losses resulting from foreign injustice which furnished the +general impulse required for its accomplishment. How far it may be +expedient to guard the infancy of this improvement in the distribution of +labor by regulations of the commercial tariff is a subject which can not +fail to suggest itself to your patriotic reflections. +</p> + +<p> +It will rest with the consideration of Congress also whether a provident as +well as fair encouragement would not be given to our navigation by such +regulations as would place it on a level of competition with foreign +vessels, particularly in transporting the important and bulky productions +of our own soil. The failure of equality and reciprocity in the existing +regulations on this subject operates in our ports as a premium to foreign +competitors, and the inconvenience must increase as these may be multiplied +under more favorable circumstances by the more than countervailing +encouragements now given them by the laws of their respective countries. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can +be permanently a free people, and whilst it is evident that the means of +diffusing and improving useful knowledge form so small a proportion of the +expenditures for national purposes, I can not presume it to be unseasonable +to invite your attention to the advantages of superadding to the means of +education provided by the several States a seminary of learning instituted +by the National Legislature within the limits of their exclusive +jurisdiction, the expense of which might be defrayed or reimbursed out of +the vacant grounds which have accrued to the nation within those limits. +</p> + +<p> +Such an institution, though local in its legal character, would be +universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the opinions, by +expanding the patriotism, and by assimilating the principles, the +sentiments, and the manners of those who might resort to this temple of +science, to be redistributed in due time through every part of the +community, sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the +features of national character would be multiplied, and greater extent +given to social harmony. But, above all, a well-constituted seminary in +the center of the nation is recommended by the consideration that the +additional instruction emanating from it would contribute not less to +strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and +happy system of government. +</p> + +<p> +Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American flag, and +leaving in force my former reference to that subject, it appears that +American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved +Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance of +those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives which +produced interdiction in force against this criminal conduct will doubtless +be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil. +</p> + +<p> +In the midst of uncertainties necessarily connected with the great +interests of the United States, prudence requires a continuance of our +defensive and precautionary arrangement. The Secretary of War and Secretary +of the Navy will submit the statements and estimates which may aid Congress +in their ensuing provisions for the land and naval forces. The statements +of the latter will include a view of the transfers of appropriations in the +naval expenditures and in the grounds on which they were made. +</p> + +<p> +The fortifications for the defense of our maritime frontier have been +prosecuted according to the plan laid down in 1808. The works, with some +exceptions, are completed and furnished with ordnance. Those for the +security of the city of New York, though far advanced toward completion, +will require a further time and appropriation. This is the case with a few +others, either not completed or in need of repairs. +</p> + +<p> +The improvements in quality and quantity made in the manufacture of cannon +and small arms, both at the public armories and private factories, warrant +additional confidence in the competency of these resources for supplying +the public exigencies. +</p> + +<p> +These preparations for arming the militia having thus far provided for one +of the objects contemplated by the power vested in Congress with respect +to that great bulwark of the public safety, it is for their consideration +whether further provisions are not requisite for the other contemplated +objects of organization and discipline. To give to this great mass of +physical and moral force the efficiency which it merits, and is capable of +receiving, it is indispensable that they should be instructed and practiced +in the rules by which they are to be governed. Toward an accomplishment of +this important work I recommend for the consideration of Congress the +expediency of instituting a system which shall in the first instance call +into the field at the public expense and for a given time certain portions +of the commissioned and non-commissioned officers. The instruction and +discipline thus acquired would gradually diffuse through the entire body of +the militia that practical knowledge and promptitude for active service +which are the great ends to be pursued. Experience has left no doubt either +of the necessity or of the efficacy of competent military skill in those +portions of an army in fitting it for the final duties which it may have to +perform. +</p> + +<p> +The Corps of Engineers, with the Military Academy, are entitled to the +early attention of Congress. The buildings at the seat fixed by law for the +present Academy are so far in decay as not to afford the necessary +accommodation. But a revision of the law is recommended, principally with a +view to a more enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the advantages of such +institutions, by providing professorships for all the necessary branches of +military instruction, and by the establishment of an additional academy at +the seat of Government or elsewhere. The means by which war, as well for +defense as for offense, are now carried on render these schools of the more +scientific operations an indispensable part of every adequate system. +</p> + +<p> +Even among nations whose large standing armies and frequent wars afford +every other opportunity of instruction these establishments are found to be +indispensable for the due attainment of the branches of military science +which require a regular course of study and experiment. In a government +happily without the other opportunities seminaries where the elementary +principles of the art of war can be taught without actual war, and without +the expense of extensive and standing armies, have the precious advantage +of uniting an essential preparation against external danger with a +scrupulous regard to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a +provision of equal efficacy for the public defense be made at so little +expense or more consistently with the public liberty. +</p> + +<p> +The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of +September last (and amounting to more than $8.5 millions) have exceeded +the current expenses of the Government, including the interest on the +public debt. For the purpose of reimbursing at the end of the year $3.75 +millions of the principal, a loan, as authorized by law, had been +negotiated to that amount, but has since been reduced to $2.75 millions, +the reduction being permitted by the state of the Treasury, in which there +will be a balance remaining at the end of the year estimated at $2 +millions. For the probable receipts of the next year and other details I +refer to statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury, and which +will enable you to judge what further provisions may be necessary for the +ensuing years. +</p> + +<p> +Reserving for future occasions in the course of the session whatever other +communications may claim your attention, I close the present by expressing +my reliance, under the blessing of Divine Providence, on the judgement and +patriotism which will guide your measures at a period particularly calling +for united councils and flexible exertions for the welfare of our country, +and by assuring you of the fidelity and alacrity with which my cooperation +will be afforded. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="nov1811"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +November 5, 1811<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would +otherwise have been required I yielded to considerations drawn from the +posture of our foreign affairs, and in fixing the present for the time of +your meeting regard was had to the probability of further developments of +the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country which might the +more unite the national councils in the measures to be pursued. +</p> + +<p> +At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped that the +successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far as +they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the Government of +Great Britain to repeal its orders in council, and thereby authorize a +removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United +States. +</p> + +<p> +Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friendship between +the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least to have been +expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated through +the British envoy just arrived that whilst the revocation of the edicts of +France, as officially made known to the British Government, was denied to +have taken place, it was an indispensable condition of the repeal of the +British orders that commerce should be restored to a footing that would +admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when owned by +neutrals, into markets shut against them by her enemy, the United States +being given to understand that in the mean time a continuance of their +nonimportation act would lead to measures of retaliation. +</p> + +<p> +At a later date it has indeed appeared that a communication to the British +Government of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees against +our neutral trade was followed by an intimation that it had been +transmitted to the British plenipotentiary here in order that it might +receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This communication +appears not to have been received; but the transmission of it hither, +instead of founding on it an actual repeal of the orders or assurances that +the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on any effective change +in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory +proofs of such a change, and to proceed in the mean time in adapting our +measures to the views which have been disclosed through that minister will +best consult our whole duty. +</p> + +<p> +In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures indemnity and redress for +other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and our coasts and the mouths +of our harbors have again witnessed scenes not less derogatory to the +dearest of our national rights than vexation to the regular course of our +trade. +</p> + +<p> +Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships of war +hovering on our coasts was an encounter between one of them and the +American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on the +part of the latter by a fire commenced without cause by the former, whose +commander is therefore alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately shed +in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The proceedings of a court +of inquiry requested by Captain Rodgers are communicated, together with +the correspondence relating to the occurrence, between the Secretary of +State and His Britannic Majesty's envoy. To these are added the several +correspondences which have passed on the subject of the British orders in +council, and to both the correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which +Congress will be made acquainted with the interposition which the +Government of Great Britain has thought proper to make against the +proceeding of the United States. +</p> + +<p> +The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of the United +States toward France, both before and since the revocation of her decrees, +authorized an expectation that her Government would have followed up that +measure by all such others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well as +dictated by its amicable professions. No proof, however, is yet given of an +intention to repair the other wrongs done to the United States, and +particularly to restore the great amount of American property seized and +condemned under edicts which, though not affecting our neutral relations, +and therefore not entering into questions between the United States and +other belligerents, were nevertheless founded in such unjust principles +that the reparation ought to have been prompt and ample. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation, the +United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous and +unexpected restrictions to which their trade with the French dominions has +been subjected, and which, if not discontinued, will require at least +corresponding restrictions on importations from France into the United +States. +</p> + +<p> +On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately sent to Paris has +carried with him the necessary instructions, the result of which will be +communicated to you, by ascertaining the ulterior policy of the French +Government toward the United States, will enable you to adapt to it that of +the United States toward France. +</p> + +<p> +Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes. With Russia +they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports of Sweden have +afforded proofs of friendly dispositions toward our commerce in the +councils of that nation also, and the information from our special minister +to Denmark shews that the mission had been attended with valuable effects +to our citizens, whose property had been so extensively violated and +endangered by cruisers under the Danish flag. +</p> + +<p> +Under the ominous indications which commanded attention it became a duty to +exert the means committed to the executive department in providing for the +general security. The works of defense on our maritime frontier have +accordingly been prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be added for +the completion of the most important ones, and, as particularly suited for +cooperation in emergencies, a portion of the gun boats have in particular +harbors been ordered into use. The ships of war before in commission, with +the addition of a frigate, have been chiefly employed as a cruising guard +to the rights of our coast, and such a disposition has been made of our +land forces as was thought to promise the services most appropriate and +important. +</p> + +<p> +In this disposition is included a force consisting of regulars and militia, +embodied in the Indiana Territory and marched toward our northwestern +frontier. This measure was made requisite by several murders and +depredations committed by Indians, but more especially by the menacing +preparations and aspect of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the +influence and direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these +exceptions the Indian tribes retain their peaceable dispositions toward us, +and their usual pursuits. +</p> + +<p> +I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the legislative +guardians of the national rights a system of more ample provisions for +maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous justice, the protracted +moderation, and the multiplied efforts on the part of the United States to +substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of the two countries +all the mutual advantages of reestablished friendship and confidence, we +have seen that the British cabinet perseveres not only in withholding a +remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for it, but in the +execution, brought home to the threshold of our territory, of measures +which under existing circumstances have the character as well as the effect +of war on our lawful commerce. +</p> + +<p> +With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights which no +independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of putting +the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and +corresponding with the national spirit and expectations. +</p> + +<p> +I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provisions be made for filling the +ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the regular troops; for an +auxiliary force to be engaged for a more limited term; for the acceptance +of volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a participation in +urgent services; for detachments as they may be wanted of other portions of +the militia, and for such a preparation of the great body as will +proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic capacities. Nor can the occasion +fail to remind you of the importance of those military seminaries which in +every event will form a valuable and frugal part of our military +establishment. +</p> + +<p> +The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with due success, +and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions are adequate to +emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to authorize +an enlargement of them. +</p> + +<p> +Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions on the subject of +our naval force as may be required for the services to which it may be best +adapted. I submit to Congress the seasonableness also of an authority to +augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or +may not at once be attainable. +</p> + +<p> +In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous epoch, and +estimating their claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook +those developing themselves among the great communities which occupy the +southern portion of our own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood. An +enlarged philanthropy and an enlightened forecast concur in imposing on the +national councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their destinies, +to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good will, to regard the progress of +events, and not to be unprepared for whatever order of things may be +ultimately established. +</p> + +<p> +Under another aspect of our situation the early attention of Congress will +be due to the expediency of further guards against evasions and infractions +of our commercial laws. The practice of smuggling, which is odious +everywhere, and particularly criminal in free governments, where, the laws +being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on every +individual as well as on the state, attains its utmost guilt when it blends +with a pursuit of ignominious gain a treacherous subserviency, in the +transgressors, to a foreign policy adverse to that of their own country. It +is then that the virtuous indignation of the public should be enabled to +manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the most competent +laws. +</p> + +<p> +To secure greater respect to our mercantile flag, and to the honest +interests which it covers, it is expedient also that it be made punishable +in our citizens to accept licenses from foreign governments for a trade +unlawfully interdicted by them to other American citizens, or to trade +under false colors or papers of any sort. +</p> + +<p> +A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance by our citizens +of special licenses to be used in a trade with the United States, and +against the admission into particular ports of the United States of vessels +from foreign countries authorized to trade with particular ports only. +</p> + +<p> +Although other subjects will press more immediately on your deliberations, +a portion of them can not but be well bestowed on the just and sound policy +of securing to our manufactures the success they have attained, and are +still attaining, in some degree, under the impulse of causes not permanent, +and to our navigation, the fair extent of which is at present abridged by +the unequal regulations of foreign governments. +</p> + +<p> +Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures from sacrifices which +a change of circumstances might bring on them, the national interest +requires that, with regard to such articles at least as belong to our +defense and our primary wants, we should not be left in unnecessary +dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign governments adhere to +the existing discriminations in their ports against our navigation, and +an equality or lesser discrimination is enjoyed by their navigation in +our ports, the effect can not be mistaken, because it has been seriously +felt by our shipping interests; and in proportion as this takes place the +advantages of an independent conveyance of our products to foreign +markets and of a growing body of mariners trained by their occupations for +the service of their country in times of danger must be diminished. +</p> + +<p> +The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day of +September last have exceeded $13.5 millions, and have enabled us to defray +the current expenses, including the interest on the public debt, and to +reimburse more than $5 millions of the principal without recurring to the +loan authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary loan +obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also been reimbursed, and +is not included in that amount. +</p> + +<p> +The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our commerce, and the +extraordinary expenses which have and may become necessary, must be taken +into view in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year; and I +recommend to your consideration the propriety of insuring a sufficiency of +annual revenue at least to defray the ordinary expenses of Government, and +to pay the interest on the public debt, including that on new loans which +may be authorized. +</p> + +<p> +I can not close this communication without expressing my deep sense of the +crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and honorable +result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful zeal with +which my cooperating duties will be discharged, invoking at the same time +the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country and on all the means that may +be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing its welfare. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="nov1812"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +November 4, 1812<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +On our present meeting it is my first duty to invite your attention to the +providential favors which our country has experienced in the unusual degree +of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and in the rich abundance with +which the earth has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. In the successful +cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the progress of general +improvement favorable to the national prosperity, there is just occasion +also for our mutual congratulations and thankfulness. +</p> + +<p> +With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures and vicissitudes +incident to the state of war into which the United States have been forced +by the perseverance of a foreign power in its system of injustice and +aggression. +</p> + +<p> +Previous to its declaration it was deemed proper, as a measure of +precaution and forecast, that a considerable force should be placed in the +Michigan Territory with a general view to its security, and, in the event +of war, to such operations in the uppermost Canada as would intercept the +hostile influence of Great Britain over the savages, obtain the command of +the lake on which that part of Canada borders, and maintain cooperating +relations with such forces as might be most conveniently employed against +other parts. +</p> + +<p> +Brigadier-General Hull was charged with this provisional service, having +under his command a body of troops composed of regulars and of volunteers +from the State of Ohio. Having reached his destination after his knowledge +of the war, and possessing discretionary authority to act offensively, he +passed into the neighboring territory of the enemy with a prospect of easy +and victorious progress. The expedition, nevertheless, terminated +unfortunately, not only in a retreat to the town and fort of Detroit, but +in the surrender of both and of the gallant corps commanded by that +officer. The causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a +military tribunal. +</p> + +<p> +A distinguishing feature in the operations which preceded and followed this +adverse event is the use made by the enemy of the merciless savages under +their influence. Whilst the benevolent policy of the United States +invariably recommended peace and promoted civilization among that wretched +portion of the human race, and was making exertions to dissuade them from +taking either side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to call to his +aid their ruthless ferocity, armed with the horrors of those instruments of +carnage and torture which are known to spare neither age nor sex. In this +outrage against the laws of honorable war and against the feelings sacred +to humanity the British commanders can not resort to a plea of retaliation, +for it is committed in the face of our example. They can not mitigate it by +calling it a self-defense against men in arms, for it embraces the most +shocking butcheries of defenseless families. Nor can it be pretended that +they are not answerable for the atrocities perpetrated, since the savages +are employed with a knowledge, and even with menaces, that their fury could +not be controlled. Such is the spectacle which the deputed authorities of a +nation boasting its religion and morality have not been restrained from +presenting to an enlightened age. +</p> + +<p> +The misfortune at Detroit was not, however, without a consoling effect. It +was followed by signal proofs that the national spirit rises according to +the pressure on it. The loss of an important post and of the brave men +surrendered with it inspired everywhere new ardor and determination. In the +States and districts least remote it was no sooner known than every citizen +was ready to fly with his arms at once to protect his brethren against the +blood-thirsty savages let loose by the enemy on an extensive frontier, and +to convert a partial calamity into a source of invigorated efforts. This +patriotic zeal, which it was necessary rather to limit than excite, has +embodied an ample force from the States of Kentucky and Ohio and from parts +of Pennsylvania and Virginia. It is placed, with the addition of a few +regulars, under the command of Brigadier-General Harrison, who possesses +the entire confidence of his fellow soldiers, among whom are citizens, some +of them volunteers in the ranks, not less distinguished by their political +stations than by their personal merits. The greater portion of this force +is proceeding in relieving an important frontier post, and in several +incidental operations against hostile tribes of savages, rendered +indispensable by the subserviency into which they had been seduced by the +enemy--a seduction the more cruel as it could not fail to impose a +necessity of precautionary severities against those who yielded to it. +</p> + +<p> +At a recent date an attack was made on a post of the enemy near Niagara by +a detachment of the regular and other forces under the command of +Major-General Van Rensselaer, of the militia of the State of New York. The +attack, it appears, was ordered in compliance with the ardor of the troops, +who executed it with distinguished gallantry, and were for a time +victorious; but not receiving the expected support, they were compelled to +yield to reenforcements of British regulars and savages. Our loss has been +considerable, and is deeply to be lamented. That of the enemy, less +ascertained, will be the more felt, as it includes among the killed the +commanding general, who was also the governor of the Province, and was +sustained by veteran troops from unexperienced soldiers, who must daily +improve in the duties of the field. +</p> + +<p> +Our expectation of gaining the command of the Lakes by the invasion of +Canada from Detroit having been disappointed, measures were instantly taken +to provide on them a naval force superior to that of the enemy. From the +talents and activity of the officer charged with this object everything +that can be done may be expected. Should the present season not admit of +complete success, the progress made will insure for the next a naval +ascendancy where it is essential to our permanent peace with and control +over the savages. +</p> + +<p> +Among the incidents to the measures of the war I am constrained to advert +to the refusal of the governors of Maine and Connecticut to furnish the +required detachments of militia toward the defense of the maritime +frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate exposition of +the provisions of the Constitution relating to the militia. The +correspondences which will be laid before you contain the requisite +information on the subject. It is obvious that if the authority of the +United States to call into service and command the militia for the public +defense can be thus frustrated, even in a state of declared war and of +course under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, they are not one +nation for the purpose most of all requiring it, and that the public safety +may have no other resource than in those large and permanent military +establishments which are forbidden by the principles of our free +government, and against the necessity of which the militia were meant to be +a constitutional bulwark. +</p> + +<p> +On the coasts and on the ocean the war has been as successful as +circumstances inseparable from its early stages could promise. Our public +ships and private cruisers, by their activity, and, where there was +occasion, by their intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the +difference between a reciprocity of captures and the long confinement of +them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has safely reached +our ports, having been much favored in it by the course pursued by a +squadron of our frigates under the command of Commodore Rodgers, and in the +instance in which skill and bravery were more particularly tried with those +of the enemy the American flag had an auspicious triumph. The frigate +Constitution, commanded by Captain Hull, after a close and short engagement +completely disabled and captured a British frigate, gaining for that +officer and all on board a praise which can not be too liberally bestowed, +not merely for the victory actually achieved, but for that prompt and cool +exertion of commanding talents which, giving to courage its highest +character, and to the force applied its full effect, proved that more could +have been done in a contest requiring more. +</p> + +<p> +Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war can not be exempt, I +lost no time after it was declared in conveying to the British Government +the terms on which its progress might be arrested, without awaiting the +delays of a formal and final pacification, and our charge d'affaires at +London was at the same time authorized to agree to an armistice founded +upon them. These terms required that the orders in council should be +repealed as they affected the United States, without a revival of blockades +violating acknowledged rules, and that there should be an immediate +discharge of American sea men from British ships, and a stop to impressment +from American ships, with an understanding that an exclusion of the sea men +of each nation from the ships of the other should be stipulated, and that +the armistice should be improved into a definitive and comprehensive +adjustment of depending controversies. +</p> + +<p> +Although a repeal of the orders susceptible of explanations meeting the +views of this Government had taken place before this pacific advance was +communicated to that of Great Britain, the advance was declined from an +avowed repugnance to a suspension of the practice of impressments during +the armistice, and without any intimation that the arrangement proposed +with regard to sea men would be accepted. Whether the subsequent +communications from this Government, affording an occasion for +reconsidering the subject on the part of Great Britain, will be viewed +in a more favorable light or received in a more accommodating spirit +remains to be known. It would be unwise to relax our measures in any +respect on a presumption of such a result. +</p> + +<p> +The documents from the Department of State which relate to this subject +will give a view also of the propositions for an armistice which have been +received here, one of them from the authorities at Halifax and in Canada, +the other from the British Government itself through Admiral Warren, and of +the grounds on which neither of them could be accepted. +</p> + +<p> +Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at my last +communications to you. Notwithstanding the authorized expectations of an +early as well as favorable issue to the discussions on foot, these have +been procrastinated to the latest date. The only intervening occurrence +meriting attention is the promulgation of a French decree purporting to be +a definitive repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This proceeding, +although made the ground of the repeal of the British orders in council, is +rendered by the time and manner of it liable to many objections. +</p> + +<p> +The final communications from our special minister to Denmark afford +further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and of the amicable +disposition of the Danish Government. From Russia we have the satisfaction +to receive assurances of continued friendship, and that it will not be +affected by the rupture between the United States and Great Britain. Sweden +also professes sentiments favorable to the subsisting harmony. +</p> + +<p> +With the Barbary Powers, excepting that of Algiers, our affairs remain on +the ordinary footing. The consul-general residing with that Regency has +suddenly and without cause been banished, together with all the American +citizens found there. Whether this was the transitory effect of capricious +despotism or the first act of predetermined hostility is not ascertained. +Precautions were taken by the consul on the latter supposition. +</p> + +<p> +The Indian tribes not under foreign instigations remain at peace, and +receive the civilizing attentions which have proved so beneficial to them. +</p> + +<p> +With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war to which our national +faculties are adequate, the attention of Congress will be particularly +drawn to the insufficiency of existing provisions for filling up the +military establishment. Such is the happy condition of our country, arising +from the facility of subsistence and the high wages for every species of +occupation, that notwithstanding the augmented inducements provided at the +last session, a partial success only has attended the recruiting service. +The deficiency has been necessarily supplied during the campaign by other +than regular troops, with all the inconveniences and expense incident to +them. The remedy lies in establishing more favorably for the private +soldier the proportion between his recompense and the term of his +enlistment, and it is a subject which can not too soon or too seriously be +taken into consideration. +</p> + +<p> +The same insufficiency has been experienced in the provisions for +volunteers made by an act of the last session. The recompense for the +service required in this case is still less attractive than in the other, +and although patriotism alone has sent into the field some valuable corps +of that description, those alone who can afford the sacrifice can be +reasonably expected to yield to that impulse. +</p> + +<p> +It will merit consideration also whether as auxiliary to the security of +our frontiers corps may not be advantageously organized with a restriction +of their services to particular districts convenient to them, and whether +the local and occasional services of mariners and others in the sea port +towns under a similar organization would not be a provident addition to the +means of their defense. +</p> + +<p> +I recommend a provision for an increase of the general officers of the +Army, the deficiency of which has been illustrated by the number and +distance of separate commands which the course of the war and the +advantage of the service have required. +</p> + +<p> +And I can not press too strongly on the earliest attention of the +Legislature the importance of the reorganization of the staff establishment +with a view to render more distinct and definite the relations and +responsibilities of its several departments. That there is room for +improvements which will materially promote both economy and success in what +appertains to the Army and the war is equally inculcated by the examples of +other countries and by the experience of our own. +</p> + +<p> +A revision of the militia laws for the purpose of rendering them more +systematic and better adapting them to emergencies of the war is at this +time particularly desirable. +</p> + +<p> +Of the additional ships authorized to be fitted for service, two will be +shortly ready to sail, a third is under repair, and delay will be avoided +in the repair of the residue. Of the appropriations for the purchase of +materials for ship building, the greater part has been applied to that +object and the purchase will be continued with the balance. +</p> + +<p> +The enterprising spirit which has characterized our naval force and its +success, both in restraining insults and depredations on our coasts and in +reprisals on the enemy, will not fail to recommend an enlargement of it. +</p> + +<p> +There being reason to believe that the act prohibiting the acceptance of +British licenses is not a sufficient guard against the use of them, for +purposes favorable to the interests and views of the enemy, further +provisions on that subject are highly important. Nor is it less so that +penal enactments should be provided for cases of corrupt and perfidious +intercourse with the enemy, not amounting to treason nor yet embraced by +any statutory provisions. +</p> + +<p> +A considerable number of American vessels which were in England when the +revocation of the orders in council took place were laden with British +manufactures under an erroneous impression that the non-importation act +would immediately cease to operate, and have arrived in the United States. +It did not appear proper to exercise on unforeseen cases of such magnitude +the powers vested in the Treasury Department to mitigate forfeitures +without previously affording to Congress an opportunity of making on the +subject such provision as they may think proper. In their decision they +will doubtless equally consult what is due to equitable considerations and +to the public interest. +</p> + +<p> +The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of +September last have exceeded $16.5 millions, which have been sufficient +to defray all the demands on the Treasury to that day, including a +necessary reimbursement of near $3 millions of the principal of the +public debt. In these receipts is included a sum of near $5.85 millions, +received on account of the loans authorized by the acts of the last +session; the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts to $11 millions, +the residue of which, being receivable subsequent to the 30th of September +last, will, together with the current revenue, enable us to defray all the +expenses of this year. +</p> + +<p> +The duties on the late unexpected importations of British manufactures will +render the revenue of the ensuing year more productive than could have been +anticipated. +</p> + +<p> +The situation of our country, fellow citizens, is not without its +difficulties, though it abounds in animating considerations, of which the +view here presented of our pecuniary resources is an example. With more +than one nation we have serious and unsettled controversies, and with one, +powerful in the means and habits of war, we are at war. The spirit and +strength of the nation are nevertheless equal to the support of all its +rights, and to carry it through all its trials. They can be met in that +confidence. +</p> + +<p> +Above all, we have the inestimable consolation of knowing that the war in +which we are actually engaged is a war neither of ambition nor of vain +glory; that it is waged not in violation of the rights of others, but in +the maintenance of our own; that it was preceded by a patience without +example under wrongs accumulating without end, and that it was finally not +declared until every hope of averting it was extinguished by the transfer +of the British scepter into new hands clinging to former councils, and +until declarations were reiterated to the last hour, through the British +envoy here, that the hostile edicts against our commercial rights and our +maritime independence would not be revoked; nay, that they could not be +revoked without violating the obligations of Great Britain to other powers, +as well as to her own interests. +</p> + +<p> +To have shrunk under such circumstances from manly resistance would have +been a degradation blasting our best and proudest hopes; it would have +struck us from the high rank where the virtuous struggles of our fathers +had placed us, and have betrayed the magnificent legacy which we hold in +trust for future generations. It would have acknowledged that on the +element which forms three-fourths of the globe we inhabit, and where all +independent nations have equal and common rights, the American people were +not an independent people, but colonists and vassals. +</p> + +<p> +It was at this moment and with such an alternative that war was chosen. The +nation felt the necessity of it, and called for it. The appeal was +accordingly made, in a just cause, to the Just and All-powerful Being who +holds in His hand the chain of events and the destiny of nations. +</p> + +<p> +It remains only that, faithful to ourselves, entangled in no connections +with the views of other powers, and ever ready to accept peace from the +hand of justice, we prosecute the war with united counsels and with the +ample faculties of the nation until peace be so obtained and as the +only means under the Divine blessing of speedily obtaining it. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="dec1813"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +December 7, 1813<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture it would have been +highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result to the +mission charged with negotiations for restoring peace. It was a just +expectation, from the respect due to the distinguished Sovereign who had +invited them by his offer of mediation, from the readiness with which the +invitation was accepted on the part of the United States, and from the +pledge to be found in an act of their Legislature for the liberality which +their plenipotentiaries would carry into the negotiations, that no time +would be lost by the British Government in embracing the experiment for +hastening a stop to the effusion of blood. A prompt and cordial acceptance +of the mediation on that side was the less to be doubted, as it was of a +nature not to submit rights or pretensions on either side to the decision +of an umpire, but to afford merely an opportunity, honorable and desirable +to both, for discussing and, if possible, adjusting them for the interest +of both. +</p> + +<p> +The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread of +British power or misled by other fallacious calculations, has disappointed +this reasonable anticipation. No communications from our envoys having +reached us, no information on the subject has been received from that +source; but it is known that the mediation was declined in the first +instance, and there is no evidence, notwithstanding the lapse of time, that +a change of disposition in the British councils has taken place or is to be +expected. +</p> + +<p> +Under such circumstances a nation proud of its rights and conscious of its +strength has no choice but an exertion of the one in support of the other. +</p> + +<p> +To this determination the best encouragement is derived from the success +with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms both on the land +and on the water. +</p> + +<p> +Whilst proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill of our +cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a trophy gained in the +capture of a British by an American vessel of war, after an action giving +celebrity to the name of the victorious commander, the great inland waters +on which the enemy were also to be encountered have presented achievements +of our naval arms as brilliant in their character as they have been +important in their consequences. +</p> + +<p> +On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry having met the +British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the +capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was daring, +and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles them to the +admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill an early page in +its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in luster, however much it +may have been in magnitude. +</p> + +<p> +On Lake Ontario the caution of the British commander, favored by +contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American commander to bring on +a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was able, however, to establish an +ascendancy on that important theater, and to prove by the manner in which +he effected everything possible that opportunities only were wanted for a +more shining display of his own talents and the gallantry of those under +his command. +</p> + +<p> +The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory of the +enemy, the officer commanding the Northwestern army transferred the war +thither, and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing with their savage +associates, forced a general action, which quickly terminated in the +capture of the British and dispersion of the savage force. +</p> + +<p> +This result is signally honorable to Major-General Harrison, by whose +military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his mounted +volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to the ranks of the +enemy, and to the spirit of the volunteer militia, equally brave and +patriotic, who bore an interesting part in the scene; more especially to +the chief magistrate of Kentucky, at the head of them, whose heroism +signalized in the war which established the independence of his country, +sought at an advanced age a share in hardships and battles for maintaining +its rights and its safely. +</p> + +<p> +The effect of these successes has been to rescue the inhabitants of +Michigan from their oppressions, aggravated by gross infractions of +the capitulation which subjected them to a foreign power; to alienate +the savages of numerous tribes from the enemy, by whom they were +disappointed and abandoned, and to relieve an extensive region of country +from a merciless warfare which desolated its frontiers and imposed on its +citizens the most harassing services. +</p> + +<p> +In consequences of our naval superiority on Lake Ontario and the +opportunity afforded by it for concentrating our forces by water, +operations which had been provisionally planned were set on foot against +the possessions of the enemy on the St. Lawrence. Such, however, was the +delay produced in the first instance by adverse weather of unusual violence +and continuance and such the circumstances attending the final movements of +the army, that the prospect, at one time so favorable, was not realized. +</p> + +<p> +The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war with a nation +desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities has not been +confined to any one quarter. Wherever they could be turned against us no +exertions to effect it have been spared. On our southwestern border the +Creek tribes, who, yielding to our persevering endeavors, were gradually +acquiring more civilized habits, became the unfortunate victims of +seduction. A war in that quarter has been the consequence, infuriated by a +bloody fanaticism recently propagated among them. It was necessary to crush +such a war before it could spread among the contiguous tribes and before it +could favor enterprises of the enemy into that vicinity. With this view a +force was called into the service of the United States from the States of +Georgia and Tennessee, which, with the nearest regular troops and other +corps from the Massachussets Territory, might not only chastise the savages +into present peace but make a lasting impression on their fears. +</p> + +<p> +The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known, corresponds with +the martial zeal with which it was espoused, and the best hopes of a +satisfactory issue are authorized by the complete success with which a +well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile savages by a +detachment of the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under the gallant +command of General Coffee, and by a still more important victory over a +larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of Major-General +Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for his patriotism and his +military talents. +</p> + +<p> +The systematic perseverance of the enemy in courting the aid of the savages +in all quarters had the natural effect of kindling their ordinary +propensity to war into a passion, which, even among those best disposed +toward the United States, was ready, if not employed on our side, to be +turned against us. A departure from our protracted forbearance to accept +the services tendered by them has thus been forced upon us. But in yielding +to it the retaliation has been mitigated as much as possible, both in its +extent and in its character, stopping far short of the example of the +enemy, who owe the advantages they have occasionally gained in battle +chiefly to the number of their savage associates, and who have not +controlled them either from their usual practice of indiscriminate +massacre on defenseless inhabitants or from scenes of carnage without a +parallel on prisoners to the British arms, guarded by all the laws of +humanity and of honorable war. For these enormities the enemy are equally +responsible, whether with the power to prevent them they want the will or +with the knowledge of a want of power they still avail themselves of such +instruments. +</p> + +<p> +In other respects the enemy are pursuing a course which threatens +consequences most afflicting to humanity. +</p> + +<p> +A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes, as is well known, all aliens +complying with conditions limited to a shorter period than those required +by the United States, and naturalized subjects are in war employed by her +Government in common with native subjects. In a contiguous British Province +regulations promulgated since the commencement of the war compel citizens +of the United States being there under certain circumstances to bear arms, +whilst of the native emigrants from the United States, who compose much of +the population of the Province, a number have actually borne arms against +the United States within their limits, some of whom, after having done so, +have become prisoners of war, and are now in our possession. The British +commander in that Province, nevertheless, with the sanction, as appears, of +his Government, thought proper to select from American prisoners of war and +send to Great Britain for trial as criminals a number of individuals who +had emigrated from the British dominions long prior to the state of war +between the two nations, who had incorporated themselves into our +political society in the modes recognized by the law and the practice of +Great Britain, and who were made prisoners of war under the banners of +their adopted country, fighting for its rights and its safety. +</p> + +<p> +The protection due to these citizens requiring an effectual interposition +in their behalf, a like number of British prisoners of war were put into +confinement, with a notification that they would experience whatever +violence might be committed on the American prisoners of war sent to Great +Britain. +</p> + +<p> +It was hoped that this necessary consequence of the step unadvisedly taken +on the part of Great Britain would have led her Government to reflect on +the inconsistencies of its conduct, and that a sympathy with the British, +if not with the American, sufferers would have arrested the cruel career +opened by its example. +</p> + +<p> +This was unhappily not the case. In violation both of consistency and of +humanity, American officers and non-commissioned officers in double the +number of the British soldiers confined here were ordered into close +confinement, with formal notice that in the event of a retaliation for the +death which might be inflicted on the prisoners of war sent to Great +Britain for trial the officers so confined would be put to death also. It +was notified at the same time that the commanders of the British fleets and +armies on our coasts are instructed in the same event to proceed with a +destructive severity against our towns and their inhabitants. +</p> + +<p> +That no doubt might be left with the enemy of our adherence to the +retaliatory resort imposed on us, a correspondent number of British +officers, prisoners of war in our hands, were immediately put into close +confinement to abide the fate of those confined by the enemy, and the +British Government was apprised of the determination of this Government to +retaliate any other proceedings against us contrary to the legitimate modes +of warfare. +</p> + +<p> +It is fortunate for the United States that they have it in their power to +meet the enemy in this deplorable contest as it is honorable to them that +they do not join in it but under the most imperious obligations, and with +the humane purpose of effectuating a return to the established usages of +war. +</p> + +<p> +The views of the French Government on the subjects which have been so long +committed to negotiation have received no elucidation since the close of +your late session. The minister plenipotentiary of the United States at +Paris had not been enabled by proper opportunities to press the objects of +his mission as prescribed by his instructions. +</p> + +<p> +The militia being always to be regarded as the great bulwark of defense and +security for free states, and the Constitution having wisely committed to +the national authority a use of that force as the best provision against an +unsafe military establishment, as well as a resource peculiarly adapted to +a country having the extent and the exposure of the United States, I +recommend to Congress a revision of the militia laws for the purpose of +securing more effectually the services of all detachments called into the +employment and placed under the Government of the United States. +</p> + +<p> +It will deserve the consideration of Congress also whether among other +improvements in the militia laws justice does not require a regulation, +under due precautions, for defraying the expense incident to the first +assembling as well as the subsequent movements of detachments called into +the national service. +</p> + +<p> +To give to our vessels of war, public and private, the requisite advantage +in their cruises, it is of much importance that they should have, both for +themselves and their prizes, the use of the ports and markets of friendly +powers. With this view, I recommend to Congress the expediency of such +legal provisions as may supply the defects or remove the doubts of the +Executive authority, to allow to the cruisers of other powers at war with +enemies of the United States such use of the American ports as may +correspond with the privileges allowed by such powers to American +cruisers. +</p> + +<p> +During the year ending on the 30th of September last the receipts into the +Treasury have exceeded $37.5 millions, of which near $24 millions were the +produce of loans. After meeting all demands for the public service there +remained in the Treasury on that day near $7 millions. Under the +authority contained in the act of the 2nd of August last for borrowing +$7.5 millions, that sum has been obtained on terms more favorable to the +United States than those of the preceding loans made during the present +year. Further sums to a considerable amount will be necessary to be +obtained in the same way during the ensuing year, and from the increased +capital of the country, from the fidelity with which the public +engagements have been kept and the public credit maintained, it may be +expected on good grounds that the necessary pecuniary supplies will +not be wanting. +</p> + +<p> +The expenses of the current year, from the multiplied operations falling +within it, have necessarily been extensive; but on a just estimate of the +campaign in which the mass of them has been incurred the cost will not be +found disproportionate to the advantages which have been gained. The +campaign has, indeed, in its latter stages in one quarter been less +favorable than was expected, but in addition to the importance of our naval +success the progress of the campaign has been filled with incidents highly +honorable to the American arms. +</p> + +<p> +The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on Sacketts +Harbor, and on Sandusky have been vigorously and successfully repulsed; nor +have they in any case succeeded on either frontier excepting when directed +against the peaceable dwellings of individuals or villages unprepared or +undefended. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand, the movements of the American Army have been followed by +the reduction of York, and of Forts George, Erie, and Malden; by the +recovery of Detroit and the extinction of the Indian war in the West, and +by the occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada. Battles +have also been fought on the borders of the St. Lawrence, which, though not +accomplishing their entire objects, reflect honor on the discipline and +prowess of our soldiery, the best auguries of eventual victory. In the same +scale are to be placed the late successes in the South over one of the most +powerful, which had become one of the most hostile also, of the Indian +tribes. +</p> + +<p> +It would be improper to close this communication without expressing a +thankfulness in which all ought to unite for the abundance; for the +preservation of our internal tranquillity, and the stability of our free +institutions, and, above all, for the light of divine truth and the +protection of every man's conscience in the enjoyment of it. And although +among our blessings we can not number an exemption from the evils of war, +yet these will never be regarded as the greatest of evils by the friends of +liberty and of the rights of nations. Our country has before preferred them +to the degraded condition which was the alternative when the sword was +drawn in the cause which gave birth to our national independence, and none +who contemplate the magnitude and feel the value of that glorious event +will shrink from a struggle to maintain the high and happy ground on which +it placed the American people. +</p> + +<p> +With all good citizens the justice and necessity of resisting wrongs and +usurpations no longer to be borne will sufficiently outweigh the privations +and sacrifices inseparable from a state of war. But it is a reflection, +moreover, peculiarly consoling, that, whilst wars are generally aggravated +by their baneful effects on the internal improvements and permanent +prosperity of the nations engaged in them, such is the favored situation of +the United States that the calamities of the contest into which they have +been compelled to enter are mitigated by improvements and advantages of +which the contest itself is the source. +</p> + +<p> +If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has at the +same time cherished and multiplied our manufactures so as to make us +independent of all other countries for the more essential branches for +which we ought to be dependent on none, and is even rapidly giving them an +extent which will create additional staples in our future intercourse with +foreign markets. +</p> + +<p> +If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion of it has +been applied to objects durable in their value and necessary to our +permanent safety. +</p> + +<p> +If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the ocean and to +predatory incursions on the land, it has developed the national means of +retaliating the former and of providing protection against the latter, +demonstrating to all that every blow aimed at our maritime independence is +an impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power. +</p> + +<p> +By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of military +discipline and instruction; by augmenting and distributing warlike +preparations applicable to future use; by evincing the zeal and valor with +which they will be employed and the cheerfulness with which every necessary +burden will be borne, a greater respect for our rights and a longer +duration of our future peace are promised than could be expected without +these proofs of the national character and resources. +</p> + +<p> +The war has proved moreover that our free Government, like other free +governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its progress a +force proportioned to its freedom, and that the union of these States, the +guardian of the freedom and safety of all and of each, is strengthened by +every occasion that puts it to the test. +</p> + +<p> +In fine, the war, with all its vicissitudes, is illustrating the capacity +and the destiny of the United States to be a great, a flourishing, and a +powerful nation, worthy of the friendship which it is disposed to cultivate +with all others, and authorized by its own example to require from all an +observance of the laws of justice and reciprocity. Beyond these their +claims have never extended, and in contending for these we behold a subject +for our congratulations in the daily testimonies of increasing harmony +throughout the nation, and may humbly repose our trust in the smiles of +Heaven on so righteous a cause. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="sep1814"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +September 20, 1814<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +Notwithstanding the early day which had been fixed for your session of the +present year, I was induced to call you together still sooner, as well that +any inadequacy in the existing provisions for the wants of the Treasury +might be supplied as that no delay might happen in providing for the result +of the negotiations on foot with Great Britain, whether it should require +arrangements adapted to a return of peace or further and more effective +provisions for prosecuting the war. +</p> + +<p> +That result is not yet known. If, on the one hand, the repeal of the orders +in council and the general pacification in Europe, which withdrew the +occasion on which impressments from American vessels were practiced, +suggest expectations that peace and amity may be reestablished, we are +compelled, on the other hand, by the refusal of the British Government to +accept the offered mediation of the Emperor of Russia, by the delays in +giving effect to its own proposal of a direct negotiation, and, above all, +by the principles and manner in which the war is now avowedly carried on to +infer that a spirit of hostility is indulged more violent than ever against +the rights and prosperity of this country. +</p> + +<p> +This increased violence is best explained by the two important +circumstances that the great contest in Europe for an equilibrium +guaranteeing all its States against the ambition of any has been closed +without any check on the over-bearing power of Great Britain on the ocean, +and it has left in her hands disposable armaments, with which, forgetting +the difficulties of a remote war with a free people, and yielding to the +intoxication of success, with the example of a great victim to it before +her eyes, she cherishes hopes of still further aggrandizing a power already +formidable in its abuses to the tranquillity of the civilized and +commercial world. +</p> + +<p> +But whatever may have inspired the enemy with these more violent purposes, +the public councils of a nation more able to maintain than it was to +require its independence, and with a devotion to it rendered more ardently +by the experience of its blessings, can never deliberate but on the means +most effectual for defeating the extravagant views or unwarrantable +passions with which alone the war can now be pursued against us. +</p> + +<p> +In the events of the present campaign the enemy, with all his augmented +means and wanton use of them, has little ground for exultation, unless he +can feel it in the success of his recent enterprises against this +metropolis and the neighboring town of Alexandria, from both of which his +retreats were as precipitate as his attempts were bold and fortunate. In +his other incursions on our Atlantic frontier his progress, often checked +and chastised by the martial spirit of the neighboring citizens, has had +more effect in distressing individuals and in dishonoring his arms than in +promoting any object of legitimate warfare; and in the two instances +mentioned, however deeply to be regretted on our part, he will find in his +transient success, which interrupted for a moment only the ordinary +business at the seat of Government, no compensation for the loss of +character with the world by his violations of private property and by his +destruction of public edifices protected as monuments of the arts by the +laws of civilized warfare. +</p> + +<p> +On our side we can appeal to a series of achievements which have given new +luster to the American arms. Besides the brilliant incidents in the minor +operations of the campaign, the splendid victories gained on the Canadian +side of the Niagara by the American forces under Major-General Brown and +Brigadiers Scott and Gaines have gained for these heroes and their +emulating companions the most unfading laurels, and, having triumphantly +tested the progressive discipline of the American soldiery, have taught the +enemy that the longer he protracts his hostile efforts the more certain and +decisive will be his final discomfiture. +</p> + +<p> +On our southern border victory has continued also to follow the American +standard. The bold and skillful operations of Major-General Jackson, +conducting troops drawn from the militia of the States least distant, +particularly Tennessee, have subdued the principal tribes of hostile +savages, and, by establishing a peace with them, preceded by recent and +exemplary chastisement, has best guarded against the mischief of their +cooperations with the British enterprises which may be planned against that +quarter of our country. Important tribes of Indians on our northwestern +frontier have also acceded to stipulations which bind them to the interests +of the United States and to consider our enemy as theirs also. +</p> + +<p> +In the recent attempt of the enemy on the city of Baltimore, defended by +militia and volunteers, aided by a small body of regulars and sea men, he +was received with a spirit which produced a rapid retreat to his ships, +whilst concurrent attack by a large fleet was successfully resisted by the +steady and well-directed fire of the fort and batteries opposed to it. +</p> + +<p> +In another recent attack by a powerful force on our troops at Plattsburg, +of which regulars made a part only, the enemy, after a perseverance for +many hours, was finally compelled to seek safety in a hasty retreat, with +our gallant bands pressing upon them. +</p> + +<p> +On the Lakes, so much contested throughout the war, the great exertions for +the command made on our part have been well repaid. On Lake Ontario our +squadron is now and has been for some time in a condition to confine that +of the enemy to his own port, and to favor the operations of our land +forces on that frontier. +</p> + +<p> +A part of the squadron on Lake Erie has been extended into Lake Huron, and +has produced the advantage of displaying our command on that lake also. One +object of the expedition was the reduction of Mackinaw, which followed with +the loss of a few brave men, among whom was an officer justly distinguished +for his gallant exploits. The expedition, ably conducted by both the land +and the naval commanders, was otherwise highly valuable in its effects. +</p> + +<p> +On Lake Champlain, where our superiority had for some time been undisputed, +the British squadron lately came into action with the American, commanded +by Captain Macdonough. It issued in the capture of the whole of the enemy's +ships. The best praise for this officer and his intrepid comrades is in the +likeness of his triumph to the illustrious victory which immortalized +another officer and established at a critical moment our command of another +lake. +</p> + +<p> +On the ocean the pride of our naval arms had been amply supported. A second +frigate has indeed fallen into the hands of the enemy, but the loss is +hidden in the blaze of heroism with which she was defended. Captain Porter, +who commanded her, and whose previous career had been distinguished by +daring enterprise and by fertility of genius, maintained a sanguinary +contest against two ships, one of them superior to his own, and under other +severe disadvantages, 'til humanity tore down the colors which valor had +nailed to the mast. This officer and his brave comrades have added much to +the rising glory of the American flag, and have merited all the effusions +of gratitude which their country is ever ready to bestow on the champions +of its rights and of its safety. +</p> + +<p> +Two smaller vessels of war have also become prizes to the enemy, but by a +superiority of force which sufficiently vindicates the reputation of their +commanders, whilst two others, one commanded by Captain Warrington, the +other by Captain Blakely, have captured British ships of the same class +with a gallantry and good conduct which entitle them and their companions +to a just share in the praise of their country. +</p> + +<p> +In spite of the naval force of the enemy accumulated on our coasts, our +private cruisers also have not ceased to annoy his commerce and to bring +their rich prizes into our ports, contributing thus, with other proofs, to +demonstrate the incompetency and illegality of a blockade the proclamation +of which is made the pretext for vexing and discouraging the commerce of +neutral powers with the United States. +</p> + +<p> +To meet the extended and diversified warfare adopted by the enemy, great +bodies of militia have been taken into service for the public defense, and +great expenses incurred. That the defense everywhere may be both more +convenient and more economical, Congress will see the necessity of +immediate measures for filling the ranks of the Regular Army and of +enlarging the provision for special corps, mounted and unmounted, to be +engaged for longer periods of service than are due from the militia. I +earnestly renew, at the same time, a recommendation of such changes in the +system of the militia as, by classing and disciplining for the most prompt +and active service the portions most capable of it, will give to that great +resource for the public safety all the requisite energy and efficiency. +</p> + +<p> +The moneys received into the Treasury during the nine months ending on the +30th day of June last amounted to $32 millions, of which near $11 millions +were the proceeds of the public revenue and the remainder derived from +loans. The disbursements for public expenditures during the same period +exceeded $34 millions, and left in the Treasury on the first day of July +near $5 millions. The demands during the remainder of the present year +already authorized by Congress and the expenses incident to an extension +of the operations of the war will render it necessary that large sums +should be provided to meet them. +</p> + +<p> +From this view of the national affairs Congress will be urged to take up +without delay as well the subject of pecuniary supplies as that of military +force, and on a scale commensurate with the extent and the character which +the war has assumed. It is not to be disguised that the situation of our +country calls for its greatest efforts. +</p> + +<p> +Our enemy is powerful in men and in money, on the land and on the water. +Availing himself of fortuitous advantages, he is aiming with his undivided +force a deadly blow at our growing prosperity, perhaps at our national +existence. He has avowed his purpose of trampling on the usages of +civilized warfare, and given earnests of it in the plunder and wanton +destruction of private property. In his pride of maritime dominion and in +his thirst of commercial monopoly he strikes with peculiar animosity at the +progress of our navigation and of our manufactures. His barbarous policy +has not even spared those monuments of the arts and models of taste with +which our country had enriched and embellished its infant metropolis. From +such an adversary hostility in its greatest force and in its worst forms +may be looked for. +</p> + +<p> +The American people will face it with the undaunted spirit which in their +revolutionary struggle defeated his unrighteous projects. His threats and +his barbarities, instead of dismay, will kindle in every bosom an +indignation not to be extinguished but in the disaster and expulsion of +such cruel invaders. +</p> + +<p> +In providing the means necessary the National Legislature will not distrust +the heroic and enlightened patriotism of its constituents. They will +cheerfully and proudly bear every burden of every kind which the safety and +honor of the nation demand. We have seen them everywhere paying their +taxes, direct and indirect, with the greatest promptness and alacrity. We +see them rushing with enthusiasm to the scenes where danger and duty call. +In offering their blood they give the surest pledge that no other tribute +will be withheld. +</p> + +<p> +Having forborne to declare war until to other aggressions had been added +the capture of near one thousand American vessels and the impressment of +thousands of American sea faring citizens, and until a final declaration +had been made by the Government of Great Britain that her hostile orders +against our commerce would not be revoked but on conditions as impossible +as unjust, whilst it was known that these orders would not otherwise +cease but with a war which had lasted nearly twenty years, and which, +according to appearances at that time, might last as many more; having +manifested on every occasion and in every proper mode a sincere desire to +arrest the effusion of blood and meet our enemy on the ground of justice +and reconciliation, our beloved country, in still opposing to his +persevering hostility all its energies, with an undiminished disposition +toward peace and friendship on honorable terms, must carry with it the +good wishes of the impartial world and the best hopes of support from an +omnipotent and kind Providence. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="dec1815"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +December 5, 1815<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +I have the satisfaction on our present meeting of being able to communicate +the successful termination of the war which had been commenced against the +United States by the Regency of Algiers. The squadron in advance on that +service, under Commodore Decatur, lost not a moment after its arrival in +the Mediterranean in seeking the naval force of the enemy then cruising in +that sea, and succeeded in capturing two of his ships, one of them the +principal ship, commanded by the Algerine admiral. The high character of +the American commander was brilliantly sustained on the occasion which +brought his own ship into close action with that of his adversary, as was +the accustomed gallantry of all the officers and men actually engaged. +Having prepared the way by this demonstration of American skill and +prowess, he hastened to the port of Algiers, where peace was promptly +yielded to his victorious force. +</p> + +<p> +In the terms stipulated the rights and honor of the United States were +particularly consulted by a perpetual relinquishment on the part of the Dey +of all pretensions to tribute from them. The impressions which have thus +been made, strengthened as they will have been by subsequent transactions +with the Regencies of Tunis and of Tripoli by the appearance of the larger +force which followed under Commodore Bainbridge, the chief in command of +the expedition, and by the judicious precautionary arrangements left by him +in that quarter, afford a reasonable prospect of future security for the +valuable portion of our commerce which passes within reach of the Barbary +cruisers. +</p> + +<p> +It is another source of satisfaction that the treaty of peace with Great +Britain has been succeeded by a convention on the subject of commerce +concluded by the plenipotentiaries of the two countries. In this result a +disposition is manifested on the part of that nation corresponding with the +disposition of the United States, which it may be hoped will be improved +into liberal arrangements on other subjects on which the parties have +mutual interests, or which might endanger their future harmony. Congress +will decide on the expediency of promoting such a sequel by giving effect +to the measure of confining the American navigation to American sea men--a +measure which, at the same time that it might have that conciliatory +tendency, would have the further advantage of increasing the independence +of our navigation and the resources for our maritime defense. +</p> + +<p> +In conformity with the articles in the treaty of Ghent relating to the +Indians, as well as with a view to the tranquillity of our western and +northwestern frontiers, measures were taken to establish an immediate peace +with the several tribes who had been engaged in hostilities against the +United States. Such of them as were invited to Detroit acceded readily to a +renewal of the former treaties of friendship. Of the other tribes who were +invited to a station on the Mississippi the greater number have also +accepted the peace offered to them. The residue, consisting of the more +distant tribes or parts of tribes, remain to be brought over by further +explanations, or by such other means as may be adapted to the dispositions +they may finally disclose. +</p> + +<p> +The Indian tribes within and bordering on the southern frontier, whom a +cruel war on their part had compelled us to chastise into peace, have +latterly shown a restlessness which has called for preparatory measures for +repressing it, and for protecting the commissioners engaged in carrying the +terms of the peace into execution. +</p> + +<p> +The execution of the act for fixing the military peace establishment has +been attended with difficulties which even now can only be overcome by +legislative aid. The selection of officers, the payment and discharge of +the troops enlisted for the war, the payment of the retained troops and +their reunion from detached and distant stations, the collection and +security of the public property in the Quartermaster, Commissary, and +Ordnance departments, and the constant medical assistance required in +hospitals and garrisons rendered a complete execution of the act +impracticable on the 1st of May, the period more immediately contemplated. +As soon, however, as circumstances would permit, and as far as it has been +practicable consistently with the public interests, the reduction of the +Army has been accomplished; but the appropriations for its pay and for +other branches of the military service having proved inadequate, the +earliest attention to that subject will be necessary; and the expediency of +continuing upon the peace establishment the staff officers who have +hitherto been provisionally retained is also recommended to the +consideration of Congress. +</p> + +<p> +In the performance of the Executive duty upon this occasion there has not +been wanting a just sensibility to the merits of the American Army during +the late war; but the obvious policy and design in fixing an efficient +military peace establishment did not afford an opportunity to distinguish +the aged and infirm on account of their past services nor the wounded and +disabled on account of their present sufferings. +</p> + +<p> +The extent of the reduction, indeed, unavoidably involved the exclusion of +many meritorious officers of every rank from the service of their country; +and so equal as well as so numerous were the claims to attention that a +decision by the standard of comparative merit could seldom be attained. +Judged, however, in candor by a general standard of positive merit, the +Army Register will, it is believed, do honor to the establishment, while +the case of those officers whose names are not included in it devolves with +the strongest interest upon the legislative authority for such provisions +as shall be deemed the best calculated to give support and solace to the +veteran and the invalid, to display the beneficence as well as the justice +of the Government, and to inspire a martial zeal for the public service +upon every future emergency. +</p> + +<p> +Although the embarrassments arising from the want of an uniform national +currency have not been diminished since the adjournment of Congress, great +satisfaction has been derived in contemplating the revival of the public +credit and the efficiency of the public resources. The receipts into the +Treasury from the various branches of revenue during the nine months ending +on the 30th of September last have been estimated at $12.5 millions; the +issues of Treasury notes of every denomination during the same period +amounted to the sum of $14 millions, and there was also obtained upon loan +during the same period a sum of $9 millions, of which the sum of $6 +millions was subscribed in cash and the sum of $3 millions in Treasury +notes. +</p> + +<p> +With these means, added to the sum of $1.5 millions, being the balance of +money in the Treasury on the 1st day of January, there has been paid +between the 1st of January and the 1st of October on account of the +appropriations of the preceding and of the present year (exclusively of +the amount of the Treasury notes subscribed to the loan and of the amount +redeemed in the payment of duties and taxes) the aggregate sum of $33.5 +millions, leaving a balance then in the Treasury estimated at the sum of +$3 millions. Independent, however of the arrearages due for military +services and supplies, it is presumed that a further sum of $5 millions, +including the interest on the public debt payable on the 1st of January +next, will be demanded at the Treasury to complete the expenditures of +the present year, and for which the existing ways and means will +sufficiently provide. +</p> + +<p> +The national debt, as it was ascertained on the 1st of October last, +amounted in the whole to the sum of $120 millions, consisting of the +unredeemed balance of the debt contracted before the late war ($39 +millions), the amount of the funded debt contracted in consequence of the +war ($64 millions), and the amount of the unfunded and floating debt, +including the various issues of Treasury notes, $17 millions, which is in +gradual course of payment. +</p> + +<p> +There will probably be some addition to the public debt upon the +liquidation of various claims which are depending, and a conciliatory +disposition on the part of Congress may lead honorably and advantageously +to an equitable arrangement of the militia expenses incurred by the several +States without the previous sanction or authority of the Government of the +United States; but when it is considered that the new as well as the old +portion of the debt has been contracted in the assertion of the national +rights and independence, and when it is recollected that the public +expenditures, not being exclusively bestowed upon subjects of a transient +nature, will long be visible in the number and equipments of the American +Navy, in the military works for the defense of our harbors and our +frontiers, and in the supplies of our arsenals and magazines the amount +will bear a gratifying comparison with the objects which have been +attained, as well as with the resources of the country. +</p> + +<p> +The arrangements of the finances with a view to the receipts and +expenditures of a permanent peace establishment will necessarily enter into +the deliberations of Congress during the present session. It is true that +the improved condition of the public revenue will not only afford the means +of maintaining the faith of the Government with its creditors inviolate, +and of prosecuting successfully the measures of the most liberal policy, +but will also justify an immediate alleviation of the burdens imposed by +the necessities of the war. +</p> + +<p> +It is, however, essential to every modification of the finances that the +benefits of an uniform national currency should be restored to the +community. The absence of the precious metals will, it is believed, be a +temporary evil, but until they can again be rendered the general medium of +exchange it devolves on the wisdom of Congress to provide a substitute +which shall equally engage the confidence and accommodate the wants of the +citizens throughout the Union. If the operation of the State banks can not +produce this result, the probable operation of a national bank will merit +consideration; and if neither of these expedients be deemed effectual it +may become necessary to ascertain the terms upon which the notes of the +Government (no longer required as an instrument of credit) shall be issued +upon motives of general policy as a common medium of circulation. +</p> + +<p> +Notwithstanding the security for future repose which the United States +ought to find in their love of peace and their constant respect for the +rights of other nations, the character of the times particularly inculcates +the lesson that, whether to prevent or repel danger, we ought not to be +unprepared for it. This consideration will sufficiently recommend to +Congress a liberal provision for the immediate extension and gradual +completion of the works of defense, both fixed and floating, on our +maritime frontier, and an adequate provision for guarding our inland +frontier against dangers to which certain portions of it may continue to be +exposed. +</p> + +<p> +As an improvement in our military establishment, it will deserve the +consideration of Congress whether a corps of invalids might not be so +organized and employed as at once to aid in the support of meritorious +individuals excluded by age or infirmities from the existing establishment, +and to procure to the public the benefit of their stationary services and +of their exemplary discipline. +</p> + +<p> +I recommend also an enlargement of the Military Academy already +established, and the establishment of others in other sections of the +Union; and I can not press too much on the attention of Congress such a +classification and organization of the militia as will most effectually +render it the safeguard of a free state. If experience has shewn in the +recent splendid achievements of militia the value of this resource for the +public defense, it has shewn also the importance of that skill in the use +of arms and that familiarity with the essential rules of discipline which +can not be expected from the regulations now in force. +</p> + +<p> +With this subject is intimately connected the necessity of accommodating +the laws in every respect to the great object of enabling the political +authority of the Union to employ promptly and effectually the physical +power of the Union in the cases designated by the Constitution. +</p> + +<p> +The signal services which have been rendered by our Navy and the capacities +it has developed for successful cooperation in the national defense will +give to that portion of the public force its full value in the eyes of +Congress, at an epoch which calls for the constant vigilance of all +governments. To preserve the ships now in a sound state, to complete those +already contemplated, to provide amply the imperishable materials for +prompt augmentations, and to improve the existing arrangements into more +advantageous establishments for the construction, the repairs, and the +security of vessels of war is dictated by the soundest policy. +</p> + +<p> +In adjusting the duties on imports to the object of revenue the influence +of the tariff on manufactures will necessarily present itself for +consideration. However wise the theory may be which leaves to the sagacity +and interest of individuals the application of their industry and +resources, there are in this as in other cases exceptions to the general +rule. Besides the condition which the theory itself implies of reciprocal +adoption by other nations, experience teaches that so many circumstances +must concur in introducing and maturing manufacturing establishments, +especially of the more complicated kinds, that a country may remain long +without them, although sufficiently advanced and in some respects even +peculiarly fitted for carrying them on with success. Under circumstances +giving a powerful impulse to manufacturing industry it has made among us a +progress and exhibited an efficiency which justify the belief that with a +protection not more than is due to the enterprising citizens whose +interests are now at stake it will become at an early day not only safe +against occasional competitions from abroad, but a source of domestic +wealth and even of external commerce. +</p> + +<p> +In selecting the branches more especially entitled to the public patronage +a preference is obviously claimed by such as will relieve the United States +from a dependence on foreign supplies, ever subject to casual failures, for +articles necessary for the public defense or connected with the primary +wants of individuals. It will be an additional recommendation of particular +manufactures where the materials for them are extensively drawn from our +agriculture, and consequently impart and insure to that great fund of +national prosperity and independence an encouragement which can not fail to +be rewarded. +</p> + +<p> +Among the means of advancing the public interest the occasion is a proper +one for recalling the attention of Congress to the great importance of +establishing throughout our country the roads and canals which can best be +executed under the national authority. No objects within the circle of +political economy so richly repay the expense bestowed on them; there are +none the utility of which is more universally ascertained and acknowledged; +none that do more honor to the governments whose wise and enlarged +patriotism duly appreciates them. Nor is there any country which presents a +field where nature invites more the art of man to complete her own work for +his accommodation and benefit. +</p> + +<p> +These considerations are strengthened, moreover, by the political effect of +these facilities for intercommunication in bringing and binding more +closely together the various parts of our extended confederacy. Whilst the +States individually, with a laudable enterprise and emulation, avail +themselves of their local advantages by new roads, by navigable canals, and +by improving the streams susceptible of navigation, the General Government +is the more urged to similar undertakings, requiring a national +jurisdiction and national means, by the prospect of thus systematically +completing so inestimable a work; and it is a happy reflection that any +defect of constitutional authority which may be encountered can be supplied +in a mode which the Constitution itself has providently pointed out. +</p> + +<p> +The present is a favorable season also for bringing again into view the +establishment of a national seminary of learning within the District of +Columbia, and with means drawn from the property therein, subject to the +authority of the General Government. Such an institution claims the +patronage of Congress as a monument of their solicitude for the advancement +of knowledge, without which the blessings of liberty can not be fully +enjoyed or long preserved; as a model instructive in the formation of other +seminaries; as a nursery of enlightened preceptors, and as a central resort +of youth and genius from every part of their country, diffusing on their +return examples of those national feelings, those liberal sentiments, and +those congenial manners which contribute cement to our Union and strength +to the great political fabric of which that is the foundation. +</p> + +<p> +In closing this communication I ought not to repress a sensibility, in +which you will unite, to the happy lot of our country and to the goodness +of a superintending Providence, to which we are indebted for it. Whilst +other portions of mankind are laboring under the distresses of war or +struggling with adversity in other forms, the United States are in the +tranquil enjoyment of prosperous and honorable peace. In reviewing the +scenes through which it has been attained we can rejoice in the proofs +given that our political institutions, founded in human rights and framed +for their preservation, are equal to the severest trials of war, as well +adapted to the ordinary periods of repose. +</p> + +<p> +As fruits of this experience and of the reputation acquired by the American +arms on the land and on the water, the nation finds itself possessed of a +growing respect abroad and of a just confidence in itself, which are among +the best pledges for its peaceful career. Under other aspects of our +country the strongest features of its flourishing condition are seen in a +population rapidly increasing on a territory as productive as it is +extensive; in a general industry and fertile ingenuity which find their +ample rewards, and in an affluent revenue which admits a reduction of the +public burdens without withdrawing the means of sustaining the public +credit, of gradually discharging the public debt, of providing for the +necessary defensive and precautionary establishments, and of patronizing in +every authorized mode undertakings conducive to the aggregate wealth and +individual comfort of our citizens. +</p> + +<p> +It remains for the guardians of the public welfare to persevere in that +justice and good will toward other nations which invite a return of these +sentiments toward the United States; to cherish institutions which +guarantee their safety and their liberties, civil and religious; and to +combine with a liberal system of foreign commerce an improvement of the +national advantages and a protection and extension of the independent +resources of our highly favored and happy country. +</p> + +<p> +In all measures having such objects my faithful cooperation will be +afforded. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="t3"> +*** +</p> + +<p><a id="dec1816"></a></p> + +<p class="noindent"> +State of the Union Address<br /> +James Madison<br /> +December 3, 1816<br /> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives: +</p> + +<p> +In reviewing the present state of our country, our attention cannot be +withheld from the effect produced by peculiar seasons which have very +generally impaired the annual gifts of the earth and threatened scarcity in +particular districts. Such, however, is the variety of soils, of climates, +and of products within our extensive limits that the aggregate resources +for subsistence are more than sufficient for the aggregate wants. And as +far as an economy of consumption, more than usual, may be necessary, our +thankfulness is due to Providence for what is far more than a compensation, +in the remarkable health which has distinguished the present year. +</p> + +<p> +Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the peace of Europe, and that of +the United States with Great Britain, in a general invigoration of industry +among us and in the extension of our commerce, the value of which is more +and more disclosing itself to commercial nations, it is to be regretted +that a depression is experienced by particular branches of our manufactures +and by a portion of our navigation. As the first proceeds in an essential +degree from an excess of imported merchandise, which carries a check in its +own tendency, the cause in its present extent can not be very long in +duration. The evil will not, however, be viewed by Congress without a +recollection that manufacturing establishments, if suffered to sink too low +or languish too long, may not revive after the causes shall have ceased, +and that in the vicissitudes of human affairs situations may recur in which +a dependence on foreign sources for indispensable supplies may be among the +most serious embarrassments. +</p> + +<p> +The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in a material +degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports of the nation most +extensively connected with us in commerce, and from the indirect operation +of that exclusion. +</p> + +<p> +Previous to the late convention at London between the United States and +Great Britain the relative state of the navigation laws of the two +countries, growing out of the treaty of 1794, had given to the British +navigation a material advantage over the American in the intercourse +between the American ports and British ports in Europe. The convention of +London equalized the laws of the two countries relating to those ports, +leaving the intercourse between our ports and the ports of the British +colonies subject, as before, to the respective regulations of the parties. +The British Government enforcing now regulations which prohibit a trade +between its colonies and the United States in American vessels, whilst they +permit a trade in British vessels, the American navigation loses +accordingly, and the loss is augmented by the advantage which is given to +the British competition over the American in the navigation between our +ports and British ports in Europe by the circuitous voyages enjoyed by the +one and not enjoyed by the other. +</p> + +<p> +The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity applied to one branch of the +commercial intercourse has been pressed on our part as equally applicable +to both branches; but it is ascertained that the British cabinet declines +all negotiation on the subject, with a disavowal, however, of any +disposition to view in an unfriendly light whatever countervailing +regulations the United States may oppose to the regulations of which they +complain. The wisdom of the Legislature will decide on the course which, +under these circumstances, is prescribed by a joint regard to the amicable +relations between the two nations and to the just interests of the United +States. +</p> + +<p> +I have the satisfaction to state, generally, that we remain in amity with +foreign powers. +</p> + +<p> +An occurrence has indeed taken place in the Gulf of Mexico which, if +sanctioned by the Spanish Government, may make an exception as to that +power. According to the report of our naval commander on that station, one +of our public armed vessels was attacked by an over-powering force under a +Spanish commander, and the American flag, with the officers and crew, +insulted in a manner calling for prompt reparation. This has been demanded. +In the mean time a frigate and a smaller vessel of war have been ordered +into that Gulf for the protection of our commerce. It would be improper to +omit that the representative of His Catholic Majesty in the United States +lost no time in giving the strongest assurances that no hostile order could +have emanated from his Government, and that it will be as ready to do as to +expect whatever the nature of the case and the friendly relations of the +two countries shall be found to require. +</p> + +<p> +The posture of our affairs with Algiers at the present moment is not known. +The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances for which the United States +were not answerable, addressed a letter to this Government declaring the +treaty last concluded with him to have been annulled by our violation of +it, and presenting as the alternative war or a renewal of the former +treaty, which stipulated, among other things, an annual tribute. The +answer, with an explicit declaration that the United States preferred war +to tribute, required his recognition and observance of the treaty last +made, which abolishes tribute and the slavery of our captured citizens. The +result of the answer has not been received. Should he renew his warfare on +our commerce, we rely on the protection it will find in our naval force +actually in the Mediterranean. +</p> + +<p> +With the other Barbary States our affairs have undergone no change. +</p> + +<p> +The Indian tribes within our limits appear also disposed to remain at +peace. From several of them purchases of lands have been made particularly +favorable to the wishes and security of our frontier settlements, as well +as to the general interests of the nation. In some instances the titles, +though not supported by due proof, and clashing those of one tribe with the +claims of another, have been extinguished by double purchases, the +benevolent policy of the United States preferring the augmented expense to +the hazard of doing injustice or to the enforcement of justice against a +feeble and untutored people by means involving or threatening an effusion +of blood. +</p> + +<p> +I am happy to add that the tranquillity which has been restored among the +tribes themselves, as well as between them and our own population, will +favor the resumption of the work of civilization which had made an +encouraging progress among some tribes, and that the facility is increasing +for extending that divided and individual ownership, which exists now in +movable property only, to the soil itself, and of thus establishing in the +culture and improvement of it the true foundation for a transit from the +habits of the savage to the arts and comforts of social life. +</p> + +<p> +As a subject of the highest importance to the national welfare, I must +again earnestly recommend to the consideration of Congress a reorganization +of the militia on a plan which will form it into classes according to the +periods of life more or less adapted to military services. An efficient +militia is authorized and contemplated by the Constitution and required by +the spirit and safety of free government. The present organization of our +militia is universally regarded as less efficient than it ought to be made, +and no organization can be better calculated to give to it its due force +than a classification which will assign the foremost place in the defense +of the country to that portion of its citizens whose activity and animation +best enable them to rally to its standard. Besides the consideration that a +time of peace is the time when the change can be made with most convenience +and equity, it will now be aided by the experience of a recent war in which +the militia bore so interesting a part. +</p> + +<p> +Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision has yet been made for +the uniformity of weights and measures also contemplated by the +Constitution. The great utility of a standard fixed in its nature and +founded on the easy rule of decimal proportions is sufficiently obvious. It +led the Government at an early stage to preparatory steps for introducing +it, and a completion of the work will be a just title to the public +gratitude. +</p> + +<p> +The importance which I have attached to the establishment of a university +within this District on a scale and for objects worthy of the American +nation induces me to renew my recommendation of it to the favorable +consideration of Congress. And I particularly invite again their attention +to the expediency of exercising their existing powers, and, where +necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging them, in order +to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals, such as will have +the effect of drawing more closely together every part of our country by +promoting intercourse and improvements and by increasing the share of every +part in the common stock of national prosperity. +</p> + +<p> +Occurrences having taken place which shew that the statutory provisions for +the dispensation of criminal justice are deficient in relation both to +places and to persons under the exclusive cognizance of the national +authority, an amendment of the law embracing such cases will merit the +earliest attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion +also for inquiring how far legislative interposition may be further +requisite in providing penalties for offenses designated in the +Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties are +annexed or none with sufficient certainty. And I submit to the wisdom of +Congress whether a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not +expedient for the purpose of mitigating in certain cases penalties which +were adopted into it antecedent to experiment and examples which justify +and recommend a more lenient policy. +</p> + +<p> +The United States, having been the first to abolish within the extent of +their authority the transportation of the natives of Africa into slavery, +by prohibiting the introduction of slaves and by punishing their citizens +participating in the traffic, can not but be gratified at the progress made +by concurrent efforts of other nations toward a general suppression of so +great an evil. They must feel at the same time the greater solicitude to +give the fullest efficacy to their own regulations. With that view, the +interposition of Congress appears to be required by the violations and +evasions which it is suggested are chargeable on unworthy citizens who +mingle in the slave trade under foreign flags and with foreign ports, and +by collusive importations of slaves into the United States through +adjoining ports and territories. I present the subject to Congress with a +full assurance of their disposition to apply all the remedy which can be +afforded by an amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to +guard against abuses of a kindred character in the trade between the +several States ought also to be rendered more effectual for their humane +object. +</p> + +<p> +To these recommendations I add, for the consideration of Congress, the +expediency of a remodification of the judiciary establishment, and of an +additional department in the executive branch of the Government. +</p> + +<p> +The first is called for by the accruing business which necessarily swells +the duties of the Federal courts, and by the great and widening space +within which justice is to be dispensed by them. The time seems to have +arrived which claims for members of the Supreme Court a relief from +itinerary fatigues, incompatible as well with the age which a portion of +them will always have attained as with the researches and preparations +which are due to their stations and to the juridical reputation of their +country. And considerations equally cogent require a more convenient +organization of the subordinate tribunals, which may be accomplished +without an objectionable increase of the number or expense of the judges. +</p> + +<p> +The extent and variety of executive business also accumulating with the +progress of our country and its growing population call for an additional +department, to be charged with duties now over-burdening other departments +and with such as have not been annexed to any department. +</p> + +<p> +The course of experience recommends, as another improvement in the +executive establishment, that the provision for the station of +Attorney-General, whose residence at the seat of Government, official +connections with it, and the management of the public business before the +judiciary preclude an extensive participation in professional emoluments, +be made more adequate to his services and his relinquishments, and that, +with a view to his reasonable accommodation and to a proper depository of +his official opinions and proceedings, there be included in the provision +the usual appurtenances to a public office. +</p> + +<p> +In directing the legislative attention to the state of the finances it is a +subject of great gratification to find that even within the short period +which has elapsed since the return of peace the revenue has far exceeded +all the current demands upon the Treasury, and that under any probable +diminution of its future annual products which the vicissitudes of commerce +may occasion it will afford an ample fund for the effectual and early +extinguishment of the public debt. It has been estimated that during the +year 1816 the actual receipts of revenue at the Treasury, including the +balance at the commencement of the year, and excluding the proceeds of +loans and Treasury notes, will amount to about the sum of $47 millions; +that during the same year the actual payments at the Treasury, including +the payment of the arrearages of the War Department as well as the payment +of a considerable excess beyond the annual appropriations, will amount to +about the sum of $38 millions, and that consequently at the close of the +year there will be a surplus in the Treasury of about the sum of $9 +millions. +</p> + +<p> +The operations of the Treasury continued to be obstructed by difficulties +arising from the condition of the national currency, but they have +nevertheless been effectual to a beneficial extent in the reduction of the +public debt and the establishment of the public credit. The floating debt +of Treasury notes and temporary loans will soon be entirely discharged. The +aggregate of the funded debt, composed of debts incurred during the wars of +1776 and 1812, has been estimated with reference to the first of January +next at a sum not exceeding $110 millions. The ordinary annual expenses of +the Government for the maintenance of all its institutions, civil, +military, and naval, have been estimated at a sum greater than $20 +millions, and the permanent revenue to be derived from all the existing +sources has been estimated at a sum of $25 millions. +</p> + +<p> +Upon this general view of the subject it is obvious that there is only +wanting to the fiscal prosperity of the Government the restoration of an +uniform medium of exchange. The resources and the faith of the nation, +displayed in the system which Congress has established, insure respect and +confidence both at home and abroad. The local accumulations of the revenue +have already enabled the Treasury to meet the public engagements in the +local currency of most of the States, and it is expected that the same +cause will produce the same effect throughout the Union; but for the +interests of the community at large, as well as for the purposes of the +Treasury, it is essential that the nation should possess a currency of +equal value, credit, and use wherever it may circulate. The Constitution +has intrusted Congress exclusively with the power of creating and +regulating a currency of that description, and the measures which were +taken during the last session in execution of the power give every promise +of success. The Bank of the United States has been organized under auspices +the most favorable, and can not fail to be an important auxiliary to those +measures. +</p> + +<p> +For a more enlarged view of the public finances, with a view of the +measures pursued by the Treasury Department previous to the resignation of +the late Secretary, I transmit an extract from the last report of that +officer. Congress will perceive in it ample proofs of the solid foundation +on which the financial prosperity of the nation rests, and will do justice +to the distinguished ability and successful exertions with which the duties +of the Department were executed during a period remarkable for its +difficulties and its peculiar perplexities. +</p> + +<p> +The period of my retiring from the public service being at little distance, +I shall find no occasion more proper than the present for expressing to my +fellow citizens my deep sense of the continued confidence and kind support +which I have received from them. My grateful recollection of these +distinguished marks of their favorable regard can never cease, and with the +consciousness that, if I have not served my country with greater ability, I +have served it with a sincere devotion will accompany me as a source of +unfailing gratification. +</p> + +<p> +Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater other sources, which +those who love their country most will best appreciate. I shall behold it +blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home and with peace and respect +abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that the American people have +reached in safety and success their 40th year as an independent nation; +that for nearly an entire generation they have had experience of their +present Constitution, the off-spring of their undisturbed deliberations and +of their free choice; that they have found it to bear the trials of adverse +as well as prosperous circumstances; to contain in its combination of the +federate and elective principles a reconcilement of public strength with +individual liberty, of national power for the defense of national rights +with a security against wars of injustice, of ambition, and vain-glory in +the fundamental provision which subjects all questions of war to the will +of the nation itself, which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities. +Nor is it less a peculiar felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, +that it is found to be capable, without losing its vital energies, of +expanding itself over a spacious territory with the increase and expansion +of the community for whose benefit it was established. +</p> + +<p> +And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle that I shall +read in the character of the American people, in their devotion to true +liberty and to the Constitution which is its palladium, sure presages that +the destined career of my country will exhibit a Government pursuing the +public good as its sole object, and regulating its means by the great +principles consecrated in its charter and by those moral principles to +which they are so well allied; a Government which watches over the purity +of elections, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, +and the equal interdict against encroachments and compacts between religion +and the state; which maintains inviolably the maxims of public faith, the +security of persons and property, and encourages in every authorized mode +the general diffusion of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its +permanency and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it; +a Government which avoids intrusions on the internal repose of other +nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice to all nations +with a readiness equal to the firmness with which it requires justice from +them; and which, whilst it refines its domestic code from every ingredient +not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age and the sentiments of +a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason and by its liberal examples +to infuse into the law which governs the civilized world a spirit which may +diminish the frequency or circumscribe the calamities of war, and meliorate +the social and beneficent relations of peace; a Government, in a word, +whose conduct within and without may bespeak the most noble of ambitions-- +that of promoting peace on earth and good will to man. +</p> + +<p> +These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will animate my +prayers for the happiness of my beloved country, and a perpetuity of the +institutions under which it is enjoyed. +</p> + +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of James +Madison, by James Madison + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESSES *** + +***** This file should be named 5013-h.htm or 5013-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/1/5013/ + +Produced by James Linden. 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