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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses
+by Andrew Jackson
+(#7 in our series of US Presidential State of the Union Addresses)
+
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+Title: State of the Union Addresses of Andrew Jackson
+
+Author: Andrew Jackson
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5016]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY ANDREW JACKSON ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by James Linden.
+
+The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
+
+Dates of addresses by Andrew Jackson in this eBook:
+  December 8, 1829
+  December 6, 1830
+  December 6, 1831
+  December 4, 1832
+  December 3, 1833
+  December 1, 1834
+  December 7, 1835
+  December 5, 1836
+
+
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 8, 1829
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings to you on the
+occasion of your assembling at the seat of Government to enter upon the
+important duties to which you have been called by the voice of our
+country-men. The task devolves on me, under a provision of the
+Constitution, to present to you, as the Federal Legislature of 24 sovereign
+States and 12,000,000 happy people, a view of our affairs, and to propose
+such measures as in the discharge of my official functions have suggested
+themselves as necessary to promote the objects of our Union.
+
+In communicating with you for the first time it is to me a source of
+unfeigned satisfaction, calling for mutual gratulation and devout thanks to
+a benign Providence, that we are at peace with all man-kind, and that our
+country exhibits the most cheering evidence of general welfare and
+progressive improvement. Turning our eyes to other nations, our great
+desire is to see our brethren of the human race secured in the blessings
+enjoyed by ourselves, and advancing in knowledge, in freedom, and in social
+happiness.
+
+Our foreign relations, although in their general character pacific and
+friendly, present subjects of difference between us and other powers of
+deep interest as well to the country at large as to many of our citizens.
+To effect an adjustment of these shall continue to be the object of my
+earnest endeavors, and not with standing the difficulties of the task, I do
+not allow myself to apprehend unfavorable results. Blessed as our country
+is with every thing which constitutes national strength, she is fully
+adequate to the maintenance of all her interests. In discharging the
+responsible trust confided to the Executive in this respect it is my
+settled purpose to ask nothing that is not clearly right and to submit to
+nothing that is wrong; and I flatter myself that, supported by the other
+branches of the Government and by the intelligence and patriotism of the
+people, we shall be able, under the protection of Providence, to cause all
+our just rights to be respected.
+
+Of the unsettled matters between the United States and other powers, the
+most prominent are those which have for years been the subject of
+negotiation with England, France, and Spain. The late periods at which our
+ministers to those Governments left the United States render it impossible
+at this early day to inform you of what has been done on the subjects with
+which they have been respectively charged. Relying upon the justice of our
+views in relation to the points committed to negotiation and the reciprocal
+good feeling which characterizes our intercourse with those nations, we
+have the best reason to hope for a satisfactory adjustment of existing
+differences.
+
+With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and war, we may look
+forward to years of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition. Every
+thing in the condition and history of the two nations is calculated to
+inspire sentiments of mutual respect and to carry conviction to the minds
+of both that it is their policy to preserve the most cordial relations.
+Such are my own views, and it is not to be doubted that such are also the
+prevailing sentiments of our constituents. Although neither time nor
+opportunity has been afforded for a full development of the policy which
+the present cabinet of Great Britain designs to pursue toward this country,
+I indulge the hope that it will be of a just and pacific character; and if
+this anticipation be realized we may look with confidence to a speedy and
+acceptable adjustment of our affairs.
+
+Under the convention for regulating the reference to arbitration of the
+disputed points of boundary under the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent,
+the proceedings have hitherto been conducted in that spirit of candor and
+liberality which ought ever to characterize the acts of sovereign States
+seeking to adjust by the most unexceptionable means important and delicate
+subjects of contention. The first sentiments of the parties have been
+exchanged, and the final replication on our part is in a course of
+preparation. This subject has received the attention demanded by its great
+and peculiar importance to a patriotic member of this Confederacy. The
+exposition of our rights already made is such as, from the high reputation
+of the commissioners by whom it has been prepared, we had a right to
+expect. Our interests at the Court of the Sovereign who has evinced his
+friendly disposition by assuming the delicate task of arbitration have been
+committed to a citizen of the State of Maine, whose character, talents, and
+intimate acquaintance with the subject eminently qualify him for so
+responsible a trust. With full confidence in the justice of our cause and
+in the probity, intelligence, and uncompromising independence of the
+illustrious arbitrator, we can have nothing to apprehend from the result.
+
+From France, our ancient ally, we have a right to expect that justice which
+becomes the sovereign of a powerful, intelligent, and magnanimous people.
+The beneficial effects produced by the commercial convention of 1822,
+limited as are its provisions, are too obvious not to make a salutary
+impression upon the minds of those who are charged with the administration
+of her Government. Should this result induce a disposition to embrace to
+their full extent the wholesome principles which constitute our commercial
+policy, our minister to that Court will be found instructed to cherish such
+a disposition and to aid in conducting it to useful practical conclusions.
+The claims of our citizens for depredations upon their property, long since
+committed under the authority, and in many instances by the express
+direction, of the then existing Government of France, remain unsatisfied,
+and must therefore continue to furnish a subject of unpleasant discussion
+and possible collision between the two Governments. I cherish, however, a
+lively hope, founded as well on the validity of those claims and the
+established policy of all enlightened governments as on the known integrity
+of the French Monarch, that the injurious delays of the past will find
+redress in the equity of the future. Our minister has been instructed to
+press these demands on the French Government with all the earnestness which
+is called for by their importance and irrefutable justice, and in a spirit
+that will evince the respect which is due to the feelings of those from
+whom the satisfaction is required.
+
+Our minister recently appointed to Spain has been authorized to assist in
+removing evils alike injurious to both countries, either by concluding a
+commercial convention upon liberal and reciprocal terms or by urging the
+acceptance in their full extent of the mutually beneficial provisions of
+our navigation acts. He has also been instructed to make a further appeal
+to the justice of Spain, in behalf of our citizens, for indemnity for
+spoliations upon our commerce committed under her authority -- an appeal
+which the pacific and liberal course observed on our part and a due
+confidence in the honor of that Government authorize us to expect will not
+be made in vain.
+
+With other European powers our intercourse is on the most friendly footing.
+In Russia, placed by her territorial limits, extensive population, and
+great power high in the rank of nations, the United States have always
+found a steadfast friend. Although her recent invasion of Turkey awakened a
+lively sympathy for those who were exposed to the desolation of war, we can
+not but anticipate that the result will prove favorable to the cause of
+civilization and to the progress of human happiness. The treaty of peace
+between these powers having been ratified, we can not be insensible to the
+great benefit to be derived by the commerce of the United States from
+unlocking the navigation of the Black Sea, a free passage into which is
+secured to all merchant vessels bound to ports of Russia under a flag at
+peace with the Porte. This advantage, enjoyed upon conditions by most of
+the powers of Europe, has hitherto been withheld from us. During the past
+summer an antecedent but unsuccessful attempt to obtain it was renewed
+under circumstances which promised the most favorable results. Although
+these results have fortunately been thus in part attained, further
+facilities to the enjoyment of this new field for the enterprise of our
+citizens are, in my opinion, sufficiently desirable to insure to them our
+most zealous attention.
+
+Our trade with Austria, although of secondary importance, has been
+gradually increasing, and is now so extended as to deserve the fostering
+care of the Government. A negotiation, commenced and nearly completed with
+that power by the late Administration, has been consummated by a treaty of
+amity, navigation, and commerce, which will be laid before the Senate.
+
+During the recess of Congress our diplomatic relations with Portugal have
+been resumed. The peculiar state of things in that country caused a
+suspension of the recognition of the representative who presented himself
+until an opportunity was had to obtain from our official organ there
+information regarding the actual and, as far as practicable, prospective
+condition of the authority by which the representative in question was
+appointed. This information being received, the application of the
+established rule of our Government in like cases was no longer withheld.
+
+Considerable advances have been made during the present year in the
+adjustment of claims of our citizens upon Denmark for spoliations, but all
+that we have a right to demand from that Government in their behalf has not
+yet been conceded. From the liberal footing, however, upon which this
+subject has, with the approbation of the claimants, been placed by the
+Government, together with the uniformly just and friendly disposition which
+has been evinced by His Danish Majesty, there is a reasonable ground to
+hope that this single subject of difference will speedily be removed.
+
+Our relations with the Barbary Powers continue, as they have long been, of
+the most favorable character. The policy of keeping an adequate force in
+the Mediterranean, as security for the continuance of this tranquillity,
+will be persevered in, as well as a similar one for the protection of our
+commerce and fisheries in the Pacific.
+
+The southern Republics of our own hemisphere have not yet realized all the
+advantages for which they have been so long struggling. We trust, however,
+that the day is not distant when the restoration of peace and internal
+quiet, under permanent systems of government, securing the liberty and
+promoting the happiness of the citizens, will crown with complete success
+their long and arduous efforts in the cause of self-government, and enable
+us to salute them as friendly rivals in all that is truly great and
+glorious.
+
+The recent invasion of Mexico, and the effect thereby produced upon her
+domestic policy, must have a controlling influence upon the great question
+of South American emancipation. We have seen the fell spirit of civil
+dissension rebuked, and perhaps for ever stifled, in that Republic by the
+love of independence. If it be true, as appearances strongly indicate, the
+spirit of independence is the master spirit, and if a corresponding
+sentiment prevails in the other States, this devotion to liberty can not be
+without a proper effect upon the counsels of the mother country. The
+adoption by Spain of a pacific policy toward her former colonies -- an
+event consoling to humanity, and a blessing to the world, in which she
+herself can not fail largely to participate -- may be most reasonably
+expected.
+
+The claims of our citizens upon the South American Governments generally
+are in a train of settlement, while the principal part of those upon Brazil
+have been adjusted, and a decree in council ordering bonds to be issued by
+the minister of the treasury for their amount has received the sanction of
+His Imperial Majesty. This event, together with the exchange of the
+ratifications of the treaty negotiated and concluded in 1828, happily
+terminates all serious causes of difference with that power.
+
+Measures have been taken to place our commercial relations with Peru upon a
+better footing than that upon which they have hitherto rested, and if met
+by a proper disposition on the part of that Government important benefits
+may be secured to both countries.
+
+Deeply interested as we are in the prosperity of our sister Republics, and
+more particularly in that of our immediate neighbor, it would be most
+gratifying to me were I permitted to say that the treatment which we have
+received at her hands has been as universally friendly as the early and
+constant solicitude manifested by the United States for her success gave us
+a right to expect. But it becomes my duty to inform you that prejudices
+long indulged by a portion of the inhabitants of Mexico against the envoy
+extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States have had an
+unfortunate influence upon the affairs of the two countries, and have
+diminished that usefulness to his own which was justly to be expected from
+his talents and zeal. To this cause, in a great degree, is to be imputed
+the failure of several measures equally interesting to both parties, but
+particularly that of the Mexican Government to ratify a treaty negotiated
+and concluded in its own capital and under its own eye. Under these
+circumstances it appeared expedient to give to Mr. Poinsett the option
+either to return or not, as in his judgment the interest of his country
+might require, and instructions to that end were prepared; but before they
+could be dispatched a communication was received from the Government of
+Mexico, through its charge' d'affaires here, requesting the recall of our
+minister. This was promptly complied with, and a representative of a rank
+corresponding with that of the Mexican diplomatic agent near this
+Government was appointed. Our conduct toward that Republic has been
+uniformly of the most friendly character, and having thus removed the only
+alleged obstacle to harmonious intercourse, I can not but hope that an
+advantageous change will occur in our affairs.
+
+In justice to Mr. Poinsett it is proper to say that my immediate compliance
+with the application for his recall and the appointment of a successor are
+not to be ascribed to any evidence that the imputation of an improper
+interference by him in the local politics of Mexico was well founded, nor
+to a want of confidence in his talents or integrity, and to add that the
+truth of the charges has never been affirmed by the federal Government of
+Mexico in its communications with us.
+
+I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties to bring to your
+attention the propriety of amending that part of the Constitution which
+relates to the election of President and Vice-President. Our system of
+government was by its framers deemed an experiment, and they therefore
+consistently provided a mode of remedying its defects.
+
+To the people belongs the right of electing their Chief Magistrate; it was
+never designed that their choice should in any case be defeated, either by
+the intervention of electoral colleges or by the agency confided, under
+certain contingencies, to the House of Representatives. Experience proves
+that in proportion as agents to execute the will of the people are
+multiplied there is danger of their wishes being frustrated. Some may be
+unfaithful; all are liable to err. So far, therefore, as the people can
+with convenience speak, it is safer for them to express their own will.
+
+The number of aspirants to the Presidency and the diversity of the
+interests which may influence their claims leave little reason to expect a
+choice in the first instance, and in that event the election must devolve
+on the House of Representatives, where it is obvious the will of the people
+may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not be regarded.
+From the mode of voting by States the choice is to be made by 24 votes, and
+it may often occur that one of these will be controlled by an individual
+Representative. Honors and offices are at the disposal of the successful
+candidate. Repeated ballotings may make it apparent that a single
+individual holds the cast in his hand. May he not be tempted to name his
+reward?
+
+But even without corruption, supposing the probity of the Representative to
+be proof against the powerful motives by which it may be assailed, the will
+of the people is still constantly liable to be misrepresented. One may err
+from ignorance of the wishes of his constituents; another from a conviction
+that it is his duty to be governed by his own judgment of the fitness of
+the candidates; finally, although all were inflexibly honest, all
+accurately informed of the wishes of their constituents, yet under the
+present mode of election a minority may often elect a President, and when
+this happens it may reasonably be expected that efforts will be made on the
+part of the majority to rectify this injurious operation of their
+institutions. But although no evil of this character should result from
+such a perversion of the first principle of our system -- that the majority
+is to govern -- it must be very certain that a President elected by a
+minority can not enjoy the confidence necessary to the successful discharge
+of his duties.
+
+In this as in all other matters of public concern policy requires that as
+few impediments as possible should exist to the free operation of the
+public will. Let us, then, endeavor so to amend our system that the office
+of Chief Magistrate may not be conferred upon any citizen but in pursuance
+of a fair expression of the will of the majority.
+
+I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the Constitution as may
+remove all intermediate agency in the election of the President and
+Vice-President. The mode may be so regulated as to preserve to each State
+its present relative weight in the election, and a failure in the first
+attempt may be provided for by confining the second to a choice between the
+two highest candidates. In connection with such an amendment it would seem
+advisable to limit the service of the Chief Magistrate to a single term of
+either 4 or 6 years. If, however, it should not be adopted, it is worthy of
+consideration whether a provision disqualifying for office the
+Representatives in Congress on whom such an election may have devolved
+would not be proper.
+
+While members of Congress can be constitutionally appointed to offices of
+trust and profit it will be the practice, even under the most conscientious
+adherence to duty, to select them for such stations as they are believed to
+be better qualified to fill than other citizens; but the purity of our
+Government would doubtless be promoted by their exclusion from all
+appointments in the gift of the President, in whose election they may have
+been officially concerned. The nature of the judicial office and the
+necessity of securing in the Cabinet and in diplomatic stations of the
+highest rank the best talents and political experience should, perhaps,
+except these from the exclusion.
+
+There are, perhaps, few men who can for any great length of time enjoy
+office and power without being more or less under the influence of feelings
+unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their public duties. Their
+integrity may be proof against improper considerations immediately
+addressed to themselves, but they are apt to acquire a habit of looking
+with indifference upon the public interests and of tolerating conduct from
+which an unpracticed man would revolt. Office is considered as a species of
+property, and government rather as a means of promoting individual
+interests than as an instrument created solely for the service of the
+people. Corruption in some and in others a perversion of correct feelings
+and principles divert government from its legitimate ends and make it an
+engine for the support of the few at the expense of the many. The duties of
+all public officers are, or at least admit of being made, so plain and
+simple that men of intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their
+performance; and I can not but believe that more is lost by the long
+continuance of men in office than is generally to be gained by their
+experience. I submit, therefore, to your consideration whether the
+efficiency of the Government would not be promoted and official industry
+and integrity better secured by a general extension of the law which limits
+appointments to four years.
+
+In a country where offices are created solely for the benefit of the people
+no one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another.
+Offices were not established to give support to particular men at the
+public expense. No individual wrong is, therefore, done by removal, since
+neither appointment to nor continuance in office is a matter of right. The
+incumbent became an officer with a view to public benefits, and when these
+require his removal they are not to be sacrificed to private interests. It
+is the people, and they alone, who have a right to complain when a bad
+officer is substituted for a good one. He who is removed has the same means
+of obtaining a living that are enjoyed by the millions who never held
+office. The proposed limitation would destroy the idea of property now so
+generally connected with official station, and although individual distress
+may be some times produced, it would, by promoting that rotation which
+constitutes a leading principle in the republican creed, give healthful
+action to the system.
+
+No very considerable change has occurred during the recess of Congress in
+the condition of either our agriculture, commerce, or manufactures. The
+operation of the tariff has not proved so injurious to the two former or as
+beneficial to the latter as was anticipated. Importations of foreign goods
+have not been sensibly diminished, while domestic competition, under an
+illusive excitement, has increased the production much beyond the demand
+for home consumption. The consequences have been low prices, temporary
+embarrassment, and partial loss. That such of our manufacturing
+establishments as are based upon capital and are prudently managed will
+survive the shock and be ultimately profitable there is no good reason to
+doubt.
+
+To regulate its conduct so as to promote equally the prosperity of these
+three cardinal interests is one of the most difficult tasks of Government;
+and it may be regretted that the complicated restrictions which now
+embarrass the intercourse of nations could not by common consent be
+abolished, and commerce allowed to flow in those channels to which
+individual enterprise, always its surest guide, might direct it. But we
+must ever expect selfish legislation in other nations, and are therefore
+compelled to adapt our own to their regulations in the manner best
+calculated to avoid serious injury and to harmonize the conflicting
+interests of our agriculture, our commerce, and our manufactures. Under
+these impressions I invite your attention to the existing tariff, believing
+that some of its provisions require modification.
+
+The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties upon articles of
+foreign growth or manufacture is that which will place our own in fair
+competition with those of other countries; and the inducements to advance
+even a step beyond this point are controlling in regard to those articles
+which are of primary necessity in time of war. When we reflect upon the
+difficulty and delicacy of this operation, it is important that it should
+never be attempted but with the utmost caution. Frequent legislation in
+regard to any branch of industry, affecting its value, and by which its
+capital may be transferred to new channels, must always be productive of
+hazardous speculation and loss.
+
+In deliberating, therefore, on these interesting subjects local feelings
+and prejudices should be merged in the patriotic determination to promote
+the great interests of the whole. All attempts to connect them with the
+party conflicts of the day are necessarily injurious, and should be
+discountenanced. Our action upon them should be under the control of higher
+and purer motives. Legislation subjected to such influences can never be
+just, and will not long retain the sanction of a people whose active
+patriotism is not bounded by sectional limits nor insensible to that spirit
+of concession and forbearance which gave life to our political compact and
+still sustains it. Discarding all calculations of political ascendancy, the
+North, the South, the East, and the West should unite in diminishing any
+burthen of which either may justly complain.
+
+The agricultural interest of our country is so essentially connected with
+every other and so superior in importance to them all that it is scarcely
+necessary to invite to it your particular attention. It is principally as
+manufactures and commerce tend to increase the value of agricultural
+productions and to extend their application to the wants and comforts of
+society that they deserve the fostering care of Government.
+
+Looking forward to the period, not far distant, when a sinking fund will no
+longer be required, the duties on those articles of importation which can
+not come in competition with our own productions are the first that should
+engage the attention of Congress in the modification of the tariff. Of
+these, tea and coffee are the most important. They enter largely into the
+consumption of the country, and have become articles of necessity to all
+classes. A reduction, therefore, of the existing duties will be felt as a
+common benefit, but like all other legislation connected with commerce, to
+be efficacious and not injurious it should be gradual and certain.
+
+The public prosperity is evinced in the increased revenue arising from the
+sales of the public lands and in the steady maintenance of that produced by
+imposts and tonnage, not withstanding the additional duties imposed by the
+act of [1828-05-19], and the unusual importations in the early part of that
+year.
+
+The balance in the Treasury on [1829-01-01] was $5,972,435.81. The receipts
+of the current year are estimated at $24,602,230 and the expenditures for
+the same time at $26,164,595, leaving a balance in the Treasury on
+[1830-01-01] of $4,410,070.81.
+
+There will have been paid on account of the public debt during the present
+year the sum of $12,405,005.80, reducing the whole debt of the Government
+on [1830-01-01] to $48,565,406.50, including $7M of the 5% stock subscribed
+to the Bank of the United States. The payment on account of public debt
+made on [1829-07-01] was $8,715,462.87. It was apprehended that the sudden
+withdrawal of so large a sum from the banks in which it was deposited, at a
+time of unusual pressure in the money market, might cause much injury to
+the interests dependent on bank accommodations. But this evil was wholly
+averted by an early anticipation of it at the Treasury, aided by the
+judicious arrangements of the officers of the Bank of the United States.
+
+This state of the finances exhibits the resources of the nation in an
+aspect highly flattering to its industry and auspicious of the ability of
+Government in a very short time to extinguish the public debt. When this
+shall be done our population will be relieved from a considerable portion
+of its present burthens, and will find not only new motives to patriotic
+affection, but additional means for the display of individual enterprise.
+The fiscal power of the States will also be increased, and may be more
+extensively exerted in favor of education and other public objects, while
+ample means will remain in the Federal Government to promote the general
+weal in all the modes permitted to its authority.
+
+After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable that any
+adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the people of the
+Union will until a remote period, if ever, leave the Government without a
+considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond what may be required for its
+current service. As, then, the period approaches when the application of
+the revenue to the payment of debt will cease, the disposition of the
+surplus will present a subject for the serious deliberation of Congress;
+and it may be fortunate for the country that it is yet to be decided.
+
+Considered in connection with the difficulties which have heretofore
+attended appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, and with
+those which this experience tells us will certainly arise when ever power
+over such subjects may be exercised by the Central Government, it is hoped
+that it may lead to the adoption of some plan which will reconcile the
+diversified interests of the States and strengthen the bonds which unite
+them. Every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefited by
+the improvement of inland navigation and the construction of high ways in
+the several States. Let us, then, endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode
+which will be satisfactory to all. That hitherto adopted has by many of our
+fellow citizens been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution, while
+by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has been
+employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils.
+
+To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and federal
+disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue would be its
+apportionment among the several States according to their ratio of
+representation, and should this measure not be found warranted by the
+Constitution that it would be expedient to propose to the States an
+amendment authorizings it. I regard an appeal to the source of power in
+cases of real doubt, and where its exercise is deemed indispensable to the
+general welfare, as among the most sacred of all our obligations.
+
+Upon this country more than any other has, in the providence of God, been
+cast the special guardianship of the great principle of adherence to
+written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in regard to it will be
+extinguished.
+
+That this was intended to be a government of limited and specific, and not
+general, powers must be admitted by all, and it is our duty to preserve for
+it the character intended by its framers. If experience points out the
+necessity for an enlargement of these powers, let us apply for it to those
+for whose benefit it is to be exercised, and not under-mine the whole
+system by a resort to over-strained constructions. The scheme has worked
+well. It has exceeded the hopes of those who devised it, and become an
+object of admiration to the world. We are responsible to our country and to
+the glorious cause of self-government for the preservation of so great a
+good.
+
+The great mass of legislation relating to our internal affairs was intended
+to be left where the Federal Convention found it -- in the State
+governments. Nothing is clearer, in my view, than that we are chiefly
+indebted for the success of the Constitution under which we are now acting
+to the watchful and auxiliary operation of the State authorities. This is
+not the reflection of a day, but belongs to the most deeply rooted
+convictions of my mind. I can not, therefore, too strongly or too
+earnestly, for my own sense of its importance, warn you against all
+encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty. Sustained by
+its healthful and invigorating influence the federal system can never
+fall.
+
+In the collection of the revenue the long credits authorized on goods
+imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope are the chief cause of the
+losses at present sustained. If these were shortened to 6, 9, and 12
+months, and ware-houses provided by Government sufficient to receive the
+goods offered in deposit for security and for debenture, and if the right
+of the United States to a priority of payment out of the estates of its
+insolvent debtors were more effectually secured, this evil would in a great
+measure be obviated. An authority to construct such houses is therefore,
+with the proposed alteration of the credits, recommended to your
+attention.
+
+It is worthy of notice that the laws for the collection and security of the
+revenue arising from imposts were chiefly framed when the rates of duties
+on imported goods presented much less temptation for illicit trade than at
+present exists. There is reason to believe that these laws are in some
+respects quite insufficient for the proper security of the revenue and the
+protection of the interests of those who are disposed to observe them. The
+injurious and demoralizing tendency of a successful system of smuggling is
+so obvious as not to require comment, and can not be too carefully guarded
+against. I therefore suggest to Congress the propriety of adopting
+efficient measures to prevent this evil, avoiding, however, as much as
+possible, every unnecessary infringement of individual liberty and
+embarrassment of fair and lawful business.
+
+On an examination of the records of the Treasury I have been forcibly
+struck with the large amount of public money which appears to be
+outstanding. Of the sum thus due from individuals to the Government a
+considerable portion is undoubtedly desperate, and in many instances has
+probably been rendered so by remissness in the agents charged with its
+collection. By proper exertions a great part, however, may yet be
+recovered; and what ever may be the portions respectively belonging to
+these two classes, it behooves the Government to ascertain the real state
+of the fact. This can be done only by the prompt adoption of judicious
+measures for the collection of such as may be made available. It is
+believed that a very large amount has been lost through the inadequacy of
+the means provided for the collection of debts due to the public, and that
+this inadequacy lies chiefly in the want of legal skill habitually and
+constantly employed in the direction of the agents engaged in the service.
+It must, I think, be admitted that the supervisory power over suits brought
+by the public, which is now vested in an *accounting* officer of the
+Treasury, not selected with a view to his legal knowledge, and encumbered
+as he is with numerous other duties, operates unfavorably to the public
+interest.
+
+It is important that this branch of the public service should be subjected
+to the supervision of such professional skill as will give it efficiency.
+The expense attendant upon such a modification of the executive department
+would be justified by the soundest principles of economy. I would
+recommend, therefore, that the duties now assigned to the agent of the
+Treasury, so far as they relate to the superintendence and management of
+legal proceedings on the part of the United States, be transferred to the
+Attorney General, and that this officer be placed on the same footing in
+all respects as the heads of the other Departments, receiving like
+compensation and having such subordinate officers provided for his
+Department as may be requisite for the discharge of these additional
+duties. The professional skill of the Attorney General, employed in
+directing the conduct of marshals and district attorneys, would hasten the
+collection of debts now in suit and hereafter save much to the Government.
+It might be further extended to the superintendence of all criminal
+proceedings for offenses against the United States. In making this transfer
+great care should be taken, however, that the power necessary to the
+Treasury Department be not impaired, 1 of its greatest securities
+consisting in control over all accounts until they are audited or reported
+for suit.
+
+In connection with the foregoing views I would suggest also an inquiry
+whether the provisions of the act of Congress authorizing the discharge of
+the persons of the debtors to the Government from imprisonment may not,
+consistently with the public interest, be extended to the release of the
+debt where the conduct of the debtor is wholly exempt from the imputation
+of fraud. Some more liberal policy than that which now prevails in
+reference to this unfortunate class of citizens is certainly due to them,
+and would prove beneficial to the country. The continuance of the liability
+after the means to discharge it have been exhausted can only serve to
+dispirit the debtor; or, where his resources are but partial, the want of
+power in the Government to compromise and release the demand instigates to
+fraud as the only resource for securing a support to his family. He thus
+sinks into a state of apathy, and becomes a useless drone in society or a
+vicious member of it, if not a feeling witness of the rigor and inhumanity
+of his country. All experience proves that oppressive debt is the bane of
+enterprise, and it should be the care of a republic not to exert a grinding
+power over misfortune and poverty.
+
+Since the last session of Congress numerous frauds on the Treasury have
+been discovered, which I thought it my duty to bring under the cognizance
+of the United States court for this district by a criminal prosecution. It
+was my opinion and that of able counsel who were consulted that the cases
+came within the penalties of the act of the 17th Congress approved
+[1823-03-03], providing for punishment of frauds committed on the
+Government of the United States. Either from some defect in the law or in
+its administration every effort to bring the accused to trial under its
+provisions proved ineffectual, and the Government was driven to the
+necessity of resorting to the vague and inadequate provisions of the common
+law. It is therefore my duty to call your attention to the laws which have
+been passed for the protection of the Treasury. If, indeed, there be no
+provision by which those who may be unworthily intrusted with its
+guardianship can be punished for the most flagrant violation of duty,
+extending even to the most fraudulent appropriation of the public funds to
+their own use, it is time to remedy so dangerous an omission; or if the law
+has been perverted from its original purposes, and criminals deserving to
+be punished under its provisions have been rescued by legal subtleties, it
+ought to be made so plain by amendatory provisions as to baffle the arts of
+perversion and accomplish the ends of its original enactment.
+
+In one of the most flagrant causes the court decided that the prosecution
+was barred by the statute which limits prosecutions for fraud to two years.
+In this case all the evidences of the fraud, and, indeed, all knowledge
+that a fraud had been committed, were in possession of the party accused
+until after the two years had elapsed. Surely the statute ought not to run
+in favor of any man while he retains all the evidences of his crime in his
+own possession, and least of all in favor of a public officer who continues
+to defraud the Treasury and conceal the transaction for the brief term of
+two years. I would therefore recommend such an alteration of the law as
+will give the injured party and the Government two years after the
+disclosure of the fraud or after the accused is out of office to commence
+their prosecution.
+
+In connection with this subject I invite the attention of Congress to a
+general and minute inquiry into the condition of the Government, with a
+view to ascertain what offices can be dispensed with, what expenses
+retrenched, and what improvements may be made in the organization of its
+various parts to secure the proper responsibility of public agents and
+promote efficiency and justice in all its operations.
+
+The report of the Secretary of War will make you acquainted with the
+condition of our Army, fortifications, arsenals, and Indian affairs. The
+proper discipline of the Army, the training and equipment of the militia,
+the education bestowed at West Point, and the accumulation of the means of
+defense applicable to the naval force will tend to prolong the peace we now
+enjoy, and which every good citizen, more especially those who have felt
+the miseries of even a successful warfare, must ardently desire to
+perpetuate.
+
+The returns from the subordinate branches of this service exhibit a
+regularity and order highly creditable to its character. Both officers and
+soldiers seem imbued with a proper sense of duty, and conform to the
+restraints of exact discipline with that cheerfulness which becomes the
+profession of arms. There is need, however, of further legislation to
+obviate the inconveniences specified in the report under consideration, to
+some of which it is proper that I should call your particular attention.
+
+The act of Congress of [1821-03-02], to reduce and fix the military
+establishment, remaining unexecuted as it regards the command of 1 of the
+regiments of artillery, can not now be deemed a guide to the Executive in
+making the proper appointment. An explanatory act, designating the class of
+officers out of which the grade is to be filled -- whether from the
+military list as existing prior to the act of 1821 or from it as it has
+been fixed by that act -- would remove this difficulty. It is also
+important that the laws regulating the pay and emoluments of officers
+generally should be more specific than they now are. Those, for example, in
+relation to the PayMaster and Surgeon General assign to them an annual
+salary of $2.500, but are silent as to allowances which in certain
+exigencies of the service may be deemed indispensable to the discharge of
+their duties. This circumstance has been the authority for extending to
+them various allowances at different times under former Administrations,
+but no uniform rule has been observed on the subject. Similar
+inconveniences exist in other cases, in which the construction put upon the
+laws by the public accountants may operate unequally, produce confusion,
+and expose officers to the odium of claiming what is not their due.
+
+I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our safest means of national
+defense, the Military Academy. This institution has already exercised the
+happiest influence upon the moral and intellectual character of our Army;
+and such of the graduates as from various causes may not pursue the
+profession of arms will be scarcely less useful as citizens. Their
+knowledge of the military art will be advantageously employed in the
+militia service, and in a measure secure to that class of troops the
+advantages which in this respect belong to standing armies.
+
+I would also suggest a review of the pension law, for the purpose of
+extending its benefits to every Revolutionary soldier who aided in
+establishing our liberties, and who is unable to maintain himself in
+comfort. These relics of the War of Independence have strong claims upon
+their country's gratitude and bounty. The law is defective in not embracing
+within its provisions all those who were during the last war disabled from
+supporting themselves by manual labor. Such an amendment would add but
+little to the amount of pensions, and is called for by the sympathies of
+the people as well as by considerations of sound policy.
+
+It will be perceived that a large addition to the list of pensioners has
+been occasioned by an order of the late Administration, departing
+materially from the rules which had previously prevailed. Considering it an
+act of legislation, I suspended its operation as soon as I was informed
+that it had commenced. Before this period, however, applications under the
+new regulation had been preferred to the number of 154, of which, on [March
+27], the date of its revocation, 87 were admitted. For the amount there was
+neither estimate nor appropriation; and besides this deficiency, the
+regular allowances, according to the rules which have heretofore governed
+the Department, exceed the estimate of its late Secretary by about $50K,
+for which an appropriation is asked.
+
+Your particular attention is requested to that part of the report of the
+Secretary of War which relates to the money held in trust for the Seneca
+tribe of Indians. It will be perceived that without legislative aid the
+Executive can not obviate the embarrassments occasioned by the diminution
+of the dividends on that fund, which originally amounted to $100,000, and
+has recently been invested in United States 3% stock.
+
+The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within the limits
+of some of our States have become objects of much interest and importance.
+It has long been the policy of Government to introduce among them the arts
+of civilization, in the hope of gradually reclaiming them from a wandering
+life. This policy has, however, been coupled with another wholly
+incompatible with its success. Professing a desire to civilize and settle
+them, we have at the same time lost no opportunity to purchase their lands
+and thrust them farther into the wilderness. By this means they have not
+only been kept in a wandering state, but been led to look upon us as unjust
+and indifferent to their fate. Thus, though lavish in its expenditures upon
+the subject, Government has constantly defeated its own policy, and the
+Indians in general, receding farther and farther to the west, have retained
+their savage habits. A portion, however, of the Southern tribes, having
+mingled much with the whites and made some progress in the arts of
+civilized life, have lately attempted to erect an independent government
+within the limits of Georgia and Alabama. These States, claiming to be the
+only sovereigns within their territories, extended their laws over the
+Indians, which induced the latter to call upon the United States for
+protection.
+
+Under these circumstances the question presented was whether the General
+Government had a right to sustain those people in their pretensions. The
+Constitution declares that "no new State shall be formed or erected within
+the jurisdiction of any other State" without the consent of its
+legislature. If the General Government is not permitted to tolerate the
+erection of a confederate State within the territory of one of the members
+of this Union against her consent, much less could it allow a foreign and
+independent government to establish itself there.
+
+Georgia became a member of the Confederacy which eventuated in our Federal
+Union as a sovereign State, always asserting her claim to certain limits,
+which, having been originally defined in her colonial charter and
+subsequently recognized in the treaty of peace, she has ever since
+continued to enjoy, except as they have been circumscribed by her own
+voluntary transfer of a portion of her territory to the United States in
+the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was admitted into the Union on the
+same footing with the original States, with boundaries which were
+prescribed by Congress.
+
+There is no constitutional, conventional, or legal provision which allows
+them less power over the Indians within their borders than is possessed by
+Maine or New York. Would the people of Maine permit the Penobscot tribe to
+erect an independent government within their State? And unless they did
+would it not be the duty of the General Government to support them in
+resisting such a measure? Would the people of New York permit each remnant
+of the six Nations within her borders to declare itself an independent
+people under the protection of the United States? Could the Indians
+establish a separate republic on each of their reservations in Ohio? And if
+they were so disposed would it be the duty of this Government to protect
+them in the attempt? If the principle involved in the obvious answer to
+these questions be abandoned, it will follow that the objects of this
+Government are reversed, and that it has become a part of its duty to aid
+in destroying the States which it was established to protect.
+
+Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the Indians inhabiting
+parts of Georgia and Alabama that their attempt to establish an independent
+government would not be countenanced by the Executive of the United States,
+and advised them to emigrate beyond the Mississippi or submit to the laws
+of those States.
+
+Our conduct toward these people is deeply interesting to our national
+character. Their present condition, contrasted with what they once were,
+makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies. Our ancestors found them
+the uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions. By persuasion and force
+they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to
+mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others have left
+but remnants to preserve for a while their once terrible names. Surrounded
+by the whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the
+resources of the savage doom him to weakness and decay, the fate of the
+Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the Delaware is fast over-taking the
+Choctaw, the Cherokee, and the Creek. That this fate surely awaits them if
+they remain within the limits of the States does not admit of a doubt.
+Humanity and national honor demand that every effort should be made to
+avert so great a calamity. It is too late to inquire whether it was just in
+the United States to include them and their territory within the bounds of
+new States, whose limits they could control. That step can not be retraced.
+A State can not be dismembered by Congress or restricted in the exercise of
+her constitutional power. But the people of those States and of every
+State, actuated by feelings of justice and a regard for our national honor,
+submit to you the interesting question whether something can not be done,
+consistently with the rights of the States, to preserve this much- injured
+race.
+
+As a means of effecting this end I suggest for your consideration the
+propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi, and
+without the limits of any State or Territory now formed, to be guaranteed
+to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it, each tribe having a
+distinct control over the portion designated for its use. There they may be
+secured in the enjoyment of governments of their own choice, subject to no
+other control from the United States than such as may be necessary to
+preserve peace on the frontier and between the several tribes. There the
+benevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts of civilization, and, by
+promoting union and harmony among them, to raise up an interesting
+commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race and to attest the humanity
+and justice of this Government.
+
+This emigration should be voluntary, for it would be as cruel as unjust to
+compel the aborigines to abandon the graves of their fathers and seek a
+home in a distant land. But they should be distinctly informed that if they
+remain within the limits of the States they must be subject to their laws.
+In return for their obedience as individuals they will without doubt be
+protected in the enjoyment of those possessions which they have improved by
+their industry. But it seems to me visionary to suppose that in this state
+of things claims can be allowed on tracts of country on which they have
+neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely because they have seen them
+from the mountain or passed them in the chase. Submitting to the laws of
+the States, and receiving, like other citizens, protection in their persons
+and property, they will ere long become merged in the mass of our
+population.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy will make you
+acquainted with the condition and useful employment of that branch of our
+service during the present year. Constituting as it does the best standing
+security of this country against foreign aggression, it claims the especial
+attention of Government. In this spirit the measures which since the
+termination of the last war have been in operation for its gradual
+enlargement were adopted, and it should continue to be cherished as the
+off-spring of our national experience. It will be seen, however, that not
+withstanding the great solicitude which has been manifested for the perfect
+organization of this arm and the liberality of the appropriations which
+that solicitude has suggested, this object has in many important respects
+not been secured.
+
+In time of peace we have need of no more ships of war than are requisite to
+the protection of our commerce. Those not wanted for this object must lay
+in the harbors, where without proper covering they rapidly decay, and even
+under the best precautions for their preservation must soon become useless.
+Such is already the case with many of our finest vessels, which, though
+unfinished, will now require immense sums of money to be restored to the
+condition in which they were when committed to their proper element.
+
+On this subject there can be but little doubt that our best policy would be
+to discontinue the building of ships of the first and second class, and
+look rather to the possession of ample materials, prepared for the
+emergencies of war, than to the number of vessels which we can float in a
+season of peace, as the index of our naval power. Judicious deposits in
+navy yards of timber and other materials, fashioned under the hands of
+skillful work-men and fitted for prompt application to their various
+purposes, would enable us at all times to construct vessels as fast as they
+can be manned, and save the heavy expense of repairs, except to such
+vessels as must be employed in guarding our commerce.
+
+The proper points for the establishment of these yards are indicated with
+so much force in the report of the Navy Board that in recommending it to
+your attention I deem it unnecessary to do more than express my hearty
+concurrence in their views. The yard in this District, being already
+furnished with most of the machinery necessary for ship building, will be
+competent to the supply of the two selected by the Board as the best for
+the concentration of materials, and, from the facility and certainty of
+communication between them, it will be useless to incur at those depots the
+expense of similar machinery, especially that used in preparing the usual
+metallic and wooden furniture of vessels.
+
+Another improvement would be effected by dispensing altogether with the
+Navy Board as now constituted, and substituting in its stead bureaux
+similar to those already existing in the War Department. Each member of the
+Board, transferred to the head of a separate bureau charged with specific
+duties, would feel in its highest degree that wholesome responsibility
+which can not be divided without a far more than proportionate diminution
+of its force. Their valuable services would become still more so when
+separately appropriated to distinct portions of the great interests of the
+Navy, to the prosperity of which each would be impelled to devote himself
+by the strongest motives. Under such an arrangement every branch of this
+important service would assume a more simple and precise character, its
+efficiency would be increased, and scrupulous economy in the expenditure of
+public money promoted.
+
+I would also recommend that the Marine Corps be merged in the artillery or
+infantry, as the best mode of curing the many defects in its organization.
+But little exceeding in number any of the regiments of infantry, that corps
+has, besides its lieutenant-colonel commandant, five brevet
+lieutenant-colonels, who receive the full pay and emoluments of their
+brevet rank, without rendering proportionate service. Details for marine
+service could as well be made from the artillery or infantry, there being
+no peculiar training requisite for it.
+
+With these improvements, and such others as zealous watchfulness and mature
+consideration may suggest, there can be little doubt that under an
+energetic administration of its affairs the Navy may soon be made every
+thing that the nation wishes it to be. Its efficiency in the suppression of
+piracy in the West India seas, and wherever its squadrons have been
+employed in securing the interests of the country, will appear from the
+report of the Secretary, to which I refer you for other interesting
+details. Among these I would bespeak the attention of Congress for the
+views presented in relation to the inequality between the Army and Navy as
+to the pay of officers. No such inequality should prevail between these
+brave defenders of their country, and where it does exist it is submitted
+to Congress whether it ought not to be rectified.
+
+The report of the PostMaster General is referred to as exhibiting a highly
+satisfactory administration of that Department. Abuses have been reformed,
+increased expedition in the transportation of the mail secured, and its
+revenue much improved. In a political point of view this Department is
+chiefly important as affording the means of diffusing knowledge. It is to
+the body politic what the veins and arteries are to the natural --
+conveying rapidly and regularly to the remotest parts of the system correct
+information of the operations of the Government, and bringing back to it
+the wishes and feelings of the people. Through its agency we have secured
+to ourselves the full enjoyment of the blessings of a free press.
+
+In this general survey of our affairs a subject of high importance presents
+itself in the present organization of the judiciary. An uniform operation
+of the Federal Government in the different States is certainly desirable,
+and existing as they do in the Union on the basis of perfect equality, each
+State has a right to expect that the benefits conferred on the citizens of
+others should be extended to hers. The judicial system of the United States
+exists in all its efficiency in only fifteen members of the Union; to three
+others the circuit courts, which constitute an important part of that
+system, have been imperfectly extended, and to the remaining 6 altogether
+denied. The effect has been to withhold from the inhabitants of the latter
+the advantages afforded (by the Supreme Court) to their fellow citizens in
+other States in the whole extent of the criminal and much of the civil
+authority of the Federal judiciary. That this state of things ought to be
+remedied, if it can be done consistently with the public welfare, is not to
+be doubted. Neither is it to be disguised that the organization of our
+judicial system is at once a difficult and delicate task. To extend the
+circuit courts equally throughout the different parts of the Union, and at
+the same time to avoid such a multiplication of members as would encumber
+the supreme appellate tribunal, is the object desired. Perhaps it might be
+accomplished by dividing the circuit judges into two classes, and providing
+that the Supreme Court should be held by these classes alternately, the
+Chief Justice always presiding.
+
+If an extension of the circuit court system to those States which do not
+now enjoy its benefits should be determined upon, it would of course be
+necessary to revise the present arrangement of the circuits; and even if
+that system should not be enlarged, such a revision is recommended.
+
+A provision for taking the census of the people of the United States will,
+to insure the completion of that work within a convenient time, claim the
+early attention of Congress.
+
+The great and constant increase of business in the Department of State
+forced itself at an early period upon the attention of the Executive.
+Thirteen years ago it was, in Mr. Madison's last message to Congress, made
+the subject of an earnest recommendation, which has been repeated by both
+of his successors; and my comparatively limited experience has satisfied me
+of its justness. It has arisen from many causes, not the least of which is
+the large addition that has been made to the family of independent nations
+and the proportionate extension of our foreign relations. The remedy
+proposed was the establishment of a home department -- a measure which does
+not appear to have met the views of Congress on account of its supposed
+tendency to increase, gradually and imperceptibly, the already too strong
+bias of the federal system toward the exercise of authority not delegated
+to it. I am not, therefore, disposed to revive the recommendation, but am
+not the less impressed with the importance of so organizing that Department
+that its Secretary may devote more of his time to our foreign relations.
+Clearly satisfied that the public good would be promoted by some suitable
+provision on the subject, I respectfully invite your attention to it.
+
+The charter of the Bank of the United States expires in 1836, and its stock
+holders will most probably apply for a renewal of their privileges. In
+order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy in a measure involving
+such important principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I
+can not, in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the
+deliberate consideration of the Legislature and the people. Both the
+constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank are well
+questioned by a large portion of our fellow citizens, and it must be
+admitted by all that it has failed in the great end of establishing an
+uniform and sound currency.
+
+Under these circumstances, if such an institution is deemed essential to
+the fiscal operations of the Government, I submit to the wisdom of the
+Legislature whether a national one, founded upon the credit of the
+Government and its revenues, might not be devised which would avoid all
+constitutional difficulties and at the same time secure all the advantages
+to the Government and country that were expected to result from the present
+bank.
+
+I can not close this communication without bringing to your view the just
+claim of the representatives of Commodore Decatur, his officers and crew,
+arising from the recapture of the frigate Philadelphia under the heavy
+batteries of Tripoli. Although sensible, as a general rule, of the
+impropriety of Executive interference under a Government like ours, where
+every individual enjoys the right of directly petitioning Congress, yet,
+viewing this case as one of very peculiar character, I deem it my duty to
+recommend it to your favorable consideration. Besides the justice of this
+claim, as corresponding to those which have been since recognized and
+satisfied, it is the fruit of a deed of patriotic and chivalrous daring
+which infused life and confidence into our infant Navy and contributed as
+much as any exploit in its history to elevate our national character.
+Public gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should
+not be withheld which may here after operate as a stimulus to our gallant
+tars.
+
+I now commend you, fellow citizens, to the guidance of Almighty God, with a
+full reliance on His merciful providence for the maintenance of our free
+institutions, and with an earnest supplication that what ever errors it may
+be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous duties which have devolved
+on me will find a remedy in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 6, 1830
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+The pleasure I have in congratulating you upon your return to your
+constitutional duties is much heightened by the satisfaction which the
+condition of our beloved country at this period justly inspires. The
+beneficent Author of All Good has granted to us during the present year
+health, peace, and plenty, and numerous causes for joy in the wonderful
+success which attends the progress of our free institutions.
+
+With a population unparalleled in its increase, and possessing a character
+which combines the hardihood of enterprise with the considerateness of
+wisdom, we see in every section of our happy country a steady improvement
+in the means of social intercourse, and correspondent effects upon the
+genius and laws of our extended Republic.
+
+The apparent exceptions to the harmony of the prospect are to be referred
+rather to inevitable diversities in the various interests which enter into
+the composition of so extensive a whole than any want of attachment to the
+Union -- interests whose collisions serve only in the end to foster the
+spirit of conciliation and patriotism so essential to the preservation of
+that Union which I most devoutly hope is destined to prove imperishable.
+
+In the midst of these blessings we have recently witnessed changes in the
+conditions of other nations which may in their consequences call for the
+utmost vigilance, wisdom, and unanimity in our councils, and the exercise
+of all the moderation and patriotism of our people.
+
+The important modifications of their Government, effected with so much
+courage and wisdom by the people of France, afford a happy presage of their
+future course, and have naturally elicited from the kindred feelings of
+this nation that spontaneous and universal burst of applause in which you
+have participated. In congratulating you, my fellow citizens, upon an event
+so auspicious to the dearest interests of man- kind I do no more than
+respond to the voice of my country, without transcending in the slightest
+degree that salutary maxim of the illustrious Washington which enjoins an
+abstinence from all interference with the internal affairs of other
+nations. From a people exercising in the most unlimited degree the right of
+self-government, and enjoying, as derived from this proud characteristic,
+under the favor of Heaven, much of the happiness with which they are
+blessed; a people who can point in triumph to their free institutions and
+challenge comparison with the fruits they bear, as well as with the
+moderation, intelligence, and energy with which they are administered --
+from such a people the deepest sympathy was to be expected in a struggle
+for the sacred principles of liberty, conducted in a spirit every way
+worthy of the cause, and crowned by a heroic moderation which has disarmed
+revolution of its terrors. Not withstanding the strong assurances which the
+man whom we so sincerely love and justly admire has given to the world of
+the high character of the present King of the French, and which if
+sustained to the end will secure to him the proud appellation of Patriot
+King, it is not in his success, but in that of the great principle which
+has borne him to the throne -- the paramount authority of the public will
+-- that the American people rejoice.
+
+I am happy to inform you that the anticipations which were indulged at the
+date of my last communication on the subject of our foreign affairs have
+been fully realized in several important particulars.
+
+An arrangement has been effected with Great Britain in relation to the
+trade between the United States and her West India and North American
+colonies which has settled a question that has for years afforded matter
+for contention and almost uninterrupted discussion, and has been the
+subject of no less than six negotiations, in a manner which promises
+results highly favorable to the parties.
+
+The abstract right of Great Britain to monopolize the trade with her
+colonies or to exclude us from a participation therein has never been
+denied by the United States. But we have contended, and with reason, that
+if at any time Great Britain may desire the productions of this country as
+necessary to her colonies they must be received upon principles of just
+reciprocity, and, further, that it is making an invidious and unfriendly
+distinction to open her colonial ports to the vessels of other nations and
+close them against those of the United States.
+
+Antecedently to 1794 a portion of our productions was admitted into the
+colonial islands of Great Britain by particular concessions, limited to the
+term of one year, but renewed from year to year. In the transportation of
+these productions, however, our vessels were not allowed to engage, this
+being a privilege reserved to British shipping, by which alone our produce
+could be taken to the islands and theirs brought to us in return. From
+Newfoundland and her continental possessions all our productions, as well
+as our vessels, were excluded, with occasional relaxations, by which, in
+seasons of distress, the former were admitted in British bottoms.
+
+By the treaty of 1794 she offered to concede to us for a limited time the
+right of carrying to her West India possessions in our vessels not
+exceeding 70 tons burthen, and upon the same terms as British vessels, any
+productions of the United States which British vessels might import
+therefrom. But this privilege was coupled with conditions which are
+supposed to have led to its rejection by the Senate; that is, that American
+vessels should land their return cargoes in the United States only, and,
+moreover, that they should during the continuance of the privilege be
+precluded from carrying molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton either
+from those islands or from the United States to any other part of the
+world. Great Britain readily consented to expunge this article from the
+treaty, and subsequent attempts to arrange the terms of the trade either by
+treaty stipulations or concerted legislation have failed, it has been
+successively suspended and allowed according to the varying legislation of
+the parties.
+
+The following are the prominent points which have in later years separated
+the two Governments: Besides a restriction whereby all importations into
+her colonies in American vessels are confined to our own products carried
+hence, a restriction to which it does not appear that we have ever
+objected, a leading object on the part of Great Britain has been to prevent
+us from becoming the carriers of British West India commodities to any
+other country than our own. On the part of the United States it has been
+contended, first, that the subject should be regulated by treaty
+stipulation in preference to separate legislation; second, that our
+productions, when imported into the colonies in question, should not be
+subject to higher duties than the productions of the mother country or of
+her other colonial possessions, and, 3rd, that our vessels should be
+allowed to participate in the circuitous trade between the United States
+and different parts of the British dominions.
+
+The first point, after having been for a long time strenuously insisted
+upon by Great Britain, was given up by the act of Parliament of [1825- 07],
+all vessels suffered to trade with the colonies being permitted to clear
+from thence with any articles which British vessels might export and
+proceed to any part of the world, Great Britain and her dependencies alone
+excepted. On our part each of the above points had in succession been
+explicitly abandoned in negotiations preceding that of which the result is
+now announced.
+
+This arrangement secures to the United States every advantage asked by
+them, and which the state of the negotiation allowed us to insist upon. The
+trade will be placed upon a footing decidedly more favorable to this
+country than any on which it ever stood, and our commerce and navigation
+will enjoy in the colonial ports of Great Britain every privilege allowed
+to other nations.
+
+That the prosperity of the country so far as it depends on this trade will
+be greatly promoted by the new arrangement there can be no doubt.
+Independently of the more obvious advantages of an open and direct
+intercourse, its establishment will be attended with other consequences of
+a higher value. That which has been carried on since the mutual interdict
+under all the expense and inconvenience unavoidably incident to it would
+have been insupportably onerous had it not been in a great degree lightened
+by concerted evasions in the mode of making the transshipments at what are
+called the neutral ports. These indirections are inconsistent with the
+dignity of nations that have so many motives not only to cherish feelings
+of mutual friendship, but to maintain such relations as will stimulate
+their respective citizens and subjects to efforts of direct, open, and
+honorable competition only, and preserve them from the influence of
+seductive and vitiating circumstances.
+
+When your preliminary interposition was asked at the close of the last
+session, a copy of the instructions under which Mr. McLane has acted,
+together with the communications which had at that time passed between him
+and the British Government, was laid before you. Although there has not
+been any thing in the acts of the two Governments which requires secrecy,
+it was thought most proper in the then state of the negotiation to make
+that communication a confidential one. So soon, however, as the evidence of
+execution on the part of Great Britain is received the whole matter shall
+be laid before you, when it will be seen that the apprehension which
+appears to have suggested one of the provisions of the act passed at your
+last session, that the restoration of the trade in question might be
+connected with other subjects and was sought to be obtained at the
+sacrifice of the public interest in other particulars, was wholly
+unfounded, and that the change which has taken place in the views of the
+British Government has been induced by considerations as honorable to both
+parties as I trust the result will prove beneficial.
+
+This desirable result was, it will be seen, greatly promoted by the liberal
+and confiding provisions of the act of Congress of the last session, by
+which our ports were upon the reception and annunciation by the President
+of the required assurance on the part of Great Britain forthwith opened to
+her vessels before the arrangement could be carried into effect on her
+part, pursuing in this act of prospective legislation a similar course to
+that adopted by Great Britain in abolishing, by her act of Parliament in
+1825, a restriction then existing and permitting our vessels to clear from
+the colonies on their return voyages for any foreign country whatever
+before British vessels had been relieved from the restriction imposed by
+our law of returning directly from the United States to the colonies, a
+restriction which she required and expected that we should abolish. Upon
+each occasion a limited and temporary advantage has been given to the
+opposite party, but an advantage of no importance in comparison with the
+restoration of mutual confidence and good feeling, and the ultimate
+establishment of the trade upon fair principles.
+
+It gives me unfeigned pleasure to assure you that this negotiation has been
+throughout characterized by the most frank and friendly spirit on the part
+of Great Britain, and concluded in a manner strongly indicative of a
+sincere desire to cultivate the best relations with the United States. To
+reciprocate this disposition to the fullest extent of my ability is a duty
+which I shall deem it a privilege to discharge.
+
+Although the result is itself the best commentary on the services rendered
+to his country by our minister at the Court of St. James, it would be doing
+violence to my feelings were I to dismiss the subject without expressing
+the very high sense I entertain of the talent and exertion which have been
+displayed by him on the occasion.
+
+The injury to the commerce of the United States resulting from the
+exclusion of our vessels from the Black Sea and the previous footing of
+mere sufferance upon which even the limited trade enjoyed by us with Turkey
+has hitherto been placed have for a long time been a source of much
+solicitude to this Government, and several endeavors have been made to
+obtain a better state of things. Sensible of the importance of the object,
+I felt it my duty to leave no proper means unemployed to acquire for our
+flag the same privileges that are enjoyed by the principal powers of
+Europe. Commissioners were consequently appointed to open a negotiation
+with the Sublime Porte. Not long after the member of the commission who
+went directly from the United States had sailed, the account of the treaty
+of Adrianople, by which one of the objects in view was supposed to be
+secured, reached this country. The Black Sea was understood to be opened to
+us. Under the supposition that this was the case, the additional facilities
+to be derived from the establishment of commercial regulations with the
+Porte were deemed of sufficient importance to require a prosecution of the
+negotiation as originally contemplated. It was therefore persevered in, and
+resulted in a treaty, which will be forthwith laid before the Senate.
+
+By its provisions a free passage is secured, without limitations of time,
+to the vessels of the United States to and from the Black Sea, including
+the navigation thereof, and our trade with Turkey is placed on the footing
+of the most favored nation. The latter is an arrangement wholly independent
+of the treaty of Adrianople, and the former derives much value, not only
+from the increased security which under any circumstances it would give to
+the right in question, but from the fact, ascertained in the course of the
+negotiation, that by the construction put upon that treaty by Turkey the
+article relating to the passage of the Bosphorus is confined to nations
+having treaties with the Porte. The most friendly feelings appear to be
+entertained by the Sultan, and an enlightened disposition is evinced by him
+to foster the intercourse between the two countries by the most liberal
+arrangements. This disposition it will be our duty and interest to
+cherish.
+
+Our relations with Russia are of the most stable character. Respect for
+that Empire and confidence in its friendship toward the United States have
+been so long entertained on our part and so carefully cherished by the
+present Emperor and his illustrious predecessor as to have become
+incorporated with the public sentiment of the United States. No means will
+be left unemployed on my part to promote these salutary feelings and those
+improvements of which the commercial intercourse between the two countries
+is susceptible, and which have derived increased importance from our treaty
+with the Sublime Porte.
+
+I sincerely regret to inform you that our minister lately commissioned to
+that Court, on whose distinguished talents and great experience in public
+affairs I place great reliance, has been compelled by extreme indisposition
+to exercise a privilege which, in consideration of the extent to which his
+constitution had been impaired in the public service, was committed to his
+discretion -- of leaving temporarily his post for the advantage of a more
+genial climate.
+
+If, as it is to be hoped, the improvement of his health should be such as
+to justify him in doing so, he will repair to St. Petersburg and resume the
+discharge of his official duties. I have received the most satisfactory
+assurances that in the mean time the public interest in that quarter will
+be preserved from prejudice by the intercourse which he will continue
+through the secretary of legation with the Russian cabinet.
+
+You are apprised, although the fact has not yet been officially announced
+to the House of Representatives, that a treaty was in the month of March
+last concluded between the United States, and Denmark, by which $650K are
+secured to our citizens as an indemnity for spoliations upon their commerce
+in the years 1808, 1809, 1810, and 1811. This treaty was sanctioned by the
+Senate at the close of its last session, and it now becomes the duty of
+Congress to pass the necessary laws for the organization of the board of
+commissioners to distribute the indemnity among the claimants. It is an
+agreeable circumstance in this adjustment that the terms are in conformity
+with the previously ascertained views of the claimants themselves, thus
+removing all pretense for a future agitation of the subject in any form.
+
+The negotiations in regard to such points in our foreign relations as
+remain to be adjusted have been actively prosecuted during the recess.
+Material advances have been made, which are of a character to promise
+favorable results. Our country, by the blessing of God, is not in a
+situation to invite aggression, and it will be our fault if she ever
+becomes so. Sincerely desirous to cultivate the most liberal and friendly
+relations with all; ever ready to fulfill our engagements with scrupulous
+fidelity; limiting our demands upon others to mere justice; holding
+ourselves ever ready to do unto them as we would wish to be done by, and
+avoiding even the appearance of undue partiality to any nation, it appears
+to me impossible that a simple and sincere application of our principles to
+our foreign relations can fail to place them ultimately upon the footing on
+which it is our wish they should rest.
+
+Of the points referred to, the most prominent are our claims upon France
+for spoliations upon our commerce; similar claims upon Spain, together with
+embarrassments in the commercial intercourse between the two countries
+which ought to be removed; the conclusion of the treaty of commerce and
+navigation with Mexico, which has been so long in suspense, as well as the
+final settlement of limits between ourselves and that Republic, and,
+finally, the arbitrament of the question between the United States and
+Great Britain in regard to the north-eastern boundary.
+
+The negotiation with France has been conducted by our minister with zeal
+and ability, and in all respects to my entire satisfaction. Although the
+prospect of a favorable termination was occasionally dimmed by counter
+pretensions to which the United States could not assent, he yet had strong
+hopes of being able to arrive at a satisfactory settlement with the late
+Government. The negotiation has been renewed with the present authorities,
+and, sensible of the general and lively confidence of our citizens in the
+justice and magnanimity of regenerated France, I regret the more not to
+have it in my power yet to announce the result so confidently anticipated.
+No ground, however, inconsistent with this expectation has yet been taken,
+and I do not allow myself to doubt that justice will soon be done us. The
+amount of the claims, the length of time they have remained unsatisfied,
+and their incontrovertible justice make an earnest prosecution of them by
+this Government an urgent duty. The illegality of the seizures and
+confiscations out of which they have arisen is not disputed, and what ever
+distinctions may have heretofore been set up in regard to the liability of
+the existing Government it is quite clear that such considerations can not
+now be interposed.
+
+The commercial intercourse between the two countries is susceptible of
+highly advantageous improvements, but the sense of this injury has had, and
+must continue to have, a very unfavorable influence upon them. From its
+satisfactory adjustment not only a firm and cordial friendship, but a
+progressive development of all their relations, may be expected. It is,
+therefore, my earnest hope that this old and vexatious subject of
+difference may be speedily removed.
+
+I feel that my confidence in our appeal to the motives which should govern
+a just and magnanimous nation is alike warranted by the character of the
+French people and by the high voucher we possess for the enlarged views and
+pure integrity of the Monarch who now presides over their councils, and
+nothing shall be wanting on my part to meet any manifestation of the spirit
+we anticipate in one of corresponding frankness and liberality.
+
+The subjects of difference with Spain have been brought to the view of that
+Government by our minister there with much force and propriety, and the
+strongest assurances have been received of their early and favorable
+consideration.
+
+The steps which remained to place the matter in controversy between Great
+Britain and the United States fairly before the arbitrator have all been
+taken in the same liberal and friendly spirit which characterized those
+before announced. Recent events have doubtless served to delay the
+decision, but our minister at the Court of the distinguished arbitrator has
+been assured that it will be made within the time contemplated by the
+treaty.
+
+I am particularly gratified in being able to state that a decidedly
+favorable, and, as I hope, lasting, change has been effected in our
+relations with the neighboring Republic of Mexico. The unfortunate and
+unfounded suspicions in regard to our disposition which it became my
+painful duty to advert to on a former occasion have been, I believe,
+entirely removed, and the Government of Mexico has been made to understand
+the real character of the wishes and views of this in regard to that
+country. The consequences is the establishment of friendship and mutual
+confidence. Such are the assurances I have received, and I see no cause to
+doubt their sincerity.
+
+I had reason to expect the conclusion of a commercial treaty with Mexico in
+season for communication on the present occasion. Circumstances which are
+not explained, but which I am persuaded are not the result of an
+indisposition on her part to enter into it, have produced the delay.
+
+There was reason to fear in the course of the last summer that the harmony
+of our relations might be disturbed by the acts of certain claimants, under
+Mexican grants, of territory which had hitherto been under our
+jurisdiction. The cooperation of the representative of Mexico near this
+Government was asked on the occasion and was readily afforded. Instructions
+and advice have been given to the governor of Arkansas and the officers in
+command in the adjoining Mexican State by which it is hoped the quiet of
+that frontier will be preserved until a final settlement of the dividing
+line shall have removed all ground of controversy.
+
+The exchange of ratifications of the treaty concluded last year with
+Austria has not yet taken place. The delay has been occasioned by the
+non-arrival of the ratification of that Government within the time
+prescribed by the treaty. Renewed authority has been asked for by the
+representative of Austria, and in the mean time the rapidly increasing
+trade and navigation between the two countries have been placed upon the
+most liberal footing of our navigation acts.
+
+Several alleged depredations have been recently committed on our commerce
+by the national vessels of Portugal. They have been made the subject of
+immediate remonstrance and reclamation. I am not yet possessed of
+sufficient information to express a definitive opinion of their character,
+but expect soon to receive it. No proper means shall be omitted to obtain
+for our citizens all the redress to which they may appear to be entitled.
+
+Almost at the moment of the adjournment of your last session two bills --
+the one entitled "An act for making appropriations for building light
+houses, light boats, beacons, and monuments, placing buoys, and for
+improving harbors and directing surveys", and the other "An act to
+authorize a subscription for stock in the Louisville and Portland Canal
+Company" -- were submitted for my approval. It was not possible within the
+time allowed for me before the close of the session to give to these bills
+the consideration which was due to their character and importance, and I
+was compelled to retain them for that purpose. I now avail myself of this
+early opportunity to return them to the Houses in which they respectively
+originated with the reasons which, after mature deliberation, compel me to
+withhold my approval.
+
+The practice of defraying out of the Treasury of the United States the
+expenses incurred by the establishment and support of light houses,
+beacons, buoys, and public piers within the bays, inlets, harbors, and
+ports of the United States, to render the navigation thereof safe and easy,
+is coeval with the adoption of the Constitution, and has been continued
+without interruption or dispute.
+
+As our foreign commerce increased and was extended into the interior of the
+country by the establishment of ports of entry and delivery upon our
+navigable rivers the sphere of those expenditures received a corresponding
+enlargement. Light houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and the removal of
+sand bars, sawyers, and other partial or temporary impediments in the
+navigable rivers and harbors which were embraced in the revenue districts
+from time to time established by law were authorized upon the same
+principle and the expense defrayed in the same manner. That these expenses
+have at times been extravagant and disproportionate is very probable. The
+circumstances under which they are incurred are well calculated to lead to
+such a result unless their application is subjected to the closest
+scrutiny. The local advantages arising from the disbursement of public
+money too frequently, it is to be feared, invite appropriations for objects
+of this character that are neither necessary nor useful.
+
+The number of light house keepers is already very large, and the bill
+before me proposes to add to it 51 more of various descriptions. From
+representations upon the subject which are understood to be entitled to
+respect I am induced to believe that there has not only been great
+improvidence in the past expenditures of the Government upon these objects,
+but that the security of navigation has in some instances been diminished
+by the multiplication of light houses and consequent change of lights upon
+the coast. It is in this as in other respects our duty to avoid all
+unnecessary expense, as well as every increase of patronage not called for
+by the public service.
+
+But in the discharge of that duty in this particular it must not be
+forgotten that in relation to our foreign commerce the burden and benefit
+of protecting and accommodating it necessarily go together, and must do so
+as long as the public revenue is drawn from the people through the custom
+house. It is indisputable that whatever gives facility and security to
+navigation cheapens imports and all who consume them are alike interested
+in what ever produces this effect. If they consume, they ought, as they now
+do, to pay; otherwise they do not pay. The consumer in the most inland
+State derives the same advantage from every necessary and prudent
+expenditure for the facility and security of our foreign commerce and
+navigation that he does who resides in a maritime State. Local expenditures
+have not of themselves a corresponding operation.
+
+From a bill making *direct* appropriations for such objects I should not
+have withheld my assent. The one now returned does so in several
+particulars, but it also contains appropriations for surveys of local
+character, which I can not approve. It gives me satisfaction to find that
+no serious inconvenience has arisen from withholding my approval from this
+bill; nor will it, I trust, be cause of regret that an opportunity will be
+thereby afforded for Congress to review its provisions under circumstances
+better calculated for full investigation than those under which it was
+passed.
+
+In speaking of direct appropriations I mean not to include a practice which
+has obtained to some extent, and to which I have in one instance, in a
+different capacity, given my assent -- that of subscribing to the stock of
+private associations. Positive experience and a more thorough consideration
+of the subject have convinced me of the impropriety as well as inexpediency
+of such investments. All improvements effected by the funds of the nation
+for general use should be open to the enjoyment of all our fellow citizens,
+exempt from the payment of tolls or any imposition of that character. The
+practice of thus mingling the concerns of the Government with those of the
+States or of individuals is inconsistent with the object of its institution
+and highly impolite. The successful operation of the federal system can
+only be preserved by confining it to the few and simple, but yet important,
+objects for which it was designed.
+
+A different practice, if allowed to progress, would ultimately change the
+character of this Government by consolidating into one the General and
+State Governments, which were intended to be kept for ever distinct. I can
+not perceive how bills authorizing such subscriptions can be otherwise
+regarded than as bills for revenue, and consequently subject to the rule in
+that respect prescribed by the Constitution. If the interest of the
+Government in private companies is subordinate to that of individuals, the
+management and control of a portion of the public funds is delegated to an
+authority unknown to the Constitution and beyond the supervision of our
+constituents; if superior, its officers and agents will be constantly
+exposed to imputations of favoritism and oppression. Direct prejudice the
+public interest or an alienation of the affections and respect of portions
+of the people may, therefore, in addition to the general dis-credit
+resulting to the Government from embarking with its constituents in
+pecuniary stipulations, be looked for as the probable fruit of such
+associations. It is no answer to this objection to say that the extent of
+consequences like these can not be great from a limited and small number of
+investments, because experience in other matters teaches us -- and we are
+not at liberty to disregard its admonitions -- that unless an entire stop
+be put to them it will soon be impossible to prevent their accumulation
+until they are spread over the whole country and made to embrace many of
+the private and appropriate concerns of individuals.
+
+The power which the General Government would acquire within the several
+States by becoming the principal stock-holder in corporations, controlling
+every canal and each 60 or 100 miles of every important road, and giving a
+proportionate vote in all their elections, is almost inconceivable, and in
+my view dangerous to the liberties of the people.
+
+This mode of aiding such works is also in its nature deceptive, and in many
+cases conducive to improvidence in the administration of the national
+funds. Appropriations will be obtained with much greater facility and
+granted with less security to the public interest when the measure is thus
+disguised than when definite and direct expenditures of money are asked
+for. The interests of the nation would doubtless be better served by
+avoiding all such indirect modes of aiding particular objects. In a
+government like ours more especially should all public acts be, as far as
+practicable, simple, undisguised, and intelligible, that they may become
+fit subjects for the approbation to animadversion of the people.
+
+The bill authorizing a subscription to the Louisville and Portland Canal
+affords a striking illustration of the difficulty of withholding additional
+appropriations for the same object when the first erroneous step has been
+taken by instituting a partnership between the Government and private
+companies. It proposes a third subscription on the part of the United
+States, when each preceding one was at the time regarded as the extent of
+the aid which Government was to render to that work; and the accompanying
+bill for light houses, etc., contains an appropriation for a survey of the
+bed of the river, with a view to its improvement by removing the
+obstruction which the canal is designed to avoid. This improvement, if
+successful, would afford a free passage of the river and render the canal
+entirely useless. To such improvidence is the course of legislation subject
+in relation to internal improvements on local matters, even with the best
+intentions on the part of Congress.
+
+Although the motives which have influenced me in this matter may be already
+sufficiently stated, I am, never the less, induced by its importance to add
+a few observations of a general character.
+
+In my objections to the bills authorizing subscriptions to the Maysville
+and Rockville road companies I expressed my views fully in regard to the
+power of Congress to construct roads and canals within a State of to
+appropriate money for improvements of a local character. I at the same time
+intimated me belief that the right to make appropriations for such as were
+of a national character had been so generally acted upon and so long
+acquiesced in by the Federal and State Governments and the constituents of
+each as to justify its exercise on the ground of continued and
+uninterrupted usage, but that it was, never the less, highly expedient that
+appropriations even of that character should, with the exception made at
+the time, be deferred until the national debt is paid, and that in the mean
+while some general rule for the action of the Government in that respect
+ought to be established.
+
+These suggestions were not necessary to the decision of the question then
+before me, and were, I readily admit, intended to awake the attention and
+draw forth the opinion and observations of our constituents upon a subject
+of the highest importance to their interests, and 1 destined to exert a
+powerful influence upon the future operations of our political system. I
+know of no tribunal to which a public man in this country, in a case of
+doubt and difficulty, can appeal with greater advantage or more propriety
+than the judgment of the people; and although I must necessarily in the
+discharge of my official duties be governed by the dictates of my own
+judgment, I have no desire to conceal my anxious wish to conform as far as
+I can to the views of those for whom I act.
+
+All irregular expressions of public opinion are of necessity attended with
+some doubt as to their accuracy, but making full allowances on that account
+I can not, I think, deceive myself in believing that the acts referred to,
+as well as the suggestions which I allowed myself to make in relation to
+their bearing upon the future operations of the Government, have been
+approved by the great body of the people. That those whose immediate
+pecuniary interests are to be affected by proposed expenditures should
+shrink from the application of a rule which prefers their more general and
+remote interests to those which are personal and immediate is to be
+expected. But even such objections must from the nature of our population
+be but temporary in their duration, and if it were otherwise our course
+should be the same, for the time is yet, I hope, far distant when those
+intrusted with power to be exercised for the good of the whole will
+consider it either honest or wise to purchase local favors at the sacrifice
+of principle and general good.
+
+So understanding public sentiment, and thoroughly satisfied that the best
+interests of our common country imperiously require that the course which I
+have recommended in this regard should be adopted, I have, upon the most
+mature consideration, determined to pursue it.
+
+It is due to candor, as well as to my own feelings, that I should express
+the reluctance and anxiety which I must at all times experience in
+exercising the undoubted right of the Executive to withhold his assent from
+bills on other grounds than their constitutionality. That this right should
+not be exercised on slight occasions all will admit. It is only in matters
+of deep interest, when the principle involved may be justly regarded as
+next in importance to infractions of the Constitution itself, that such a
+step can be expected to meet with the approbation of the people. Such an
+occasion do I conscientiously believe the present to be.
+
+In the discharge of this delicate and highly responsible duty I am
+sustained by the reflection that the exercise of this power has been deemed
+consistent with the obligation of official duty by several of my
+predecessors, and by the persuasion, too, that what ever liberal
+institutions may have to fear from the encroachments of Executive power,
+which has been every where the cause of so much strife and bloody
+contention, but little danger is to be apprehended from a precedent by
+which that authority denies to itself the exercise of powers that bring in
+their train influence and patronage of great extent, and thus excludes the
+operation of personal interests, every where the bane of official trust.
+
+I derive, too, no small degree of satisfaction from the reflection that if
+I have mistaken the interests and wishes of the people the Constitution
+affords the means of soon redressing the error by selecting for the place
+their favor has bestowed upon me a citizen whose opinions may accord with
+their own. I trust, in the mean time, the interests of the nation will be
+saved from prejudice by a rigid application of that portion of the public
+funds which might otherwise be applied to different objects to that highest
+of all our obligations, the payment of the public debt, and an opportunity
+be afforded for the adoption of some better rule for the operations of the
+Government in this matter than any which has hitherto been acted upon.
+
+Profoundly impressed with the importance of the subject, not merely as
+relates to the general prosperity of the country, but to the safety of the
+federal system, I can not avoid repeating my earnest hope that all good
+citizens who take a proper interest in the success and harmony of our
+admirable political institutions, and who are incapable of desiring to
+convert an opposite state of things into means for the gratification of
+personal ambition, will, laying aside minor considerations and discarding
+local prejudices, unite their honest exertions to establish some fixed
+general principle which shall be calculated to effect the greatest extent
+of public good in regard to the subject of internal improvement, and afford
+the least ground for sectional discontent.
+
+The general grounds of my objection to local appropriations have been
+heretofore expressed, and I shall endeavor to avoid a repetition of what
+has been already urged -- the importance of sustaining the State
+sovereignties as far as is consistent with the rightful action of the
+Federal Government, and of preserving the greatest attainable harmony
+between them. I will now only add an expression of my conviction -- a
+conviction which every day's experience serves to confirm -- that the
+political creed which inculcates the pursuit of those great objects as a
+paramount duty is the true faith, and one to which we are mainly indebted
+for the present success of the entire system, and to which we must alone
+look for its future stability.
+
+That there are diversities in the interests of the different States which
+compose this extensive Confederacy must be admitted. Those diversities
+arising from situation, climate, population, and pursuits are doubtless, as
+it is natural they should be, greatly exaggerated by jealousies and that
+spirit of rivalry so inseparable from neighboring communities. These
+circumstances make it the duty of those who are intrusted with the
+management of its affairs to neutralize their effects as far as practicable
+by making the beneficial operation of the Federal Government as equal and
+equitable among the several States as can be done consistently with the
+great ends of its institution.
+
+It is only necessary to refer to undoubted facts to see how far the past
+acts of the Government upon the subject under consideration have fallen
+short of this object. The expenditures heretofore made for internal
+improvements amount to upward of $5M, and have been distributed in very
+unequal proportions amongst the States. The estimated expense of works of
+which surveys have been made, together with that of others projected and
+partially surveyed, amounts to more than $96M.
+
+That such improvements, on account of particular circumstances, may be more
+advantageously and beneficially made in some States than in others is
+doubtless true, but that they are of a character which should prevent an
+equitable distribution of the funds amongst the several States is not to be
+conceded. The want of this equitable distribution can not fail to prove a
+prolific source of irritation among the States.
+
+We have it constantly before our eyes that professions of superior zeal in
+the cause of internal improvement and a disposition to lavish the public
+funds upon objects of this character are daily and earnestly put forth by
+aspirants to power as constituting the highest claims to the confidence of
+the people. Would it be strange, under such circumstances, and in times of
+great excitement, that grants of this description should find their motives
+in objects which may not accord with the public good? Those who have not
+had occasion to see and regret the indication of a sinister influence in
+these matters in past times have been more fortunate than myself in their
+observation of the course of public affairs. If to these evils be added the
+combinations and angry contentions to which such a course of things gives
+rise, with their baleful influences upon the legislation of Congress
+touching the leading and appropriate duties of the Federal Government, it
+was but doing justice to the character of our people to expect the severe
+condemnation of the past which the recent exhibitions of public sentiment
+has evinced.
+
+Nothing short of a radical change in the action of the Government upon the
+subject can, in my opinion, remedy the evil. If, as it would be natural to
+expect, the States which have been least favored in past appropriations
+should insist on being redressed in those here after to be made, at the
+expense of the States which have so largely and disproportionately
+participated, we have, as matters now stand, but little security that the
+attempt would do more than change the inequality from one quarter to
+another.
+
+Thus viewing the subject, I have heretofore felt it my duty to recommend
+the adoption of some plan for the distribution of the surplus funds, which
+may at any time remain in the Treasury after the national debt shall have
+been paid, among the States, in proportion to the number of their
+Representatives, to be applied by them to objects of internal improvement.
+
+Although this plan has met with favor in some portions of the Union, it has
+also elicited objections which merit deliberate consideration. A brief
+notice of these objections here will not, therefore, I trust, be regarded
+as out of place.
+
+They rest, as far as they have come to my knowledge, on the following
+grounds: first, an objection to the ration of distribution; second, an
+apprehension that the existence of such a regulation would produce
+improvident and oppressive taxation to raise the funds for distribution;
+3rd, that the mode proposed would lead to the construction of works of a
+local nature, to the exclusion of such as are general and as would
+consequently be of a more useful character; and, last, that it would create
+a discreditable and injurious dependence on the part of the State
+governments upon the Federal power.
+
+Of those who object to the ration of representatives as the basis of
+distribution, some insist that the importations of the respective States
+would constitute one that would be more equitable; and others again, that
+the extent of their respective territories would furnish a standard which
+would be more expedient and sufficiently equitable. The ration of
+representation presented itself to my mind, and it still does, as one of
+obvious equity, because of its being the ratio of contribution, whether the
+funds to be distributed be derived from the customs or from direct
+taxation. It does not follow, however, that its adoption is indispensable
+to the establishment of the system proposed. There may be considerations
+appertaining to the subject which would render a departure, to some extent,
+from the rule of contribution proper. Nor is it absolutely necessary that
+the basis of distribution be confined to 1 ground. It may, if in the
+judgment of those whose right it is to fix it it be deemed politic and just
+to give it that character, have regard to several.
+
+In my first message I stated it to be my opinion that "it is not probably
+that any adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the
+people of the Union will until a remote period, if ever, leave the
+Government without a considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond what may
+be required for its current surplus". I have had no cause to change that
+opinion, but much to confirm it. Should these expectations be realized, a
+suitable fund would thus be produced for the plan under consideration to
+operate upon, and if there be no such fund its adoption will, in my
+opinion, work no injury to any interest; for I can not assent to the
+justness of the apprehension that the establishment of the proposed system
+would tend to the encouragement of improvident legislation of the character
+supposed. What ever the proper authority in the exercise of constitutional
+power shall at any time here after decide to be for the general good will
+in that as in other respects deserve and receive the acquiescence and
+support of the whole country, and we have ample security that every abuse
+of power in that regard by agents of the people will receive a speedy and
+effectual corrective at their hands. The views which I take of the future,
+founded on the obvious and increasing improvement of all classes of our
+fellow citizens in intelligence and in public and private virtue, leave me
+without much apprehension on that head.
+
+I do not doubt that those who come after us will be as much alive as we are
+to the obligation upon all the trustees of political power to exempt those
+for whom they act from all unnecessary burthens, and as sensible of the
+great truth that the resources of the nation beyond those required for
+immediate and necessary purposes of Government can no where be so well
+deposited as in the pockets of the people.
+
+It may some times happen that the interests of particular States would not
+be deemed to coincide with the general interest in relation to improvements
+within such States. But if the danger to be apprehended from this source is
+sufficient to require it, a discretion might be reserved to Congress to
+direct to such improvements of a general character as the States concerned
+might not be disposed to unite in, the application of the quotas of those
+States, under the restriction of confining to each State the expenditure of
+its appropriate quota. It may, however, be assumed as a safe general rule
+that such improvements as serve to increase the prosperity of the
+respective States in which they are made, by giving new facilities to
+trade, and thereby augmenting the wealth and comfort of their inhabitants,
+constitute the surest mode of conferring permanent and substantial
+advantages upon the whole. The strength as well as the true glory of the
+Confederacy is founded on the prosperity and power of the several
+independent sovereignties of which it is composed and the certainty with
+which they can be brought into successful active cooperation through the
+agency of the Federal Government.
+
+It is, more over, within the knowledge of such as are at all conversant
+with public affairs that schemes of internal improvement have from time to
+time been proposed which, from their extent and seeming magnificence, were
+readily regarded as of national concernment, but which upon fuller
+consideration and further experience would now be rejected with great
+unanimity.
+
+That the plan under consideration would derive important advantages from
+its certainty, and that the moneys set apart for these purposes would be
+more judiciously applied and economically expended under the direction of
+the State legislatures, in which every part of each State is immediately
+represented, can not, I think, be doubted. In the new States particularly,
+where a comparatively small population is scattered over an extensive
+surface, and the representation in Congress consequently very limited, it
+is natural to expect that the appropriations made by the Federal Government
+would be more likely to be expended in the vicinity of those numbers
+through whose immediate agency they were obtained than if the funds were
+placed under the control of the legislature, in which every county of the
+State has its own representative. This supposition does not necessarily
+impugn the motives of such Congressional representatives, nor is it so
+intended. We are all sensible of the bias to which the strongest minds and
+purest hearts are, under such circumstances, liable. In respect to the last
+objection -- its probable effect upon the dignity and independence of State
+governments -- it appears to me only necessary to state the case as it is,
+and as it would be if the measure proposed were adopted, to show that the
+operation is most likely to be the very reverse of that which the objection
+supposes.
+
+In the one case the State would receive its quota of the national revenue
+for domestic use upon a fixed principle as a matter of right, and from a
+fund to the creation of which it had itself contributed its fair
+proportion. Surely there could be nothing derogatory in that. As matters
+now stand the States themselves, in their sovereign character, are not
+unfrequently petitioners at the bar of the Federal Legislature for such
+allowances out of the National Treasury as it may comport with their
+pleasure or sense of duty to bestow upon them. It can not require argument
+to prove which of the two courses is most compatible with the efficiency or
+respectability of the State governments.
+
+But all these are matters for discussion and dispassionate consideration.
+That the desired adjustment would be attended with difficulty affords no
+reason why it should not be attempted. The effective operation of such
+motives would have prevented the adoption of the Constitution under which
+we have so long lived and under the benign influence of which our beloved
+country has so signally prospered. The framers of that sacred instrument
+had greater difficulties to overcome, and they did overcome them. The
+patriotism of the people, directed by a deep conviction of the importance
+of the Union, produced mutual concession and reciprocal forbearance. Strict
+right was merged in a spirit of compromise, and the result has consecrated
+their disinterested devotion to the general weal. Unless the American
+people have degenerated, the same result can be again effected when ever
+experience points out the necessity of a resort to the same means to uphold
+the fabric which their fathers have reared.
+
+It is beyond the power of man to make a system of government like ours or
+any other operate with precise equality upon States situated like those
+which compose this Confederacy; nor is inequality always injustice. Every
+State can not expect to shape the measures of the General Government to
+suit its own particular interests. The causes which prevent it are seated
+in the nature of things, and can not be entirely counteracted by human
+means. Mutual forbearance becomes, therefore, a duty obligatory upon all,
+and we may, I am confident, count upon a cheerful compliance with this high
+injunction on the part of our constituents. It is not to be supposed that
+they will object to make such comparatively inconsiderable sacrifices for
+the preservation of rights and privileges which other less favored portions
+of the world have in vain waded through seas of blood to acquire.
+
+Our course is a safe one if it be but faithfully adhered to. Acquiescence
+in the constitutionally expressed will of the majority, and the exercise of
+that will in a spirit of moderation, justice, and brotherly kindness, will
+constitute a cement which would for ever preserve our Union. Those who
+cherish and inculcate sentiments like these render a most essential service
+to their country, while those who seek to weaken their influence are, how
+ever conscientious and praise worthy their intentions, in effect its worst
+enemies.
+
+If the intelligence and influence of the country, instead of laboring to
+foment sectional prejudices, to be made subservient to party warfare, were
+in good faith applied to the eradication of causes of local discontent, by
+the improvement of our institutions and by facilitating their adaptation to
+the condition of the times, this task would prove 1 of less difficulty. May
+we not hope that the obvious interests of our common country and the
+dictates of an enlightened patriotism will in the end lead the public mind
+in that direction?
+
+After all, the nature of the subject does not admit of a plan wholly free
+from objection. That which has for some time been in operation is, perhaps,
+the worst that could exist, and every advance that can be made in its
+improvement is a matter eminently worthy of your most deliberate
+attention.
+
+It is very possible that one better calculated to effect the objects in
+view may yet be devised. If so, it is to be hoped that those who disapprove
+the past and dissent from what is proposed for the future will feel it
+their duty to direct their attention to it, as they must be sensible that
+unless some fixed rule for the action of the Federal Government in this
+respect is established the course now attempted to be arrested will be
+again resorted to. Any mode which is calculated to give the greatest degree
+of effect and harmony to our legislation upon the subject, which shall best
+serve to keep the movements of the Federal Government within the sphere
+intended by those who modeled and those who adopted it, which shall lead to
+the extinguishment of the national debt in the shortest period and impose
+the lightest burthens upon our constituents, shall receive from me a
+cordial and firm support.
+
+Among the objects of great national concern I can not omit to press again
+upon your attention that part of the Constitution which regulates the
+election of President and Vice-President. The necessity for its amendment
+is made so clear to my mind by observation of its evils and by the many
+able discussions which they have elicited on the floor of Congress and
+elsewhere that I should be wanting to my duty were I to withhold another
+expression of my deep solicitude on the subject. Our system fortunately
+contemplates a recurrence to first principles, differing in this respect
+from all that have preceded it, and securing it, I trust, equally against
+the decay and the commotions which have marked the progress of other
+governments.
+
+Our fellow citizens, too, who in proportion to their love of liberty keep a
+steady eye upon the means of sustaining it, do not require to be reminded
+of the duty they owe to themselves to remedy all essential defects in so
+vital a part of their system. While they are sensible that every evil
+attendant upon its operation is not necessarily indicative of a bad
+organization, but may proceed from temporary causes, yet the habitual
+presence, or even a single instance, of evils which can be clearly traced
+to an organic defect will not, I trust, be over-looked through a too
+scrupulous veneration for the work of their ancestors.
+
+The Constitution was an experiment committed to the virtue and intelligence
+of the great mass of our country-men, in whose ranks the framers of it
+themselves were to perform the part of patriotic observation and scrutiny,
+and if they have passed from the stage of existence with an increased
+confidence in its general adaptation to our condition we should learn from
+authority so high the duty of fortifying the points in it which time proves
+to be exposed rather than be deterred from approaching them by the
+suggestions of fear or the dictates of misplaced reverence.
+
+A provision which does not secure to the people a direct choice of their
+Chief Magistrate, but has a tendency to defeat their will, presented to my
+mind such an inconsistence with the general spirit of our institutions that
+I was indeed to suggest for your consideration the substitute which
+appeared to me at the same time the most likely to correct the evil and to
+meet the views of our constituents. The most mature reflection since has
+added strength to the belief that the best interests of our country require
+the speedy adoption of some plan calculated to effect this end. A
+contingency which some times places it in the power of a single member of
+the House of Representatives to decide an election of so high and solemn a
+character is unjust to the people, and becomes when it occurs a source of
+embarrassment to the individuals thus brought into power and a cause of
+distrust of the representative body.
+
+Liable as the Confederacy is, from its great extent, to parties founded
+upon sectional interests, and to a corresponding multiplication of
+candidates for the Presidency, the tendency of the constitutional reference
+to the House of Representatives is to devolve the election upon that body
+in almost every instance, and, what ever choice may then be made among the
+candidates thus presented to them, to swell the influence of particular
+interests to a degree inconsistent with the general good. The consequences
+of this feature of the Constitution appear far more threatening to the
+peace and integrity of the Union than any which I can conceive as likely to
+result from the simple legislative action of the Federal Government.
+
+It was a leading object with the framers of the Constitution to keep as
+separate as possible the action of the legislative and executive branches
+of the Government. To secure this object nothing is more essential than to
+preserve the former from all temptations of private interest, and therefore
+so to direct the patronage of the latter as not to permit such temptations
+to be offered. Experience abundantly demonstrates that every precaution in
+this respect is a valuable safe-guard of liberty, and 1 which my
+reflections upon the tendencies of our system incline me to think should be
+made still stronger.
+
+It was for this reason that, in connection with an amendment of the
+Constitution removing all intermediate agency in the choice of the
+President, I recommended some restrictions upon the re-eligibility of that
+officer and upon the tenure of offices generally. The reason still exists,
+and I renew the recommendation with an increased confidence that its
+adoption will strengthen those checks by which the Constitution designed to
+secure the independence of each department of the Government and promote
+the healthful and equitable administration of all the trusts which it has
+created.
+
+The agent most likely to contravene this design of the Constitution is the
+Chief Magistrate. In order, particularly, that his appointment may as far
+as possible be placed beyond the reach of any improper influences; in order
+that he may approach the solemn responsibilities of the highest office in
+the gift of a free people uncommitted to any other course than the strict
+line of constitutional duty, and that the securities for this independence
+may be rendered as strong as the nature of power and the weakness of its
+possessor will admit, I can not too earnestly invite your attention to the
+propriety of promoting such an amendment of the Constitution as will render
+him ineligible after 1 term of service.
+
+It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of
+the Government, steadily pursued for nearly 30 years, in relation to the
+removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a
+happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made
+for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that
+their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same
+obvious advantages.
+
+The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United
+States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary
+advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its
+recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between
+the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the
+Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of
+country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole
+territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the
+settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the SW frontier
+and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions
+without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the
+western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to
+advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the
+Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from
+the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way
+and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay,
+which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under
+the protection of the Government and through the influence of good
+counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting,
+civilized, and Christian community. These consequences, some of them so
+certain and the rest so probable, make the complete execution of the plan
+sanctioned by Congress at their last session an object of much solicitude.
+
+Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge a more friendly
+feeling than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from
+their wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people. I have
+endeavored to impress upon them my own solemn convictions of the duties and
+powers of the General Government in relation to the State authorities. For
+the justice of the laws passed by the States within the scope of their
+reserved powers they are not responsible to this Government. As individuals
+we may entertain and express our opinions of their acts, but as a
+Government we have as little right to control them as we have to prescribe
+laws for other nations.
+
+With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw
+tribes have with great unanimity determined to avail themselves of the
+liberal offers presented by the act of Congress, and have agreed to remove
+beyond the Mississippi River. Treaties have been made with them, which in
+due season will be submitted for consideration. In negotiating these
+treaties they were made to understand their true condition, and they have
+preferred maintaining their independence in the Western forests to
+submitting to the laws of the States in which they now reside. These
+treaties, being probably the last which will ever be made with them, are
+characterized by great liberality on the part of the Government. They give
+the Indians a liberal sum in consideration of their removal, and
+comfortable subsistence on their arrival at their new homes. If it be their
+real interest to maintain a separate existence, they will there be at
+liberty to do so without the inconveniences and vexations to which they
+would unavoidably have been subject in Alabama and Mississippi.
+
+Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country,
+and Philanthropy has been long busily employed in devising means to avert
+it, but its progress has never for a moment been arrested, and one by one
+have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To follow to the tomb
+the last of his race and to tread on the graves of extinct nations excite
+melancholy reflections. But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these
+vicissitudes as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room
+for another. In the monuments and fortifications of an unknown people,
+spread over the extensive regions of the West, we behold the memorials of a
+once powerful race, which was exterminated of has disappeared to make room
+for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there any thing in this which, upon
+a comprehensive view of the general interests of the human race, is to be
+regretted. Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to
+the condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would
+prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages
+to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous
+farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or
+industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled
+with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?
+
+The present policy of the Government is but a continuation of the same
+progressive change by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the
+countries now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have
+melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and
+civilization are rolling to the westward, and we now propose to acquire the
+countries occupied by the red men of the South and West by a fair exchange,
+and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to a land where
+their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual.
+
+Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what
+do they more than our ancestors did or than our children are now doing? To
+better their condition in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was
+dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands yearly leave the land of
+their birth to seek new homes in distant regions. Does Humanity weep at
+these painful separations from every thing, animate and inanimate, with
+which the young heart has become entwined? Far from it. It is rather a
+source of joy that our country affords scope where our young population may
+range unconstrained in body or in mind, developing the power and faculties
+of man in their highest perfection.
+
+These remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles at their own expense,
+purchase the lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes
+from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this Government when,
+by events which it can not control, the Indian is made discontented in his
+ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive
+territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his
+new abode? How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the
+opportunity of removing to the West on such conditions! If the offers made
+to the Indians were extended to them, they would be hailed with gratitude
+and joy.
+
+And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to
+his home than the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting to
+him to leave the graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and
+children? Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward
+the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to submit to
+the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from
+this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the General Government
+kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his
+removal and settlement.
+
+In the consummation of a policy originating at an early period, and
+steadily pursued by every Administration within the present century -- so
+just to the States and so generous to the Indians -- the Executive feels it
+has a right to expect the cooperation of Congress and of all good and
+disinterested men. The States, moreover, have a right to demand it. It was
+substantially a part of the compact which made them members of our
+Confederacy. With Georgia there is an express contract; with the new States
+an implied one of equal obligation. Why, in authorizing Ohio, Indiana,
+Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama to form constitutions and
+become separate States, did Congress include within their limits extensive
+tracts of Indian lands, and, in some instances, powerful Indian tribes? Was
+it not understood by both parties that the power of the States was to be
+coextensive with their limits, and that with all convenient dispatch the
+General Government should extinguish the Indian title and remove every
+obstruction to the complete jurisdiction of the State governments over the
+soil? Probably not one of those States would have accepted a separate
+existence -- certainly it would never have been granted by Congress -- had
+it been understood that they were to be confined for ever to those small
+portions of their nominal territory the Indian title to which had at the
+time been extinguished.
+
+It is, therefore, a duty which this Government owes to the new States to
+extinguish as soon as possible the Indian title to all lands which Congress
+themselves have included within their limits. When this is done the duties
+of the General Government in relation to the States and the Indians within
+their limits are at an end. The Indians may leave the State or not, as they
+choose. The purchase of their lands does not alter in the least their
+personal relations with the State government. No act of the General
+Government has ever been deemed necessary to give the States jurisdiction
+over the persons of the Indians. That they possess by virtue of their
+sovereign power within their own limits in as full a manner before as after
+the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this Government add to or
+diminish it.
+
+May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more zealously
+than those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection to the laws of the
+States, will unite in attempting to open the eyes of those children of the
+forest to their true condition, and by a speedy removal to relieve them
+from all the evils, real or imaginary, present or prospective, with which
+they may be supposed to be threatened.
+
+Among the numerous causes of congratulation the condition of our impost
+revenue deserves special mention, in as much as it promises the means of
+extinguishing the public debt sooner than was anticipated, and furnishes a
+strong illustration of the practical effects of the present tariff upon our
+commercial interests.
+
+The object of the tariff is objected to by some as unconstitutional, and it
+is considered by almost all as defective in many of its parts.
+
+The power to impose duties on imports originally belonged to the several
+States. The right to adjust those duties with a view to the encouragement
+of domestic branches of industry is so completely incidental to that power
+that it is difficult to suppose the existence of the one without the other.
+The States have delegated their whole authority over imports to the General
+Government without limitation or restriction, saving the very
+inconsiderable reservation relating to their inspection laws. This
+authority having thus entirely passed from the States, the right to
+exercise it for the purpose of protection does not exist in them, and
+consequently if it be not possessed by the General Government it must be
+extinct. Our political system would thus present the anomaly of a people
+stripped of the right to foster their own industry and to counteract the
+most selfish and destructive policy which might be adopted by foreign
+nations. This sure can not be the case. This indispensable power thus
+surrendered by the States must be within the scope of the authority on the
+subject expressly delegated to Congress.
+
+In this conclusion I am confirmed as well by the opinions of Presidents
+Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have each repeatedly
+recommended the exercise of this right under the Constitution, as by the
+uniform practice of Congress, the continued acquiescence of the States, and
+the general understanding of the people.
+
+The difficulties of a more expedient adjustment of the present tariff,
+although great, are far from being insurmountable. Some are unwilling to
+improve any of its parts because they would destroy the whole; others fear
+to touch the objectionable parts lest those they approve should be
+jeoparded. I am persuaded that the advocates of these conflicting views do
+injustice to the American people and to their representatives. The general
+interest is the interest of each, and my confidence is entire that to
+insure the adoption of such modifications of the tariff as the general
+interest requires it is only necessary that that interest should be
+understood.
+
+It is an infirmity of our nature to mingle our interests and prejudices
+with the operation of our reasoning powers, and attribute to the objects of
+our likes and dislikes qualities they do not possess and effects they can
+not produce. The effects of the present tariff are doubtless over-rated,
+both in its evils and in its advantages. By one class of reasoners the
+reduced price of cotton and other agricultural products is ascribed wholly
+to its influence, and by another the reduced price of manufactured
+articles.
+
+The probability is that neither opinion approaches the truth, and that both
+are induced by that influence of interests and prejudices to which I have
+referred. The decrease of prices extends throughout the commercial world,
+embracing not only the raw material and the manufactured article, but
+provisions and lands. The cause must therefore be deeper and more pervading
+than the tariff of the United States. It may in a measure be attributable
+to the increased value of the precious metals, produced by a diminution of
+the supply and an increase in the demand, while commerce has rapidly
+extended itself and population has augmented. The supply of gold and
+silver, the general medium of exchange, has been greatly interrupted by
+civil convulsions in the countries from which they are principally drawn. A
+part of the effect, too, is doubtless owing to an increase of operatives
+and improvements in machinery. But on the whole it is questionable whether
+the reduction in the price of lands, produce, and manufactures has been
+greater than the appreciation of the standard of value.
+
+While the chief object of duties should be revenue, they may be so adjusted
+as to encourage manufactures. In this adjustment, however, it is the duty
+of the Government to be guided by the general good. Objects of national
+importance alone ought to be protected. Of these the productions of our
+soil, our mines, and our work shops, essential to national defense, occupy
+the first rank. What ever other species of domestic industry, having the
+importance to which I have referred, may be expected, after temporary
+protection, to compete with foreign labor on equal terms merit the same
+attention in a subordinate degree.
+
+The present tariff taxes some of the comforts of life unnecessarily high;
+it undertakes to protect interests too local and minute to justify a
+general exaction, and it also attempts to force some kinds of manufactures
+for which the country is not ripe. Much relief will be derived in some of
+these respects from the measures of your last session.
+
+The best as well as fairest mode of determining whether from any just
+considerations a particular interest ought to receive protection would be
+to submit the question singly for deliberation. If after due examination of
+its merits, unconnected with extraneous considerations -- such as a desire
+to sustain a general system or to purchase support for a different interest
+-- it should enlist in its favor a majority of the representatives of the
+people, there can be little danger of wrong or injury in adjusting the
+tariff with reference to its protective effect. If this obviously just
+principle were honestly adhered to, the branches of industry which deserve
+protection would be saved from the prejudice excited against them when that
+protection forms part of a system by which portions of the country feel or
+conceive themselves to be oppressed. What is incalculably more important,
+the vital principle of our system -- that principle which requires
+acquiescence in the will of the majority -- would be secure from the
+discredit and danger to which it is exposed by the acts of majorities
+founded not on identity of conviction, but on combinations of small
+minorities entered into for the purpose of mutual assistance in measures
+which, resting solely on their own merits, could never be carried.
+
+I am well aware that this is a subject of so much delicacy, on account of
+the extended interests in involves, as to require that it should be touched
+with the utmost caution, and that while an abandonment of the policy in
+which it originated -- a policy coeval with our Government, and pursued
+through successive Administrations -- is neither to be expected or desired,
+the people have a right to demand, and have demanded, that it be so
+modified as to correct abuses and obviate injustice.
+
+That our deliberations on this interesting subject should be uninfluenced
+by those partisan conflicts that are incident to free institutions is the
+fervent wish of my heart. To make this great question, which unhappily so
+much divides and excites the public mind, subservient to the short-sighted
+views of faction, must destroy all hope of settling it satisfactorily to
+the great body of the people and for the general interest. I can not,
+therefore, in taking leave of the subject, too earnestly for my own
+feelings or the common good warn you against the blighting consequences of
+such a course.
+
+According to the estimates at the Treasury Department, the receipts in the
+Treasury during the present year will amount to $24,161,018, which will
+exceed by about $300K the estimate presented in the last annual report of
+the Secretary of the Treasury. The total expenditure during the year,
+exclusive of public debt, is estimated at $13,742,311, and the payment on
+account of public debt for the same period will have been $11,354,630,
+leaving a balance in the Treasury on [1831-01-01] of $4,819,781.
+
+In connection with the condition of our finances, it affords me pleasure to
+remark that judicious and efficient arrangements have been made by the
+Treasury Department for securing the pecuniary responsibility of the public
+officers and the more punctual payment of the public dues. The Revenue
+Cutter Service has been organized and placed on a good footing, and aided
+by an increase of inspectors at exposed points, and regulations adopted
+under the act of [1830-05], for the inspection and appraisement of
+merchandise, has produced much improvement in the execution of the laws and
+more security against the commission of frauds upon the revenue. Abuses in
+the allowances for fishing bounties have also been corrected, and a
+material saving in that branch of the service thereby effected. In addition
+to these improvements the system of expenditure for sick sea men belonging
+to the merchant service has been revised, and being rendered uniform and
+economical the benefits of the fund applicable to this object have been
+usefully extended.
+
+The prosperity of our country is also further evinced by the increased
+revenue arising from the sale of public lands, as will appear from the
+report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the documents
+accompanying it, which are herewith transmitted. I beg leave to draw your
+attention to this report, and to the propriety of making early
+appropriations for the objects which it specifies.
+
+Your attention is again invited to the subjects connected with that portion
+of the public interests intrusted to the War Department. Some of them were
+referred to in my former message, and they are presented in detail in the
+report of the Secretary of War herewith submitted. I refer you also to the
+report of that officer for a knowledge of the state of the Army,
+fortifications, arsenals, and Indian affairs, all of which it will be
+perceived have been guarded with zealous attention and care. It is worthy
+of your consideration whether the armaments necessary for the
+fortifications on our maritime frontier which are now or shortly will be
+completed should not be in readiness sooner than the customary
+appropriations will enable the Department to provide them. This precaution
+seems to be due to the general system of fortification which has been
+sanctioned by Congress, and is recommended by that maxim of wisdom which
+tells us in peace to prepare for war.
+
+I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for a highly
+satisfactory account of the manner in which the concerns of that Department
+have been conducted during the present year. Our position in relation to
+the most powerful nations of the earth, and the present condition of
+Europe, admonish us to cherish this arm of our national defense with
+peculiar care. Separated by wide seas from all those Governments whose
+power we might have reason to dread, we have nothing to apprehend from
+attempts at conquest. It is chiefly attacks upon our commerce and
+harrassing in-roads upon our coast against which we have to guard. A naval
+force adequate to the protection of our commerce, always afloat, with an
+accumulation of the means to give it a rapid extension in case of need,
+furnishes the power by which all such aggressions may be prevented or
+repelled. The attention of the Government has therefore been recently
+directed more to preserving the public vessels already built and providing
+materials to be placed in depot for future use than to increasing their
+number. With the aid of Congress, in a few years the Government will be
+prepared in case of emergency to put afloat a powerful navy of new ships
+almost as soon as old ones could be repaired.
+
+The modifications in this part of the service suggested in my last annual
+message, which are noticed more in detail in the report of the Secretary of
+the Navy, are again recommended to your serious attention.
+
+The report of the PostMaster General in like manner exhibits a satisfactory
+view of the important branch of the Government under his charge. In
+addition to the benefits already secured by the operations of the Post
+Office Department, considerable improvements within the present year have
+been made by an increase in the accommodation afforded by stage coaches,
+and in the frequency and celerity of the mail between some of the most
+important points of the Union.
+
+Under the late contracts improvements have been provided for the southern
+section of the country, and at the same time an annual saving made of
+upward of $72K. Not with standing the excess of expenditure beyond the
+current receipts for a few years past, necessarily incurred in the
+fulfillment of existing contracts and in the additional expenses between
+the periods of contracting to meet the demands created by the rapid growth
+and extension of our flourishing country, yet the satisfactory assurance is
+given that the future revenue of the Department will be sufficient to meets
+its extensive engagements. The system recently introduced that subjects its
+receipts and disbursements to strict regulation has entirely fulfilled its
+designs. It gives full assurance of the punctual transmission, as well as
+the security of the funds of the Department. The efficiency and industry of
+its officers and the ability and energy of contractors justify an increased
+confidence in its continued prosperity.
+
+The attention of Congress was called on a former occasion to the necessity
+of such a modification in the office of Attorney General of the United
+States as would render it more adequate to the wants of the public service.
+This resulted in the establishment of the office of Solicitor of the
+Treasury, and the earliest measures were taken to give effect to the
+provisions of the law which authorized the appointment of that officer and
+defined his duties. But it is not believed that this provision, however
+useful in itself, is calculated to supersede the necessity of extending the
+duties and powers of the Attorney General's Office. On the contrary, I am
+convinced that the public interest would be greatly promoted by giving to
+that officer the general superintendence of the various law agents of the
+Government, and of all law proceedings, whether civil or criminal, in which
+the United States may be interested, allowing him at the same time such
+compensation as would enable him to devote his undivided attention to the
+public business. I think such a provision is alike due to the public and to
+the officer.
+
+Occasions of reference from the different Executive Departments to the
+Attorney General are of frequent occurrence, and the prompt decision of the
+questions so referred tends much to facilitate the dispatch of business in
+those Departments. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury hereto
+appended shows also a branch of the public service not specifically
+intrusted to any officer which might be advantageously committed to the
+Attorney General. But independently of those considerations this office is
+now one of daily duty. It was originally organized and its compensation
+fixed with a view to occasional service, leaving to the incumbent time for
+the exercise of his profession in private practice. The state of things
+which warranted such an organization no longer exists. The frequent claims
+upon the services of this officer would render his absence from the seat of
+Government in professional attendance upon the courts injurious to the
+public service, and the interests of the Government could not fail to be
+promoted by charging him with the general superintendence of all its legal
+concerns.
+
+Under a strong conviction of the justness of these suggestions, I recommend
+it to Congress to make the necessary provisions for giving effect to them,
+and to place the Attorney General in regard to compensation on the same
+footing with the heads of the several Executive Departments. To this
+officer might also be intrusted a cognizance of the cases of insolvency in
+public debtors, especially if the views which I submitted on this subject
+last year should meet the approbation of Congress -- to which I again
+solicit your attention.
+
+Your attention is respectfully invited to the situation of the District of
+Columbia. Placed by the Constitution under the exclusive jurisdiction and
+control of Congress, this District is certainly entitled to a much greater
+share of its consideration than it has yet received. There is a want of
+uniformity in its laws, particularly in those of a penal character, which
+increases the expense of their administration and subjects the people to
+all the inconveniences which result from the operation of different codes
+in so small a territory. On different sides of the Potomac the same offense
+is punishable in unequal degrees, and the peculiarities of many of the
+early laws of MD and VA remain in force, not with standing their repugnance
+in some cases to the improvements which have superseded them in those
+States.
+
+Besides a remedy for these evils, which is loudly called for, it is
+respectfully submitted whether a provision authorizing the election of a
+delegate to represent the wants of the citizens of this District on the
+floor of Congress is not due to them and to the character of our
+Government. No principles of freedom, and there is none more important than
+that which cultivates a proper relation between the governors and the
+governed. Imperfect as this must be in this case, yet it is believed that
+it would be greatly improved by a representation in Congress with the same
+privileges that are allowed to the other Territories of the United States.
+
+The penitentiary is ready for the reception of convicts, and only awaits
+the necessary legislation to put it into operation, as one object of which
+I beg leave to recall your attention to the propriety of providing suitable
+compensation for the officers charged with its inspection.
+
+The importance of the principles involved in the inquiry whether it will be
+proper to recharter the Bank of the United States requires that I should
+again call the attention of Congress to the subject. Nothing has occurred
+to lessen in any degree the dangers which many of our citizens apprehend
+from that institution as at present organized. In the spirit of improvement
+and compromise which distinguishes our country and its institutions it
+becomes us to inquire whether it be not possible to secure the advantages
+afforded by the present bank through the agency of a Bank of the United
+States so modified in its principles and structures as to obviate
+constitutional and other objections.
+
+It is thought practicable to organize such a bank with the necessary
+officers as a branch of the Treasury Department, based on the public and
+individual deposits, without power to make loans or purchase property,
+which shall remit the funds of the Government, and the expense of which may
+be paid, if thought advisable, by allowing its officers to sell bills of
+exchange to private individuals at a moderate premium. Not being a
+corporate body, having no stock holders, debtors, or property, and but few
+officers, it would not be obnoxious to the constitutional objections which
+are urged against the present bank; and having no means to operate on the
+hopes, fears, or interests of large masses of the community, it would be
+shorn of the influence which makes that bank formidable. The States would
+be strengthened by having in their hands the means of furnishing the local
+paper currency through their own banks, while the Bank of the United
+States, though issuing no paper, would check the issues of the State banks
+by taking their notes in deposit and for exchange only so long as they
+continue to be redeemed with specie. In times of public emergency the
+capacities of such an institution might be enlarged by legislative
+provisions.
+
+These suggestions are made not so much as a recommendation as with a view
+of calling the attention of Congress to the possible modifications of a
+system which can not continue to exist in its present form without
+occasional collisions with the local authorities and perpetual
+apprehensions and discontent on the part of the States and the people.
+
+In conclusion, fellow citizens, allow me to invoke in behalf of your
+deliberations that spirit of conciliation and disinterestedness which is
+the gift of patriotism. Under an over-ruling and merciful Providence the
+agency of this spirit has thus far been signalized in the prosperity and
+glory of our beloved country. May its influence be eternal.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 6, 1831
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+The representation of the people has been renewed for the 22nd time since
+the Constitution they formed has been in force. For near half a century the
+Chief Magistrates who have been successively chosen have made their annual
+communications of the state of the nation to its representatives. Generally
+these communications have been of the most gratifying nature, testifying an
+advance in all the improvements of social and all the securities of
+political life. But frequently and justly as you have been called on to be
+grateful for the bounties of Providence, at few periods have they been more
+abundantly or extensively bestowed than at the present; rarely, if ever,
+have we had greater reason to congratulate each other on the continued and
+increasing prosperity of our beloved country.
+
+Agriculture, the first and most important occupation of man, has
+compensated the labors of the husband-man with plentiful crops of all the
+varied products of our extensive country. Manufactures have been
+established in which the funds of the capitalist find a profitable
+investment, and which give employment and subsistence to a numerous and
+increasing body of industrious and dexterous mechanics. The laborer is
+rewarded by high wages in the construction of works of internal
+improvement, which are extending with unprecedented rapidity. Science is
+steadily penetrating the recesses of nature and disclosing her secrets,
+while the ingenuity of free minds is subjecting the elements to the power
+of man and making each new conquest auxiliary to his comfort. By our mails,
+whose speed is regularly increased and whose routes are every year
+extended, the communication of public intelligence and private business is
+rendered frequent and safe; the intercourse between distant cities, which
+it formerly required weeks to accomplish, is now effected in a few days;
+and in the construction of rail roads and the application of steam power we
+have a reasonable prospect that the extreme parts of our country will be so
+much approximated and those most isolated by the obstacles of nature
+rendered so accessible as to remove an apprehension some times entertained
+that the great extent of the Union would endanger its permanent existence.
+
+If from the satisfactory view of our agriculture, manufactures, and
+internal improvements we turn to the state of our navigation and trade with
+foreign nations and between the States, we shall scarcely find less cause
+for gratulation. A beneficent Providence has provided for their exercise
+and encouragement an extensive coast, indented by capacious bays, noble
+rivers, inland seas; with a country productive of every material for ship
+building and every commodity for gainful commerce, and filled with a
+population active, intelligent, well-informed, and fearless of danger.
+These advantages are not neglected, and an impulse has lately been given to
+commercial enterprise, which fills our ship yards with new constructions,
+encourages all the arts and branches of industry connected with them,
+crowds the wharves of our cities with vessels, and covers the most distant
+seas with our canvas.
+
+Let us be grateful for these blessings to the beneficent Being who has
+conferred them, and who suffers us to indulge a reasonable hope of their
+continuance and extension, while we neglect not the means by which they may
+be preserved. If we may dare to judge of His future designs by the manner
+in which His past favors have been bestowed, He has made our national
+prosperity to depend on the preservation of our liberties, our national
+force on our Federal Union, and our individual happiness on the maintenance
+of our State rights and wise institutions. If we are prosperous at home and
+respected abroad, it is because we are free, united, industrious, and
+obedient to the laws. While we continue so we shall by the blessing of
+Heaven go on in the happy career we have begun, and which has brought us in
+the short period of our political existence from a population of 3,000,000
+to 13,000,000; from 13 separate colonies to 24 united States; from weakness
+to strength; from a rank scarcely marked in the scale of nations to a high
+place in their respect.
+
+This last advantage is one that has resulted in a great degree from the
+principles which have guided our intercourse with foreign powers since we
+have assumed an equal station among them, and hence the annual account
+which the Executive renders to the country of the manner in which that
+branch of his duties has been fulfilled proves instructive and salutary.
+
+The pacific and wise policy of our Government kept us in a state of
+neutrality during the wars that have at different periods since our
+political existence been carried on by other powers; but this policy, while
+it gave activity and extent to our commerce, exposed it in the same
+proportion to injuries from the belligerent nations. Hence have arisen
+claims of indemnity for those injuries. England, France, Spain, Holland,
+Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and lately Portugal had all in a greater or less
+degree infringed our neutral rights. Demands for reparation were made upon
+all. They have had in all, and continue to have in some, cases a leading
+influence on the nature of our relations with the powers on whom they were
+made.
+
+Of the claims upon England it is unnecessary to speak further than to say
+that the state of things to which their prosecution and denial gave rise
+has been succeeded by arrangements productive of mutual good feeling and
+amicable relations between the two countries, which it is hoped will not be
+interrupted. One of these arrangements is that relating to the colonial
+trade which was communicated to Congress at the last session; and although
+the short period during which it has been in force will not enable me to
+form an accurate judgment of its operation, there is every reason to
+believe that it will prove highly beneficial. The trade thereby authorized
+has employed to [1831-09-30] upward of 30K tons of American and 15K tons of
+foreign shipping in the outward voyages, and in the inward nearly an equal
+amount of American and 20K only of foreign tonnage. Advantages, too, have
+resulted to our agricultural interests from the state of the trade between
+Canada and our Territories and States bordering or the St. Lawrence and the
+Lakes which may prove more than equivalent to the loss sustained by the
+discrimination made to favor the trade of the northern colonies with the
+West Indies.
+
+After our transition from the state of colonies to that of an independent
+nation many points were found necessary to be settled between us and Great
+Britain. Among them was the demarcation of boundaries not described with
+sufficient precision in the treaty of peace. Some of the lines that divide
+the States and Territories of the United States from the British Provinces
+have been definitively fixed.
+
+That, however, which separates us from the Provinces of Canada and New
+Brunswick to the North and the East was still in dispute when I came into
+office, but I found arrangements made for its settlement over which I had
+no control. The commissioners who had been appointed under the provisions
+of the treaty of Ghent having been unable to agree, a convention was made
+with Great Britain by my immediate predecessor in office, with the advice
+and consent of the Senate, by which it was agreed "that the points of
+difference which have arisen in the settlement of the boundary line between
+the American and British dominions, as described in the 5th article of the
+treaty of Ghent, shall be referred, as therein provided, to some friendly
+sovereign or State, who shall be invited to investigate and make a decision
+upon such points of difference"; and the King of the Netherlands having by
+the late President and His Britannic Majesty been designated as such
+friendly sovereign, it became my duty to carry with good faith the
+agreement so made into full effect. To this end I caused all the measures
+to be taken which were necessary to a full exposition of our case to the
+sovereign arbiter, and nominated as minister plenipotentiary to his Court a
+distinguished citizen of the State most interested in the question, and who
+had been one of the agents previously employed for settling the
+controversy.
+
+On [1831-01-10] His Majesty the King of the Netherlands delivered to the
+plenipotentiaries of the United States and of Great Britain his written
+opinion on the case referred to him. The papers in relation to the subject
+will be communicated by a special message to the proper branch of the
+Government with the perfect confidence that its wisdom will adopt such
+measures as will secure an amicable settlement of the controversy without
+infringing any constitutional right of the States immediately interested.
+
+It affords me satisfaction to inform you that suggestions made by my
+direction to the chargé d'affaires of His Britannic Majesty to this
+Government have had their desired effect in producing the release of
+certain American citizens who were imprisoned for setting up the authority
+of the State of Maine at a place in the disputed territory under the actual
+jurisdiction of His Britannic Majesty. From this and the assurances I have
+received of the desire of the local authorities to avoid any cause of
+collision I have the best hopes that a good understanding will be kept up
+until it is confirmed by the final disposition of the subject.
+
+The amicable relations which now subsist between the United States and
+Great Britain, the increasing intercourse between their citizens, and the
+rapid obliteration of unfriendly prejudices to which former events
+naturally gave rise concurred to present this as a fit period for renewing
+our endeavors to provide against the recurrence of causes of irritation
+which in the event of war between Great Britain and any other power would
+inevitably endanger our peace. Animated by the sincerest desire to avoid
+such a state of things, and peacefully to secure under all possible
+circumstances the rights and honor of the country, I have given such
+instructions to the minister lately sent to the Court of London as will
+evince that desire, and if met by a correspondent disposition, which we can
+not doubt, will put an end to causes of collision which, without advantage
+to either, tend to estrange from each other two nations who have every
+motive to preserve not only peace, but an intercourse of the most amicable
+nature.
+
+In my message at the opening of the last session of Congress I expressed a
+confident hope that the justice of our claims upon France, urged as they
+were with perseverance and signal ability by our minister there, would
+finally be acknowledged. This hope has been realized. A treaty has been
+signed which will immediately be laid before the Senate for its
+approbation, and which, containing stipulations that require legislative
+acts, must have the concurrence of both houses before it can be carried
+into effect.
+
+By it the French Government engage to pay a sum which, if not quite equal
+to that which may be found due to our citizens, will yet, it is believed,
+under all circumstances, be deemed satisfactory by those interested. The
+offer of a gross sum instead of the satisfaction of each individual claim
+was accepted because the only alternatives were a rigorous exaction of the
+whole amount stated to be due on each claim, which might in some instances
+be exaggerated by design, in other over- rated through error, and which,
+therefore, it would have been both ungracious and unjust to have insisted
+on; or a settlement by a mixed commission, to which the French negotiators
+were very averse, and which experience in other cases had shewn to be
+dilatory and often wholly inadequate to the end.
+
+A comparatively small sum is stipulated on our part to go to the extinction
+of all claims by French citizens on our Government, and a reduction of
+duties on our cotton and their wines has been agreed on as a consideration
+for the renunciation of an important claim for commercial privileges under
+the construction they gave to the treaty for the cession of Louisiana.
+
+Should this treaty receive the proper sanction, a source of irritation will
+be stopped that has for so many years in some degree alienated from each
+other two nations who, from interest as well as the remembrance of early
+associations, ought to cherish the most friendly relations; an
+encouragement will be given for perseverance in the demands of justice by
+this new proof that if steadily pursued they will be listened to, and
+admonition will be offered to those powers, if any, which may be inclined
+to evade them that they will never be abandoned; above all, a just
+confidence will be inspired in our fellow citizens that their Government
+will exert all the powers with which they have invested it in support of
+their just claims upon foreign nations; at the same time that the frank
+acknowledgment and provision for the payment of those which were addressed
+to our equity, although unsupported by legal proof, affords a practical
+illustration of our submission to the divine rule of doing to others what
+we desire they should do unto us.
+
+Sweden and Denmark having made compensation for the irregularities
+committed by their vessels or in their ports to the perfect satisfaction of
+the parties concerned, and having renewed the treaties of commerce entered
+into with them, our political and commercial relations with those powers
+continue to be on the most friendly footing.
+
+With Spain our differences up to [1819-02-22] were settled by the treaty of
+Washington of that date, but at a subsequent period our commerce with the
+States formerly colonies of Spain on the continent of America was annoyed
+and frequently interrupted by her public and private armed ships. They
+captured many of our vessels prosecuting a lawful commerce and sold them
+and their cargoes, and at one time to our demands for restoration and
+indemnity opposed the allegation that they were taken in the violation of a
+blockade of all the ports of those States. This blockade was declaratory
+only, and the inadequacy of the force to maintain it was so manifest that
+this allegation was varied to a charge of trade in contraband of war. This,
+in its turn, was also found untenable, and the minister whom I sent with
+instructions to press for the reparation that was due to our injured fellow
+citizens has transmitted an answer to his demand by which the captures are
+declared to have been legal, and are justified because the independence of
+the States of America never having been acknowledged by Spain she had a
+right to prohibit trade with them under her old colonial laws. This ground
+of defense was contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly
+alleged, but to the uniform practice and established laws of nations, and
+had been abandoned by Spain herself in the convention which granted
+indemnity to British subjects for captures made at the same time, under the
+same circumstances, and for the same allegations with those of which we
+complain.
+
+I, however, indulge the hope that further reflection will lead to other
+views, and feel confident that when His Catholic Majesty shall be convinced
+of the justice of the claims his desire to preserve friendly relations
+between the two countries, which it is my earnest endeavor to maintain,
+will induce him to accede to our demand. I have therefore dispatched a
+special messenger with instructions to our minister to bring the case once
+more to his consideration, to the end that if (which I can not bring myself
+to believe) the same decision (that can not but be deemed an unfriendly
+denial of justice) should be persisted in the matter may before your
+adjournment be laid before you, the constitutional judges of what is proper
+to be done when negotiation for redress of injury fails.
+
+The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France seemed to present a
+favorable opportunity to renew our claims of a similar nature on other
+powers, and particularly in the case of those upon Naples, more especially
+as in the course of former negotiations with that power our failure to
+induce France to render us justice was used as an argument against us. The
+desires of the merchants, who were the principal sufferers, have therefore
+been acceded to, and a mission has been instituted for the special purpose
+of obtaining for them a reparation already too long delayed. This measure
+having been resolved on, it was put in execution without waiting for the
+meeting of Congress, because the state of Europe created an apprehension of
+events that might have rendered our application ineffectual.
+
+Our demands upon the Government of the two Sicilies are of a peculiar
+nature. The injuries on which they are founded are not denied, nor are the
+atrocity and perfidy under which those injuries were perpetrated attempted
+to be extenuated. The sole ground on which indemnity has been refused is
+the alleged illegality of the tenure by which the monarch who made the
+seizures held his crown. This defense, always unfounded in any principle of
+the law of nations, now universally abandoned, even by those powers upon
+whom the responsibility for the acts of past rulers bore the most heavily,
+will unquestionably be given up by His Sicilian Majesty, whose counsels
+will receive an impulse from that high sense of honor and regard to justice
+which are said to characterize him; and I feel the fullest confidence that
+the talents of the citizen commissioned for that purpose will place before
+him the just claims of our injured citizens in such as light as will enable
+me before your adjournment to announce that they have been adjusted and
+secured. Precise instructions to the effect of bringing the negotiation to
+a speedy issue have been given, and will be obeyed.
+
+In the late blockade of Terceira some of the Portuguese fleet captured
+several of our vessels and committed other excesses, for which reparation
+was demanded, and I was on the point of dispatching an armed force to
+prevent any recurrence of a similar violence and protect our citizens in
+the prosecution of their lawful commerce when official assurances, on which
+I relied, made the sailing of the ships unnecessary. Since that period
+frequent promises have been made that full indemnity shall be given for the
+injuries inflicted and the losses sustained. In the performance there has
+been some, perhaps unavoidable, delay; but I have the fullest confidence
+that my earnest desire that this business may at once be closed, which our
+minister has been instructed strongly to express, will very soon be
+gratified. I have the better ground for this hope from the evidence of a
+friendly disposition which that Government has shown an actual reduction in
+the duty on rice the produce of our Southern States, authorizing the
+anticipation that this important article of our export will soon be
+admitted on the same footing with that produced by the most favored
+nation.
+
+With the other powers of Europe we have fortunately had no cause of
+discussions for the redress of injuries. With the Empire of the Russias our
+political connection is of the most friendly and our commercial of the most
+liberal kind. We enjoy the advantages of navigation and trade given to the
+most favored nation, but it has not yet suited their policy, or perhaps has
+not been found convenient from other considerations, to give stability and
+reciprocity to those privileges by a commercial treaty. The ill health of
+the minister last year charged with making a proposition for that
+arrangement did not permit him to remain at St. Petersburg, and the
+attention of that Government during the whole of the period since his
+departure having been occupied by the war in which it was engaged, we have
+been assured that nothing could have been effected by his presence. A
+minister will soon be nominated, as well to effect this important object as
+to keep up the relations of amity and good understanding of which we have
+received so many assurances and proofs from His Imperial Majesty and the
+Emperor his predecessor.
+
+The treaty with Austria is opening to us an important trade with the
+hereditary dominions of the Emperor, the value of which has been hitherto
+little known, and of course not sufficiently appreciated. While our
+commerce finds an entrance into the south of Germany by means of this
+treaty, those we have formed with the Hanseatic towns and Prussia and
+others now in negotiation will open that vast country to the enterprising
+spirit of our merchants on the north -- a country abounding in all the
+materials for a mutually beneficial commerce, filled with enlightened and
+industrious inhabitants, holding an important place in the politics of
+Europe, and to which we owe so many valuable citizens. The ratification of
+the treaty with the Porte was sent to be exchanged by the gentleman
+appointed our chargé d'affaires to that Court. Some difficulties
+occurred on his arrival, but at the date of his last official dispatch he
+supposed they had been obviated and that there was every prospect of the
+exchange being speedily effected.
+
+This finishes the connected view I have thought it proper to give of our
+political and commercial relations in Europe. Every effort in my power will
+be continued to strengthen and extend them by treaties founded on
+principles of the most perfect reciprocity of interest, neither asking nor
+conceding any exclusive advantage, but liberating as far as it lies in my
+power the activity and industry of our fellow citizens from the shackles
+which foreign restrictions may impose.
+
+To China and the East Indies our commerce continues in its usual extent,
+and with increased facilities which the credit and capital of our merchants
+afford by substituting bills for payments in specie. A daring outrage
+having been committed in those seas by the plunder of one of our
+merchant-men engaged in the pepper trade at a port in Sumatra, and the
+piratical perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a state of society that
+the usual course of proceedings between civilized nations could not be
+pursued, I forthwith dispatched a frigate with orders to require immediate
+satisfaction for the injury and indemnity to the sufferers.
+
+Few changes have taken place in our connections with the independent States
+of America since my last communication to Congress. The ratification of a
+commercial treaty with the United Republics of Mexico has been for some
+time under deliberation in their Congress, but was still undecided at the
+date of our last dispatches. The unhappy civil commotions that have
+prevailed there were undoubtedly the cause of the delay, but as the
+Government is now said to be tranquillized we may hope soon to receive the
+ratification of the treaty and an arrangement for the demarcation of the
+boundaries between us. In the mean time, an important trade has been opened
+with mutual benefit from St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, by caravans
+to the interior Provinces of Mexico. This commerce is protected in its
+progress through the Indian countries by the troops of the United States,
+which have been permitted to escort the caravans beyond our boundaries to
+the settled part of the Mexican territory.
+
+From Central America I have received assurances of the most friendly kind
+and a gratifying application for our good offices to remove a supposed
+indisposition toward that Government in a neighboring State. This
+application was immediately and successfully complied with. They gave us
+also the pleasing intelligence that differences which had prevailed in
+their internal affairs had been peaceably adjusted. Our treaty with this
+Republic continues to be faithfully observed, and promises a great and
+beneficial commerce between the two countries -- a commerce of the greatest
+importance if the magnificent project of a ship canal through the dominions
+of that State from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, now in serious
+contemplation, shall be executed.
+
+I have great satisfaction in communicating the success which has attended
+the exertions of our minister in Colombia to procure a very considerable
+reduction in the duties on our flour in that Republic. Indemnity also has
+been stipulated for injuries received by our merchants from illegal
+seizures, and renewed assurances are given that the treaty between the two
+countries shall be faithfully observed.
+
+Chili and Peru seem to be still threatened with civil commotions, and until
+they shall be settled disorders may naturally be apprehended, requiring the
+constant presence of a naval force in the Pacific Ocean to protect our
+fisheries and guard our commerce.
+
+The disturbances that took place in the Empire of Brazil previously to and
+immediately consequent upon the abdication of the late Emperor necessarily
+suspended any effectual application for the redress of some past injuries
+suffered by our citizens from that Government, while they have been the
+cause of others, in which all foreigners seem to have participated.
+Instructions have been given to our minister there to press for indemnity
+due for losses occasioned by these irregularities, and to take care of our
+fellow citizens shall enjoy all the privileges stipulated in their favor by
+the treaty lately made between the two powers, all which the good
+intelligence that prevails between our minister at Rio Janeiro and the
+Regency gives us the best reason to expect.
+
+I should have placed Buenos Ayres in the list of South American powers in
+respect to which nothing of importance affecting us was to be communicated
+but for occurrences which have lately taken place at the Falkland Islands,
+in which the name of that Republic has been used to cover with a show of
+authority acts injurious to our commerce and to the property and liberty of
+our fellow citizens. In the course of the present year one of our vessels,
+engaged in the pursuit of a trade which we have always enjoyed without
+molestation, has been captured by a band acting, as they pretend, under the
+authority of the Government of Buenos Ayres. I have therefore given orders
+for the dispatch of an armed vessel to join our squadron in those seas and
+aid in affording all lawful protection to our trade which shall be
+necessary, and shall without delay send a minister to inquire into the
+nature of the circumstances and also of the claim, if any, that is set up
+by that Government to those islands. In the mean time, I submit the case to
+the consideration of Congress, to the end that they may clothe the
+Executive with such authority and means as they may deem necessary for
+providing a force adequate to the complete protection of our fellow
+citizens fishing and trading in those seas.
+
+This rapid sketch of our foreign relations, it is hoped, fellow citizens,
+may be of some use in so much of your legislation as may bear on that
+important subject, while it affords to the country at large a source of
+high gratification in the contemplation of our political and commercial
+connection with the rest of the world. At peace with all; having subjects
+of future difference with few, and those susceptible of easy adjustment;
+extending our commerce gradually on all sides and on none by any but the
+most liberal and mutually beneficial means, we may, by the blessing of
+Providence, hope for all that national prosperity which can be derived from
+an intercourse with foreign nations, guided by those eternal principles of
+justice and reciprocal good will which are binding as well upon States as
+the individuals of whom they are composed.
+
+I have great satisfaction in making this statement of our affairs, because
+the course of our national policy enables me to do it without any
+indiscreet exposure of what in other governments is usually concealed from
+the people. Having none but a straight-forward, open course to pursue,
+guided by a single principle that will bear the strongest light, we have
+happily no political combinations to form, no alliances to entangle us, no
+complicated interests to consult, and in subjecting all we have done to the
+consideration of our citizens and to the inspection of the world we give no
+advantage to other nations and lay ourselves open to no injury.
+
+It may not be improper to add that to preserve this state of things and
+give confidence to the world in the integrity of our designs all our
+consular and diplomatic agents are strictly enjoined to examine well every
+cause of complaint preferred by our citizens, and while they urge with
+proper earnestness those that are well founded, to countenance none that
+are unreasonable or unjust, and to enjoin on our merchants and navigators
+the strictest obedience to the laws of the countries to which they resort,
+and a course of conduct in their dealings that may support the character of
+our nation and render us respected abroad.
+
+Connected with this subject, I must recommend a revisal of our consular
+laws. Defects and omissions have been discovered in their operation that
+ought to be remedied and supplied. For your further information on this
+subject I have directed a report to be made by the Secretary of State,
+which I shall hereafter submit to your consideration.
+
+The internal peace and security of our confederated States is the next
+principal object of the General Government. Time and experience have proved
+that the abode of the native Indian within their limits is dangerous to
+their peace and injurious to himself. In accordance with my recommendation
+at a former session of Congress, an appropriation of $500K was made to aid
+the voluntary removal of the various tribes beyond the limits of the
+States. At the last session I had the happiness to announce that the
+Chickasaws and Choctaws had accepted the generous offer of the Government
+and agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi River, by which the whole of
+the State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama will be freed from
+Indian occupancy and opened to a civilized population. The treaties with
+these tribes are in a course of execution, and their removal, it is hoped,
+will be completed in the course of 1832.
+
+At the request of the authorities of Georgia the registration of Cherokee
+Indians for emigration has been resumed, and it is confidently expected
+that half, if not two-third, of that tribe will follow the wise example of
+their more westerly brethren. Those who prefer remaining at their present
+homes will hereafter be governed by the laws of Georgia, as all her
+citizens are, and cease to be the objects of peculiar care on the part of
+the General Government.
+
+During the present year the attention of the Government has been
+particularly directed to those tribes in the powerful and growing State of
+Ohio, where considerable tracts of the finest lands were still occupied by
+the aboriginal proprietors. Treaties, either absolute or conditional, have
+been made extinguishing the whole Indian title to the reservations in that
+State, and the time is not distant, it is hoped, when Ohio will be no
+longer embarrassed with the Indian population. The same measures will be
+extended to Indiana as soon as there is reason to anticipate success. It is
+confidently believed that perseverance for a few years in the present
+policy of the Government will extinguish the Indian title to all lands
+lying within the States composing our Federal Union, and remove beyond
+their limits every Indian who is not willing to submit to their laws.
+
+Thus will all conflicting claims to jurisdiction between the States and the
+Indian tribes be put to rest. It is pleasing to reflect that results so
+beneficial, not only to the States immediately concerned, but to the
+harmony of the Union, will have been accomplished by measures equally
+advantageous to the Indians. What the native savages become when surrounded
+by a dense population and by mixing with the whites may be seen in the
+miserable remnants of a few Eastern tribes, deprived of political and civil
+rights, forbidden to make contracts, and subjected to guardians, dragging
+out a wretched existence, without excitement, without hope, and almost
+without thought.
+
+But the removal of the Indians beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the
+States does not place them beyond the reach of philanthropic aid and
+Christian instruction. On the contrary, those whom philanthropy or religion
+may induce to live among them in their new abode will be more free in the
+exercise of their benevolent functions than if they had remained within the
+limits of the States, embarrassed by their internal regulations. Now
+subject to no control but the superintending agency of the General
+Government, exercised with the sole view of preserving peace, they may
+proceed unmolested in the interesting experiment of gradually advancing a
+community of American Indians from barbarism to the habits and enjoyments
+of civilized life.
+
+Among the happiest effects of the improved relations of our Republic has
+been an increase of trade, producing a corresponding increase of revenue
+beyond the most sanguine anticipations of the Treasury Department.
+
+The state of the public finances will be fully shown by the Secretary of
+the Treasury in the report which he will presently lay before you. I will
+here, however, congratulate you upon their prosperous condition. The
+revenue received in the present year will not fall short of $27,700,000,
+and the expenditures for all objects other than the public debt will not
+exceed $14,700,000. The payment on account of the principal and interest of
+the debt during the year will exceed $16,500,000, a greater sum than has
+been applied to that object out of the revenue in any year since the
+enlargement of the sinking fund except the two years following immediately
+there after. The amount which will have been applied to the public debt
+from [1829-03-04] to [1832-01-01], which is less than three years since the
+Administration has been placed in my hands, will exceed $40,000,000.
+
+From the large importations of the present year it may be safely estimated
+that the revenue which will be received into the Treasury from that source
+during the next year, with the aid of that received from the public lands,
+will considerably exceed the amount of the receipts of the present year;
+and it is believed that with the means which the Government will have at
+its disposal from various sources, which will be fully stated by the proper
+Department, the whole of the public debt may be extinguished, either by
+redemption or purchase, within the four years of my Administration. We
+shall then exhibit the rare example of a great nation, abounding in all the
+means of happiness and security, altogether free from debt.
+
+The confidence with which the extinguishment of the public debt may be
+anticipated presents an opportunity for carrying into effect more fully the
+policy in relation to import duties which has been recommended in my former
+messages. A modification of the tariff which shall produce a reduction of
+our revenue to the wants of the Government and an adjustment of the duties
+on imports with a view to equal justice in relation to all our national
+interests and to the counteraction of foreign policy so far as it may be
+injurious to those interests, is deemed to be one of the principal objects
+which demand the consideration of the present Congress. Justice to the
+interests of the merchant as well as the manufacturer requires that
+material reductions in the import duties be prospective; and unless the
+present Congress shall dispose of the subject the proposed reductions can
+not properly be made to take effect at the period when the necessity for
+the revenue arising from present rates shall cease. It is therefore
+desirable that arrangements be adopted at your present session to relieve
+the people from unnecessary taxation after the extinguishment of the public
+debt. In the exercise of that spirit of concession and conciliation which
+has distinguished the friends of our Union in all great emergencies, it is
+believed that this object may be effected without injury to any national
+interest.
+
+In my annual message of [1829-12], I had the honor to recommend the
+adoption of a more liberal policy than that which then prevailed toward
+unfortunate debtors to the Government, and I deem it my duty again to
+invite your attention to this subject.
+
+Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last session passed an act for
+the relief of certain insolvent debtors of the United States, but the
+provisions of that law have not been deemed such as were adequate to that
+relief to this unfortunate class of our fellow citizens which may be safely
+extended to them. The points in which the law appears to be defective will
+be particularly communicated by the Secretary of the Treasury, and I take
+pleasure in recommending such an extension of its provisions as will
+unfetter the enterprise of a valuable portion of our citizens and restore
+to them the means of usefulness to themselves and the community. While
+deliberating on this subject I would also recommend to your consideration
+the propriety of so modifying the laws for enforcing the payment of debts
+due either to the public or to individuals suing in the courts of the
+United States as to restrict the imprisonment of the person to cases of
+fraudulent concealment of property. The personal liberty of the citizen
+seems too sacred to be held, as in many cases it now is, at the will of a
+creditor to whom he is willing to surrender all the means he has of
+discharging his debt.
+
+The reports from the Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments and from
+the PostMaster General, which accompany this message, present satisfactory
+views of the operations of the Departments respectively under their charge,
+and suggest improvements which are worthy of and to which I invite the
+serious attention of Congress. Certain defects and omissions having been
+discovered in the operation of the laws respecting patents, they are
+pointed out in the accompanying report from the Secretary of State.
+
+I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal Constitution giving
+the election of President and Vice-President to the people and limiting the
+service of the former to a single term. So important do I consider these
+changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in accordance with my sense
+of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new Congress. For
+my views more at large, as well in relation to these points as to the
+disqualification of members of Congress to receive an office from a
+President in whose election they have had an official agency, which I
+proposed as a substitute, I refer you to my former messages.
+
+Our system of public accounts is extremely complicated, and it is believed
+may be much improved. Much of the present machinery and a considerable
+portion of the expenditure of public money may be dispensed with, while
+greater facilities can be afforded to the liquidation of claims upon the
+Government and an examination into their justice and legality quite as
+efficient as the present secured. With a view to a general reform in the
+system, I recommend the subject to the attention of Congress.
+
+I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the condition of the
+District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise in the framers of our
+Constitution to place the people of this District under the jurisdiction of
+the General Government, but to accomplish the objects they had in view it
+is not necessary that this people should be deprived of all the privileges
+of self-government. Independently of the difficulty of inducing the
+representatives of distant States to turn their attention to projects of
+laws which are not of the highest interest to their constituents, they are
+not individually, nor in Congress collectively, well qualified to legislate
+over the local concerns of this District. Consequently its interests are
+much neglected, and the people are almost afraid to present their
+grievances, lest a body in which they are not represented and which feels
+little sympathy in their local relations should in its attempt to make laws
+for them do more harm than good.
+
+Governed by the laws of the States whence they were severed, the two shores
+of the Potomac within the 10 miles square have different penal codes -- not
+the present codes of Virginia and Maryland, but such as existed in those
+States at the time of the cession to the United States. As Congress will
+not form a new code, and as the people of the District can not make one for
+themselves, they are virtually under two governments. Is it not just to
+allow them at least a Delegate in Congress, if not a local legislature, to
+make laws for the District, subject to the approval or rejection of
+Congress? I earnestly recommend the extension to them of every political
+right which their interests require and which may be compatible with the
+Constitution.
+
+The extension of the judiciary system of the United States is deemed to be
+one of the duties of the Government. One-fourth of the States in the Union
+do not participate in the benefits of a circuit court. To the States of
+Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, admitted
+into the Union since the present judicial system was organized, only a
+district court has been allowed. If this be sufficient, then the circuit
+courts already existing in 18 States ought to be abolished; if it be not
+sufficient, the defect ought to be remedied, and these States placed on the
+same footing with the other members of the Union. It was on this condition
+and on this footing that they entered the Union, and they may demand
+circuit courts as a matter not of concession, but of right. I trust that
+Congress will not adjourn leaving this anomaly in our system.
+
+Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to the Bank of
+the United States as at present organized, I felt it my duty in my former
+messages frankly to disclose them, in order that the attention of the
+Legislature and the people should be seasonably directed to that important
+subject, and that it might be considered and finally disposed of in a
+manner best calculated to promote the ends of the Constitution and subserve
+the public interests. Having thus conscientiously discharged a
+constitutional duty, I deem it proper on this occasion, without a more
+particular reference to the views of the subject then expressed to leave it
+for the present to the investigation of an enlightened people and their
+representatives.
+
+In conclusion permit me to invoke that Power which superintends all
+governments to infuse into your deliberations at this important crisis of
+our history a spirit of mutual forbearance and conciliation. In that spirit
+was our Union formed, and in that spirit must it be preserved.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 4, 1832
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+It gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon your return to the seat of
+Government for the purpose of discharging your duties to the people of the
+United States. Although the pestilence which had traversed the Old World
+has entered our limits and extended its ravages over much of our land, it
+has pleased Almighty God to mitigate its severity and lessen the number of
+its victims compared with those who have fallen in most other countries
+over which it has spread its terrors. Not with standing this visitation,
+our country presents on every side marks of prosperity and happiness
+unequaled, perhaps, in any other portion of the world. If we fully
+appreciate our comparative condition, existing causes of discontent will
+appear unworthy of attention, and, with hearts of thankfulness to that
+divine Being who has filled our cup of prosperity, we shall feel our
+resolution strengthened to preserve and hand down to our posterity that
+liberty and that union which we have received from our fathers, and which
+constitute the sources and the shield of all our blessings.
+
+The relations of our country continue to present the same picture of
+amicable intercourse that I had the satisfaction to hold up to your view at
+the opening of your last session. The same friendly professions, the same
+desire to participate in our flourishing commerce, the same dispositions,
+evinced by all nations with whom we have any intercourse. This desirable
+state of things may be mainly ascribed to our undeviating practice of the
+rule which has long guided our national policy, to require no exclusive
+privileges in commerce and to grant none. It is daily producing its
+beneficial effect in the respect shown to our flag, the protection of our
+citizens and their property abroad, and in the increase of our navigation
+and the extension of our mercantile operations. The returns which have been
+made out since we last met will show an increase during the last preceding
+year of more than 80K tons in our shipping and of near $40,000,000 in the
+aggregate of our imports and exports.
+
+Nor have we less reason to felicitate ourselves on the position of our
+political than of our commercial concerns. They remain in the state in
+which they were when I last addressed you -- a state of prosperity and
+peace, the effect of a wise attention to the parting advice of the revered
+Father of his Country on this subject, condensed into a maxim for the use
+of posterity by one of his most distinguished successors -- to cultivate
+free commerce and honest friendship with all nations, but to make
+entangling alliances with none. A strict adherence to this policy has kept
+us aloof from the perplexing questions that now agitate the European world
+and have more than once deluged those countries with blood. Should those
+scenes unfortunately recur, the parties to the contest may count on a
+faithful performance of the duties incumbent on us as a neutral nation, and
+our own citizens may equally rely on the firm assertion of their neutral
+rights.
+
+With the nation that was our earliest friend and ally in the infancy of our
+political existence the most friendly relations have subsisted through the
+late revolutions of its Government, and, from the events of the last,
+promise a permanent duration. It has made an approximation in some of its
+political institutions to our own, and raised a monarch to the throne who
+preserves, it is said, a friendly recollection of the period during which
+he acquired among our citizens the high consideration that could then have
+been produced by his personal qualifications alone.
+
+Our commerce with that nation is gradually assuming a mutually beneficial
+character, and the adjustment of the claims of our citizens has removed the
+only obstacle there was to an intercourse not only lucrative, but
+productive of literary and scientific improvement.
+
+From Great Britain I have the satisfaction to inform you that I continue to
+receive assurances of the most amicable disposition, which have on my part
+on all proper occasions been promptly and sincerely reciprocated. The
+attention of that Government has latterly been so much engrossed by matters
+of a deeply interesting domestic character that we could not press upon it
+the renewal of negotiations which had been unfortunately broken off by the
+unexpected recall of our minister, who had commenced them with some hopes
+of success. My great object was the settlement of questions which, though
+now dormant, might here-after be revived under circumstances that would
+endanger the good understanding which it is the interest of both parties to
+preserve inviolate, cemented as it is by a community of language, manners,
+and social habits, and by the high obligations we owe to our British
+ancestors for many of our most valuable institutions and for that system of
+representative government which has enabled us to preserve and improve
+them.
+
+The question of our North-East boundary still remains unsettled. In my last
+annual message I explained to you the situation in which I found that
+business on my coming into office, and the measures I thought it my duty to
+pursue for asserting the rights of the United States before the sovereign
+who had been chosen by my predecessor to determine the question, and also
+the manner in which he had disposed of it. A special message to the Senate
+in their executive capacity afterwards brought before them to the question
+whether they would advise a submission to the opinion of the sovereign
+arbiter. That body having considered the award as not obligatory and
+advised me to open a further negotiation, the proposition was immediately
+made to the British Government, but the circumstances to which I have
+alluded have hitherto prevented any answer being given to the overture.
+Early attention, however, has been promised to the subject, and every
+effort on my part will be made for a satisfactory settlement of this
+question, interesting to the Union generally, and particularly so to one of
+its members.
+
+The claims of our citizens on Spain are not yet acknowledged. On a closer
+investigation of them than appears to have heretofore taken place it was
+discovered that some of these demands, however strong they might be upon
+the equity of that Government, were not such as could be made the subject
+of national interference; and faithful to the principle of asking nothing
+but what was clearly right, additional instructions have been sent to
+modify our demands so as to embrace those only on which, according to the
+laws of nations, we had a strict right to insist. An inevitable delay in
+procuring the documents necessary for this review of the merits of these
+claims retarded this operation until an unfortunate malady which has
+afflicted His Catholic Majesty prevented an examination of them. Being now
+for the first time presented in an unexceptionable form, it is confidently
+hoped that the application will be successful.
+
+I have the satisfaction to inform you that the application I directed to be
+made for the delivery of a part of the archives of Florida, which had been
+carried to The Havannah, has produced a royal order for their delivery, and
+that measures have been taken to procure its execution.
+
+By the report of the Secretary of State communicated to you on [1832-06-25]
+you were informed of the conditional reduction obtained by the minister of
+the United States at Madrid of the duties on tonnage levied on American
+shipping in the ports of Spain. The condition of that reduction having been
+complied with on our part by the act passed [1832-07-13], I have the
+satisfaction to inform you that our ships now pay no higher nor other
+duties in the continental ports of Spain than are levied on their national
+vessels.
+
+The demands against Portugal for illegal captures in the blockade of
+Terceira have been allowed to the full amount of the accounts presented by
+the claimants, and payment was promised to be made in three installments.
+The first of these has been paid; the second, although due, had not at the
+date of our last advices been received, owing, it was alleged, to
+embarrassments in the finances consequent on the civil war in which that
+nation is engaged.
+
+The payments stipulated by the convention with Denmark have been punctually
+made, and the amount is ready for distribution among the claimants as soon
+as the board, now sitting, shall have performed their functions.
+
+I regret that by the last advices from our chargé d'affaires at
+Naples that Government had still delayed the satisfaction due to our
+citizens, but at that date the effect of the last instructions was not
+known. Dispatches from thence are hourly expected, and the result will be
+communicated to you without delay.
+
+With the rest of Europe our relations, political and commercial, remain
+unchanged. Negotiations are going on to put on a permanent basis the
+liberal system of commerce now carried on between us and the Empire of
+Russia. The treaty concluded with Austria is executed by His Imperial
+Majesty with the most perfect good faith, and as we have no diplomatic
+agent at his Court he personally inquired into and corrected a proceeding
+of some of his subaltern officers to the injury of our consul in one of his
+ports.
+
+Our treaty with the Sublime Porte is producing its expected effects on our
+commerce. New markets are opening for our commodities and a more extensive
+range for the employment of our ships. A slight augmentation of the duties
+on our commerce, inconsistent with the spirit of the treaty, had been
+imposed, but on the representation of our chargé d'affaires it has
+been promptly withdrawn, and we now enjoy the trade and navigation of the
+Black Sea and of all the ports belonging to the Turkish Empire and Asia on
+the most perfect equality with all foreign nations.
+
+I wish earnestly that in announcing to you the continuance of friendship
+and the increase of a profitable commercial intercourse with Mexico, with
+Central America, and the States of the South I could accompany it with the
+assurance that they all are blessed with that internal tranquillity and
+foreign peace which their heroic devotion to the cause of their
+independence merits. In Mexico a sanguinary struggle is now carried on,
+which has caused some embarrassment to our commerce, but both parties
+profess the most friendly disposition toward us. To the termination of this
+contest we look for the establishment of that secure intercourse so
+necessary to nations whose territories are contiguous. How important it
+will be to us we may calculate from the fact that even in this unfavorable
+state of things our maritime commerce has increased, and an internal trade
+by caravans from St. Louis to Santa Fe, under the protection of escorts
+furnished by the Government, is carried on to great advantage and is daily
+increasing. The agents provided for by the treaty, with this power to
+designate the boundaries which it established, have been named on our part,
+but one of the evils of the civil war now raging there has been that the
+appointment of those with whom they were to cooperate has not yet been
+announced to us.
+
+The Government of Central America has expelled from its territory the party
+which some time since disturbed its peace. Desirous of fostering a
+favorable disposition toward us, which has on more than one occasion been
+evinced by this interesting country, I made a second attempt in this year
+to establish a diplomatic intercourse with them; but the death of the
+distinguished citizen whom I had appointed for that purpose has retarded
+the execution of measures from which I hoped much advantage to our
+commerce. The union of the three States which formed the Republic of
+Colombia has been dissolved, but they all, it is believed, consider
+themselves as separately bound by the treaty which was made in their
+federal capacity. The minister accredited to the federation continues in
+that character near the Government of New Grenada, and hopes were
+entertained that a new union would be formed between the separate States,
+at least for the purposes of foreign intercourse. Our minister has been
+instructed to use his good offices, when ever they shall be desired, to
+produce the reunion so much to be wished for, the domestic tranquillity of
+the parties, and the security and facility of foreign commerce.
+
+Some agitations naturally attendant on an infant reign have prevailed in
+the Empire of Brazil, which have had the usual effect upon commercial
+operations, and while they suspended the consideration of claims created on
+similar occasions, they have given rise to new complaints on the part of
+our citizens. A proper consideration for calamities and difficulties of
+this nature has made us less urgent and peremptory in our demands for
+justice than duty to our fellow citizens would under other circumstances
+have required. But their claims are not neglected, and will on all proper
+occasions be urged, and it is hoped with effect.
+
+I refrain from making any communication on the subject of our affairs with
+Buenos Ayres, because the negotiation communicated to you in my last annual
+message was at the date of our last advices still pending and in a state
+that would render a publication of the details inexpedient.
+
+A treaty of amity and commerce has been formed with the Republic of Chili,
+which, if approved by the Senate, will be laid before you. That Government
+seems to be established, and at peace with its neighbors; and its ports
+being the resorts of our ships which are employed in the highly important
+trade of the fisheries, this commercial convention can not but be of great
+advantage to our fellow citizens engaged in that perilous but profitable
+business.
+
+Our commerce with the neighboring State of Peru, owing to the onerous
+duties levied on our principal articles of export, has been on the decline,
+and all endeavors to procure an alteration have hitherto proved fruitless.
+With Bolivia we have yet no diplomatic intercourse, and the continual
+contests carried on between it and Peru have made me defer until a more
+favorable period the appointment of any agent for that purpose.
+
+An act of atrocious piracy having been committed on one of our trading
+ships by the inhabitants of a settlement on the west coast of Sumatra, a
+frigate was dispatched with orders to demand satisfaction for the injury if
+those who committed it should be found to be members of a regular
+government, capable of maintaining the usual relations with foreign
+nations; but if, as it was supposed and as they proved to be, they were a
+band of lawless pirates, to inflict such a chastisement as would deter them
+and others from like aggressions. This last was done, and the effect has
+been an increased respect for our flag in those distant seas and additional
+security for our commerce.
+
+In the view I have given of our connection with foreign powers allusions
+have been made to their domestic disturbances or foreign wars, to their
+revolutions or dissensions. It may be proper to observe that this is done
+solely in cases where those events affect our political relations with
+them, or to show their operation on our commerce. Further than this it is
+neither our policy nor our right to interfere. Our best wishes on all
+occasions, our good offices when required, will be afforded to promote the
+domestic tranquillity and foreign peace of all nations with whom we have
+any intercourse. Any intervention in their affairs further than this, even
+by the expression of an official opinion, is contrary to our principles of
+international policy, and will always be avoided.
+
+The report which the Secretary of the Treasury will in due time lay before
+you will exhibit the national finances in a highly prosperous state. Owing
+to the continued success of our commercial enterprise, which has enabled
+the merchants to fulfill their engagements with the Government, the
+receipts from customs during the year will exceed the estimate presented at
+the last session, and with the other means of the Treasury will prove fully
+adequate not only to meet the increased expenditures resulting from the
+large appropriations made by Congress, but to provide for the payment of
+all the public debt which is at present redeemable.
+
+It is now estimated that the customs will yield to the Treasury during the
+present year upward of $28,000,000. The public lands, however, have proved
+less productive than was anticipated, and according to present information
+will not much exceed $2,000,000. The expenditures for all objects other
+than the public debt are estimated to amount during the year to about
+$16,500,000, while a still larger sum, viz, $18,000,000, will have been
+applied to the principal and interest of the public debt.
+
+It is expected, however, that in consequence of the reduced rates of duty
+which will take effect after [1833-03-03] there will be a considerable
+falling off in the revenue from customs in the year 1833. It will never the
+less be amply sufficient to provide for all the wants of the public
+service, estimated even upon a liberal scale, and for the redemption and
+purchase of the remainder of the public debt. On [1833-01-01] the entire
+public debt of the United States, funded and unfunded, will be reduced to
+within a fraction of $7,000,000, of which $2,227,363 are not of right
+redeemable until [1834-01-01] and $4,735,296 not until [1835-01-02]. The
+commissioners of the sinking funds, however, being invested with full
+authority to purchase the debt at the market price, and the means of the
+Treasury being ample, it may be hoped that the whole will be extinguished
+within the year 1833.
+
+I can not too cordially congratulate Congress and my fellow citizens on the
+near approach of that memorable and happy event -- the extinction of the
+public debt of this great and free nation.
+
+Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy marked out by the legislation of
+the country for this object, the present Administration has devoted to it
+all the means which a flourishing commerce has supplied and a prudent
+economy preserved for the public Treasury. Within the four years for which
+the people have confided the Executive power to my charge $58,000,000 will
+have been applied to the payment of the public debt. That this has been
+accomplished without stinting the expenditures for all other proper objects
+will be seen by referring to the liberal provision made during the same
+period for the support and increase of our means of maritime and military
+defense, for internal improvements of a national character, for the removal
+and preservation of the Indians, and, lastly, for the gallant veterans of
+the Revolution.
+
+The final removal of this great burthen from our resources affords the
+means of further provision for all the objects of general welfare and
+public defense which the Constitution authorizes, and presents the occasion
+for such further reductions in the revenue as may not be required for them.
+From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury it will be seen that after
+the present year such a reduction may be made to a considerable extent, and
+the subject is earnestly recommended to the consideration of Congress in
+the hope that the combined wisdom of the representatives of the people will
+devise such means of effecting that salutary object as may remove those
+burthens which shall be found to fall unequally upon any and as may promote
+all the great interests of the community.
+
+Long and patient reflection has strengthened the opinions I have heretofore
+expressed to Congress on this subject, and I deem it my duty on the present
+occasion again to urge them upon the attention of the Legislature. The
+soundest maxims of public policy and the principals upon which our
+republican institutions are founded recommend a proper adaptation of the
+revenue to the expenditure, and they also require that the expenditure
+shall be limited to what, by an economical administration, shall be
+consistent with the simplicity of the Government and necessary to an
+efficient public service.
+
+In effecting this adjustment it is due, in justice to the interests of the
+different States, and even to the preservation of the Union itself, that
+the protection afforded by existing laws to any branches of the national
+industry should not exceed what may be necessary to counteract the
+regulations of foreign nations and to secure a supply of those articles of
+manufacture essential to the national independence and safety in time of
+war. If upon investigation it shall be found, as it is believed it will be,
+that the legislative protection granted to any particular interest is
+greater than is indispensably requisite for these objects, I recommend that
+it be gradually diminished, and that as far as may be consistent with these
+objects the whole scheme of duties be reduced to the revenue standard as
+soon as a just regard to the faith of the Government and to the
+preservation of the large capital invested in establishments of domestic
+industry will permit.
+
+That manufactures adequate to the supply of our domestic consumption would
+in the abstract be beneficial to our country there is no reason to doubt,
+and to effect their establishment there is perhaps no American citizen who
+would not for a while be willing to pay a higher price for them. But for
+this purpose it is presumed that a tariff of high duties, designed for
+perpetual protection, which they maintain has the effect to reduce the
+price by domestic competition below that of the foreign article.
+Experience, however, our best guide on this as on other subjects, makes it
+doubtful whether the advantages of this system are not counter-balanced by
+many evils, and whether it does not tend to beget in the minds of a large
+portion of our country-men a spirit of discontent and jealousy dangerous to
+the stability of the Union.
+
+What, then, shall be done? Large interests have grown up under the implied
+pledge of our national legislation, which it would seem a violation of
+public faith suddenly to abandon. Nothing could justify it but the public
+safety, which is the supreme law. But those who have vested their capital
+in manufacturing establishments can not expect that the people will
+continue permanently to pay high taxes for their benefit, when the money is
+not required for any legitimate purpose in the administration of the
+Government. Is it not enough that the high duties have been paid as long as
+the money arising from them could be applied to the common benefit in the
+extinguishment of the public debt?
+
+Those who take an enlarged view of the condition of our country must be
+satisfied that the policy of protection must be ultimately limited to those
+articles of domestic manufacture which are indispensable to our safety in
+time of war. Within this scope, on a reasonable scale, it is recommended by
+every consideration of patriotism and duty, which will doubtless always
+secure to it a liberal and efficient support. But beyond this object we
+have already seen the operation of the system productive of discontent. In
+some sections of the Republic its influence is deprecated as tending to
+concentrate wealth into a few hands, and as creating those germs of
+dependence and vice which in other countries have characterized the
+existence of monopolies and proved so destructive of liberty and the
+general good. A large portion of the people in one section of the Republic
+declares it not only inexpedient on these grounds, but as disturbing the
+equal relations of property by legislation, and therefore unconstitutional
+and unjust.
+
+Doubtless these effects are in a great degree exaggerated, and may be
+ascribed to a mistaken view of the considerations which led to the adoption
+of the tariff system; but they are never the less important in enabling us
+to review the subject with a more thorough knowledge of all its bearings
+upon the great interests of the Republic, and with a determination to
+dispose of it so that none can with justice complain.
+
+It is my painful duty to state that in one quarter of the United States
+opposition to the revenue laws has arisen to a height which threatens to
+thwart their execution, if not to endanger the integrity of the Union. What
+ever obstructions may be thrown in the way of the judicial authorities of
+the General Government, it is hoped they will be able peaceably to overcome
+them by the prudence of their own officers and the patriotism of the
+people. But should this reasonable reliance on the moderation and good
+sense of all portions of our fellow citizens be disappointed, it is
+believed that the laws themselves are fully adequate to the suppression of
+such attempts as may be immediately made. Should the exigency arise
+rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable from any cause
+what ever, prompt notice of it will be given to Congress, with a suggestion
+of such views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it.
+
+In conformity with principles heretofore explained, and with the hope of
+reducing the General Government to that simple machine which the
+Constitution created and of withdrawing from the States all other influence
+than that of its universal beneficence in preserving peace, affording an
+uniform currency, maintaining the inviolability of contracts, diffusing
+intelligence, and discharging unfelt its other super-intending functions, I
+recommend that provision be made to dispose of all stocks now held by it in
+corporations, whether created by the General or State Governments, and
+placing the proceeds in the Treasury. As a source of profit these stocks
+are of little or no value; as a means of influence among the States they
+are adverse to the purity of our institutions. The whole principle on which
+they are based is deemed by many unconstitutional, and to persist in the
+policy which they indicate is considered wholly inexpedient.
+
+It is my duty to acquaint you with an arrangement made by the Bank of the
+United States with a portion of the holders of the 3% stock, by which the
+Government will be deprived of the use of the public funds longer than was
+anticipated. By this arrangement, which will be particularly explained by
+the Secretary of the Treasury, a surrender of the certificates of this
+stock may be postponed until [1833 October], and thus may be continued by
+the failure of the bank to perform its duties.
+
+Such measures as are within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury have
+been taken to enable him to judge whether the public deposits in that
+institution may be regarded as entirely safe; but as his limited power may
+prove inadequate to this object, I recommend the subject to the attention
+of Congress, under the firm belief that it is worthy of their serious
+investigation. An inquiry into the transactions of the institution,
+embracing the branches as well as the principal bank, seems called for by
+the credit which is given throughout the country to many serious charges
+impeaching its character, and which if true may justly excite the
+apprehension that it is no longer a safe depository of the money of the
+people.
+
+Among the interests which merit the consideration of Congress after the
+payment of the public debt, one of the most important, in my view, is that
+of the public lands. Previous to the formation of our present Constitution
+it was recommended by Congress that a portion of the waste lands owned by
+the States should be ceded to the United States for the purposes of general
+harmony and as a fund to meet the expenses of the war. The recommendation
+was adopted, and at different periods of time the States of Massachusetts,
+New York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia granted their
+vacant soil for the uses for which they had been asked. As the lands may
+now be considered as relieved from this pledge, it is in the discretion of
+Congress to dispose of them in such way as best to conduce to the quiet,
+harmony, and general interest of the American people. In examining this
+question all local and sectional feelings should be discarded and the whole
+United States regarded as one people, interested alike in the prosperity of
+their common country.
+
+It can not be doubted that the speedy settlement of these lands constitutes
+the true interest of the Republic. The wealth and strength of a country are
+its population, and the best part of that population are cultivators of the
+soil. Independent farmers are every where the basis of society and true
+friends of liberty.
+
+In addition to these considerations questions have already arisen, and may
+be expected hereafter to grow out of the public lands, which involve the
+rights of the new States and the powers of the General Government, and
+unless a liberal policy be now adopted there is danger that these questions
+may speedily assume an importance not now generally anticipated. The
+influence of a great sectional interest, when brought into full action,
+will be found more dangerous to the harmony and union of the States than
+any other cause of discontent, and it is the part of wisdom and sound
+policy to foresee its approaches and endeavor if possible to counteract
+them.
+
+Of the various schemes which have been hitherto proposed in regard to the
+disposal of the public lands, none has yet received the entire approbation
+of the National Legislature. Deeply impressed with the importance of a
+speedy and satisfactory arrangement of the subject, I deem it my duty on
+this occasion to urge it upon your consideration, and to the propositions
+which have been heretofore suggested by others to contribute those
+reflections which have occurred to me, in the hope that they may assist you
+in your future deliberations.
+
+It seems to me to be our policy that the public lands shall cease as soon
+as practicable to be a source of revenue, and that they be sold to settlers
+in limited parcels at a price barely sufficient to reimburse to the United
+States the expense of the present system and the cost arising under our
+Indian compacts. The advantages of accurate surveys and undoubted titles
+now secured to purchasers seem to forbid the abolition of the present
+system, because none can be substituted which will more perfectly
+accomplish these important ends. It is desirable, however, that in
+convenient time this machinery be withdrawn from the States, and that the
+right of soil and the future disposition of it be surrendered to the States
+respectively in which it lies.
+
+The adventurous and hardy population of the West, besides contributing
+their equal share of taxation under our impost system, have in the progress
+of our Government, for the lands they occupy, paid into the Treasury a
+large proportion of $40,000,000, and of the revenue received therefrom but
+a small part has been expended among them. When to the disadvantage of
+their situation in this respect we add the consideration that it is their
+labor alone which gives real value to the lands, and that the proceeds
+arising from their sale are distributed chiefly among States which had not
+originally any claim to them, and which have enjoyed the undivided
+emolument arising from the sale of their own lands, it can not be expected
+that the new States will remain longer contented with the present policy
+after the payment of the public debt. To avert the consequences which may
+be apprehended from this cause, to pub an end for ever to all partial and
+interested legislation on the subject, and to afford to every American
+citizen of enterprise the opportunity of securing an independent freehold,
+it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon the idea of raising a future
+revenue out of the public lands.
+
+In former messages I have expressed my conviction that the Constitution
+does not warrant the application of the funds of the General Government to
+objects of internal improvement which are not national in their character,
+and, both as a means of doing justice to all interests and putting an end
+to a course of legislation calculated to destroy the purity of the
+Government, have urged the necessity of reducing the whole subject to some
+fixed and certain rule. As there never will occur a period, perhaps, more
+propitious than the present to the accomplishment of this object, I beg
+leave to press the subject again upon your attention.
+
+Without some general and well-defined principles ascertaining those objects
+of internal improvement to which the means of the nation may be
+constitutionally applied, it is obvious that the exercise of the power can
+never be satisfactory. Besides the danger to which it exposes Congress of
+making hasty appropriations to works of the character of which they may be
+frequently ignorant, it promotes a mischievous and corrupting influence
+upon elections by holding out to the people the fallacious hope that the
+success of a certain candidate will make navigable their neighboring creek
+or river, bring commerce to their doors, and increase the value of their
+property. It thus favors combinations to squander the treasure of the
+country upon a multitude of local objects, as fatal to just legislation as
+to the purity of public men.
+
+If a system compatible with the Constitution can not be devised which is
+free from such tendencies, we should recollect that that instrument
+provides within itself the mode of its amendment, and that there is,
+therefore, no excuse for the assumption of doubtful powers by the General
+Government. If those which are clearly granted shall be found incompetent
+to the ends of its creation, it can at any time apply for their
+enlargement; and there is no probability that such an application, if
+founded on the public interest, will ever be refused. If the propriety of
+the proposed grant be not sufficiently apparent to command the assent of
+3/4 of the States, the best possible reason why the power should not be
+assumed on doubtful authority is afforded; for if more than one quarter of
+the States are unwilling to make the grant its exercise will be productive
+of discontents which will far over-balance any advantages that could be
+derived from it. All must admit that there is nothing so worthy of the
+constant solicitude of this Government as the harmony and union of the
+people.
+
+Being solemnly impressed with the conviction that the extension of the
+power to make internal improvements beyond the limit I have suggested, even
+if it be deemed constitutional, is subversive of the best interests of our
+country, I earnestly recommend to Congress to refrain from its exercise in
+doubtful cases, except in relation to improvements already begun, unless
+they shall first procure from the States such an amendment of the
+Constitution as will define its character and prescribe its bounds. If the
+States feel themselves competent to these objects, why should this
+Government wish to assume the power? If they do not, then they will not
+hesitate to make the grant. Both Governments are the Governments of the
+people; improvements must be made with the money of the people, and if the
+money can be collected and applied by those more simple and economical
+political machines, the State governments, it will unquestionably be safer
+and better for the people than to add to the splendor, the patronage, and
+the power of the General Government. But if the people of the several
+States think otherwise they will amend the Constitution, and in their
+decision all ought cheerfully to acquiesce.
+
+For a detailed and highly satisfactory view of the operations of the War
+Department I refer you to the accompanying report of the Secretary of War.
+
+The hostile incursions of the Sac and Fox Indians necessarily led to the
+interposition of the Government. A portion of the troops, under Generals
+Scott and Atkinson, and of the militia of the State of Illinois were called
+into the field. After a harassing warfare, prolonged by the nature of the
+country and by the difficulty of procuring subsistence, the Indians were
+entirely defeated, and the disaffected band dispersed or destroyed. The
+result has been creditable to the troops engaged in the service. Severe as
+is the lesson to the Indians, it was rendered necessary by their unprovoked
+aggressions, and it is to be hoped that its impression will be permanent
+and salutary.
+
+This campaign has evinced the efficient organization of the Army and its
+capacity for prompt and active service. Its several departments have
+performed their functions with energy and dispatch, and the general
+movement was satisfactory.
+
+Our fellow citizens upon the frontiers were ready, as they always are, in
+the tender of their services in the hour of danger. But a more efficient
+organization of our militia system is essential to that security which is
+one of the principal objects of all governments. Neither our situation nor
+our institutions require or permit the maintenance of a large regular
+force. History offers too many lessons of the fatal result of such a
+measure not to warn us against its adoption here. The expense which attends
+it, the obvious tendency to employ it because it exists and thus to engage
+in unnecessary wars, and its ultimate danger to public liberty will lead
+us, I trust, to place our principal dependence for protection upon the
+great body of the citizens of the Republic. If in asserting rights or in
+repelling wrongs war should come upon us, our regular force should be
+increased to an extent proportional to the emergency, and our present small
+Army is a nucleus around which such force could be formed and embodied. But
+for the purposes of defense under ordinary circumstances we must rely upon
+the electors of the country. Those by whom and for whom the Government was
+instituted and is supported will constitute its protection in the hour of
+danger as they do its check in the hour of safety.
+
+But it is obvious that the militia system is imperfect. Much time is lost,
+much unnecessary expense incurred, and much public property wasted under
+the present arrangement. Little useful knowledge is gained by the musters
+and drills as now established, and the whole subject evidently requires a
+thorough examination. Whether a plan of classification remedying these
+defects and providing for a system of instruction might not be adopted is
+submitted to the consideration of Congress. The Constitution has vested in
+the General Government an independent authority upon the subject of the
+militia which renders its action essential to the establishment or
+improvement of the system, and I recommend the matter to your consideration
+in the conviction that the state of this important arm of the public
+defense requires your attention.
+
+I am happy to inform you that the wise and humane policy of transferring
+from the eastern to the western side of the Mississippi the remnants of our
+aboriginal tribes, with their own consent and upon just terms, has been
+steadily pursued, and is approaching, I trust, its consummation. By
+reference to the report of the Secretary of War and to the documents
+submitted with it you will see the progress which has been made since your
+last session in the arrangement of the various matters connected with our
+Indian relations. With one exception every subject involving any question
+of conflicting jurisdiction or of peculiar difficulty has been happily
+disposed of, and the conviction evidently gains ground among the Indians
+that their removal to the country assigned by the United States for their
+permanent residence furnishes the only hope of their ultimate prosperity.
+
+With that portion of the Cherokees, however, living within the State of
+Georgia it has been found impracticable as yet to make a satisfactory
+adjustment. Such was my anxiety to remove all the grounds of complaint and
+to bring to a termination the difficulties in which they are involved that
+I directed the very liberal propositions to be made to them which accompany
+the documents herewith submitted. They can not but have seen in these
+offers the evidence of the strongest disposition on the part of the
+Government to deal justly and liberally with them. An ample indemnity was
+offered for their present possessions, a liberal provision for their future
+support and improvement, and full security for their private and political
+rights. What ever difference of opinion may have prevailed respecting the
+just claims of these people, there will probably be none respecting the
+liberality of the propositions, and very little respecting the expediency
+of their immediate acceptance. They were, however, rejected, and thus the
+position of these Indians remains unchanged, as do the views communicated
+in my message to the Senate of [1831-02-22].
+
+I refer you to the annual report of the Secretary of the Navy, which
+accompanies this message, for a detail of the operations of that branch of
+the service during the present year.
+
+Besides the general remarks on some of the transactions of our Navy
+presented in the view which has been taken of our foreign relations, I
+seize this occasion to invite to your notice the increased protection which
+it has afforded to our commerce and citizens on distant seas without any
+augmentation of the force in commission. In the gradual improvement of its
+pecuniary concerns, in the constant progress in the collection of materials
+suitable for use during future emergencies, and in the construction of
+vessels and the buildings necessary to their preservation and repair, the
+present state of this branch of the service exhibits the fruits of that
+vigilance and care which are so indispensable to its efficiency. Various
+new suggestions, contained in the annexed report, as well as others
+heretofore to Congress, are worthy of your attention, but none more so than
+that urging the renewal for another term of 6 years of the general
+appropriation for the gradual improvement of the Navy.
+
+From the accompanying report of the PostMaster General you will also
+perceive that that Department continues to extend its usefulness without
+impairing its resources or lessening the accommodations which it affords in
+the secure and rapid transportation of the mail.
+
+I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the views heretofore
+expressed in relation to the mode of choosing the President and Vice-
+President of the United States, and to those respecting the tenure of
+office generally. Still impressed with the justness of those views and with
+the belief that the modifications suggested on those subjects if adopted
+will contribute to the prosperity and harmony of the country, I earnestly
+recommend them to your consideration at this time.
+
+I have heretofore pointed out defects in the law for punishing official
+frauds, especially within the District of Columbia. It has been found
+almost impossible to bring notorious culprits to punishment, and, according
+to a decision of the court for this District, a prosecution is barred by a
+lapse of two years after the fraud has been committed. It may happen again,
+as it has already happened, that during the whole 2 years all the evidences
+of the fraud may be in the possession of the culprit himself. However
+proper the limitation may be in relation to private citizens, it would seem
+that it ought not to commence running in favor of public officers until
+they go out of office.
+
+The judiciary system of the United States remains imperfect. Of the 9
+Western and South Western States, three only enjoy the benefits of a
+circuit court. Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee are embraced in the general
+system, but Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisian
+have only district courts. If the existing system be a good one, why should
+it not be extended? If it be a bad one, why is it suffered to exist? The
+new States were promised equal rights and privileges when they came into
+the Union, and such are the guaranties of the Constitution. Nothing can be
+more obvious than the obligation of the General Government to place all the
+States on the same footing in relation to the administration of justice,
+and I trust this duty will be neglected no longer.
+
+On many of the subjects to which your attention is invited in this
+communication it is a source of gratification to reflect that the steps to
+be now adopted are uninfluenced by the embarrassments entailed upon the
+country by the wars through which it has passed. In regard to most of our
+great interests we may consider ourselves as just starting in our career,
+and after a salutary experience about to fix upon a permanent basis the
+policy best calculated to promote the happiness of the people and
+facilitate their progress toward the most complete enjoyment of civil
+liberty. On an occasion so interesting and important in our history, and of
+such anxious concern to the friends of freedom throughout the world, it is
+our imperious duty to lay aside all selfish and local considerations and be
+guided by a lofty spirit of devotion to the great principles on which our
+institutions are founded.
+
+That this Government may be so administered as to preserve its efficiency
+in promoting and securing these general objects should be the only aim of
+our ambition, and we can not, therefore, too carefully examine its
+structure, in order that we may not mistake its powers or assume those
+which the people have reserved to themselves or have preferred to assign to
+other agents. We should bear constantly in mind the fact that the
+considerations which induced the framers of the Constitution to withhold
+from the General Government the power to regulate the great mass of the
+business and concerns of the people have been fully justified by
+experience, and that it can not now be doubted that the genius of all our
+institutions prescribes simplicity and economy as the characteristics of
+the reform which is yet to be effected in the present and future execution
+of the functions bestowed upon us by the Constitution.
+
+Limited to a general superintending power to maintain peace at home and
+abroad, and to prescribe laws on a few subjects of general interest not
+calculated to restrict human liberty, but to enforce human rights, this
+Government will find its strength and its glory in the faithful discharge
+of these plain and simple duties. Relieved by its protecting shield from
+the fear of war and the apprehension of oppression, the free enterprise of
+our citizens, aided by the State sovereignties, will work out improvements
+and ameliorations which can not fail to demonstrate that the great truth
+that the people can govern themselves is not only realized in our example,
+but that it is done by a machinery in government so simple and economical
+as scarcely to be felt. That the Almighty Ruler of the Universe may so
+direct our deliberations and over-rule our acts as to make us instrumental
+in securing a result so dear to mankind is my most earnest and sincere
+prayer.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 3, 1833
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+On your assembling to perform the high trusts which the people of the
+United States have confided to you, of legislating for their common
+welfare, it gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon the happy condition
+of our beloved country. By the favor of Divine Providence health is again
+restored to us, peace reigns within our borders, abundance crowns the
+labors of our fields, commerce and domestic industry flourish and increase,
+and individual happiness rewards the private virtue and enterprise of our
+citizens.
+
+Our condition abroad is no less honorable than it is prosperous at home.
+Seeking nothing that is not right and determined to submit to nothing that
+is wrong, but desiring honest friendships and liberal intercourse with all
+nations, the United States have gained throughout the world the confidence
+and respect which are due to a policy so just and so congenial to the
+character of the American people and to the spirit of their institutions.
+
+In bringing to your notice the particular state of our foreign affairs, it
+affords me high gratification to inform you that they are in a condition
+which promises the continuance of friendship with all nations.
+
+With Great Britain the interesting question of our North East boundary
+remains still undecided. A negotiation, however, upon that subject has been
+renewed since the close of the last Congress, and a proposition has been
+submitted to the British Government with the view of establishing, in
+conformity with the resolution of the Senate, the line designated by the
+treaty of 1783. Though no definitive answer has been received, it may be
+daily looked for, and I entertain a hope that the overture may ultimately
+lead to a satisfactory adjustment of this important matter.
+
+I have the satisfaction to inform you that a negotiation which, by desire
+of the House of Representatives, was opened some years ago with the British
+Government, for the erection of light houses on the Bahamas, has been
+successful. Those works, when completed, together with those which the
+United States have constructed on the western side of the Gulf of Florida,
+will contribute essentially to the safety of navigation in that sea. This
+joint participation in establishments interesting to humanity and
+beneficial to commerce is worthy of two enlightened nations, and indicates
+feelings which can not fail to have a happy influence upon their political
+relations. It is gratifying to the friends of both to perceive that the
+intercourse between the two people is becoming daily more extensive, and
+that sentiments of mutual good will have grown up befitting their common
+origin and justifying the hope that by wise counsels on each side not only
+unsettled questions may be satisfactorily terminated, but new causes of
+misunderstanding prevented.
+
+Not withstanding that I continue to receive the most amicable assurances
+from the Government of France, and that in all other respects the most
+friendly relations exist between the United States and that Government, it
+is to be regretted that the stipulations of the convention concluded on
+1831-07-04 remain in some important parts unfulfilled.
+
+By the second article of that convention it was stipulated that the sum
+payable to the United States should be paid at Paris, in 6 annual
+installments, into the hands of such person or persons as should be
+authorized by the Government of the United States to receive it, and by the
+same article the first installment was payable on 1833-02-02. By the act of
+Congress of 1832-07-13 it was made the duty of the Secretary of the
+Treasury to cause the several installments, with the interest thereon, to
+be received from the French Government and transferred to the United States
+in such manner as he may deem best; and by the same act of Congress the
+stipulations on the part of the United States in the convention were in all
+respects fulfilled. Not doubting that a treaty thus made and ratified by
+the two Governments, and faithfully executed by the United States, would be
+promptly complied with by the other party, and desiring to avoid the risk
+and expense of intermediate agencies, the Secretary of the Treasury deemed
+it advisable to receive and transfer the first installment by means of a
+draft upon the French minister of finance.
+
+A draft for this purpose was accordingly drawn in favor of the cashier of
+the Bank of the United States for the amount accruing to the United States
+out of the first installment, and the interest payable with it. This bill
+was not drawn at Washington until 5 days after the installment was payable
+at Paris, and was accompanied by a special authority from the President
+authorizing the cashier or his assigns to receive the amount. The mode thus
+adopted of receiving the installment was officially made known to the
+French Government by the American chargé d'affaires at Paris,
+pursuant to instructions from the Department of State. The bill, however,
+though not presented for payment until 1833-03-23, was not paid, and for
+the reason assigned by the French minister of finance that no appropriation
+had been made by the French Chambers. It is not known to me that up to that
+period any appropriation had been required of the Chambers, and although a
+communication was subsequently made to the Chambers by direction of the
+King, recommending that the necessary provision should be made for carrying
+the convention into effect, it was at an advanced period of the session,
+and the subject was finally postponed until the next meeting of the
+Chambers.
+
+Not withstanding it has been supposed by the French ministry that the
+financial stipulations of the treaty can not be carried into effect without
+an appropriation by the Chambers, it appears to me to be not only
+consistent with the character of France, but due to the character of both
+Governments, as well as to the rights of our citizens, to treat the
+convention, made and ratified in proper form, as pledging the good faith of
+the French Government for its execution, and as imposing upon each
+department an obligation to fulfill it; and I have received assurances
+through our chargé d'affaires at Paris and the French minister
+plenipotentiary at Washington, and more recently through the minister of
+the United States at Paris, that the delay has not proceeded from any
+indisposition on the part of the King and his ministers to fulfill their
+treaty, and that measures will be presented at the next meeting of the
+Chambers, and with a reasonable hope of success, to obtain the necessary
+appropriation.
+
+It is necessary to state, however, that the documents, except certain lists
+of vessels captured, condemned, or burnt at sea, proper to facilitate the
+examination and liquidation of the reclamations comprised in the
+stipulations of the convention, and which by the 6th article France engaged
+to communicate to the United States by the intermediary of the legation,
+though repeatedly applied for by the American chargé d'affaires
+under instructions from this Government, have not yet been communicated;
+and this delay, it is apprehended, will necessarily prevent the completion
+of the duties assigned to the commissioners within the time at present
+prescribed by law.
+
+The reasons for delaying to communicate these documents have not been
+explicitly stated, and this is the more to be regretted as it is not
+understood that the interposition of the Chambers is in any manner required
+for the delivery of those papers.
+
+Under these circumstances, in a case so important to the interests of our
+citizens and to the character of our country, and under disappointments so
+unexpected, I deemed it my duty, however I might respect the general
+assurances to which I have adverted, no longer to delay the appointment of
+a minister plenipotentiary to Paris, but to dispatch him in season to
+communicate the result of his application to the French Government at an
+early period of your session. I accordingly appointed a distinguished
+citizen for this purpose, who proceeded on his mission in August last and
+was presented to the King early in the month of October. He is particularly
+instructed as to all matters connected with the present posture of affairs,
+and I indulge the hope that with the representations he is instructed to
+make, and from the disposition manifested by the King and his ministers in
+their recent assurances to our minister at Paris, the subject will be early
+considered, and satisfactorily disposed of at the next meeting of the
+Chambers.
+
+As this subject involves important interests and has attracted a
+considerable share of the public attention, I have deemed it proper to make
+this explicit statement of its actual condition, and should I be
+disappointed in the hope now entertained the subject will be again brought
+to the notice of Congress in such manner as the occasion may require.
+
+The friendly relations which have always been maintained between the United
+States and Russia have been further extended and strengthened by the treaty
+of navigation and commerce concluded on 1832-12-06, and sanctioned by the
+Senate before the close of its last session. The ratifications having been
+since exchanged, the liberal provisions of the treaty are now in full
+force, and under the encouragement which they have secured a flourishing
+and increasing commerce, yielding its benefits to the enterprise of both
+nations, affords to each the just recompense of wise measures, and adds new
+motives for that mutual friendship which the two countries have hitherto
+cherished toward each other.
+
+It affords me peculiar satisfaction to state that the Government of Spain
+has at length yielded to the justice of the claims which have been so long
+urged in behalf of our citizens, and has expressed a willingness to provide
+an indemnification as soon as the proper amount can be agreed upon. Upon
+this latter point it is probable an understanding had taken place between
+the minister of the United States and the Spanish Government before the
+decease of the late King of Spain; and, unless that event may have delayed
+its completion, there is reason to hope that it may be in my power to
+announce to you early in your present session the conclusion of a
+convention upon terms not less favorable than those entered into for
+similar objects with other nations. That act of justice would well accord
+with the character of Spain, and is due to the United States from their
+ancient friend. It could not fail to strengthen the sentiments of amity and
+good will between the two nations which it is so much the wish of the
+United States to cherish and so truly the interest of both to maintain.
+
+By the first section of an act of Congress passed on 1832-07-13 the tonnage
+duty on Spanish ships arriving from the ports of Spain previous to
+1817-10-20, being 5 cents per ton. That act was intended to give effect on
+our side to an arrangement made with the Spanish Government by which
+discriminating duties of tonnage were to be abolished in the ports of the
+United States and Spain on he vessels of the two nations. Pursuant to that
+arrangement, which was carried into effect on the part of Spain on
+1832-05-20, by a royal order dated 1832-04-29, American vessels in the
+ports of Spain have paid 5 cents per ton, which rate of duty is also paid
+in those ports by Spanish ships; but as American vessels pay no tonnage
+duty in the ports of the United States, the duty of 5 cents payable in our
+ports by Spanish vessels under the act above mentioned is really a
+discriminating duty, operating to the disadvantage of Spain.
+
+Though no complaint has yet been made on the part of Spain, we are not the
+less bound by the obligations of good faith to remove the discrimination,
+and I recommend that the act be amended accordingly. As the royal order
+above alluded to includes the ports of the Balearic and Canary islands as
+well as those of Spain, it would seem that the provisions of the act of
+Congress should be equally extensive, and that for the repayments of such
+duties as may have been improperly received an addition should be made to
+the sum appropriated at the last session of Congress for refunding
+discriminating duties.
+
+As the arrangement referred to, however, did not embrace the islands of
+Cuba and Puerto Rico, discriminating duties to the prejudice of American
+shipping continue to be levied there. From the extent of the commerce
+carried on between the United States and those islands, particularly the
+former, this discrimination causes serious injury to one of those great
+national interests which it has been considered an essential part of our
+policy to cherish, and has given rise to complaints on the part of our
+merchants. Under instructions given to our minister at Madrid, earnest
+representations have been made by him to the Spanish Government upon this
+subject, and there is reason to expect, from the friendly disposition which
+is entertained toward this country, that a beneficial change will be
+produced.
+
+The disadvantage, however, to which our shipping is subjected by the
+operation of these discriminating duties requires that they be met by
+suitable countervailing duties during your present session, power being at
+the same time vested in the President to modify or discontinue them as the
+discriminating duties on American vessels or their cargoes may be modified
+or discontinued at those islands. Intimations have been given to the
+Spanish Government that the United States may be obliged to resort to such
+measures as are of necessary self-defense, and there is no reason to
+apprehend that it would be unfavorably received. The proposed proceeding if
+adopted would not be permitted, however, in any degree to induce a
+relaxation in the efforts of our minister to effect a repeal of this
+irregularity by friendly negotiation, and it might serve to give force to
+his representations by showing the dangers to which that valuable trade is
+exposed by the obstructions and burdens which a system of discriminating
+and countervailing duties necessarily produces.
+
+The selection and preparation of the Florida archives for the purpose of
+being delivered over to the United States, in conformity with the royal
+order as mentioned in my last annual message, though in progress, has not
+yet been completed. This delay has been produced partly by causes which
+were unavoidable, particularly the prevalence of the cholera at Havana; but
+measures have been taken which it is believed will expedite the delivery of
+those important records.
+
+Congress were informed at the opening of the last session that "owing, as
+was alleged, to embarrassments in the finances of Portugal, consequent upon
+the civil war in which that nation was engaged", payment had been made of
+only one installment of the amount which the Portuguese Government had
+stipulated to pay for indemnifying our citizens for property illegally
+captured in the blockade of Terceira. Since that time a postponement for
+two years, with interest, of the 2 remaining installments was requested by
+the Portuguese Government, and as a consideration it offered to stipulate
+that rice of the United States should be admitted into Portugal at the same
+duties as Brazilian rice. Being satisfied that no better arrangement could
+be made, my consent was given, and a royal order of the King of Portugal
+was accordingly issued on 1833-02-04 for the reduction of the duty on rice
+of the United States. It would give me great pleasure if in speaking of
+that country, in whose prosperity the United States are so much interested,
+and with whom a long- subsisting, extensive, and mutually advantageous
+commercial intercourse has strengthened the relation of friendship, I could
+announce to you the restoration of its internal tranquillity.
+
+Subsequently to the commencement of the last session of Congress the final
+installment payable by Denmark under the convention of 1830-03-28 was
+received. The commissioners for examining the claims have since terminated
+their labors, and their awards have been paid at the Treasury as they have
+been called for. The justice rendered to our citizens by that Government is
+thus completed, and a pledge is thereby afforded for the maintenance of
+that friendly intercourse becoming the relations that the two nations
+mutually bear to each other.
+
+It is satisfactory to inform you that the Danish Government have recently
+issued an ordinance by which the commerce with the island of St. Croix is
+placed on a more liberal footing than heretofore. This change can not fail
+to prove beneficial to the trade between the United States and that colony,
+and the advantages likely to flow from it may lead to greater relaxations
+in the colonial systems of other nations.
+
+The ratifications of the convention with the King of the two Sicilies have
+been duly exchanged, and the commissioners appointed for examining the
+claims under it have entered upon the duties assigned to them by law. The
+friendship that the interests of the two nations require of them being now
+established, it may be hoped that each will enjoy the benefits which a
+liberal commerce should yield to both.
+
+A treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Belgium was
+concluded during the last winter and received the sanction of the Senate,
+but the exchange of the ratifications has been hitherto delayed, in
+consequence, in the first instance, of some delay in the reception of the
+treaty at Brussels, and, subsequently, of the absence of the Belgian
+minister of foreign affairs at the important conferences in which his
+Government is engaged at London. That treaty does but embody those enlarged
+principles of friendly policy which it is sincerely hoped will always
+regulate the conduct of the two nations having such strong motives to
+maintain amicable relations toward each other and so sincerely desirous to
+cherish them.
+
+With all the other European powers with whom the United States have formed
+diplomatic relations and with the Sublime Porte the best understanding
+prevails. From all I continue to receive assurances of good will toward the
+United States -- assurances which it gives me no less pleasure to
+reciprocate than to receive. With all, the engagements which have been
+entered into are fulfilled with good faith on both sides. Measures have
+also been taken to enlarge our friendly relations and extend our commercial
+intercourse with other States. The system we have pursued of aiming at no
+exclusive advantages, of dealing with all on terms of fair and equal
+reciprocity, and of adhering scrupulously to all our engagements is well
+calculated to give success to efforts intended to be mutually beneficial.
+
+The wars of which the southern part of this continent was so long the
+theater, and which were carried on either by the mother country against the
+States which had formerly been her colonies or by the States against each
+other, having terminated, and their civil dissensions having so far
+subsided as with few exceptions no longer to disturb the public
+tranquillity, it is earnestly hoped those States will be able to employ
+themselves without interruption in perfecting their institutions,
+cultivating the arts of peace, and promoting by wise councils and able
+exertions the public and private prosperity which their patriotic struggles
+so well entitle them to enjoy.
+
+With those States our relations have under-gone but little change during
+the present year. No reunion having yet taken place between the States
+which composed the Republic of Colombia, our chargé d'affaires at
+Bogota has been accredited to the Government of New Grenada, and we have,
+therefore, no diplomatic relations with Venezuela and Equator, except as
+they may be included in those heretofore formed with the Colombian
+Republic.
+
+It is understood that representatives from the three stattes were about to
+assemble at Bogota to confer on the subject of their mutual interests,
+particularly that of their union, and if the result should render it
+necessary, measures will be taken on our part to preserve with each that
+friendship and those liberal commercial connections which it has been the
+constant desire of the United States to cultivate with their sister
+Republics of this hemisphere. Until the important question of reunion shall
+be settled, however, the different matters which have been under discussion
+between the United States and the Republic of Colombia, or either of the
+States which composed it, are not likely to be brought to a satisfactory
+issue.
+
+In consequence of the illness of the chargé d'affaires appointed to
+Central America at the last session of Congress, he was prevented from
+proceeding on his mission until the month of October. It is hoped, however,
+that he is by this time at his post, and that the official intercourse,
+unfortunately so long interrupted, has been thus renewed on the part of the
+two nations so amicably and advantageously connected by engagements founded
+on the most enlarged principles of commercial reciprocity.
+
+It is gratifying to state that since my last annual message some of the
+most important claims of our fellow citizens upon the Government of Brazil
+have been satisfactorily adjusted, and a reliance is placed on the friendly
+dispositions manifested by it that justice will also be done in others. No
+new causes of complaint have arisen, and the trade between the two
+countries flourishes under the encouragement secured to it by the liberal
+provisions of the treaty.
+
+It is cause of regret that, owing, probably, to the civil dissensions which
+have occupied the attention of the Mexican Government, the time fixed by
+the treaty of limits with the United States for the meeting of the
+commissioners to define the boundaries between the two nations has been
+suffered to expire without the appointment of any commissioners on the part
+of that Government. While the true boundary remains in doubt by either
+party it is difficult to give effect to those measures which are necessary
+to the protection and quiet of our numerous citizens residing near that
+frontier. The subject is one of great solicitude to the United States, and
+will not fail to receive my earnest attention.
+
+The treaty concluded with Chili and approved by the Senate at its last
+session was also ratified by the Chilian Government, but with certain
+additional and explanatory articles of a nature to have required it to be
+again submitted to the Senate. The time limited for the exchange of the
+ratification, however, having since expired, the action of both Governments
+on the treaty will again become necessary.
+
+The negotiations commenced with the Argentine Republic relative to the
+outrages committed on our vessels engaged in the fisheries at the Falkland
+Islands by persons acting under the color of its authority, as well as the
+other matters in controversy between the two Governments, have been
+suspended by the departure of the chargé d'affaires of the United
+States from Buenos Ayres. It is understood, however, that a minister was
+subsequently appointed by that Government to renew the negotiation in the
+United States, but though daily expected he has not yet arrived in this
+country.
+
+With Peru no treaty has yet been formed, and with Bolivia no diplomatic
+intercourse has yet been established. It will be my endeavor to encourage
+those sentiments of amity and that liberal commerce which belong to the
+relations in which all the independent States of this continent stand
+toward each other.
+
+I deem it proper to recommend to your notice the revision of our consular
+system. This has become an important branch of the public service, in as
+much as it is intimately connected with the preservation of our national
+character abroad, with the interest of our citizens in foreign countries,
+with the regulation and care of our commerce, and with the protection of
+our sea men. At the close of the last session of Congress I communicated a
+report from the Secretary of State upon the subject, to which I now refer,
+as containing information which may be useful in any inquiries that
+Congress may see fit to institute with a view to a salutary reform of the
+system.
+
+It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you upon the prosperous
+condition of the finances of the country, as will appear from the report
+which the Secretary of the Treasury will in due time lay before you. The
+receipts into the Treasury during the present year will amount to more than
+$32,000,000. The revenue derived from customs will, it is believed, be more
+than $28,000,000, and the public lands will yield about $3,0900,000. The
+expenditures within the year for all objects, including $2,572,240.99 on
+account of the public debt, will not amount to $25,000,000, and a large
+balance will remain in the Treasury after satisfying all the appropriations
+chargeable on the revenue for the present year.
+
+The measures taken by the Secretary of the Treasury will probably enable to
+pay off in the course of the present year the residue of the exchanged 4.5%
+stock, redeemable on 1834-01-01. It has therefore been included in the
+estimated expenditures of this year, and forms a part of the sum above
+stated to have been paid on account of the public debt. The payment of this
+stock will reduce the whole debt of the United States, funded and unfunded,
+to the sum of $4,760,082.08, and as provision has already been made for the
+4.5% stocks above mentioned, and charged in the expenses of the present
+year, the sum last stated is all that now remains of the national debt; and
+the revenue of the coming year, together with the balance now in the
+Treasury, will be sufficient to discharge it, after meeting the current
+expenses of the Government. Under the power given to the commissioners of
+the sinking fund, it will, I have no doubt, be purchased on favorable terms
+within the year.
+
+From this view of the state of the finances and the public engagements yet
+to be fulfilled you will perceive that if Providence permits me to meet you
+at another session I shall have the high gratification of announcing to you
+that the national debt is extinguished. I can not refrain from expressing
+the pleasure I feel at the near approach of that desirable event. The short
+period of time within which the public debt will have been discharged is
+strong evidence of the abundant resources of the country and of the
+prudence and economy with which the Government has heretofore been
+administered. We have waged two wars since we became a nation, with one of
+the most powerful kingdoms in the world, both of them undertaken in defense
+of our dearest rights, been successfully prosecuted and honorably
+terminated; and many of those who partook in the first struggle as well as
+in the second will have lived to see the last item of the debt incurred in
+these necessary but expensive conflicts faithfully and honestly discharged.
+And we shall have the proud satisfaction of bequeathing to the public
+servants who follow us in the administration of the Government the rare
+blessing of a revenue sufficiently abundant, raised without injustice or
+oppression to our citizens, and unencumbered with any burdens but what they
+themselves shall think proper to impose upon it.
+
+The flourishing state of the finances ought not, however, to encourage us
+to indulge in a lavish expenditure of the public treasure. The receipts of
+the present year do not furnish the test by which we are to estimate the
+income of the next. The changes made in our revenue system by the acts of
+Congress of 1832 and 1833, and more especially by the former, have swelled
+the receipts of the present year far beyond the amount to be expected in
+future years upon the reduced tariff of duties. The shortened credits on
+revenue bonds and the cash duties on woolens which were introduced by the
+act of 1832, and took effect on 1832-03-04, have brought large sums into
+the Treasury in 1833, which, according to the credits formerly given, would
+not have been payable until 1834, and would have formed a part of the
+income of that year. These causes would of themselves produce a great
+diminution of the receipts in the year 1834 as compared with the present
+one, and they will be still more diminished by the reduced rates of duties
+which take place on 1834-01-01 on some of the most important and productive
+articles.
+
+Upon the best estimates that can be made the receipts of the next year,
+with the aid of the unappropriated amount now in the Treasury, will not be
+much more than sufficient to meet the expenses of the year and pay the
+small remnant of the national debt which yet remains unsatisfied. I can
+not, therefore, recommend to you any alteration in the present tariff of
+duties. The rate as now fixed by law on the various articles was adopted at
+the last session of Congress, as a matter of compromise, with unusual
+unanimity, and unless it is found to produce more than the necessities of
+the Government call for there would seem to be no reason at this time to
+justify a change.
+
+But while I forbear to recommend any further reduction of the duties beyond
+that already provided for by the existing laws, I must earnestly and
+respectfully press upon Congress the importance of abstaining from all
+appropriations which are not absolutely required for the public interest
+and authorized by the powers clearly delegated to the United States. We are
+beginning a new era in our Government. The national debt, which has so long
+been a burden on the Treasury, will be finally discharged in the course of
+the ensuing year. No more memory will afterwards be needed than what may be
+necessary to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government. Now, then, is
+the proper moment to fix our system of expenditure on firm and durable
+principles, and I can not too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid
+economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond
+the real necessities of the Government and not to increase the wants of the
+Government by unnecessary and profuse expenditures.
+
+If a contrary course should be pursued, it may happen that the revenue of
+1834 will fall short of the demands upon it, and after reducing the tariff
+in order to lighten the burdens of the people, and providing for a still
+further reduction to take effect hereafter, it would be much to be deplored
+if at the end of another year we should find ourselves obliged to retrace
+our steps and impose additional taxes to meet unnecessary expenditures.
+
+It is my duty on this occasion to call your attention to the destruction of
+the public building occupied by the Treasury Department, which happened
+since the last adjournment of Congress. A thorough inquiry into the causes
+of this loss was directed and made at the time, the result of which will be
+duly communicated to you. I take pleasure, however, in stating here that by
+the laudable exertions of the officers of the Department and many of the
+citizens of the District but few papers were lost, and none that will
+materially affect the public interest.
+
+The public convenience requires that another building should be erected as
+soon as practicable, and in providing for it it will be advisable to
+enlarge in some manner the accommodations for the public officers of the
+several Departments, and to authorize the erection of suitable depositories
+for the safe-keeping of the public documents and records.
+
+Since the last adjournment of Congress the Secretary of the Treasury has
+directed the money of the United States to be deposited in certain State
+banks designated by him, and he will immediately lay before you his reasons
+for this direction. I concur with him entirely in the view he has taken on
+the subject, and some months before the removal I urged upon the Department
+the propriety of taking that step. The near approach of the day on which
+the charger will expire, as well as the conduct of the bank, appeared to me
+to call for this measure upon the high considerations of public interest
+and public duty. The extent of its misconduct, however, although known to
+be great, was not at that time fully developed by proof. It was not until
+late in the month of August that I received from the Government directors
+an official report establishing beyond question that this great and
+powerful institution had been actively engaged in attempting to influence
+the elections of the public officers by means of its money, and that, in
+violation of the express provisions of its charter, it had by a formal
+resolution placed its funds at the disposition of its president to be
+employed in sustaining the political power of the bank. A copy of this
+resolution is contained in the report of the Government directors before
+referred to, and how ever the object may be disguised by cautious language,
+no one can doubt that this money was in truth intended for electioneering
+purposes, and the particular uses to which it was proved to have been
+applied abundantly show that it was so understood. Not only was the
+evidence complete as to the past application of the money and power of the
+bank to electioneering purposes, but that the resolution of the board of
+directors authorized the same course to be pursued in future.
+
+It being thus established by unquestionable proof that the Bank of the
+United States was converted into a permanent electioneering engine, it
+appeared to me that the path of duty which the executive department of the
+Government ought to pursue was not doubtful. As by the terms of the bank
+charter no officer but the Secretary of the Treasury could remove the
+deposits, it seemed to me that this authority ought to be at once exerted
+to deprive that great corporation of the support and countenance of the
+Government in such an use of its and such an exertion of its power. In this
+point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people
+of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their
+unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation
+are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their
+decisions. It must now be determined whether the bank is to have its
+candidates for all offices in the country, from the highest to the lowest,
+or whether candidates on both sides of political questions shall be brought
+forward as heretofore and supported by the usual means.
+
+At this time the efforts of the bank to control public opinion, through the
+distresses of some and the fears of others, are equally apparent, and, if
+possible, more objectionable. By a curtailment of its accommodations more
+rapid than any emergency requires, and even while it retains specie to an
+almost unprecedented amount in its vaults, it is attempting to produce
+great embarrassment in one portion of the community, while through presses
+known to have been sustained by its money it attempts by unfounded alarms
+to create a panic in all.
+
+These are the means by which it seems to expect that it can force a
+restoration of the deposits, and as a necessary consequence extort from
+Congress a renewal of its charter. I am happy to know that through the good
+sense of our people the effort to get up a panic has hitherto failed, and
+that through the increased accommodations which the State banks have been
+enabled to afford, no public distress has followed the exertions of the
+bank, and it can not be doubted that the exercise of its power and the
+expenditure of its money, as well as its efforts to spread groundless
+alarm, will be met and rebuked as they deserve. In my own sphere of duty I
+should feel myself called on by the facts disclosed to order a scire facias
+against the bank, with a view to put an end to the chartered rights it has
+so palpably violated, were it not that the charter itself will expire as
+soon as a decision would probably be obtained from the court of last
+resort.
+
+I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my last annual
+message, and informed them that such measures as were within the reach of
+the Secretary of the Treasury had been taken to enable him to judge whether
+the public deposits in the Bank of the United States were entirely safe;
+but that as his single powers might be inadequate to the object, I
+recommended the subject to Congress as worthy of their serious
+investigation, declaring it as my opinion that an inquiry into the
+transactions of that institution, embracing the branches as well as the
+principal bank, was called for by the credit which was given throughout the
+country to many serious charges impeaching their character, and which, if
+true, might justly excite the apprehension that they were no longer a safe
+depository for the public money. The extent to which the examination thus
+recommended was gone into is spread upon your journals, and is too well
+known to require to be stated. Such as was made resulted in a report from a
+majority of the Committee of Ways and Means touching certain specified
+points only, concluding with a resolution that the Government deposits
+might safely be continued in the Bank of the United States. This resolution
+was adopted at the close of the session by the vote of a majority of the
+House of Representatives.
+
+Although I may not always be able to concur in the views of the public
+interest or the duties of its agents which may be taken by the other
+departments of the Government or either of its branches, I am, not
+withstanding, wholly incapable of receiving otherwise than with the most
+sincere respect all opinions or suggestions proceeding from such a source,
+and in respect to none am I more inclined to do so than to the House of
+Representatives. But it will be seen from the brief views at this time
+taken of the subject by myself, as well as the more ample ones presented by
+the Secretary of the Treasury, that the change in the deposits which has
+been ordered has been deemed to be called for by considerations which are
+not affected by the proceedings referred to, and which, if correctly viewed
+by that Department, rendered its act a matter of imperious duty.
+
+Coming as you do, for the most part, immediately from the people and the
+States by election, and possessing the fullest opportunity to know their
+sentiments, the present Congress will be sincerely solicitous to carry into
+full and fair effect the will of their constituents in regard to this
+institution. It will be for those in whose behalf we all act to decide
+whether the executive department of the Government, in the steps which it
+has taken on this subject, has been found in the line of its duty.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War, with the documents annexed
+to it, exhibits the operations of the War Department for the past year and
+the condition of the various subjects intrusted to its administration.
+
+It will be seen from them that the Army maintains the character it has
+heretofore acquired for efficiency and military knowledge. Nothing has
+occurred since your last session to require its services beyond the
+ordinary routine duties which upon the sea-board and the in-land frontier
+devolve upon it in a time of peace. The system so wisely adopted and so
+long pursued of constructing fortifications at exposed points and of
+preparing and collecting the supplies necessary for the military defense of
+the country, and thus providently furnishing in peace the means of defense
+in war, has been continued with the usual results. I recommend to your
+consideration the various subjects suggested in the report of the Secretary
+of War. Their adoption would promote the public service and meliorate the
+condition of the Army.
+
+Our relations with the various Indian tribes have been undisturbed since
+the termination of the difficulties growing out of the hostile aggressions
+of the Sac and Fox Indians. Several treaties have been formed for the
+relinquishment of territory to the United States and for the migration of
+the occupants of the region assigned for their residence West of the
+Mississippi. Should these treaties be ratified by the Senate, provision
+will have been made for the removal of almost all the tribes remaining E of
+that river and for the termination of many difficult and embarrassing
+questions arising out of their anomalous political condition.
+
+It is to be hoped that those portions of two of the Southern tribes, which
+in that event will present the only remaining difficulties, will realize
+the necessity of emigration, and will speedily resort to it. My original
+convictions upon this subject have been confirmed by the course of events
+for several years, and experience is every day adding to their strength.
+That those tribes can not exist surrounded by our settlements and in
+continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the
+intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement
+which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established
+in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the
+causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must
+necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.
+
+Such has been their fate heretofore, and if it is to be averted -- and it
+is -- it can only be done by a general removal beyond our boundary and by
+the reorganization of their political system upon principles adapted to the
+new relations in which they will be placed. The experiment which has been
+recently made has so far proved successful. The emigrants generally are
+represented to be prosperous and contented, the country suitable to their
+wants and habits, and the essential articles of subsistence easily
+procured. When the report of the commissioners now engaged in investigating
+the condition and prospects of these Indians and in devising a plan for
+their intercourse and government is received, I trust ample means of
+information will be in possession of the Government for adjusting all the
+unsettled questions connected with this interesting subject.
+
+The operations of the Navy during the year and its present condition are
+fully exhibited in the annual report from the Navy Department.
+
+Suggestions are made by the Secretary of various improvements, which
+deserve careful consideration, and most of which, if adopted, bid fair to
+promote the efficiency of this important branch of the public service.
+Among these are the new organization of the Navy Board, the revision of the
+pay to officers, and a change in the period of time or in the manner of
+making the annual appropriations, to which I beg leave to call your
+particular attention.
+
+The views which are presented on almost every portion of our naval
+concerns, and especially on the amount of force and the number of officers,
+and the general course of policy appropriate in the present state of our
+country for securing the great and useful purposes of naval protection in
+peace and due preparation for the contingencies of war, meet with my entire
+approbation.
+
+It will be perceived from the report referred to that the fiscal concerns
+of the establishment are in an excellent condition, and it is hoped that
+Congress may feel disposed to make promptly every suitable provision
+desired either for preserving or improving the system.
+
+The general Post Office Department has continued, upon the strength of its
+own resources, to facilitate the means of communication between the various
+portions of the Union with increased activity. The method, however, in
+which the accounts of the transportation of the mail have always been kept
+appears to have presented an imperfect view of its expenses. It has
+recently been discovered that from the earliest records of the Department
+the annual statements have been calculated to exhibit an amount
+considerably short of the actual expense incurred for that service. These
+illusory statements, together with the expense of carrying into effect the
+law of the last session of Congress establishing new mail routes, and a
+disposition on the part of the head of the Department to gratify the wishes
+of the public in the extension of mail facilities, have induced him to
+incur responsibilities for their improvement beyond what the current
+resources of the Department would sustain. As soon as he had discovered the
+imperfection of the method he caused an investigation to be made of its
+results and applied the proper remedy to correct the evil. It became
+necessary for him to withdraw some of the improvements which he had made to
+bring the expenses of the Department within its own resources. These
+expenses were incurred for the public good, and the public have enjoyed
+their benefit. They are now but partially suspended, and that where they
+may be discontinued with the least inconvenience to the country.
+
+The progressive increase in the income from postages has equaled the
+highest expectations, and it affords demonstrative evidence of the growing
+importance and great utility of this Department. The details are exhibited
+in the accompanying report of the PostMaster General.
+
+The many distressing accidents which have of late occurred in that portion
+of our navigation carried on by the use of steam power deserve the
+immediate and unremitting attention of the constituted authorities of the
+country. The fact that the number of those fatal disasters is constantly
+increasing, not withstanding the great improvements which are every where
+made in the machinery employed and in the rapid advances which have made in
+that branch of science, shows very clearly that they are in a great degree
+the result of criminal negligence on the part of those by whom the vessels
+are navigated and to whose care and attention the lives and property of our
+citizens are so extensively intrusted.
+
+That these evils may be greatly lessened, if not substantially removed, by
+means of precautionary and penal legislation seems to be highly probably.
+So far, therefore, as the subject can be regarded as within the
+constitutional purview of Congress I earnestly recommend it to your prompt
+and serious consideration.
+
+I would also call your attention to the views I have heretofore expressed
+of the propriety of amending the Constitution in relation to the mode of
+electing the President and the Vice-President of the United States.
+Regarding it as all important to the future quiet and harmony of the people
+that every intermediate agency in the election of these officers should be
+removed and that their eligibility should be limited to one term of either
+4 or 6 years, I can not too earnestly invite your consideration of the
+subject.
+
+Trusting that your deliberations on all the topics of general interest to
+which I have adverted, and such others as your more extensive knowledge of
+the wants of our beloved country may suggest, may be crowned with success,
+I tender you in conclusion the cooperation which it may be in my power to
+afford them.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 1, 1834
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+In performing my duty at the opening of your present session it gives me
+pleasure to congratulate you again upon the prosperous condition of our
+beloved country. Divine Providence has favored us with general health, with
+rich rewards in the fields of agriculture and in every branch of labor, and
+with peace to cultivate and extend the various resources which employ the
+virtue and enterprise of our citizens. Let us trust that in surveying a
+scene so flattering to our free institutions our joint deliberations to
+preserve them may be crowned with success.
+
+Our foreign relations continue, with but few exceptions, to maintain the
+favorable aspect which they bore in my last annual message, and promise to
+extend those advantages which the principles that regulate our intercourse
+with other nations are so well calculated to secure.
+
+The question of our North East boundary is still pending with Great
+Britain, and the proposition made in accordance with the resolution of the
+Senate for the establishment of a line according to the treaty of 1783 has
+not been accepted by that Government. Believing that every disposition is
+felt on both sides to adjust this perplexing question to the satisfaction
+of all the parties interested in it, the hope is yet indulged that it may
+be effected on the basis of that proposition.
+
+With the Governments of Austria, Russia, Prussia, Holland, Sweden, and
+Denmark the best understanding exists. Commerce with all is fostered and
+protected by reciprocal good will under the sanction of liberal
+conventional or legal provisions.
+
+In the midst of her internal difficulties the Queen of Spain has ratified
+the convention for the payment of the claims of our citizens arising since
+1819. It is in the course of execution on her part, and a copy of it is now
+laid before you for such legislation as may be found necessary to enable
+those interested to derive the benefits of it.
+
+Yielding to the force of circumstances and to the wise counsels of time and
+experience, that power has finally resolved no longer to occupy the
+unnatural position in which she stood to the new Governments established in
+this hemisphere. I have the great satisfaction of stating to you that in
+preparing the way for the restoration of harmony between those who have
+sprung from the same ancestors, who are allied by common interests, profess
+the same religion, and speak the same language the United States have been
+actively instrumental. Our efforts to effect this good work will be
+persevered in while they are deemed useful to the parties and our entire
+disinterestedness continues to be felt and understood. The act of Congress
+to countervail the discriminating duties to the prejudice of our navigation
+levied in Cuba and Puerto Rico has been transmitted to the minister of the
+United States at Madrid, to be communicated to the Government of the Queen.
+No intelligence of its receipt has yet reached the Department of State. If
+the present condition of the country permits the Government to make a
+careful and enlarged examination of the true interests of these important
+portions of its dominions, no doubt is entertained that their future
+intercourse with the United States will be placed upon a more just and
+liberal basis.
+
+The Florida archives have not yet been selected and delivered. Recent
+orders have been sent to the agent of the United States at Havana to return
+with all that he can obtain, so that they may be in Washington before the
+session of the Supreme Court, to be used in the legal questions there
+pending to which the Government is a party.
+
+Internal tranquillity is happily restored to Portugal. The distracted state
+of the country rendered unavoidable the postponement of a final payment of
+the just claims of our citizens. Our diplomatic relations will be soon
+resumed, and the long-subsisting friendship with that power affords the
+strongest guaranty that the balance due will receive prompt attnetion.
+
+The first installment due under the convention of indemnity with the King
+of the Two Sicilies has been duly received, and an offer has been made to
+extinguish the whole by a prompt payment -- an offer I did not consider
+myself authorized to accept, as the indemnification provided is the
+exclusive property of individual citizens of the United States. The
+original adjustment of our claims and the anxiety displayed to fulfill at
+once the stipulations made for the payment of them are highly honorable to
+the Government of the Two Sicilies. When it is recollected that they were
+the result of the injustice of an intrusive power temporarily dominant in
+its territory, a repugnance to acknowledge and to pay which would have been
+neither unnatural nor unexpected, the circumstances can not fail to exalt
+its character for justice and good faith in the eyes of all nations.
+
+The treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Belgium,
+brought to your notice in my last annual message as sanctioned by the
+Senate, but the ratifications of which had not been exchanged owing to a
+delay in its reception at Brussels and a subsequent absence of the Belgian
+minister of foreign affairs, has been, after mature deliberation, finally
+disavowed by that Government as inconsistent with the powers and
+instructions given to their minister who negotiated it. This disavowal was
+entirely unexpected, as the liberal principles embodied in the convention,
+and which form the ground-work of the objections to it, were perfectly
+satisfactory to the Belgian representative, and were supposed to be not
+only within the powers granted, but expressly conformable to the
+instructions given to him. An offer, not yet accepted, has been made by
+Belgium to renew negotiations for a treaty less liberal in its provisions
+on questions of general maritime law.
+
+Our newly established relations with the Sublime Porte promise to be useful
+to our commerce and satisfactory in every respect to this Government. Our
+intercourse with the Barbary Powers continues without important change,
+except that the present political state of Algiers has induced me to
+terminate the residence there of a salaried consul and to substitute an
+ordinary consulate, to remain so long as the place continues in the
+possession of France. Our first treaty with one of these powers, the
+Emperor of Morocco, was formed in 1786, and was limited to fifty years.
+That period has almost expired. I shall take measures to renew it with the
+greater satisfaction as its stipulations are just and liberal and have
+been, with mutual fidelity and reciprocal advantage, scrupulously
+fulfilled.
+
+Intestine dissensions have too frequently occurred to mar the prosperity,
+interrupt the commerce, and distract the governments of most of the nations
+of this hemisphere which have separated themselves from Spain. When a firm
+and permanent understanding with the parent country shall have produced a
+formal acknowledgment of their independence, and the idea of danger from
+that quarter can be no longer entertained, the friends of freedom expect
+that those countries, so favored by nature, will be distinguished for their
+love of justice and their devotion to those peaceful arts the assiduous
+cultivation of which confers honor upon nations and gives value to human
+life.
+
+In the mean time I confidently hope that the apprehensions entertained that
+some of the people of these luxuriant regions may be tempted, in a moment
+of unworthy distrust of their own capacity for the enjoyment of liberty, to
+commit the too common error of purchasing present repose by bestowing on
+some favorite leaders the fatal gift of irresponsible power will not be
+realized. With all these Governments and with that of Brazil no unexpected
+changes in our relations have occurred during the present year.
+
+Frequent causes of just complaint have arisen upon the part of the citizens
+of the United States, some times from the irregular action of the
+constituted subordinate authorities of the maritime regions and some times
+from the leaders or partisans of those in arms against the established
+Governments. In all cases representations have been or will be made, and as
+soon as their political affairs are in a settled position it is expected
+that our friendly remonstrances will be followed by adequate redress.
+
+The Government of Mexico made known in [1833] December last the appointment
+of commissioners and a surveyor on its part to run, in conjunction with
+ours, the boundary line between its territories and the United States, and
+excused the delay for the reasons anticipated -- the prevalence of civil
+war. The commissioners and surveyors not having met within the time
+stipulated by the treaty, a new arrangement became necessary, and our
+chargé d'affaires was instructed in [1833] January to negotiate in
+Mexico an article additional to the pre-existing treaty. This instruction
+was acknowledged, and no difficulty was apprehended in the accomplishment
+of that object. By information just received that additional article to the
+treaty will be obtained and transmitted to this country as soon as it can
+receive the ratification of the Mexican Congress.
+
+The reunion of the three States of New Grenada, Venezuela, and Equador,
+forming the Republic of Colombia, seems every day to become more
+improbable. The commissioners of the two first are understood to be now
+negotiating a just division of the obligations contracted by them when
+united under one government. The civil war in Equador, it is believed, has
+prevented even the appointment of a commissioner on its part.
+
+I propose at an early day to submit, in the proper form, the appointment of
+a diplomatic agent to Venezuela, the importance of the commerce of that
+country to the United States and the large claims of our citizens upon the
+Government arising before and since the division of Colombia rendering it,
+in my judgment, improper longer to delay this step.
+
+Our representatives to Central America, Peru, and Brazil are either at or
+on their way to their respective posts.
+
+From the Argentine Republic, from which a minister was expected to this
+Government, nothing further has been heard. Occasion has been taken on the
+departure of a new consul to Buenos Ayres to remind that Government that
+its long delayed minister, whose appointment had been made known to us, had
+not arrived.
+
+It becomes my unpleasant duty to inform you that this pacific and highly
+gratifying picture of our foreign relations does not include those with
+France at this time. It is not possible that any Government and people
+could be more sincerely desirous of conciliating a just and friendly
+intercourse with another nation than are those of the United States with
+their ancient ally and friend. This disposition is founded as well on the
+most grateful and honorable recollections associated with our struggle for
+independence as upon a well grounded conviction that it is consonant with
+the true policy of both. The people of the United States could not,
+therefore, see without the deepest regret even a temporary interruption of
+the friendly relations between the two countries -- a regret which would, I
+am sure, be greatly aggravated if there should turn out to be any
+reasonable ground for attributing such a result to any act of omission or
+commission on our part. I derive, therefore, the highest satisfaction from
+being able to assure you that the whole course of this Government has been
+characterized by a spirit so conciliatory and for bearing as to make it
+impossible that our justice and moderation should be questioned, what ever
+may be the consequences of a longer perseverance on the part of the French
+Government in her omission to satisfy the conceded claims of our citizens.
+
+The history of the accumulated and unprovoked aggressions upon our commerce
+committed by authority of the existing Governments of France between the
+years 1800 and 1817 has been rendered too painfully familiar to Americans
+to make its repetition either necessary or desirable. It will be sufficient
+here to remark that there has for many years been scarcely a single
+administration of the French Government by whom the justice and legality of
+the claims of our citizens to indemnity were not to a very considerable
+extent admitted, and yet near a quarter of a century has been wasted in
+ineffectual negotiations to secure it.
+
+Deeply sensible of the injurious effects resulting from this state of
+things upon the interests and character of both nations, I regarded it as
+among my first duties to cause one more effort to be made to satisfy France
+that a just and liberal settlement of our claims was as well due to her own
+honor as to their incontestable validity. The negotiation for this purpose
+was commenced with the late Government of France, and was prosecuted with
+such success as to leave no reasonable ground to doubt that a settlement of
+a character quite as liberal as that which was subsequently made would have
+been effected had not the revolution by which the negotiation was cut off
+taken place. The discussions were resumed with the present Government, and
+the result showed that we were not wrong in supposing that an event by
+which the two Governments were made to approach each other so much nearer
+in their political principles, and by which the motives for the most
+liberal and friendly intercourse were so greatly multiplied, could exercise
+no other than a salutary influence upon the negotiation.
+
+After the most deliberate and thorough examination of the whole subject a
+treaty between the two Governments was concluded and signed at Paris on
+1831-07-04, by which it was stipulated that "the French Government, in
+order to liberate itself from all the reclamations preferred against it by
+citizens of the United States for unlawful seizures, captures,
+sequestrations, confiscations, or destruction of their vessels, cargoes, or
+other property, engages to pay a sum of 25,000,000 francs to the United
+States, who shall distribute it among those entitled in the manner and
+according to the rules it shall determine"; and it was also stipulated on
+the part of the French Government that this 25,000,000 francs should "be
+paid at Paris, in six annual installments of 4,166,666 francs and 66
+centimes each, into the hands of such person or persons "as shall be
+authorized by the Government of the US to receive it", the first
+installment to be paid "at the expiration of one year next following the
+exchange of the ratifications of this convention and the others at
+successive intervals of a year, one after another, 'til the whole shall be
+paid. To the amount of each of the said installments shall be added
+interest at 4% thereupon, as upon the other installments then remaining
+unpaid, the said interest to be computed from the day of the exchange of
+the present convention".
+
+It was also stipulated on the part of the United States, for the purpose of
+being completely liberated from all the reclamations presented by France on
+behalf of its citizens, that the sum of 1,500,000 francs should be paid to
+the Government of France in six annual installments, to be deducted out of
+the annual sums which France had agreed to pay, interest thereupon being in
+like manner computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications. In
+addition to this stipulation, important advantages were secured to France
+by the following article, viz: The wines of France, from and after the
+exchange of the ratifications of the present conventions, shall be admitted
+to consumption in the States of the Union at duties which shall not exceed
+the following rates by the gallon (such as it is used at present for wines
+in the US), to wit: 6 cents for red wines in casks; 10 cents for white
+wines in casks, and 22 cents for wines of all sorts in bottles. The
+proportions existing between the duties on French wines thus reduced and
+the general rates of the tariff which went into operation 1829-01-01, shall
+be maintained in case the Government of the United States should think
+proper to diminish those general rates in a new tariff.
+
+In consideration of this stipulation, which shall be binding on the United
+States for 10 years, the French Government abandons the reclamations which
+it had formed in relation to the 8th article of the treaty of cession of
+Louisiana. It engages, moreover, to establish on the long-staple cottons of
+the United States which after the exchange of the ratifications of the
+present convention shall be brought directly thence to France by the
+vessels of the US or by French vessels the same duties as on short-staple
+cotton. This treaty was duly ratified in the manner prescribed by the
+constitutions of both countries, and the ratification was exchanged at the
+city of Washington on 1832-02-02. On account of its commercial stipulations
+it was in five days thereafter laid before the Congress of the United
+States, which proceeded to enact such laws favorable to the commerce of
+France as were necessary to carry it into full execution, and France has
+from that period to the present been in the unrestricted enjoyment of the
+valuable privileges that were thus secured to her.
+
+The faith of the French nation having been thus solemnly pledged through
+its constitutional organ for the liquidation and ultimate payment of the
+long deferred claims of our citizens, as also for the adjustment of other
+points of great and reciprocal benefits to both countries, and the United
+States having, with a fidelity and promptitude by which their conduct will,
+I trust, be always characterized, done every thing that was necessary to
+carry the treaty into full and fair effect on their part, counted with the
+most perfect confidence on equal fidelity and promptitude on the part of
+the French Government. In this reasonable expectation we have been, I
+regret to inform you, wholly disappointed. No legislative provision has
+been made by France for the execution of the treaty, either as it respects
+the indemnity to be paid or the commercial benefits to be secured to the
+United States, and the relations between the United States and that power
+in consequence thereof are placed in a situation threatening to interrupt
+the good understanding which has so long and so happily existed between the
+two nations.
+
+Not only has the French Government been thus wanting in the performance of
+the stipulations it has so solemnly entered into with the United States,
+but its omissions have been marked by circumstances which would seem to
+leave us without satisfactory evidences that such performance will
+certainly take place at a future period. Advice of the exchange of
+ratifications reached Paris prior to 1832-04-08. The French Chambers were
+then sitting, and continued in session until 1832-04-21, and although one
+installment of the indemnity was payable on 1833-02-02, one year after the
+exchange of ratifications, no application was made to the Chambers for the
+required appropriation, and in consequence of no appropriation having then
+been made the draft of the United States Government for that installment
+was dishonored by the minister of finance, and the United States thereby
+involved in much controversy.
+
+The next session of the Chambers commenced on 1832-11-19, and continued
+until 1833-04-25. Not withstanding the omission to pay the first
+installment had been made the subject of earnest remonstrance on our part,
+the treaty with the United States and a bill making the necessary
+appropriations to execute it were not laid before the Chamber of Deputies
+until 1833-04-06, nearly five months after its meeting, and only nineteen
+days before the close of the session. The bill was read and referred to a
+committee, but there was no further action upon it.
+
+The next session of the Chambers commenced on 1833-04-26, and continued
+until 1833-06-26. A new bill was introduced on 1833-06-11, but nothing
+important was done in relation to it during the session.
+
+In 1834 April, nearly three years after the signature of the treaty, the
+final action of the French Chambers upon the bill to carry the treaty into
+effect was obtained, and resulted in a refusal of the necessary
+appropriations. The avowed grounds upon which the bill was rejected are to
+be found in the published debates of that body, and no observations of mine
+can be necessary to satisfy Congress of their utter insufficiency. Although
+the gross amount of the claims of our citizens is probably greater than
+will be ultimately allowed by the commissioners, sufficient is, never the
+less, shown to render it absolutely certain that the indemnity falls far
+short of the actual amount of our just claims, independently of the
+question of damages and interest for the detention. That the settlement
+involved a sacrifice in this respect was well known at the time -- a
+sacrifice which was cheerfully acquiesced in by the different branches of
+the Federal Government, whose action upon the treaty was required from a
+sincere desire to avoid further collision upon this old and disturbing
+subject and in the confident expectation that the general relations between
+the two countries would be improved thereby.
+
+The refusal to vote the appropriation, the news of which was received from
+our minister in Paris about 1834-05-15, might have been considered the
+final determination of the French Government not to execute the
+stipulations of the treaty, and would have justified an immediate
+communication of the facts to Congress, with a recommendation of such
+ultimate measures as the interest and honor of the United States might seem
+to require. But with the news of the refusal of the Chambers to make the
+appropriation were conveyed the regrets of the King and a declaration that
+a national vessel should be forthwith sent out with instructions to the
+French minister to give the most ample explanations of the past and the
+strongest assurances for the future. After a long passage the promised
+dispatch vessel arrived.
+
+The pledges given by the French minister upon receipt of his instructions
+were that as soon after the election of the new members as the charter
+would permit the legislative Chambers of France should be called together
+and the proposition for an appropriation laid before them; that all the
+constitutional powers of the King and his cabinet should be exerted to
+accomplish the object, and that the result should be made known early
+enough to be communicated to Congress at the commencement of the present
+session. Relying upon these pledges, and not doubting that the acknowledged
+justice of our claims, the promised exertions of the King and his cabinet,
+and, above all, that sacred regard for the national faith and honor for
+which the French character has been so distinguished would secure an early
+execution of the treaty in all its parts, I did not deem it necessary to
+call the attention of Congress to the subject at the last session.
+
+I regret to say that the pledges made through the minister of France have
+not been redeemed. The new Chambers met on 1834-07-31, and although the
+subject of fulfilling treaties was alluded to in the speech from the
+throne, no attempt was made by the King or his cabinet to procure an
+appropriation to carry it into execution. The reasons given for this
+omission, although they might be considered sufficient in an ordinary case,
+are not consistent with the expectations founded upon the assurances given
+here, for there is no constitutional obstacle to entering into legislative
+business at the first meeting of the Chambers. This point, however, might
+have been over-looked had not the Chambers, instead of being called to meet
+at so early a day that the result of their deliberations might be
+communicated to me before the meeting of Congress, been prorogued to
+1834-12-29 -- a period so late that their decision can scarcely be made
+known to the present Congress prior to its dissolution. To avoid this delay
+our minister in Paris, in virtue of the assurance given by the French
+minister in the United States, strongly urged the convocation of the
+Chambers at an earlier day, but without success. It is proper to remark,
+however, that this refusal has been accompanied with the most positive
+assurances on the part of the executive government of France of their
+intention to press the appropriation at the ensuing session of the
+Chambers.
+
+The executive branch of this Government has, as matters stand, exhausted
+all the authority upon the subject with which it is invested and which it
+had any reason to believe could be beneficially employed.
+
+The idea of acquiescing in the refusal to execute the treaty will not, I am
+confident, be for a moment entertained by any branch of this Government,
+and further negotiation upon the subject is equally out of the question.
+
+If it shall be the pleasure of Congress to await the further action of the
+French Chambers, no further consideration of the subject will at this
+session probably be required at your hands. But if from the original delay
+in asking for an appropriation, from the refusal of the Chambers to grant
+it when asked, from the omission to bring the subject before the Chambers
+at their last session, from the fact that, including that session, there
+have been five different occasions when the appropriation might have been
+made, and from the delay in convoking the Chambers until some weeks after
+the meeting of Congress, when it was well known that a communication of the
+whole subject to Congress at the last session was prevented by assurances
+that it should be disposed of before its present meeting, you should feel
+yourselves constrained to doubt whether it be the intention of the French
+Government, in all its branches, to carry the treaty into effect, and think
+that such measures as the occasion may be deemed to call for should be now
+adopted, the important question arises what those measures shall be.
+
+Our institutions are essentially pacific. Peace and friendly intercourse
+with all nations are as much the desire of our Government as they are the
+interest of our people. But these objects are not to be permanently secured
+by surrendering the rights of our citizens or permitting solemn treaties
+for their indemnity, in cases of flagrant wrong, to be abrogated or set
+aside.
+
+It is undoubtedly in the power of Congress seriously to affect the
+agricultural and manufacturing interests of France by the passage of laws
+relating to her trade with the United States. Her products, manufactures,
+and tonnage may be subjected to heavy duties in our ports, or all
+commercial intercourse with her may be suspended. But there are powerful
+and to my mind conclusive objections to this mode of proceeding.
+
+We can not embarrass or cut off the trade of France without at the same
+time in some degree embarrassing or cutting off our own trade. The injury
+of such a warfare must fall, though unequally, upon our own citizens, and
+could not but impair the means of the Government and weaken that united
+sentiment in support of the rights and honor of the nation which must now
+pervade every bosom. Nor is it impossible that such a course of legislation
+would introduce once more into our national councils those disturbing
+questions in relation to the tariff of duties which have been so recently
+put to rest. Besides, by every measure adopted by the Government of the
+United Sstates with the view of injuring France the clear perception of
+right which will induce our own people and the rulers and people of all
+other nations, even of France herself, to pronounce our quarrel just will
+be obscured and the support rendered to us in a final resort to more
+decisive measures will be more limited and equivocal.
+
+There is but one point of controversy, and upon that the whole civilized
+world must pronounce France to be in the wrong. We insist that she shall
+pay us a sum of money which she has acknowledged to be due, and of the
+justice of this demand there can be but one opinion among mankind. True
+policy would seem to dictate that the question at issue should be kept thus
+disencumbered and that not the slightest pretense should be given to France
+to persist in her refusal to make payment by any act on our part affecting
+the interests of her people. The question should be left, as it is now, in
+such an attitude that when France fulfills her treaty stipulations all
+controversy will be at an end.
+
+It is my conviction that the United States ought to insist on a prompt
+execution of the treaty, and in case it be refused or longer delayed take
+redress into their own hands. After the delay on the part of France of a
+quarter of a century in acknowledging these claims by treaty, it is not to
+be tolerated that another quarter of a century is to be wasted in
+negotiating about the payment. The laws of nations provide a remedy for
+such occasions. It is a well-settled principle of the international code
+that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or
+neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to
+the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the debt without
+giving just cause of war. This remedy has been repeatedly resorted to, and
+recently by France herself toward Portugal, under circumstances less
+unquestionable.
+
+The time at which resort should be had to this or any other mode of redress
+is a point to be decided by Congress. If an appropriation shall not be made
+by the French Chambers at their next session, it may justly be concluded
+that the Government of France has finally determined to disregard its own
+solemn undertaking and refuse to pay an acknowledged debt. In that event
+every day's delay on our part will be a stain upon our national honor, as
+well as a denial of justice to our injured citizens. Prompt measures, when
+the refusal of France shall be complete, will not only be most honorable
+and just, but will have the best effect upon our national character.
+
+Since France, in violation of the pledges given through her minister here,
+has delayed her final action so long that her decision will not probably be
+known in time to be communicated to this Congress, I recommend that a law
+be passed authorizing reprisals upon French property in case provision
+shall not be made for the payment of the debt at the approaching session of
+the French Chambers. Her pride and power are too well known to expect any
+thing from her fears and preclude the necessity of a declaration that
+nothing partaking of the character of intimidation is intended by us. She
+ought to look upon it as the evidence only of an inflexible determination
+on the part of the United States to insist on their rights.
+
+That Government, by doing only what it has itself acknowledged to be just,
+will be able to spare the United States the necessity of taking redress
+into their own hands and save the property of French citizens from that
+seizure and sequestration which American citizens so long endured without
+retaliation or redress. If she should continue to refuse that act of
+acknowledged justice and, in violation of the law of nations, make
+reprisals on our part the occasion of hostilities against the United
+States, she would but add violence to injustice, and could not fail to
+expose herself to the just censure of civilized nations and to the
+retributive judgments of Heaven.
+
+Collision with France is the more to be regretted on account of the
+position she occupies in Europe in relation to liberal institutions, but in
+maintaining our national rights and honor all governments are alike to us.
+If by a collision with France in a case where she is clearly in the wrong
+the march of liberal principles shall be impeded, the responsibility for
+that result as well as every other will rest on her own head.
+
+Having submitted these considerations, it belongs to Congress to decide
+whether after what has taken place it will still await the further action
+of the French Chambers or now adopt such provisional measures as it may
+deem necessary and best adapted to protect the rights and maintain the
+honor of the country. What ever that decision may be, it will be faithfully
+enforced by the Executive as far as he is authorized so to do.
+
+According to the estimate of the Treasury Department, the revenue accruing
+from all sources during the present year will amount to $20,624,717, which,
+with the balance remaining in the Treasury on 1834-01-01 of $11,702,905,
+produces an aggregate of $32,327,623. The total expenditure during the year
+for all objects, including the public debt, is estimated at $25,591,390,
+which will leave a balance in the Treasury on 1835-01-01 of $6,736,232. In
+this balance, however, will be included about $1,150,000 of what was
+heretofore reported by the Department as not effective.
+
+Of former appropriations it is estimated that there will remain unexpended
+at the close of the year $8,002,925, and that of this sum there will not be
+required more than $5,141,964 to accomplish the objects of all the current
+appropriations. Thus it appears that after satisfying all those
+appropriations and after discharging the last item of our public debt,
+which will be done on 1835-01-01, there will remain unexpended in the
+Treasury an effective balance of about $440,000. That such should be the
+aspect of our finances is highly flattering to the industry and enterprise
+of our population and auspicious of the wealth and prosperity which await
+the future cultivation of their growing resources. It is not deemed
+prudent, however, to recommend any change for the present in our impost
+rates, the effect of the gradual reduction now in progress in many of them
+not being sufficiently tested to guide us in determining the precise amount
+of revenue which they will produce.
+
+Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated
+interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present
+may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the
+settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best
+calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of
+freedom to our citizens.
+
+Among these principles, from our past experience, it can not be doubted
+that simplicity in the character of the Federal Government and a rigid
+economy in its administration should be regarded as fundamental and sacred.
+All must be sensible that the existence of the public debt, by rendering
+taxation necessary for its extinguishment, has increased the difficulties
+which are inseparable from every exercise of the taxing power, and that it
+was in this respect a remote agent in producing those disturbing questions
+which grew out of the discussions relating to the tariff. If such has been
+the tendency of a debt incurred in the acquisition and maintenance of our
+national rights and liberties, the obligations of which all portions of the
+Union cheerfully acknowledged, it must be obvious that what ever is
+calculated to increase the burdens of Government without necessity must be
+fatal to all our hopes of preserving its true character.
+
+While we are felicitating ourselves, therefore, upon the extinguishment of
+the national debt and the prosperous state of our finances, let us not be
+tempted to depart from those sound maxims of public policy which enjoin a
+just adaptation of the revenue to the expenditures that are consistent with
+a rigid economy and an entire abstinence from all topics of legislation
+that are not clearly within the constitutional powers of the Government and
+suggested by the wants of the country. Properly regarded under such a
+policy, every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives
+to individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members
+of our happy Confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support.
+But above all, its most important effect will be found in its influence
+upon the character of the Government by confining its action to those
+objects which will be sure to secure to it the attachment and support of
+our fellow citizens.
+
+Circumstances make it my duty to call the attention of Congress to the Bank
+of the United States. Created for the convenience of the Government, that
+institution has become the scourge of the people. Its interference to
+postpone the payment of a portion of the national debt that it might retain
+the public money appropriated for that purpose to strengthen it in a
+political contest, the extraordinary extension and contraction of its
+accommodations to the community, its corrupt and partisan loans, its
+exclusion of the public directors from a knowledge of its most important
+proceedings, the unlimited authority conferred on the president to expend
+its funds in hiring writers and procuring the execution of printing, and
+the use made of that authority, the retention of the pension money and
+books after the selection of new agents, the groundless claim to heavy
+damages in consequence of the protest of the bill drawn on the French
+Government, have through various channels been laid before Congress.
+
+Immediately after the close of the last session the bank, through its
+president, announced its ability and readiness to abandon the system of
+unparalleled curtailment and the interruption of domestic exchanges which
+it had practiced upon from 1833-08-01 to 1834-06-30, and to extend its
+accommodations to the community. The grounds assumed in this annunciation
+amounted to an acknowledgment that the curtailment, in the extent to which
+it had been carried, was not necessary to the safety of the bank, and had
+been persisted in merely to induce Congress to grant the prayer of the bank
+in its memorial relative to the removal of the deposits and to give it a
+new charter. They were substantially a confession that all the real
+distresses which individuals and the country had endured for the preceding
+6 or 8 months had been needlessly produced by it, with the view of
+affecting through the sufferings of the people the legislative action of
+Congress.
+
+It is subject of congratulation that Congress and the country had the
+virtue and firmness to bear the infliction, that the energies of our people
+soon found relief from this wanton tyranny in vast importations of th
+eprecious metals from almost every part of the world, and that at the close
+of this tremendous effort to control our Government the bank found itself
+powerless and no longer able to loan out its surplus means. The community
+had learned to manage its affairs without its assistance, and trade had
+already found new auxiliaries, so that on 1834-10-01 the extraordinary
+spectacle was presented of a national more than half of whose capital was
+either lying unproductive in its vaults or in the hands of foreign
+bankers.
+
+To the needless distresses brought on the country during the last session
+of Congress has since been added the open seizure of the dividends on the
+public stock to the amount of $170,041, under pretense of paying damages,
+cost, and interest upon the protested French bill. This sum constituted a
+portion of the estimated revenues for the year 1834, upon which the
+appropriations made by Congress were based. It would as soon have been
+expected that our collectors would seize on the customs or the receivers of
+our land offices on the moneys arising from the sale of public lands under
+pretenses of claims against the United States as that the bank would have
+retained the dividends. Indeed, if the principle be established that any
+one who chooses to set up a claim against the United States may without
+authority of law seize on the public property or money wherever he can find
+it to pay such claim, there will remain no assurance that our revenue will
+reach the Treasury or that it will be applied after the appropriation to
+the purposes designated in the law.
+
+The pay masters of our Army and the pursers of our Navy may under like
+pretenses apply to their own use moneys appropriated to set in motion the
+public force, and in time of war leave the country without defense. This
+measure resorted to by the bank is disorganizing and revolutionary, and if
+generally resorted to by private citizens in like cases would fill the land
+with anarchy and violence.
+
+It is a constitutional provision "that no money shall be drawn from the
+Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law". The palpable
+object of this provision is to prevent the expenditure of the public money
+for any purpose what so ever which shall not have been 1st approved by the
+representatives of the people and the States in Congress assembled. It
+vests the power of declaring for what purposes the public money shall be
+expended in the legislative department of the Government, to the exclusion
+of the executive and judicial, and it is not within the constitutional
+authority of either of those departments to pay it away without law or to
+sanction its payment.
+
+According to this plain constitutional provision, the claim of the bank can
+never be paid without an appropriation by act of Congress. But the bank has
+never asked for an appropriation. It attempts to defeat the provision of
+the Constitution and obtain payment without an act of Congress. Instead of
+awaiting an appropriation passed by both Houses and approved by the
+President, it makes an appropriation for itself and invites an appeal to
+the judiciary to sanction it. That the money had not technically been paid
+into the Treasury does not affect the principle intended to be established
+by the Constitution.
+
+The Executive and the judiciary have as little right to appropriate and
+expend the public money without authority of law before it is placed to the
+credit of the Treasury as to take it from the Treasury. In the annual
+report of the Secretary of the Treasury, and in his correspondence with the
+president of the bank, and the opinions of the Attorney General
+accompanying it, you will find a further examination of the claims of the
+bank and the course it has pursued.
+
+It seems due to the safety of the people funds remaining in that bank and
+to the honor of the American people that measures be taken to separate the
+Government entirely from an institution so mischievous to the public
+prosperity and so regardless of the Constitution and laws. By transferring
+the public deposits, by appointing other pension agents as far as it had
+the power, by ordering the discontinuance of the receipt of bank checks in
+the payment of the public dues after 1834-01-01, the Executive has exerted
+all its lawful authority to sever the connection between the Government and
+this faithless corporation.
+
+The high-handed career of this institution imposes upon the constitutional
+functionaries of this Government duties of the gravest and most imperative
+character -- duties which they can not avoid and from which I trust there
+will be no inclination on the part of any of them to shrink. My own sense
+of them is most clear, as is also my readiness to discharge those which may
+rightfully fall on me. To continue any business relations with the Bank of
+the United States that may be avoided without a violation of the national
+faith after that institution has set at open defiance the conceded right of
+the Government to examine its affairs, after it has done all in its power
+to deride the public authority in other respects and to bring it into
+disrepute at home and abroad, after it has attempted to defeat the clearly
+expressed will of the people by turning against them the immense power
+intrusted to its hands and by involving a country otherwise peaceful,
+flourishing, and happy, in dissension, embarrassment, and distress, would
+make the nation itself a party to the degradation so sedulously prepared
+for itss public agents and do much to destroy the confidence of man-kind in
+popular governments and to bring into contempt their authority and
+efficiency.
+
+In guarding against an evil of such magnitude consideration of temprary
+convenience should be thrown out of the question, and we should be
+influenced by such motives only as look to the honor and preservation of
+the republican system. Deeply and solemnly impressed with the justice of
+these views, I feel it to be my duty to recommend to you that a law be
+passed authorizing the sale of the public stock; that the provision of the
+charter requiring the receipt of notes of the bank in payment of public
+dues shall, in accordance with the power reserved to Congress in the 14th
+section of the charter, be suspended until the bank pays to the Treasury
+the dividends withheld, and that all laws connecting the Government or its
+officers with the bank, directly or indirectly, be repealed, and that the
+institution be left hereafter to its own resources and means.
+
+Events have satisfied my mind, and I think the minds of the American
+people, that the mischiefs and dangers which flow from a national bank far
+over-balance all its advantages. The bold effort the present bank has made
+to control the Government, the distresses it has wantonly produced, the
+violence of which it has been the occasion in one of our cities famed for
+its observance of law and order, are but premonitions of the fate which
+awaits the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of
+this institution or the establishment of another like it. It is fervently
+hoped that thus admonished those who have heretofore favored the
+establishment of a substitute for the present bank will be induced to
+abandon it, as it is evidently better to incur any inconvenience that may
+be reasonably expected than to concentrate the whole moneyed power of the
+Republic in any form what so ever or under any restrictions.
+
+Happily it is already illustrated that the agency of such an institution is
+not necessary to the fiscal operations of the Government. The State banks
+are found fully adequate to the performance of all services which were
+required of the Bank of the United States, quite as promptly and with the
+same cheapness. They have maintained themselves and discharged all these
+duties while the Bank of the United States was still powerful and in the
+field as an open enemy, and it is not possible to conceive that they will
+find greater difficulties in their operations when that enemy shall cease
+to exist.
+
+The attention of Congress is earnestly invited to the regulation of the
+deposits in the State banks by law. Although the power now exercised by the
+executive department in this behalf is only such as was uniformly exerted
+through every Administration from the origin of the Government up to the
+establishment of the present bank, yet it is one which is susceptible of
+regulation by law, and therefore ought so to be regulated. The power of
+Congress to direct in what places the Treasurer shall keep the moneys in
+the Treasury and to impose restrictions upon the Executive authority in
+relation to their custody and removal is unlimited, and its exercise will
+rather be courted than discouraged by those public officers and agents on
+whom rests the responsibility for their safety. It is desirable that as
+little power as possible should be left to the President or the Secretary
+of the Treasury over those institutions, which, being thus freed from
+Executive influence, and without a common head to direct their operations,
+would have neither the temptation nor the ability to interfere in the
+political conflicts of the country. Not deriving their charters from the
+national authorities, they would never have those inducements to meddle in
+general elections which have led the Bank of the United States to agitate
+and convulse the country for upward of two years.
+
+The progress of our gold coinage is creditable to the officers of the Mint,
+and promises in a short period to furnish the country with a sound and
+portable currency, which will much diminish the inconvenience to travelers
+of the want of a general paper currency should the State banks be incapable
+of furnishing it. Those institutions have already shown themselves
+competent to purchase and furnish domestic exchange for the convenience of
+trade at reasonable rates, and not a doubt is entertained that in a short
+period all the wants of the country in bank accommodations and exchange
+will be supplid as promptly and as cheaply as they have heretofore been by
+the Bank of the United States. If the several States shall be induced
+gradually to reform their banking systems and prohibit the issue of all
+small notes, we shall in a few years have a currency as sound and as little
+liable to fluctuations as any other commercial country.
+
+The report of the Secretary of War, together with the accompanying
+documents from the several bureaux of that Department, will exhibit the
+situation of the various objects committed to its administration.
+
+No event has occurred since your last session rendering necessary any
+movements of the Army, with the exception of the expedition of the regiment
+of dragoons into the territory of the wandering and predatory tribes
+inhabiting the western frontier and living adjacent to the Mexican
+boundary. These tribes have been heretofore known to us principally by
+their attacks upon our own citizens and upon other Indians entitled to the
+protection of the United States. It became necessary for the peace of the
+frontiers to check these habitual inroads, and I am happy to inform you
+that the object has been effected without the commission of any act of
+hostility. Colonel Dodge and the troops under his command have acted with
+equal firmness and humanity, and an arrangement has been made with those
+Indians which it is hoped will assure their permanent pacific relations
+with the United States and the other tribes of Indians upon that border. It
+is to be regretted that the prevalence of sickness in that quarter has
+deprived the country of a number of valuable lives, and particularly that
+General Leavenworth, an officer well known, and esteemed for his gallant
+services in the late war and for his subsequent good conduct, has fallen a
+victim to his zeal and exertions in the discharge of his duty.
+
+The Army is in a high state of discipline. Its moral condition, so far as
+that is known here, is good, and the various branches of the public service
+are carefully attended to. It is amply sufficient under its present
+organization for providing the necessary garrisons for the seaboard and for
+the defense of the internal frontier, and also for preserving the elements
+of military knowledge and for keeping pace with those improvements which
+modern experience is continually making. And these objects appear to me to
+embrace all the legitimate purposes for which a permanent military force
+should be maintained in our country. The lessons of history teach us its
+danger and the tendency which exists to an increase. This can be best met
+and averted by a just caution on the part of the public itself, and of
+those who represent them in Congress.
+
+From the duties which devolve on teh Engineer Department and upon the
+topographical engineers, a different organization seems to be demanded by
+the public interest, and I recommend the subject to your consideration.
+
+No important change has during this season taken place in the condition of
+the Indians. Arrangements are in progress for the removal of the Creeks,
+and will soon be for the removal of the Seminoles. I regret that the
+Cherokees east of the Mississippi have not yet determined as a community to
+remove. How long the personal causes which have heretofore retarded that
+ultimately inevitable measure will continue to operate I am unable to
+conjecture. It is certain, however, that delay will bring with it
+accumulated evils which will render their condition more and more
+unpleasant. The experience of every year adds to the conviction that
+emigration, and that alone, can preserve from destruction the remnant of
+the tribes yet living amongst us. The facility with which the necessaries
+of life are procured and the treaty stipulations providing aid for the
+emigrant Indians in their agricultural pursuits and in the important
+concern of education, and their removal from those causes which have
+heretofore depressed all and destroyed many of the tribes, can not fail to
+stimulate their exertions and to reward their industry.
+
+The two laws passed at the last session of Congress on the subject of
+Indian affairs have been carried into effect, and detailed instructions for
+their administration have been given. It will be seen by the estimates for
+the present session that a great reduction will take place in the
+expenditures of the Department in consequence of these laws, and there is
+reason to believe that their operation will be salutary and that the
+colonization of the Indians on the western frontier, together with a
+judicious system of administration, will still further reduce the expenses
+of this branch of the public service and at the same time promote its
+usefulness and efficiency.
+
+Circumstances have been recently developed showing the existence of
+extensive frauds under the various laws granting pensions and gratuities
+for Revolutionary services. It is impossible to estimate the amount which
+may have been thus fraudulently obtained from the National Treasury. I am
+satisfied, however, it has been such as to justify a re-examination of the
+system and the adoption of the necessary checks in its administration. All
+will agree that the services and sufferings of the remnant of our
+Revolutionary band should be fully compensated; but while this is done,
+every proper precaution should be taken to prevent the admission of
+fabricated and fraudulent claims.
+
+In the present mode of proceeding the attestations and certificates of the
+judicial officers of the various States from a considerable portion of the
+checks which are interposed against the commission of frauds. These,
+however, have been and may be fabricated, and in such a way as to elude
+detection at the examining offices. And independently of this practical
+difficulty, it is ascertained that these documents are often loosely
+granted; some times even blank certificates have been issued; some times
+prepared papers have been signed without inquiry, and in one instance, at
+least, the seal of the court has been within reach of a person most
+interested in its improper application. It is obvious that under such
+circumstances no severity of administration can check the abuse of the law.
+And information has from time to time been communicated to the Pension
+Office questioning or denying the right of persons placed upon the pension
+list to the bounty of the country.
+
+Such cautions are always attended to and examined, but a far more general
+investigation is called for, and I therefore recommend, in conformity with
+the suggestion of the Secretary of War, that an actual inspection should be
+made in each State into the circumstances and claims of every person now
+drawing a pension. The honest veteran has nothing to fear from such a
+scrutiny, while the fraudulent claimant will be detected and the public
+Treasury relieved to an amount, I have reason to believe, far greater than
+has heretofore been suspected. The details of such a plan could be so
+regulated as to interpose the necessary checks without any burdensome
+operation upon the pensioners. The object should be two-fold: To look into
+the original justice of the claims, so far as this can be done under a
+proper system of regulations, by an examination of the claimants themselves
+and by inquiring in the vicinity of their residence into their history and
+into the opinion entertained of their Revolutionary services. To ascertain
+in all cases whether the original claimant is living and this by actual
+personal inspection. This measure will, if adopted, be productive, I think,
+of the desired results, and I therefore recommend it to your consideration,
+with the further suggestion that all payments should be suspended 'til the
+necessary reports are received.
+
+It will be seen by a tabular statement annexed to the documents transmitted
+to Congress that the appropriations for objects connected with the War
+Department, made at the last session, for the service of the year 1834,
+excluding the permanent appropriation for the payment of military
+gratuities under the act of 1832-06-07, the appropriation of $200,000 for
+arming and equipping the militia, and the appropriation of $10,000 for the
+civilization of the Indians, which are not annually renewed, amounted to
+the sum of $9,003,261, and that the estimates of appropriations necessary
+for the same branches of service for the year 1835 amount to the sum of
+$5,778,964, making a difference in the appropriations of the current year
+over the estimates of the appropriations for the next of $3,224,297.
+
+The principal causes which have operated at this time to produce this great
+difference are shown in the reports and documents and in the detailed
+estimates. Some of these causes are accidental and temporary, while others
+are permanent, and, aided by a just course of administration, may continue
+to operate beneficially upon the public expenditures.
+
+A just economy, expending where the public service requires and withholding
+where it does not, is among the indispensable duties of the Government.
+
+I refer you to the accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy and to
+the documents with it for a full view of the operations of that important
+branch of our service during the present year. It will be seen that the
+wisdom and liberality with which Congress has provided for the gradual
+increase of our navy material have been seconded by a corresponding zeal
+and fidelity on the part of those to whom has been confided the execution
+of the laws on the subject, and that but a short period would be now
+required to put in commission a force large enough for any exigency into
+which the country may be thrown.
+
+When we reflect upon our position in relation to other nations, it must be
+apparent that in the event of conflicts with them we must look chiefly to
+our Navy for the protection of our national rights. The wide seas which
+separate us from other Governments must of necessity be the theater on
+which an enemy will aim to assail us, and unless we are prepared to meet
+him on this element we can not be said to possess the power requisite to
+repel or prevent aggressions. We can not, therefore, watch with too much
+attention this arm of our defense, or cherish with too much care the means
+by which it can possess the necessary efficiency and extension. To this end
+our policy has been heretofore wisely directed to the constant employment
+of a force sufficient to guard our commerce, and to the rapid accumulation
+of the materials which are necessary to repair our vessels and construct
+with ease such new ones as may be required in a state of war.
+
+In accordance with this policy, I recommend to your consideration the
+erection of the additional dry dock described by the Secretary of the Navy,
+and also the construction of the steam batteries to which he has referred,
+for the purpose of testing their efficacy as auxiliaries to the system of
+defense now in use.
+
+The report of the PostMaster General herewith submitted exhibits the
+condition and prospects of that Department. From that document it appears
+that there was a deficit in the funds of the Department at the commencement
+of the present year beyond its available means of $315,599.98, which on the
+first of July last (1834-07-01) had been reduced to $268,092.74. It appears
+also that the revenues for the coming year will exceed the expenditures
+about $270,000, which, with the excess of revenue which will result from
+the operations of the current half year, may be expected, independently of
+any increase in the gross amount of postages, to supply the entire deficit
+before the end of 1835. But as this calculation is based on the gross
+amount of postages which had accrued within the period embraced by the
+times of striking the balances, it is obvious that without a progressive
+increase in the amount of postages the existing retrenchments must be
+persevered in through the year 1836 that the Department may accumulate a
+surplus fund sufficient to place it in a condition of perfect ease.
+
+It will be observed that the revenues of the Post Office Department, though
+they have increased, and their amount is above that of any former year,
+have yet fallen short of the estimates more than $100,000. This is
+attributed in a great degree to the increase of free letters growing out of
+the extension and abuse of the franking privilege. There has been a gradual
+increase in the number of executive offices to which it has been granted,
+and by an act passed in 1833-03, it was extended to members of Congress
+throughout the whole year. It is believed that a revision of the laws
+relative to the franking privilege, with some enactments to enforce more
+rigidly the restrictions under which it is granted, would operate
+beneficially to the country, by enabling the Department at an earlier
+period to restore the mail facilities that have been withdrawn, and to
+extend them more widely, as the growing settlements of the country may
+require.
+
+To a measure so important to the Government and so just to our
+constituents, who ask no exclusive privileges for themselves and are not
+willing to concede them to others, I earnestly recommend the serious
+attention of Congress.
+
+The importance of the Post Office Department and the magnitude to which it
+has grown, both in its revenues and in its operations, seem to demand its
+reorganization by law. The whole of its receipts and disbursements have
+hitherto been left entirely to Executive control and individual discretion.
+The principle is as sound in relation to this as to any other Department of
+the Government, that as little discretion should be confided to the
+executive officer who controls it as is compatible with its efficiency. It
+is therefore earnestly recommended that it be organized with an auditor and
+treasurer of its own, appointed by the President and Senate, who shall be
+branches of the Treasury Department.
+
+Your attention is again respectfully invited to the defect which exists in
+the judicial system of the United States. Nothing can be more desirable
+than the uniform operation of the Federal judiciary throughout the several
+States, all of which, standing on the same footing as members of the Union,
+have equal rights to the advantages and benefits resulting from its laws.
+This object is not attained by the judicial acts now in force, because they
+leave one quarter of the States without circuit courts.
+
+It is undoubtedly the duty of Congress to place all the States on the same
+footing in this respect, either by the creation of an additional number of
+associate judges or by an enlargement of the circuits assigned to those
+already appointed so as to include the new States. What ever may be the
+difficulty in a proper organization of the judicial system so as to secure
+its efficiency and uniformity in all parts of the Union and at the same
+time to avoid such an increase of judges as would encumber the supreme
+appellate tribunal, it should not be allowed to weigh against the great
+injustice which the present operation of the system produces.
+
+I trust that I may be also pardoned for renewing the recommendation I have
+so often submitted to your attention in regard to the mode of electing the
+President and Vice President of the United States. All the reflection I
+have been able to bestow upon the subject increases my conviction that the
+best interests of the country will be promoted by the adoption of some plan
+which will secure in all contingencies that important right of sovereignty
+to the direct control of the people. Could this be attained, and the terms
+of those officers be limited to a single period of either four or six
+years, I think our liberties would possess an additional safeguard.
+
+At your last session I called the attention of Congress to the destruction
+of the public building occupied by the Treasury Department. As the public
+interest requires that another building should be erected with as little
+delay as possible, it is hoped that the means will be seasonably provided
+and that they will be ample enough to authorize such an enlargement and
+improvement in the plan of the building as will more effectually
+accommodate the public officers and secure the public documents deposited
+in it from the casualties of fire.
+
+I have not been able to satisfy myself that the bill entitled "An act to
+improve the navigation of the Wabash River", which was sent to me at the
+close of your last session, ought to pass, and I have therefore withheld
+from it my approval and now return it to the Senate, the body in which it
+originated.
+
+There can be no question connected with the administration of public
+affairs more important or more difficult to be satisfactorily dealth with
+than that which relates to the rightful authority and proper action of the
+Federal Government upon the subject of internal improvements. To inherent
+embarrassments have been added others resulting from the course of our
+legislation concerning it.
+
+I have heretofore communicated freely with Congress upon this subject, and
+in adverting to it again I can not refrain from expressing my increased
+conviction of its extreme importance as well in regard to its bearing upon
+the maintenance of the Constitution and the prudent management of the
+public revenue as on account of its disturbing effect upon the harmony of
+the Union.
+
+We are in no danger from violations of the Constitution by which
+encroachments are made upon the personal rights of the citizen. The
+sentence of condemnation long since pronounced by the American people upon
+acts of that character will, I doubt not, continue to prove as salutary in
+its effects as it is irreversible in its nature.
+
+But against the dangers of unconstitutional acts which, instead of menacing
+the vengeance of offended authority, proffer local advantages and bring in
+their train the patronage of the Government, we are, I fear, not so safe.
+To suppose that because our Government has been instituted for the benefit
+of the people it must therefore have the power to do what ever may seem to
+conduce to the public good is an error into which even honest minds are too
+apt to fall. In yielding themselves to this fallacy they overlook the great
+considerations in which the Federal Constitution was founded. They forget
+that in consequence of the conceded diversities in the interest and
+condition of the different States it was foreseen at the period of its
+adoption that although a particular measure of the Government might be
+beneficial and proper in 1 State it might be the reverse in another; that
+it was for this reason the States would not consent to make a grant to the
+Federal Government of the general and usual powers of government, but of
+such only as were specifically enumerated, and the probable effects of
+which they could, as they thought, safely anticipate; and they forget also
+the paramount obligation upon all to abide by the compact then so solemnly
+and, as it was hoped, so firmly established.
+
+In addition to the dangers to the Constitution springing from the sources I
+have stated, there has been one which was perhaps greater than all. I
+allude to the materials which this subject has afforded for sinister
+appeals to selfish feelings, and the opinion heretofore so extensively
+entertained of its adaptation to the purposes of personal ambition. With
+such stimulus it is not surprising that the acts and pretensions of the
+Federal Government in this behalf should some times have been carried to an
+alarming extent. The questions which have arisen upon this subject have
+related -- To the power of making internal improvements within the limits
+of a State, with the right of territorial jurisdiction, sufficient at least
+for their preservation and use. To the right of appropriating money in aid
+of such works when carried on by a State of by a company in virtue of State
+authority, surrendering the claim of jurisdiction; and To the propriety of
+appropriation for improvements of a particular class, viz, for light
+houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and for the removal of sand bars,
+sawyers, and other temporary and partial impediments in our navigable
+rivers and harbors. The claims of power for the General Government upon
+each of these points certainly present matter of the deepest interest. The
+first is, however, of much the greatest importance, in as much as, in
+addition to the dangers of unequal and improvident expenditures of public
+moneys common to all, there is super-added to that the conflicting
+jurisdictions of the respective governments. Federal jurisdiction, at least
+to the extent I have stated, has been justly regarded by its advocates as
+necessarily appurtenant to the power in question, if that exists by the
+Constitution.
+
+That the most injurious conflicts would unavoidably arise between the
+respective jurisdictions of the State and Federal Governments in the
+absence of a constitutional provision marking out their respective
+boundaries can not be doubted. The local advantages to be obtained would
+induce the States to overlook in the beginning the dangers and difficulties
+to which they might ultimately be exposed. The powers exercised by the
+Federal Government would soon be regarded with jealousy by the State
+authorities, and originating as they must from implication or assumption,
+it would be impossible to affix to them certain and safe limits.
+
+Opportunities and temptations to the assumption of power incompatible with
+State sovereignty would be increased and those barriers which resist the
+tendency of our system toward consolidation greatly weakened. The officers
+and agents of the General Government might not always have the discretion
+to abstain from intermeddling with State concerns, and if they did they
+would not always escape the suspicion of having done so. Collisions and
+consequent irritations would spring up; that harmony which should ever
+exist between the General Government and each member of the Confederacy
+would be frequently interrupted; a spirit of contention would be engendered
+and the dangers of disunion greatly multiplied.
+
+Yet we know that not withstanding these grave objections this dangerous
+doctrine was at one time apparently proceeding to its final establishment
+with fearful rapidity. The desier to embark the Federal Government in works
+of internal improvement prevailed in the highest degree during the first
+session of the first Congress that I had the honor to meet in my present
+situation. When the bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the
+United States for stock in the Maysville and Lexington TurnPike Company
+passed the two houses, there had been reported by the Committees of
+Internal Improvements bills containing appropriations for such objects,
+inclusive of those for the Cumberland road and for harbors and light
+houses, to the amount of $106,000,000. In this amount was included
+authority to the Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe for the stock of
+different companies to a great extent, and the residue was principally for
+the direct construction of roads by this Government. In addition to these
+projects, which had been presented to the two Houses under the sanction and
+recommendation of their respective Committees on Internal Improvements,
+there were then still pending before the committees, and in memorials to
+Congress presented but not referred, different projects for works of a
+similar character, the expense of which can not be estimated with
+certainty, but must have exceeded $100,000,000.
+
+Regarding the bill authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville
+and Lexington TurnPike Company as the entering wedge of a system which,
+however weak at first, might soon become strong enough to rive the bands of
+the Union asunder, and believing that if its passage was acquiesced in by
+the Executive and the people there would no longer be any limitation upon
+the authority of the General Government in respect to the appropriation of
+money for such objects, I deemed it an imperative duty to withhold from it
+the Executive approval.
+
+Although from the obviously local character of that work I might well have
+contented myself with a refusal to approve the bill upon that ground, yet
+sensible of the vital importance of the subject, and anxious that my views
+and opinions in regard to the whole matter should be fully understood by
+Congress and by my constituents, I felt it my duty to go further. I
+therefore embraced that early occasion to apprise Congress that in my
+opinion the Constitution did not confer upon it the power to authorize the
+construction of ordinary roads and canals within the limits of a State and
+to say, respectfully, that no bill admitting such a power could receive my
+official sanction. I did so in the confident expectation that the speedy
+settlement of the public mind upon the whole subject would be greatly
+facilitated by the difference between the 2 Houses and myself, and that the
+harmonious action of the several departments of the Federal Government in
+regard to it would be ultimately secured.
+
+So far, at least, as it regards this branch of the subject, my best hopes
+have been realized. Nearly four years have elapsed, and several sessions of
+Congress have intervened, and no attempt within my recollection has been
+made to induce Congress to exercise this power. The applications for the
+construction of roads and canals which were formerly multiplied upon your
+files are no longer presented, and we have good reason to infer that the
+current public sentiment has become so decided against the pretension as
+effectually to discourage its reassertion. So thinking, I derive the
+greatest satisfaction from the conviction that thus much at least has been
+secured upon this important and embarrassing subject.
+
+From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects which are
+confessedly of a local character we can not, I trust, have anything further
+to apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making appropriations
+for works which are claimed to be of a national character and prosecuted
+under State authority -- assuming that Congress have the right to do so --
+were stated in my annual message to Congress in 1830, and also in that
+containing my objections to the Maysville road bill.
+
+So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations ought to be made
+by Congress until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon the
+subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest interests of
+our country, that I could not consider myself as discharging my duty to my
+constituents in giving the Executive sanction to any bill containing such
+an appropriation. If the people of the United States desire that the public
+Treasury shall be resorted to for the means to prosecute such works, they
+will concur in an amendment of the Constitution prescribing a rule by which
+the national character of the works is to be tested, and by which the
+greatest practicable equality of benefits may be secured to each member of
+the Confederacy. The effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in
+preventing unprofitable expenditures, in securing our legislation from the
+pernicious consequences of a scramble for the favors of Government, and in
+repressing the spirit of discontent which must inevitably arise from an
+unequal distribution of treasures which belong alike to all.
+
+There is another class of appropriations for what may be called, without
+impropriety, internal improvements, which have always been regarded as
+standing upon different grounds from those to which I have referred. I
+allude to such as have for their object the improvement of our harbors, the
+removal of partial and temporary obstructions in our navigable rivers, for
+the facility and security of our foreign commerce. The grounds upon which I
+distinguished appropriations of this character from others have already
+been stated to Congress. I will now only add that at the 1st session of
+Congress under the new Constitution it was provided by law that all
+expenses which should accrue from and after the 15th day of August, 1789,
+in the necessary support and maintenance and repairs of all light houses,
+beacons, buoys, and public piers erected, placed, or sunk before the
+passage of the act within any bay, inlet, harbor, or port of the United
+States, for rendering the navigation thereof easy and safe, should be
+defrayed out of the Treasury of the United States, and, further, that it
+should be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to provide by
+contracts, with the approbation of the President, for rebuilding when
+necessary and keeping in good repair the light houses, beacons, buoys, and
+public piers in the several States, and for furnishing them with supplies.
+
+Appropriations for similar objects have been continued from that time to
+the present without interruption or dispute. As a natural consequence of
+the increase and extension of our foreign commerce, ports of entry and
+delivery have been multiplied and established, not only upon our sea-board
+but in the interior of the country upon our lakes and navigable rivers. The
+convenience and safety of this commerce have led to the gradual extension
+of these expenditures; to the erection of light houses, the placing,
+planting, and sinking of buoys, beacons, and piers, and to the removal of
+partial and temporary obstructions in our navigable rivers and in the
+harbors upon our Great Lakes as well as on the sea-board.
+
+Although I have expressed to Congress my apprehension that these
+expenditures have some times been extravagant and disproportionate to the
+advantages to be derived from them, I have not gelt it to be my duty to
+refuse my assent to bills containing them, and have contented myself to
+follow in this respect in the foot-steps of all my predecessors. Sensible,
+however, from experience and observation of the great abuses to which the
+unrestricted exercise of this authority by Congress was exposed, I have
+prescribed a limitation for the government of my own conduct by which
+expenditures of this character are confined to places below the ports of
+entry or delivery established by law. I am very sentible that this
+restriction is not as satisfactory as could be desired, and that much
+embarrassment may be caused to the executive department in its execution by
+appropriations for remote and not well-understood objects. But as neither
+my own reflections nor the lights which I may properly derive from other
+sources have supplied me with a better, I shall continue to apply my best
+exertions to a faithful application of the rule upon which it is founded.
+
+I sincerely regret that I could not give my assent to the bill entitled:
+"An act to improve the navigation of the Wabash River"; but I could not
+have done so without receding from the ground which I have, upon the
+fullest consideration, taken upon this subject, and of which Congress has
+been heretofore apprised, and without throwing the subject again open to
+abuses which no good citizen entertaining my opinions could desire.
+
+I rely upon the intelligence and candor of my fellow citizens, in whose
+liberal indulgence I have already so largely participated, for a correct
+appreciation on my motives in interposing as I have done on this and other
+occasions checks to a course of legislation which, without in the slightest
+degree calling in question the motives of others, I consider as sanctioning
+improper and unconstitutional expenditures of public treasure.
+
+I am not hostile to internal improvements, and wish to see them extended to
+every part of the country. But I am fully persuaded, if they are not
+commenced in a proper manner, confined to proper objects, and conducted
+under an authority generally conceded to be rightful, that a successful
+prosecution of them can not be reasonably expected. The attempt will meet
+with resistance where it might otherwise receive support, and instead of
+strengthening the bonds of our Confederacy it will only multiply and
+aggravate the causes of disunion.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 7, 1835
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+In the discharge of my official duty the again devolves upon me of
+communicating with a new Congress. The reflection that the representation
+of the Union has been recently renewed, and that the constitutional term of
+its service will expire with my own, heightens the solicitude with which I
+shall attempt to lay before it the state of our national concerns and the
+devout hope which I cherish that its labors to improve them may be crowned
+with success.
+
+You are assembled at a period of profound interest to the American patriot.
+The unexampled growth and prosperity of our country having given us a rank
+in the scale of nations which removes all apprehension of danger to our
+integrity and independence from external foes, the career of freedom is
+before us, with an earnest from the past that if true to ourselves there
+can be no formidable obstacle in the future to its peaceful and
+uninterrupted pursuit. Yet, in proportion to the disappearance of those
+apprehensions which attended our weakness, as once contrasted with the
+power of some of the States of the Old World, should we now be solicitous
+as to those which belong to the conviction that it is to our own conduct we
+must look for the preservation of those causes on which depend the
+excellence and the duration of our happy system of government.
+
+In the example of other systems founded on the will of the people we trace
+to internal dissension the influences which have so often blasted the hopes
+of the friends of freedom. The social elements, which were strong and
+successful when united against external danger, failed in the more
+difficult task of properly adjusting their own internal organization, and
+thus gave way the great principle of self-government. Let us trust that
+this admonition will never be forgotten by the Government or the people of
+the United States, and that the testimony which our experience thus far
+holds out to the great human family of the practicability and the blessings
+of free government will be confirmed in all time to come.
+
+We have but to look at the state of our agriculture, manufactures, and
+commerce and the unexampled increase of our population to feel the
+magnitude of the trust committed to us. Never in any former period of our
+history have we had greater reason than we now have to be thankful to
+Divine Providence for the blessings fo health and general prosperity. Every
+branch of labor we see crowned with the most abundant rewards. In every
+element of national resources and wealth and of individual comfort we
+witness the most rapid and solid improvements. With no interruptions to
+this pleasing prospect at home which will not yield to the spirit of
+harmony and good will that so strikingly pervades the mass of the people in
+every quarter, amidst all the diversity of interest and pursuits to which
+they are attached, and with no cause of solicitude in regard to our
+external affairs which will not, it is hoped, disappear before the
+principles of simple justice and the forbearance that mark our intercourse
+with foreign powers, we have every reason to feel proud of our beloved
+country.
+
+The general state of our foreign relations has not materially changed since
+my last annual message.
+
+In the settlement of the question of the North Eastern boundary little
+progress has been made. Great Britain has declined acceding to the
+proposition of the United States, presented in accordance with the
+resolution of the Senate, unless certain preliminary conditions were
+admitted, which I deemed incompatible with a satisfactory and rightful
+adjustment of the controversy. Waiting for some distinct proposal from the
+Government of Great Britain, which has been invited, I can only repeat the
+expression of my confidence that, with the strong mutual disposition which
+I believe exists to make a just arrangement, this perplexing question can
+be settled with a due regard to the well-founded pretensions and pac ific
+policy of all the parties to it. Events are frequently occurring on the
+North Eastern frontier of a character to impress upon all the necessity of
+a speedy and definitive termination of the dispute. This consideration,
+added to the desire common to both to relieve the liberal and friendly
+relations so happily existing between the two countries from all
+embarrassment, will no doubt have its just influence upon both.
+
+Our diplomatic intercourse with Portugal has been renewed, and it is
+expected that the claims of our citizens, partially paid, will be fully
+satisfied as soon as the condition of the Queen's Government will permit
+the proper attention to the subject of them. That Government has, I am
+happy to inform you, manifested a determination to act upon the liberal
+principles which have marked our commercial policy. The happiest effects
+upon the future trade between the United States and Portugal are
+anticipated from it, and the time is not thought to be remote when a system
+of perfect reciprocity will be established.
+
+The installments due under the convention with the King of the Two Sicilies
+have been paid with that scrupulous fidelity by which his whole conduct has
+been characterized, and the hope is indulged that the adjustment of the
+vexed question of our claims will be followed by a more extended and
+mutually beneficial intercourse between the two countries.
+
+The internal contest still continues in Spain. Distinguished as this
+struggle has unhappily been by incidents of the most sanguinary character,
+the obligations of the late treaty of indemnification with us have been,
+never the less, faithfully executed by the Spanish Government.
+
+No provision having been made at the last session of Congress for the
+ascertainment of the claims to be paid and the apportionment of the funds
+under the convention made with Spain, I invite your early attention to the
+subject. The public evidences of the debt have, according to the terms of
+the convention and in the forms prescribed by it, been placed in the
+possession of the United States, and the interest as it fell due has been
+regularly paid upon them. Our commercial intercourse with Cuba stands as
+regulated by the act of Congress. No recent information has been received
+as to the disposition of the Government of Madrid, and the lamented death
+of our recently appointed minister on his way to Spain, with the pressure
+of their affairs at home, renders it scarcely probable that any change is
+to be looked for during the coming year.
+
+Further portions of the Florida archives have been sent to the United
+States, although the death of one of the commissioners at a critical moment
+embarrassed the progress of the delivery of them. The higher officers of
+the local government have recently shown an anxious desire, in compliance
+with the orders from the parent Government, to facilitate the selection and
+delivery of all we have a right to claim.
+
+Negotiations have been opened at Madrid for the establishment of a lasting
+peace between Spain and such of the Spanish American Governments of this
+hemisphere as have availed themselves of the intimation given to all of
+them of the disposition of Spain to treat upon the basis of their entire
+independence. It is to be regretted that simultaneous appointments by all
+of ministers to negotiate with Spain had not been made. The negotiation
+itself would have been simplified, and this long-standing dispute,
+spreading over a large portion of the world, would have been brought to a
+more speedy conclusion.
+
+Our political and commercial relations with Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and
+Denmark stand on the usual favorable bases. One of the articles of our
+treaty with Russia in relation to the trade on the North-West coast of
+America having expired, instructions have been given to our minister at St.
+Petersburg to negotiate a renewal of it. The long and unbroken amity
+between the two Governments gives every reason for supposing the article
+will be renewed, if stronger motives do not exist to prevent it than with
+our view of the subject can be anticipated here. I ask your attention to
+the message of my predecessor at the opening of the second session fo the
+19th Congress, relative to our commercial intercourse with Holland, and to
+the documents connected with that subject, communicated to the House of
+Representatives on the 10th of January, 1825, and 18th of January, 1827.
+
+Coinciding in the opinion of my predecessor that Holland is not, under the
+regulations of her present system, entitled to have her vessels and their
+cargoes received into the United States on the footing of American vessels
+and cargoes as regards duties of tonnage and impost, a respect for his
+reference of it to the Legislature has alone prevented me from acting on
+the subject. I should still have waited without comment for the action of
+Congress, but recently a claim has been made by Belgian subjects to
+admission into our ports for their ships and cargoes on the same footing as
+American, with the allegation we could not dispute that our vessels
+received in their ports the identical treatment shewn to them in the ports
+of Holland, upon whose vessels no discrimination is made in the ports of
+the United States.
+
+Given the same privileges the Belgians expected the same benefits --
+benefits that were, in fact, enjoyed when Belgium and Holland were united
+under one Government. Satisfied with the justice of their pretension to be
+placed on the same footing with Holland, I could not, never the less,
+without disregard to the principle of our laws, admit their claim to be
+treated as Americans, and at the same time a respect for Congress, to whom
+the subject had long since been referred, has prevented me from producing a
+just equality by taking from the vessels of Holland privileges
+conditionally granted by acts of Congress, although the condition upon
+which the grant was made has, in my judgment, failed since 1822. I
+recommend, therefore, a review of the act of 1824, and such modification of
+it as will produce an equality on such terms as Congress shall think best
+comports with our settled policy and the obligations of justice to two
+friendly powers.
+
+With the Sublime Porte and all the Governments on the coast of Barbary our
+relations continue to be friendly. The proper steps have been taken to
+renew our treaty with Morocco.
+
+The Argentine Republic has again promised to send within the current year a
+minister to the United States.
+
+A convention with Mexico for extending the time for the appointment of
+commissioners to run the boundary line has been concluded and will be
+submitted to the Senate. Recent events in that country have awakened the
+liveliest solicitude in the United States. Aware of the strong temptations
+existing and powerful inducements held out to the citizens of the United
+States to mingle in the dissensions of our immediate neighbors,
+instructions have been given to the district attorneys of the United States
+where indications warranted it to prosecute without respect to persons all
+who might attempt to violate the obligations of our neutrality, while at
+the same time it has been thought necessary to apprise the Government of
+Mexico that we should require the integrity of our territory to be
+scrupulously respected by both parties.
+
+From our diplomatic agents in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Central America,
+Venezuela, and New Granada constant assurances are received of the
+continued good understanding with the Governments to which they are
+severally accredited. With those Governments upon which our citizens have
+valid and accumulating claims, scarcely an advance toward a settlement of
+them is made, owing mainly to their distracted state or to the pressure of
+imperative domestic questions. Our patience has been and will probably be
+still further severely tried, but our fellow citizens whose interests are
+involved may confide in the determination of the Government to obtain for
+them eventually ample retribution.
+
+Unfortunately, many of the nations of this hemisphere are still
+self-tormented by domestic dissensions. Revolution succeeds revolution;
+injuries are committed upon foreigners engaged in lawful pursuits; much
+time el apses before a government sufficiently stable is erected to justify
+expectation of redress; ministers are sent and received, and before the
+discussions of past injuries are fairly begun fresh troubles arise; but too
+frequently new injuries are added to the old, to be discussed together with
+the existing government after it has proved its ability to sustain the
+assaults made upon it, or with its successor if overthrown. If this unhappy
+condition of things continues much longer, other nations will be under the
+painful necessity of deciding whether justice to their suffering citizens
+does not require a prompt redress of injuries by their own power, without
+waiting for the establishment of a government competent and enduring enough
+to discuss and to make satisfaction for them.
+
+Since the last session of Congress the validity of our claims upon France,
+as liquidated by the treaty of 1831, has been acknowledged by both branches
+of her legislature, and the money has been appropriated for their
+discharge; but the payment is, I regret to inform you, still withheld.
+
+A brief recapitulation of the most important incidents in this protracted
+controversy will shew how utterly untenable are the grounds upon which this
+course is attempted to be justified.
+
+On entering upon the duties of my station I found the United States an
+unsuccessful applicant to the justice of France for the satisfaction of
+claims the validity of which was never questionable, and has now been most
+solemnly admitted by France herself. The antiquity of these claims, their
+high justice, and the aggravating circumstances out of which they arose are
+too familiar to the American people to require description. It is
+sufficient to say that for a period of 10 years and upward our commerce
+was, with but little interruption, the subject of constant aggression on
+the part of France -- aggressions the ordinary features of which were
+condemnations of vessels and cargoes under arbitrary decrees, adopted in
+contravention as well of the laws of nations as of treaty stipulations,
+burnings on the high seas, and seizures and confiscations under special
+imperial rescripts in the ports of other nations occupied by the armies or
+under the control of France. Such it is now conceded is the character of
+the wrongs we suffered -- wrongs in many cases so flagrant that even their
+authors never denied our right to reparation. Of the extent of these
+injuries some conception may be formed from the fact that after the burning
+of a large amount at sea and the necessary deterioration in other cases by
+long detention the American property so seized and sacrificed at forced
+sales, excluding what was adjudged to privateers before or without
+condemnation, brought into the French treasury upward of 24,000,000 francs,
+besides large custom house duties.
+
+The subject had already been an affair of 20 years' uninterrupted
+negotiation, except for a short time when France was overwhelmed by the
+military power of united Europe. During this period, whilst other nations
+were extorting from her payment of their claims at the point of the
+bayonet, the United States intermitted their demand for justice out of
+respect to the oppressed condition of a gallant people to whom they felt
+under obligations for fraternal assistance in their own days of suffering
+and peril. The bad effects of these protracted and unavailing discussions,
+were obvious, and the line of duty was to my mind equally so.
+
+This was either to insist upon the adjustment of our claims within a
+reasonable period or to abandon them altogether. I could not doubt that by
+this course the interests and honor of both countries would be best
+consulted. Instructions were therefore given in this spirit to the minister
+who was sent out once more to demand reparation.
+
+Upon the meeting of Congress in December, 1829, I felt it my duty to speak
+of these claims and the delays of France in terms calculated to call the
+serious attention of both countries to the subject. The then French
+ministry took exception to the message on the ground of its conataining a
+menace, under it was not agreeable to the French Government to negotiate.
+The American minister of his own accord refuted the construction which was
+attempted to be put upon the message and at the same time called to the
+recollection of the French ministry that the President's message was a
+communication addressed, not to foreign governments, but to the Congress of
+the United States, in which it was enjoined upon him by the Constitution to
+lay before that body information of the state of the Union, comprehending
+its foreign as well as its domestic relations, and that if in the discharge
+of this duty he felt it indumbent upon him to summon the attention of
+Congress in due time to what might be the possible consequences of existing
+difficulties with any foreign government, he might fairly be supposed to do
+so under a sense of his own Government, and not from any intention of
+holding a menace over a foreign power.
+
+The views taken by him received my approbation, the French Government was
+satisfied, and the negotiation was continued. It terminated in the treaty
+of July 4, recognizing the justice of our claims in part and promising
+payment to the amount of 25,000,000 francs in 6 annual installments.
+
+The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged at Washington on the second
+of February, 1832, and in 5 days thereafter it was laid before Congress,
+who immediately passed the acts necessary on our part to secure to France
+the commercial advantages conceded to her in the compact. The treaty had
+previously been solemnly ratified by the King of the French in terms which
+are certainly not mere matters of form, and of which the translation is as
+follows: WE, approving the above convention in all and each of the
+dispositions which are contained in it, do declare, by ourselves as well as
+by our heirs and successors, that it is accepted, approved, ratified, and
+confirmed, and by these presents, signed by our hand, we do accept,
+approve, ratify, and confirm it; promising, on the faith and word of a
+king, to observe it and to cause it to be observed inviolably, without ever
+contravening it or suffering it to be contravened, directly or indirectly,
+for any cause or under any pretense whatsoever. Official information of the
+exchange of ratifications in the United States reached Paris whilst the
+Chambers were in session. The extraordinary and to us injurious delays of
+the French Government in their action upon the subject of its fulfillment
+have been heretofore stated to Congress, and I have no disposition to
+enlarge upon them here. It is sufficient to observe that the then pending
+session was allowed to expire without even an effort to obtain the
+necessary appropriations; that the two succeeding ones were also suffered
+to pass away without anything like a serious attempt to obtain a decision
+upon the subject, and that it was not until the fourth session, almost
+three years after the conclusion of the treaty and more than two years
+after the exchange of ratifications, that the bill for the execution of the
+treaty was pressed to a vote and rejected.
+
+In the mean time the Government of the United States, having full
+confidence that a treaty entered into and so solemnly ratified by the
+French King would be executed in good faith, and not doubting that
+provision would be made for the payment of the first installment which was
+to become due on the second day of February, 1833, negotiated a draft for
+the amount through the Bank of the United States. When this draft was
+presented by the holder with the credentials required by the treaty to
+authorize him to receive the money, the Government of France allowed it to
+be protested. In addition to the injury in the nonpayment of the money by
+France, conformably to her engagement, the United States were exposed to a
+heavy claim on the part of the bank under pretense of damages, in
+satisfaction of which that institution seized upon and still retains an
+equal amount of the public money.
+
+Congress was in session when the decision of the Chambers reached
+Washington, and an immediate communication of this apparently final
+decision of France not to fulfill the stipulation of the treaty was the
+course naturally to be expected from the President. The deep tone of
+dissatisfaction which pervaded the public mind and the correspondent
+excitement produced in Congress by only a general knowledge of the result
+rendered it more than probable that a resort to immediate measures of
+redress would be the consequence of calling the attention of that body to
+the subject. Sincerely desirous of preserving the pacific relations which
+had so long existed between the two countries, I was anxious to avoid this
+course if I could be satisfied that by so neither the interests nor the
+honor of my country would be compromitted. Without the fullest assurances
+on that point, I could not hope to acquit myself of the responsibility to
+be incurred in suffering Congress to adjourn without laying the subject
+before them. Those received by me were believed to be of that character.
+
+That the feelings produced in the United States by the news of the
+rejection of the appropriation would be such as I have described them to
+have been was foreseen by the French Government, and prompt measures were
+taken by it to prevent the consequence. The King in person expressed
+through our minister at Paris his profound regret at the decision of the
+Chambers, and promised to send forthwith a ship with dispatches to his
+miniter here authorizing him to give such assurances as would satisfy the
+Government and people of the United States that the treaty would yet be
+faithfully executed by France.
+
+The national ship arrived, and the minister received his instructions.
+Claiming to act under the authority derived from them, he gave to this
+government in the name of his the most solemn assurances that as soon after
+the new elections as the charter would permit the French Chambers would be
+convened and the attempt to procure the necessary appropriations renewed;
+that all the constitutional powers of the King and his ministers should be
+put in requisition to accomplish the object, and he was understood, and so
+expressly informed by this Government at the time, to engage that the
+question should be pressed to a decision at a period sufficiently early to
+permit information of the result to be communicated to Congress at the
+commencement of their next session. Relying upon these assurances, I
+incurred the responsibility, great as I regarded it to be, of suffering
+Congress to separate without communicating with them upon the subject.
+
+The expectations justly founded upon the promises thus solemnly made to
+this Government by that of France were not realized. The French Chambers
+met on the thirty-first of July, 1834, soon after the election, and
+although our minister in Paris urged the French ministry to bring the
+subject before them, they declined doing so. He next insisted that the
+Chambers, of prorogued without acting on the subject, should be reassembled
+at a period so early that their action on the treaty might be known in
+Washington prior to the meeting of Congress.
+
+This reasonable request was not only declined, but the Chambers were
+prorogued to the 29th of December, a day so late that their decision,
+however urgently pressed, could not in all probability be obtained in time
+to reach Washington before the necessary adjournment of Congress by the
+Constitution. The reasons given by the ministry for refusing to convoke the
+Chambers at an earlier period were afterwards shewn not to be insuperable
+by their actual convocation on the first of December under a special call
+for domestic purposes, which fact, however, did not become known to this
+Government until after the commencement of the last session of Congress.
+
+Thus disappointed in our just expectations, it became my imperative duty to
+consult with Congress in regard to the expediency of a resort to
+retaliatory measures in case the stipulations of the treaty should not be
+speedily complied with, and to recommend such as in my judgment the
+occasion c alled for. To this end an unreserved communication of the case
+in all its aspects became indispensable. To have shrunk in making it from
+saying all that was necessary to its correct understanding, and that the
+truth would justify, for fear of giving offense to others, would have been
+unworthy of us. To have gone, on the other hand, a single step further for
+the purpose of wounding the pride of a Government and people with whom we
+had so many motives for cultivating relations of amity and reciprocal
+advantage would have been unwise and improper.
+
+Admonished by the past of the difficulty of making even the simplest
+statement of our wrongs without disturbing the sensibilities of those who
+had by their position become responsible for their redress, and earnestly
+desirous of preventing further obstacles from that source, I went out of my
+way to preclude a construction of the message by which the recommendation
+that was made to Congress might be regarded as a menace to France in not
+only disavowing such a design, but in declaring that her pride and her
+power were too well known to expect anything from her fears. The message
+did not reach Paris until more than a month after the Chambers had been in
+session, and such was the insensibility of the ministry to our rightful
+claims and just expectations that our minister had been informed that the
+matter when introduced would not be pressed as a cabinet measure.
+
+Although the message was not officially communicated to the French
+Government, and not withstanding the declaration to the contrary which it
+contained, the French minstry decided to consider the conditional
+recommendation of reprisals a menace and an insult which the honor of the
+nation made it incumbent on them to resent. The measures resorted to by
+them to evince their sense of the supposed indignity were the immediate
+recall of their minister at Washington, the offer of passports to the
+American minister at Paris, and a public notice to the legislative Chambers
+that all diplomatic intercourse with the United States had been suspended.
+
+Having in this manner vindicated the dignity of France, they next proceeded
+to illustrate her justice. To this end a bill was immediately introduced
+into the Chamber of Deputies proposing to make the appropriations necessary
+to carry into effect the treaty. As this bill subsequently passed into a
+law, the provisions of which now constitute the main subject of difficulty
+between the two nations, it becomes my duty, in order to place the subject
+before you in a clear light, to trace the history of its passage and to
+refer with some particularity to the proceedings and discussions in regard
+to it.
+
+The minister of finance in his opening speech alluded to the measures which
+had been adopted to resent the supposed indignity, and recommended the
+execution of the treaty as a measure required by the honor and justice of
+France. He as the organ of the ministry declared the message, so long as it
+had not received the sanction of Congress, a mere expression of the
+personal opinion of the President, for which neither the Government nor
+people of the United States were responsible, and that an engagement had
+been entered into for the fulfillment of which the honor of France was
+pledged. Entertaining these views, the single condition which the French
+ministry proposed to annex to the payment of the money was that it should
+not be made until it was ascertained that the Government of the United
+States had done nothing to injure the interests of France, or, in other
+words, that no steps had been authorized by Congress of a hostile character
+toward France.
+
+What the disposition of action of Congress might be was then unknown to the
+French cabinet; but on the 14th day of January the Senate resolved that it
+was at that time inexpedient to adopt any legislative measures in regard to
+the state of affairs between the United States and France, and no action on
+the subject had occurred in the House of Representatives. These facts were
+known in Paris prior to the 28th of March, 1835, when the committee to whom
+the bill of indemnification had been referred reported it to the Chamber of
+Deputies. That committee substantially re-echoed the sentiments of the
+ministry, declared that Congress had set aside the proposition of the
+President, and recommended the passage of the bill without any other
+restriction than that originally proposed. Thus was it known to the French
+ministry and Chambers that if the position assumed by them, and which had
+been so frequently and solemnly announced as the only one compatible with
+the honor of France, was maintained and the bill passed as originally
+proposed, the money would be paid and there would be an end of this
+unfortunate controversy.
+
+But this cheering prospect was soon destroyed by an amendment introduced
+into the bill at the moment of its passage, providing that the money should
+not be paid until the French Government had received satisfactory
+explanations of the President's message of the second December, 1834, and,
+what is still more extraordinary, the president of the council of ministers
+adopted this amendment and consented to its incorporation in the bill. In
+regard to a supposed insult which had been formally resented by the recall
+of their minister and the offer of passports to ours, they now for the
+first time proposed to ask explanations. Sentiments and propositions which
+they had declared could not justly be imputed to the Government or people
+of the United States are set up as obstacles to the performance of an act
+of conceded justice to that Government and people. They had declared that
+the honor of France required the fulfillment of the engagement into which
+the King had entered, unless Congress adopted the recommendations of the
+message. They ascertained that Congress did not adopt them, and yet that
+fulfillment is refused unless they first obtain from the President
+explanations of an opinion characterized by themselves as personal and
+inoperative.
+
+The conception that it was my intention to menace or insult the Government
+of France is as unfounded as the attempt to extort from the fears of that
+nation what her sense of justice may deny would be vain and ridiculous. But
+the Constitution of the United States imposes on the President the duty of
+laying before Congress the condition of the country in its foreign and
+domestic relations, and of recommending such measures as may in his opinion
+be required by its interests. From the performance of this duty he can not
+be deterred by the fear of wounding the sensibilities of the people or
+government of whom it may become necessary to speak; and the American
+people are incapble of submitting to an interference by any government on
+earth, however powerful, with the free performance of the domestic duties
+which the Constitution has imposed on their public functionaries.
+
+The discussions which intervene between the several departments of our
+Government being to ourselves, and for anything said in them our public
+servants are only responsible to their own constituents and to each other.
+If in the course of their consultations facts are erroneously stated or
+unjust deductions are made, they require no other inducement to correct
+them, however informed of their error, than their love of justice and what
+is due to their own character; but they can never submit to be interrogated
+upon the subject as a matter of right by a foreign power. When our
+discussions terminate in acts, our responsibility to foreign powers
+commences, not as individuals, but as a nation. The principle which calls
+in question the President for the language of his message would equally
+justify a foreign power in demanding explanations of the language used in
+the report of a committee or by a member in debate.
+
+This is not the first time that the Government of France has taken
+exception to the messages of American Presidents. President Washington and
+the first President Adams in the performance of their duties to the
+American people fell under the animadversions of the French Directory. The
+obj ection taken by the ministry of Charles 10, and removed by the
+explanation made by our minister upon the spot, has already been adverted
+to. When it was understood that the ministry of the present King took
+exception to my message of last year, putting a construction upon it which
+was disavowed on its face, our late minister at Paris, in answer to the
+note which first announced a dissatisfaction with the language used in the
+message, made a communication to the French Government under date of the
+29th of January, 1835, calculated to remove all impressions which an
+unreasonable susceptibility had created. He repeated and called the
+attention of the French Government to the disavowal contained in the
+message itself of any intention to intimidate by menace; he truly declared
+that it contained and was intended to contain no charge of ill faith
+against the King of the French, and properly distinguished between the
+right to complain in unexceptionable terms of the omission to execute an
+agreement and an accusation of bad motives in withholding such execution,
+and demonstrated that the necessary use of that right ought not to be
+considered as an offensive imputation.
+
+Although this communication was made without instructions and entirely on
+the minister's own responsibility, yet it was afterwards made the act of
+this Government by my full approbation, and that approbation was officially
+made known on the 25th of April, 1835, to the French Government. It,
+however, failed to have any effect. The law, after this friendly
+explanation, passed with the obnoxious amendment, supported by the King's
+ministers, and was finally approved by the King.
+
+The people of the United States are justly attached to a pacific system in
+their intercourse with foreign nations. It is proper, therefore, that they
+should know whether their Government has adhered to it. In the present
+instance it has been carried to the utmost extent that was consistent with
+a becoming self-respect. The note of the 29th of January, to which I have
+before alluded, was not the only one which our minister took upon himself
+the responsibility of presenting on the same subject and in the same
+spirit.
+
+Finding that it was intended to make the payment of a just debt dependent
+on the performance of a condition which he knew could never be complied
+with, he thought it a duty to make another attempt to convince the French
+Government that whilst self-respect and regard to the dignity of other
+nations would always prevent us from using any language that ought to give
+offense, yet we could never admit a right in any foreign government to ask
+explanations of or to interfere in any manner in the communications which
+one branch of our public councils made with another; that in the present
+case no such language had been used, and that this had in a former note
+been fully and voluntarily state, before it was contemplated to make the
+explantion a condition; and that there might be no misapprehension he
+stated the terms used in that note, and he officially informed them that it
+had been approved by the President, and that therefore every explanation
+which could reasonably be asked or honorably given had been already made;
+that the contemplated measure had been anticipated by a voluntary and
+friendly declaration, and was therefore not only useless, but might be
+deemed offensive, and certainly would not be complied with if annexed as a
+condition.
+
+When this latter communication, to which I especially invite the attention
+of Congress, was laid before me, I entertained the hope that the means it
+was obviously intended to afford of an honorable and speedy adjustment of
+the difficulties between the two nations would have been accepted, and I
+therefore did not hesitate to give it my sanction and full approbation.
+This was due to the minister who had made himself responsible for the act,
+and it was published to the people of the United States and is now laid
+before their representatives to shew hos far their Executive has gone in
+its endeavors to restore a good understanding betwe en the two countries.
+It would have been at any time communicated to the Government of France had
+it been officially requested.
+
+The French Government having received all the explanation which honor and
+principle permitted, and which could in reason be asked, it was hoped it
+would no longer hesitate to pay the installments now due. The agent
+authorized to receive the money was instructed to inform the French
+minister of his readiness to do so. In reply to this notice he was told
+that the money could not then be paid, because the formalities required by
+the act of the Chambers had not been arranged.
+
+Not having received any official information of the intentions of the
+French Government, and anxious to bring, as far as practicable, this
+unpleasant affair to a close before the meeting of Congress, that you might
+have the whole subject before you, I caused our charge' d'affaires at Paris
+to be instructed to ask for the final determination of the French
+Government, and in the event of their refusal to pay the installments now
+due, without further explanations to return to the United States.
+
+The result of this last application has not yet reached us, but is daily
+expected. That it may be favorable is my sincere wish. France having now,
+through all the branches of her Government, acknowledged the validity of
+our claims and the obligation of the treaty of 1831, and there really
+existing no adequate cause for further delay, will at length, it may be
+hoped, adopt the course which the interests of both nations, not less than
+the principles of justice, so imperiously require. The treaty being once
+executed on her part, little will remain to disturb the friendly relations
+of the two countries -- nothing, indeed, which will not yield to the
+suggestions of a pacific and enlightened policy and to the influence of
+that mutual good will and of those generous recollections which we may
+confidently expect will then be revived in all their ancient force.
+
+In any event, however, the principle involved in the new aspect which has
+been given to the controversy is so vitally important to the independent
+administration of the Government that it can neither be surrendered nor
+compromitted without national degradation. I hope it is unnecessary for me
+to say that such a sacrifice will not be made through any agency of mine.
+The honor of my country shall never be stained by an apology from me for
+the statement of truth and the performance of duty; nor can I give any
+explanation of my official acts except such as is due to integrity and
+justice and consistent with the principles on which our institutions have
+been framed. This determination will, I am confident, be approved by my
+constituents. I have, indeed, studied their character to but little purpose
+if the sum of 25,000,000 francs will have the weight of a feather in the
+estimation of what appertains to their national independence, and if,
+unhappily, a different impression should at any time obtain in any quarter,
+they will, I am sure, rally round the Government of their choice with
+alacrity and unanimity, and silence for ever the degrading imputation.
+
+Having thus frankly presented to you the circumstances which since the last
+session of Congress have occurred in this interesting and important matter,
+with the views of the Executive in regard to them, it is at this time only
+necessary to add that when ever the advices now daily expected from our
+chargyyé d'affaires shall have been received they will be made the
+subject of a special communication.
+
+The condition of the public finances was never more flattering than at the
+present period.
+
+Since my last annual communication all the remains of the public debt have
+been redeemed, or money has been placed in deposit for this purpose when
+ever the creditors choose to receive it. All the other pecuniary
+engagements of the Government have been honorably and promptly fulfilled,
+and there will be a balance in the Treasury at the close of the year of
+about $19,000,000. It is believed that after meeting all outstanding and
+unexpended appropriations there will remain near $11,000,000 to be applied
+to any new objects which Congress may designate or to the more rapid
+execution of the works already in progress. In aid of these objects, and to
+satisfy the current expenditures of the ensuing year, it is estimated that
+there will be received from various sources $20,000,000 more in 1836.
+
+Should Congress make new appropriations in conformity with the estimates
+which will be submitted from the proper Departments, amounting to about
+$24,000,000, still the available surplus at the close of the next year,
+after deducting all unexpended appropriations, will probably not be less
+than $6,000,000. This sum can, in my judgment, be now usefully applied to
+proposed improvements in our navy yards, and to new national works which
+are not enumerated in the present estimates or to the more rapid completion
+of those already begun. Either would be constitutional and useful, and
+would render unnecessary any attempt in our present peculiar condition to
+divide the surplus revenue or to reduce it any faster than will be effected
+by the existing laws.
+
+In any event, as the annual report from the Secretary of the Treasury will
+enter into details, shewing the probability of some decrease in the revenue
+during the next 7 years and a very considerable deduction in 1842, it is
+not recommended that Congress should undertake to modify the present tariff
+so as to disturb the principles on which the compromise act was passed.
+Taxation on some of the articles of general consumption which are not in
+competition with our own productions may be no doubt so diminished as to
+lessen to some extent the source of this revenue, and the same object can
+also be assisted by more liberal provisions for the subjects of public
+defense, which in the present state of our prosperity and wealth may be
+expected to engage your attention.
+
+If, however, after satisfying all the demands which can arise from these
+sources the unexpended balance in the Treasury should still continue to
+increase, it would be better to bear with the evil until the great changes
+contemplated in our tariff laws have occurred and shall enable us to revise
+the system with that care and circumspection which are due to so delicate
+and important a subject.
+
+It is certainly our duty to diminish as far as we can the burdens of
+taxation and to regard all the restrictions which are imposed on the trade
+and navigation of our citizens as evils which we shall mitigate when ever
+we are not prevented by the adverse legislation and policy of foreign
+nations or those primary duties which the defense and independence of our
+country enjoin upon us. That we have accomplished much toward the relief of
+our citizens by the changes which have accompanied the payment of the
+public debt and the adoption of the present revenue laws is manifest from
+the fact that compared to 1833 there is a diminution of near $25,000,000 in
+the last two years, and that our expenditures, independently of those for
+the public debt, have been reduced near $9,000,000 during the same period.
+Let us trust that by the continued observance of economy and by harmonizing
+the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce much more
+may be accomplished to diminish the burdens of government and to increase
+still further the enterprise and the patriotic affection of all classes of
+our citizens and all the members of our happy Confederacy. As the data
+which the Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you in regard to our
+financial resources are full and extended, and will afford a safe guide in
+your future calculations, I think it unnecessary to offer any further
+observations on that subject here.
+
+Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity of the country, not the
+least gratifying is that afforded by the receipts from the sales of the
+public lands, which amount in the present year to the unexpected sum of
+$11,000,000. This circumstance attests the rapidity with which agriculture,
+the first and most important occupation of man, advances and contributes to
+the wealth and power of our extended territory. Being still of the opinion
+that it is our best policy, as far as we can consistently with the
+obligations under which those lands were ceded to the United States, to
+promote their speedy settlement, I beg leave to call the attention of the
+present Congress to the suggestions I have offered respecting it in my
+former messages.
+
+The extraordinary receipts from the sales of the public lands invite you to
+consider what improvements the land system, and particularly the condition
+of the General Land Office, may require. At the time this institution was
+organized, near a quarter century ago, it would probably have been thought
+extravagant to anticipate for this period such an addition to its business
+as has been produced by the vast increase of those sales during the past
+and present years. It may also be observed that since the year 1812 the
+land offices and surveying districts have been greatly multiplied, and that
+numerous legislative enactments from year to year since that time have
+imposed a great amount of new and additional duties upon that office, while
+the want of a timely application of force commensurate with the care and
+labor required has caused the increasing embarrassment of accumulated
+arrears in the different branches of the establishment.
+
+These impediments to the expedition of much duty in the General Land Office
+induce me to submit to your judgment whether some modification of the laws
+relating to its organization, or an organization of a new character, be not
+called for at the present juncture, to enable the office to accomplish all
+the ends of its institution with a greater degree of facility and
+promptitude than experience has proved to be practicable under existing
+regulations. The variety of the concerns and the magnitude and complexity
+of the details occupying and dividing the attention of the Commissioner
+appear to render it difficult, if not impracticable, for that officer by
+any possible assiduity to bestow on all the multifarious subjects upon
+which he is called to act the ready and careful attention due to their
+respective importance, unless the Legislature shall assist him by a law
+providing, or enabling him to provide, for a more regular and economical
+distribution of labor, with the incident responsibility among those
+employed under his direction. The mere manual operation of affixing his
+signature to the vast number of documents issuing from his office subtracts
+so largely from the time and attention claimed by the weighty and
+complicated subjects daily accumulating in that branch of the public
+service as to indicate the strong necessity of revising the organic law of
+the establishment. It will be easy for Congress hereafter to proportion the
+expenditure on account of this branch of the service to its real wants by
+abolishing from time to time the offices which can be dispensed with.
+
+The extinction of the public debt having taken place, there is no longer
+any use for the offices of Commissioners of Loans and of the Sinking Fund.
+I recommend, therefore, that they be abolished, and that proper measures be
+taken for the transfer to the Treasury Department of any funds, books, and
+papers connected with the operations of those offices, and that the proper
+power be given to that Department for closing finally any portion of their
+business which may remain to be settled.
+
+It is also incumbent on Congress in guarding the pecuniary interests of the
+country to discontinue by such a law as was passed in 1812 the receipt of
+the bills of the Bank of the United States in payment of the public
+revenue, and to provide for the designation of an agent whose duty it shall
+be to take charge of the books and stock of the United States in that
+institution, and to close all connection with it after the 3d of March,
+1836 1836-03-03, when its charter expires. In making provision in regard to
+the disposition of this stock it will be essential to define clearly and
+strictly the duties and powers of the officer charged with that branch of
+the public service.
+
+It will be seen from the correspondence which the Secretary of the Treasury
+will lay before you that not withstanding the large amount of the stock
+which the United States hold in that institution no information has yet
+been communicated which will enable the Government to anticipate when it
+can receive any dividends or derive any benefit from it.
+
+Connected with the condition of the finances and the flourishing state of
+the country in all its branches of industry, it is pleasing to witness the
+advantages which have been already derived from the recent laws regulating
+the value of the gold coinage. These advantages will be more apparent in
+the course of the next year, when the branch mints authorized to be
+established in North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana shall have gone into
+operation. Aided, as it is hoped they will be, by further reforms in the
+banking systems of the States and by judicious regulations on the part of
+Congress in relation to the custody of the public moneys, it may be
+confidently anticipated that the use of gold and silver as circulating
+medium will become general in the ordinary transactions connected with the
+labor of the country.
+
+The great desideratum in modern times is an efficient check upon the power
+of banks, preventing that excessive issue of paper whence arise those
+fluctuations in the standard of value which render uncertain the rewards of
+labor. It was supposed by those who established the Bank of the United
+States that from the credit given to it by the custody of the public moneys
+and other privileges and the precautions taken to guard against the evils
+which the country had suffered in the bankruptcy of many of the State
+institutions of that period we should derive from that institution all the
+security and benefits of a sound currency and every good end that was
+attainable under the provision of the Constitution which authorizes
+Congress alone to coin money and regulate the value thereof. But it is
+scarcely necessary now to say that these anticipations have not been
+realized.
+
+After the extensive embarrassment and distress recently produced by the
+Bank of the United States, from which the country is now recovering,
+aggravated as they were by pretensions to power which defied the public
+authority, and which if acquiesced in by the people would have changed the
+whole character of our Government, every candid and intelligent individual
+must admit that for the attainment of the great advantages of a sound
+currency we must look to a course of legislation radically different from
+that which created such an institution.
+
+In considering the means of obtaining so important an end we must set aside
+all calculations of temporary convenience, and be influenced by those only
+which are in harmony with the true character and the permanent interests of
+the Republic. We must recur to first principles and see what it is that has
+prevented the legislation of Congress and the States on the subject of
+currency from satisfying the public expectation and realizing results
+corresponding to those which have attended the action of our system when
+truly consistent with the great principle of equality upon which it rests,
+and with that spirit of forbearance and mutual concession and generous
+patriotism which was originally, and must ever continue to be, the vital
+element of our Union.
+
+On this subject I am sure that I can not be mistaken in ascribing our want
+of success to the undue countenance which has been afforded to the spirit
+of monopoly. All the serious dangers which our system has yet encountered
+may be traced to the resort to implied powers and the use of corporations
+clothed with privileges, the effect of which is to advance the interests of
+the few at the expense of the many.
+
+We have felt but one class of these dangers exhibited in the contest waged
+by the Bank of the United States against the Government for the last four
+years. Happily they have been obviated for the present by the indignant
+resistance of the people, but we should recollect that the principle whence
+they sprung is an ever-active one, which will not fail to renew its effo
+rts in the same and in other forms so long as there is a hope of success,
+founded either on the inattention of the people or the treachery of their
+representatives to the subtle progress of its influence.
+
+The bank is, in fact, but one of the fruits of a system at war with the
+genius of all our institutions -- a system founded upon a political creed
+the fundamental principle of which is a distrust of the popular will as a
+safe regulator of political power, and whose great ultimate object and
+inevitable result, should it prevail, is the consolidation of all power in
+our system in one central government. Lavish public disbursements and
+corporations with exclusive privileges would be its substitutes for the
+original and as yet sound checks and balances of the Constitution -- the
+means by whose silent and secret operation a control would be exercised by
+the few over the political conduct of the many by first acquiring that
+control over the labor and earnings of the great body of the people.
+Wherever this spirit has effected an alliance with political power, tyranny
+and despotism have been the fruit. If it is ever used for the ends of
+government, it has to be incessantly watched, or it corrupts the sources of
+the public virtue and agitates the country with questions unfavorable to
+the harmonious and steady pursuit of its true interests.
+
+We are now to see whether, in the present favorable condition of the
+country, we can not take an effectual stand against thei spirit of
+monopoly, and practically prove in respect to the currency as well as other
+important interests that ther is no necessity for so extensive a resort to
+it as that which has been heretofore practiced. The experience of another
+year has confirmed the utter fallacy of the idea that the Bank of the
+United States was necessary as a fiscal agent of the Government. Without
+its aid as such, indeed, in despite of all the embarrassment it was in its
+power to create, the revenue has been paid with punctuality by our
+citizens, the business of exchange, both foreign and domestic, has been
+conducted with convenience, and the circulating medium has been greatly
+improved.
+
+By the use of the State banks, which do not derive their charters from the
+General Government and are not controlled by its authority, it is
+ascertained that the moneys of the United States can be collected and
+disbursed without loss or inconvenience, and that all the wants of the
+community in relation to exchange and currency are supplied as well as they
+have ever been before. If under circumstances the most unfavorable to the
+steadiness of the money market it has been found that the considerations on
+which the Bank of the United States rested its claims to the public favor
+were imaginary and groundless, it can not be doubted that the experience of
+the future will be more decisive against them.
+
+It has been seen that without the agency of a great moneyed monopoly the
+revenue can be collected and conveniently and safely applied to all the
+purposes of the public expenditure. It is also ascertained that instead of
+being necessarily made to promote the evils of an unchecked paper system,
+the management of the revenue can be made auxiliary to the reform which the
+legislatures of several of the States have already commenced in regard to
+the suppression of small bills, and which has only to be fostered by proper
+regulations on the part of Congress to secure a practical return to the
+extent required for the security of the currency to the constitutional
+medium.
+
+Severed from the Government as political engines, and not susceptible of
+dangerous extension and combination, the State banks will not be tempted,
+nor will they have teh power, which we have seen exercised, to divert the
+public funds from the legitimate purposes of the Government. The collection
+and custody of the revenue, being, on the contrary, a source of credit to
+them, will increase the security which the States provide for a faithful
+execution of their trusts by multiplying the scrutinies to which their
+operations and accounts will be subjected. Thus disposed, as well from
+interest as the obligations of their charters, it can not be doubted that
+such conditions as Congress may see fit to adopt respecting the deposits in
+these institutions, with a view to the gradual disuse, of the small bills
+will be cheerfully complied with, and that we shall soon gain in place of
+the Bank of the United States a practical reform in the whole paper system
+of the country. If by this policy we can ultimately witness the suppression
+of all bank bills below $20, it is apparent that gold and silver will take
+their place and become the principal circulating medium in the common
+business of the farmers and mechanics of the country. The attainment of
+such a result will form an era in the history of our country which will be
+dwelt upon with delight by every true friend of its liberty and
+independence. It will lighten the great tax which our paper system has so
+long collected from the earnings of labor, and do more to revive and
+perpetuate those habits of economy and simplicity which are so congenial to
+the character of republicans than all the legislation which has yet been
+attempted.
+
+To this subject I feel that I can not too earnestly invite the special
+attention of Congress, without the exercise of whose authority the
+opportunity to accomplish so much public good must pass unimproved. Deeply
+impressed with its vital importance, the Executive has taken all the steps
+within his constitutional power to guard the public revenue and defeat the
+expectation which the Bank of the United States indulged of renewing and
+perpetuating its monopoly on the ground of its necessity as a fiscal agent
+and as affording a sounder currency than could be obtained without such an
+institution.
+
+In the performance of this duty much responsibility was incurred which
+would have been gladly avoided if the stake which the public had in the
+question could have been otherwise preserved. Although clothed with the
+legal authority and supported by precedent, I was aware that there was in
+the act of the removal of the deposits a liability to excite that
+sensitiveness to Executive power which it is characteristic and the duty of
+free men to indulge; but I relied on this feeling also, directed by
+patriotism and intelligence, to vindicate the conduct which in the end
+would appear to have been called for by the interests of my country. The
+apprehensions natural to this feeling that there may have been a desire,
+through the instrumentality of that measure, to extend the Executive
+influence, or that it may have been prompted by motives not sufficiently
+free from ambition, were not over-looked. Under the operation of our
+institutions the public servant who is called on to take a step of high
+responsibility should feel in the freedom which gives rise to such
+apprehensions his highest security. When unfounded the attention which they
+arouse and the discussions they excite deprive those who indulge them of
+the power to do harm; when just they but hasten the certainty with which
+the great body of our citizens never fail to repel an attempt to procure
+the sanction to any exercise of power inconsistent with the jealous
+maintenance of their rights.
+
+Under such convictions, and entertaining no doubt that my constitutional
+obligations demanded the steps which were taken inreference to the removal
+of the deposits, it was impossible for me to be deterred from the path of
+duty by a fear that my motives could be misjudged or that political
+prejudices could defeat the just consideration of the merits of my conduct.
+The result has shewn how safe is this reliance upon the patriotic temper
+and enlightened discernment of the people. That measure has now been before
+them and has stood the test of all the severe analysis which its general
+importance, the interests it affected, and the apprehensions it excited
+were calculated to produce, and it now remains for Congress to consider
+what legislation has become necessary in consequence.
+
+I need only add to what I have on former occasions said on this subject
+general ly that in the regulations which Congress may prescribe respecting
+the custody of the public moneys it is desirable that as little discretion
+as may be deemed consistent with their safe-keeping should be given to the
+executive agents. No one can be more deeply impressed than I am with the
+soundness of the doctrine which restrains and limits, by specific
+provisions, executive discretion, as far as it can be done consistently
+with the preservation of its constitutional character. In respect to the
+control over the public money this doctrine is peculiarly applicable, and
+is in harmony with the great principle which I felt I was sustaining in the
+controversy with the Bank of the United States, which has resulted in
+severing to some extent a dangerous connection between a moneyed and
+political power. The duty of the Legislature to define, by clear and
+positive enactments, the nature and extent of the action which it belongs
+to the Executive to superintend springs out of a policy analogous to that
+which enjoins upon all branches of the Federal Government an abstinence
+from the exercise of powers not clearly granted.
+
+In such a Government, possessing only limited and specific powers, the
+spirit of its general administration can not be wise or just when it
+opposes the reference of all doubtful points to the great source of
+authority, the States and the people, whose number and diversified
+relations securing them against the influences and excitements which may
+mis-lead their agents, make them the safest depository of power. In its
+application to the Executive, with reference to the legislative branch of
+the Government, the same rule of action should make the President ever
+anxious to avoid the exercise of any discretionary authority which can be
+regulated by Congress. The biases which may operate upon him will not be so
+likely to extend to the representatives of the people in that body.
+
+In my former messages to Congress I have repeatedly urged the propriety of
+lessening the discretionary authority lodged in the various Departments,
+but it has produced no effect as yet, except the discontinuance of extra
+allowances in the Army and Navy and the substitution of fixed salaries in
+the latter. It is believed that the same principles could be advantageously
+applied in all cases, and would promote the efficiency and economy of the
+public service, at the same tiem that greater satisfaction and more equal
+justice would be secured to the public officers generally.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will put you in possession
+of the operations of the Department confided to his care in all its
+diversified relations during the past year.
+
+I am gratified in being able to inform you that no occurrence has required
+any movement of the military force, except such as is common to a state of
+peace. The services of the Army have been limited to their usual duties at
+the various garrisons upon the Atlantic and in-land frontier, with the
+exceptions states by the Secretary of War. Our small military establishment
+appears to be adequate to the purposes for which it is maintained, and it
+forms a nucleus around which any additional force may be collected should
+the public exigencies unfortunately require any increase of our military
+means.
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Andrew Jackson
+December 5, 1836
+
+Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
+
+Addressing to you the last annual message I shall ever present to the
+Congress of the United States, it is a source of the most heartfelt
+satisfaction to be able to congratulate you on the high state of prosperity
+which our beloved country has attained. With no causes at home or abroad to
+lessen the confidence with which we look to the future for continuing
+proofs of the capacity of our free institutions to produce all the fruits
+of good government,
+
+the general condition of our affairs may well excite our national pride.
+
+I can not avoid congratulating you, and my country particularly, on the
+success of the efforts made during my Administration by the Executive and
+Legislature, in conformity with the sincere, constant, and earnest desire
+of the people, to maintain peace and establish cordial relations with all
+foreign powers. Our gratitude is due to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe,
+and I invite you to unite with me in offering to Him fervent supplications
+that His providential care may ever be extended to those who follow us,
+enabling them to avoid the dangers and the horrors of war consistently with
+a just and indispensable regard to the rights and honor of our country. But
+although the present state of our foreign affairs, standing, without
+important change, as they did when you separated in July last, is
+flattering in the extreme, I regret to say that many questions of an
+interesting character, at issue with other powers, are yet unadjusted.
+Amongst the most prominent of these is that of our NE boundary. With an
+undiminished confidence in the sincere desire of His Britannic Majesty's
+Government to adjust that question, I am not yet in possession of the
+precise grounds upon which it proposes a satisfactory adjustment.
+
+With France our diplomatic relations have been resumed, and under
+circumstances which attest the disposition of both Governments to preserve
+a mutually beneficial intercourse and foster those amicable feelings which
+are so strongly required by the true interests of the two countries. With
+Russia, Austria, Prussia, Naples, Sweden, and Denmark the best
+understanding exists, and our commercial intercourse is gradually expanding
+itself with them. It is encouraged in all these countries, except Naples,
+by their mutually advantageous and liberal treaty stipulations with us.
+
+The claims of our citizens on Portugal are admitted to be just, but
+provision for the payment of them has been unfortunately delayed by
+frequent political changes in that Kingdom.
+
+The blessings of peace have not been secured by Spain. Our connections with
+that country are on the best footing, with the exception of the burdens
+still imposed upon our commerce with her possessions out of Europe.
+
+The claims of American citizens for losses sustained at the bombardment of
+Antwerp have been presented to the Governments of Holland and Belgium, and
+will be pressed, in due season, to settlement.
+
+With Brazil and all our neighbors of this continent we continue to maintain
+relations of amity and concord, extending our commerce with them as far as
+the resources of the people and the policy of their Governments will
+permit. The just and long-standing claims of our citizens upon some of them
+are yet sources of dissatisfaction and complaint. No danger is apprehended,
+however, that they will not be peacefully, although tardily, acknowledged
+and paid by all, unless the irritating effect of her struggle with Texas
+should unfortunately make our immediate neighbor, Mexico, an exception.
+
+It is already known to you, by the correspondence between the two
+Governments communicated at your last session, that our conduct in relation
+to that struggle is regulated by the same principles that governed us in
+the dispute between Spain and Mexico herself, and I trust that it will be
+found on the most severe scrutiny that our acts have strictly corresponded
+with our professions. That the inhabitants of the United States should feel
+strong prepossessions for the one party is not surprising. But this
+circumstance should of itself teach us great caution, lest it lead us into
+the great error of suffering public policy to be regulated by partially or
+prejudice; and there are considerations connected with the possible result
+of this contest between the two parties of so much delicacy and importance
+to the United States that our character requires that we should neither
+anticipate events nor attempt to control them.
+
+The known desire of the Texans to become a part of our system, although its
+gratification depends upon the reconcilement of various and conflicting
+interests, necessarily a work of time and uncertain in itself, is
+calculated to expose our conduct to misconstruction in the eyes of the
+world. There are already those who, indifferent to principle themselves and
+prone to suspect the want of it in others, charge us with ambitious designs
+and insidious policy.
+
+You will perceive by the accompanying documents that the extraordinary
+mission from Mexico has been terminated on the sole ground that the
+obligations of this Government to itself and to Mexico, under treaty
+stipulations, have compelled me to trust a discretionary authority to a
+high officer of our Army to advance into territory claimed as part of Texas
+if necessary to protect our own or the neighboring frontier from Indian
+depredation. In the opinion of the Mexican functionary who has just left
+us, the honor of his country will be wounded by American soldiers entering,
+with the most amicable avowed purposes, upon ground from which the
+followers of his Government have been expelled, and over which there is at
+present no certainty of a serious effort on its part to re-establish its
+dominion. The departure of this minister was the more singular as he was
+apprised that the sufficiency of the causes assigned for the advance of our
+troops by the commanding general had been seriously doubted by me, and
+there was every reason to suppose that the troops of the United States,
+their commander having had time to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the
+information upon which they had been marched to Nacogdoches, would be
+either there in perfect accordance with the principles admitted to be just
+in his conference with the Secretary of State by the Mexican minister
+himself, or were already withdrawn in consequence of the impressive
+warnings their commanding officer had received from the Department of War.
+It is hoped and believed that his Government will take a more dispassionate
+and just view of this subject, and not be disposed to construe a measure of
+justifiable precaution, made necessary by its known inability in execution
+of the stipulations of our treaty to act upon the frontier, into an
+encroachment upon its rights or a stain upon its honor.
+
+In the mean time the ancient complaints of injustice made on behalf of our
+citizens are disregarded, and new causes of dissatisfaction have arisen,
+some of them of a character requiring prompt remonstrance and ample and
+immediate redress. I trust, however, by tempering firmness with courtesy
+and acting with great forbearance upon every incident that has occurred or
+that may happen, to do and to obtain justice, and thus avoid the necessity
+of again bringing this subject to the view of Congress.
+
+It is my duty to remind you that no provision has been made to execute our
+treaty with Mexico for tracing the boundary line between the two countries.
+What ever may be the prospect of Mexico's being soon able to execute the
+treaty on its part, it is proper that we should be in anticipation prepared
+at all times to perform our obligations, without regard to the probable
+condition of those with whom we have contracted them.
+
+The result of the confidential inquiries made into the condition and
+prospects of the newly declared Texan Government will be communicated to
+you in the course of the session.
+
+Commercial treaties promising great advantages to our enterprising
+merchants and navigators have been formed with the distant Governments of
+Muscat and Siam. The ratifications have been exchanged, but have not
+reached the Department of State. Copes of the treaties will be transmitted
+to you if received before, or published if arriving after, the close of the
+present session of Congress.
+
+Nothing has occurred to interrupt the good understanding that has long
+existed with the Barbary Powers, nor to check the good will which is
+gradually growing up from our intercourse with the dominions of the
+Government of growing of the distinguished chief of the Ottoman Empire.
+
+Information has been received at the Department of State that a treaty with
+the Emperor of Morocco has just been negotiated, which, I hope, will be
+received in time to be laid before the Senate previous to the close of the
+session.
+
+You will perceive from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury that the
+financial means of the country continue to keep pace with its improvement
+in all other respects. The receipts into the Treasury during the present
+year
+
+will amount to about $47,691,898; those from customs being estimated at
+$22,523,151, those from lands at about $24,000,000, and the residue from
+miscellaneous sources. The expenditures for all objects during the year are
+estimated not to exceed $32,000,000, which will leave a balance in the
+Treasury for public purposes on the first day of January next of about
+$41,723,959. This sum, with the exception of $5,000,000, will be
+transferred to the several States in accordance with the provisions of the
+act regulating the deposits of the public money.
+
+The unexpended balances of appropriation on the first day of January next
+are estimated at $14,636,062, exceeding by $9,636,062 the amount which will
+be left in the deposit banks, subject to the draft of the Treasurer of the
+United States, after the contemplated transfers to the several States are
+made. If, therefore, the future receipts should not be sufficient to meet
+these outstanding and future appropriations, there may be soon a necessity
+to use a portion of the funds deposited with the States.
+
+The consequences apprehended when the deposit act of the last session
+received a reluctant approval have been measurably realized. Though an act
+merely for the deposit of the surplus moneys of the United States in the
+State treasuries for safe-keeping until they may be wanted for the service
+of the General Government, it has been extensively spoken of as an act to
+give the money to the several States, and they have been advised to use it
+as a givt, without regard to the means of refunding it when called for.
+Such a suggestion has doubtless been made without a proper attention to the
+various principles and interests which are affected by it.
+
+It is manifest that the law itself can not sanction such a suggestion, and
+that as it now stands the States have no more authority to receive and use
+these deposits without intending to return them than any deposit bank or
+any individual temporarily charged with the safe-keeping or application of
+the public money would now have for converting the same to their private
+use without the consent and against the will of the Government. But
+independently of the violation of public faith and moral obligation which
+are involved in this suggestion when examined in reference to the terms of
+the present deposit act, it is believed that the considerations which
+should govern the future legislation of Congress on this subject will be
+equally conclusive against the adoption of any measure recognizing the
+principles on which the suggestion has been made.
+
+Considering the intimate connection of the subject with the financial
+interests of the country and its great importance in whatever aspect it can
+be viewed, I have bestowed upon it the most anxious reflection, and feel it
+to be my duty to state to Congress such thoughts as have occurred to me, to
+aid their deliberation in treating it in the manner best calculated to
+conduce to the common good.
+
+The experience of other nations admonished us to hasten the extinguishment
+of the public debt; but it will be in vain that we have congratulated each
+other upon the disappearance of this evil if we do not guard against the
+equally great one of promoting the unnecessary accumulation of public
+revenue. No political maxim is better established than that which tells us
+that an improvident expenditure of money is the parent of profligacy, and
+that no people can hope to perpetuate their liberties who long acquiesce in
+a policy which taxes them for objects not necessary to the legitimate and
+real wants of their Government. Flattering as is the condition of our
+country at the present period, because of its unexampled advance in all the
+steps of social and political improvement, it can not be disguised that
+there is a lurking danger already apparent in the neglect of this warning
+truth, and that the time has arrived when the representatives of the people
+should be employed in devising some more appropriate remedy than now exists
+to avert it.
+
+Under our present revenue system there is every probability that there will
+continue to be a surplus beyond the wants of the Government, and it has
+become our duty to decide whether such a result be consistent with the true
+objects of our Government.
+
+Should a surplus be permitted to accumulate beyond the appropriations, it
+must be retained in the Treasury, as it now is, or distributed among the
+people or the States.
+
+To retain it in the Treasury unemployed in any way is impracticable; it is,
+besides, against the genius of our free institutions to lock up in vaults
+the treasure of the nation. To take from the people the right of bearing
+arms and put their weapons of defense in the hands of a standing army would
+be scarcely more dangerous to their liberties than to permit the Government
+to accumulate immense amounts of treasure beyond the supplies necessary to
+its legitimate wants. Such a treasure would doubtless be employed at some
+time, as it has been in other countries, when opportunity tempted
+ambition.
+
+To collect it merely for distribution to the States would seem to be highly
+impolitic, if not as dangerous as the proposition to retain it in the
+Treasury.
+
+The shortest reflection must satisfy everyone that to require the people to
+pay taxes to the Government merely that they may be paid back again is
+sporting with the substantial interests of the country, and no system which
+produces such a result can be expected to receive the public countenance.
+Nothing could be gained by it even if each individual who contributed a
+portion of the tax could receive back promptly the same portion. But it is
+apparent that no system of the kind can ever be enforced which will not
+absorb a considerable portion of the money to be distributed in salaries
+and commissions to the agents employed in the process and in the various
+losses and depreciations which arise from other causes, and the practical
+effect of such an attempt must ever be to burden the people with taxes, not
+for purposes beneficial to them, but to swell the profits of deposit banks
+and support a band of useless public officers.
+
+A distribution to the people is impracticable and unjust in other respects.
+It would be taking one man's property and giving it to another. Such would
+be the unavoidable result of a rule of equality (and none other is spoken
+of or would be likely to be adopted), in as much as there is no mode by
+which the amount of the individual contributions of our citizens to the
+public revenue can be ascertained. We know that they contribute unequally,
+and a rule, therefore, that would distribute to them equally would be
+liable to all the objections which apply to the principle of an equal
+division of property. To make the General Government the instrument of
+carrying this odious principle into effect would be at once to destroy the
+means of its usefulness and change the character designed for it by the
+framers of the Constitution.
+
+But the more extended and injurious consequences likely to result from a
+policy which would collect a surplus revenue from the purpose of
+distributing it may be forcibly illustrated by an examination of the
+effects already produced by the present deposit act. This act, although
+certainly designed to secure the safe-keeping of the public revenue, is not
+entirely free in its tendencies from any of the objections which apply to
+this principle of distribution. The Government had without necessity
+received from the people a large surplus, which, instead of being employed
+as heretofore and returned to them by means of the public expenditure, was
+deposited with sundry banks. The banks proceeded to make loans upon this
+surplus, and thus converted it into banking capital, and in this manner it
+has tended to multiply bank charters and has had a great agency in
+producing a spirit of wild speculation. The possession and use of the
+property out of which this surplus was created belonged to the people, but
+the Government has transferred its possession to incorporated banks, whose
+interest and effort it is to make large profits out of its use. This
+process need only be stated to show its injustice and bad policy.
+
+And the same observations apply to the influence which is produced by the
+steps necessary to collect as well as to distribute such a revenue. About
+3/5 of all the duties on imports are paid in the city of New York, but it
+is obvious that the means to pay those duties are drawn from every quarter
+of the Union. Every citizen in every State who purchases and consumes an
+article which has paid a duty at that port contributes to the accumulating
+mass. The surplus collected there must therefore be made up of moneys or
+property withdrawn from other points and other States. Thus the wealth and
+business of every region from which these surplus funds proceed must be to
+some extent injured, while that of the place where the funds are
+concentrated and are employed in banking are proportionably extended. But
+both in making the transfer of the funds which are first necessary to pay
+the duties and collect the surplus and in making the re-transfer which
+becomes necessary when the time arrives for the distribution of that
+surplus there is a considerable period when the funds can not be brought
+into use, and it is manifest that, besides the loss inevitable from such an
+operation, its tendency is to produce fluctuations in the business of the
+country, which are always productive of speculation and detrimental to the
+interests of regular trade. Argument can scarcely be necessary to show that
+a measure of this character ought not to receive further legislative
+encouragement.
+
+By examining the practical operation of the ration for distribution adopted
+in the deposit bill of the last session we shall discover other features
+that appear equally objectionable. Let it be assumed, for the sake of
+argument, that the surplus moneys to be deposited with the States have been
+collected and belong to them in the ration of their federal representative
+population -- an assumption founded upon the fact that any deficiencies in
+our future revenue from imposts and public lands must be made up by direct
+taxes collected from the States in that ration. It is proposed to
+distribute this surplus -- say $30,000,000 -- not according to the ration
+in which it has been collected and belongs to the people of the States, but
+in that of their votes in the colleges of electors of President and Vice
+President. The effect of a distribution upon that ration is shown by the
+annexed table, marked A.
+
+By an examination of that table it will be perceived that in the
+distribution of a surplus of $30,000,000 upon that basis there is a great
+departure from the principle which regards representation as the true
+measure of taxation, and it will be found that the tendency of that
+departure will be to increase whatever inequalities have been supposed to
+attend the operation of our federal system in respect to its bearings upon
+the different interests of the Union. In making the basis of representation
+the basis of taxation the framers of the Constitution intended to equalize
+the burdens which are necessary to support the Government, and the adoption
+of that ratio, while it accomplished this object, was also the means of
+adjusting other great topics arising out of the conflicting views
+respecting the political equality of the various members of the
+Confederacy. What ever, therefore, disturbs the liberal spirit of the
+compromises which established a rule of taxation so just and equitable, and
+which experience has proved to be so well adapted to the genius and habits
+of our people, should be received with the greatest caution and distrust.
+
+A bare inspection in the annexed table of the differences produced by the
+ration used in the deposit act compared with the results of a distribution
+according to the ration of direct taxation must satisfy every unprejudiced
+mind that the former ration contravenes the spirit of the Constitution and
+produces a degree of injustice in the operations of the Federal Government
+which would be fatal to the hope of perpetuating it. By the ration of
+direct taxation, for example, the State of Delaware in the collection of
+$30,000,000 of revenue would pay into the Treasury $188,716, and in a
+distribution of $30,000,000 she would receive back from the Government,
+according to the ration of the deposit bill, the sum of $306,122; and
+similar results would follow the comparison between the small and the large
+States throughout the Union, thus realizing to the small States an
+advantage which would be doubtless as unacceptable to them as a motive for
+incorporating the principle in any system which would produce it as it
+would be inconsistent with the rights and expectations of the large
+States.
+
+It was certainly the intention of that provision of the Constitution which
+declares that "all duties, imposts, and excises" shall "be uniform
+throughout the United States" to make the burdens of taxation fall equally
+upon the people in what ever State of the Union they may reside. But what
+would be the value of such a uniform rule if the moneys raised by it could
+be immediately returned by a different one which will give to the people of
+some States much more and to those of others much less than their fair
+proportions? Were the Federal Government to exempt in express terms the
+imports, products, and manufactures of some portions of the country from
+all duties while it imposed heavy ones on others, the injustice could not
+be greater. It would be easy to show how by the operation of such a
+principle the large States of the Union would not only have to contribute
+their just share toward the support of the Federal Government, but also
+have to bear in some degree the taxes necessary to support the governments
+of their smaller sisters; but it is deemed unnecessary to state the details
+where the general principle is so obvious.
+
+A system liable to such objections can never be supposed to have been
+sanctioned by the framers of the Constitution when they conferred on
+Congress the taxing power, and I feel persuaded that a mature examination
+of the subject will satisfy everyone that there are insurmountable
+difficulties in the operation of any plan which can be devised of
+collecting revenue for the purpose of distributing it. Congress is only
+authorized to levy taxes "to pay the debts and provide for the common
+defense and general welfare of the United States". There is no such
+provision as would authorize Congress to collect together the property of
+the country, under the name of revenue, for the purpose of dividing it
+equally or unequally among the States or the people. Indeed, it is not
+probable that such an idea ever occurred to the States when they adopted
+the Constitution. But however this may be, the only safe rule for us in
+interpreting the powers granted to the Federal Government is to regard the
+absence of express authority to touch a subject so important and delicate
+as this as equivalent to a prohibition.
+
+Even if our powers were less doubtful in this respect as the Constitution
+now stands, there are considerations afforded by recent experience which
+would seem to make it our duty to avoid a resort to such a system. All will
+admit that the simplicity and economy of the State governments mainly
+depend on the fact that money has to be supplied to support them by the
+same men, or their agents, who vote it away in appropriations. Hence when
+there are extravagant and wasteful appropriations there must be a
+corresponding increase of taxes, and the people, becoming awakened, will
+necessarily scrutinize the character of measures which thus increase their
+burdens. By the watchful eye of self-interest the agents of the people in
+the State governments are repressed and kept within the limits of a just
+economy.
+
+But if the necessity of levying the taxes be taken from those who make the
+appropriations and thrown upon a more distant and less responsible set of
+public agents, who have power to approach the people by an indirect and
+stealthy taxation, there is reason to fear that prodigality will soon
+supersede those characteristics which have thus far made us look with so
+much pride and confidence to the State governments as the main-stay of our
+Union and liberties. The State legislatures, instead of studying to
+restrict their State expenditures to the smallest possible sum, will claim
+credit for their profusion, and harass the General Government for increased
+supplies.
+
+Practically there would soon be but one taxing power, and that vested in a
+body of men far removed from the people, in which the farming and mechanic
+interests would scarcely be represented. The States would gradually lose
+their purity as well as their independence; they would not dare to murmur
+at the proceedings of the General Government, lest they should lose their
+supplies; all would be merged in a practical consolidation, cemented by
+wide-spread corruption, which could only be eradicated by one of those
+bloody revolutions which occasionally over-throw the despotic systems of
+the Old World.
+
+In all the other aspects in which I have been able to look at the effect of
+such a principle of distribution upon the best interests of the country I
+can see nothing to compensate for the disadvantages to which I have
+adverted. If we consider the protective duties, which are in a great degree
+the source of the surplus revenue, beneficial to one section of the Union
+and prejudicial to another, there is no corrective for the evil in such a
+plan of distribution. On the contrary, there is reason to fear that all the
+complaints which have sprung from this cause would be aggravated. Everyone
+must be sensible that a distribution of the surplus must beget a
+disposition to cherish the means which create it, and any system,
+therefore, into which it enters must have a powerful tendency to increase
+rather than diminish the tariff. If it were even admitted that the
+advantages of such a system could be made equal to all the sections of the
+Union, the reasons already so urgently calling for a reduction of the
+revenue would never the less lose none of their force, for it will always
+be improbable that an intelligent and virtuous community can consent to
+raise a surplus for the mere purpose of dividing it, diminished as it must
+inevitably be by the expenses of the various machinery necessary to the
+process.
+
+The safest and simplest mode of obviating all the difficulties which have
+been mentioned is to collect only revenue enough to meet the wants of the
+Government, and let the people keep the balance of their property in their
+own hands, to be used for their own profit. Each State will then support
+its own government and contribute its due share toward the support of the
+General Government. There would be no surplus to cramp and lessen the
+resources of individual wealth and enterprise, and the banks would be left
+to their ordinary means. Whatever agitations and fluctuations might arise
+from our unfortunate paper system, they could never be attributed, justly
+or unjustly, to the action of the Federal Government. There would be some
+guaranty that the spirit of wild speculation which seeks to convert the
+surplus revenue into banking capital would be effectually checked, and that
+the scenes of demoralization which are now so prevalent through the land
+would disappear.
+
+Without desiring to conceal that the experience and observation of the last
+two years have operated a partial change in my views upon this interesting
+subject, it is never the less regretted that the suggestions made by me in
+my annual messages of 1829 and 1830 have been greatly misunderstood. At
+that time the great struggle was begun against that latitudinarian
+construction of the Constitution which authorizes the unlimited
+appropriation of the revenues of the Union to internal improvements within
+the States, tending to invest in the hands and place under the control of
+the General Government all the principal roads and canals of the country,
+in violation of State rights and in derogation of State authority.
+
+At the same time the condition of the manufacturing interest was such as to
+create an apprehension that the duties on imports could not without
+extensive mischief be reduced in season to prevent the accumulation of a
+considerable surplus after the payment of the national debt. In view of the
+dangers of such a surplus, and in preference to its application to internal
+improvements in derogation of the rights and powers of the States, the
+suggestion of an amendment of the Constitution to authorize its
+distribution was made. It was an alternative for what were deemed greater
+evils -- a temporary resort to relieve an over-burdened treasury until the
+Government could, without a sudden and destructive revulsion in the
+business of the country, gradually return to the just principle of raising
+no more revenue from the people in taxes than is necessary for its
+economical support.
+
+Even that alternative was not spoken of but in connection with an amendment
+of the Constitution. No temporary inconvenience can justify the exercise of
+a prohibited power not granted by that instrument, and it was from a
+conviction that the power to distribute even a temporary surplus of revenue
+is of that character that it was suggested only in connection with an
+appeal to the source of all legal power in the General Government, the
+States which have established it. No such appeal has been taken, and in my
+opinion a distribution of the surplus revenue by Congress either to the
+States or the people is to be considered as among the prohibitions of the
+Constitution.
+
+As already intimated, my views have undergone a change so far as to be
+convinced that no alteration of the Constitution in this respect is wise or
+expedient. The influence of an accumulating surplus upon the credit system
+of the country, producing dangerous extensions and ruinous contractions,
+fluctuations in the price of property, rash speculation, idleness,
+extravagance, and a deterioration of morals, have taught us the important
+lesson that any transient mischief which may attend the reduction of our
+revenue to the wants of our Government is to be borne in preference to an
+over-flowing treasury.
+
+I beg leave to call your attention to another subject intimately associated
+with the preceding one -- the currency of the country.
+
+It is apparent from the whole context of the Constitution, as well as the
+history of the times which gave birth to it, that it was the purpose of the
+Convention to establish a currency consisting of the precious metals.
+These, from their peculiar properties which rendered them the standard of
+value in all other countries, were adopted in this as well to establish its
+commercial standard in reference to foreign countries by a permanent rule
+as to exclude the use of a mutable medium of exchange, such as of certain
+agricultural commodities recognized by the statutes of some States as a
+tender for debts, or the still more pernicious expedient of a paper
+currency.
+
+The last, from the experience of the evils of the issues of paper during
+the Revolution, had become so justly obnoxious as not only to suggest the
+clause in the Constitution forbidding the emission of bills of credit by
+the States, but also to produce that vote in the Convention which negatived
+the proposition to grant power to Congress to charter corporations -- a
+proposition well understood at the time as intended to authorize the
+establishment of a national bank, which was to issue a currency of bank
+notes on a capital to be created to some extent out of Government stocks.
+Although this proposition was refused by a direct vote of the Convention,
+the object was afterwards in effect obtained by its ingenious advocates
+through a strained construction of the Constitution. The debts of the
+Revolution were funded at prices which formed no equivalent compared with
+the nominal amount of the stock, and under circumstances which exposed the
+motives of some of those who participated in the passage of the act to
+distrust.
+
+The facts that the value of the stock was greatly enhanced by the creation
+of the bank, that it was well understood that such would be the case, and
+that some of the advocates of the measure were largely benefited by it
+belong to the history of the times, and are well calculated to diminish the
+respect which might otherwise have been due to the action of the Congress
+which created the institution.
+
+On the establishment of a national bank it became the interest of its
+creditors that gold should be superseded by the paper of the bank as a
+general currency. A value was soon attached to the gold coins which made
+their exportation to foreign countries as a mercantile commodity more
+profitable than their retention and use at home as money. It followed as a
+matter of course, if not designed by those who established the bank, that
+the bank became in effect a substitute for the Mint of the United States.
+
+Such was the origin of a national bank currency, and such the beginning of
+those difficulties which now appear in the excessive issues of the banks
+incorporated by the various States.
+
+Although it may not be possible by any legislative means within our power
+to change at once the system which has thus been introduced, and has
+received the acquiescence of all portions of the country, it is certainly
+our duty to do
+
+all that is consistent with our constitutional obligations in preventing
+the mischiefs which are threatened by its undue extension. That the efforts
+of the fathers of our Government to guard against it by a constitutional
+provision were founded on an intimate knowledge of the subject has been
+frequently attested by the bitter experience of the country. The same
+causes which led them to refuse their sanction to a power authorizing the
+establishment of incorporations for banking purposes now exist in a much
+stronger degree to urge us to exert the utmost vigilance in calling into
+action
+
+the means necessary to correct the evils resulting from the unfortunate
+exercise of the power, and it is hoped that the opportunity for effecting
+this great good will be improved before the country witnesses new scenes of
+embarrassment and distress.
+
+Variableness must ever be the characteristic of a currency of which the
+precious metals are not the chief ingredient, or which can be expanded or
+contracted without regard to the principles that regulate the value of
+those metals as a standard in the general trade of the world. With us bank
+issues constitute such a currency, and must ever do so until they are made
+dependent on those just proportions of gold and silver as a circulating
+medium which experience has proved to be necessary not only in this but in
+all other commercial countries. Where those proportions are not infused
+into the circulation and do not control it, it is manifest that prices must
+vary according to the tide of bank issues, and the value and stability of
+property must stand exposed to all the uncertainty which attends the
+administration of institutions that are constantly liable to the temptation
+of an interest distinct from that of the community in which they are
+established.
+
+The progress of an expansion, or rather a depreciation, of the currency by
+excessive bank issues is always attended by a loss to the laboring classes.
+This portion of the community have neither time nor opportunity to watch
+the ebbs and flows of the money market. Engaged from day to day in their
+useful toils, they do not perceive that although their wages are nominally
+the same, or even somewhat higher, they are greatly reduced in fact by the
+rapid increase of a spurious currency, which, as it appears to make money
+abound, they are at first inclined to consider a blessing.
+
+It is not so with the speculator, by whom this operation is better
+understood, and is made to contribute to his advantage. It is not until the
+prices of the necessaries of life become so dear that the laboring classes
+can not supply their wants out of their wages that the wages rise and
+gradually reach a justly proportioned rate to that of the products of their
+labor. When thus, by depreciation in consequence of the quantity of paper
+in circulation, wages as well as prices become exorbitant, it is soon found
+that the whole effect of the adulteration is a tariff on our home industry
+for the benefit of the countries where gold and silver circulate and
+maintain uniformity and moderation in prices. It is then perceived that the
+enhancement of the price of land and labor produces a corresponding
+increase in the price of products until these products do not sustain a
+competition with similar ones in other countries, and thus both
+manufactured and agricultural productions cease to bear expectation from
+the country of the spurious currency, because they can not be sold for
+cost.
+
+This is the process by which specie is banished by the paper of the banks.
+Their vaults are soon exhausted to pay for foreign commodities. The next
+step is a stoppage of specie payment -- a total degradation of paper as a
+currency -- unusual depression of prices, the ruin of debtors, and the
+accumulation of property in the hands of creditors and cautious
+capitalists.
+
+It was in view of these evils, together with the dangerous power wielded by
+the Bank of the United States and its repugnance to our Constitution, that
+I was induced to exert the power conferred upon me by the American people
+to prevent the continuance of that institution. But although various
+dangers to our republican institutions have been obviated by the failure of
+that bank to extort from the Government a renewal of its charter, it is
+obvious that little has been accomplished except a salutary change of
+public opinion toward restoring to the country the sound currency provided
+for in the Constitution.
+
+In the acts of several of the States prohibiting the circulation of small
+notes and the auxiliary enactments of Congress at the last session
+forbidding their reception or payment on public account, the true policy of
+the country has been advanced and a larger portion of the precious metals
+infused into our circulating medium. These measures will probably be
+followed up in due time by the enactment of State laws banishing from
+circulation bank notes of still higher denominations, and the object may be
+materially promoted by further acts of Congress forbidding the employment
+as fiscal agents of such banks as continue to issue notes of low
+denominations and throw impediments in the way of the circulation of gold
+and silver.
+
+The effects of an extension of bank credits and over-issues of bank paper
+have been strikingly illustrated in the sales of the public lands. From the
+returns made by the various registers and receivers in the early part of
+last summer it was perceived that the receipts arising from the sales of
+the public lands were increasing to an unprecedented amount. In effect,
+however, these receipts amounted to nothing more than credits in bank. The
+banks lent out their notes to speculators. They were paid to the receivers
+and immediately returned to the banks, to be lent out again and again,
+being mere instruments to transfer to speculators the most valuable public
+land and pay the Government by a credit on the books of the banks.
+
+Those credits on the books of some of the Western banks, usually called
+deposits, were already greatly beyond their immediate means of payment, and
+were rapidly increasing. Indeed, each speculation furnished means for
+another; for no sooner had one individual or company paid in the notes than
+they were immediately lent to another for a like purpose, and the banks
+were extending their business and their issues so largely as to alarm
+considerate men and render it doubtful whether these bank credits, if
+permitted to accumulate, would ultimately be of the least value to the
+Government. The spirit of expansion and speculation was not confined to the
+deposit banks, but pervaded the whole multitude of banks throughout the
+Union and was giving rise to new institutions to aggravate the evil.
+
+The safety of the public funds and the interest of the people generally
+required that these operations should be checked; and it became the duty of
+every branch of the General and State Governments to adopt all legitimate
+and proper means to produce that salutary effect. Under this view of my
+duty I directed the issuing of the order which will be laid before you by
+the Secretary of the Treasury, requiring payment for the public lands sold
+to be made in specie, with an exception until the 15th of the present month
+in favor of actual settlers.
+
+This measure has produced many salutary consequences. It checked the career
+of the Western banks and gave them additional strength in anticipation of
+the pressure which has since pervaded our Eastern as well as the European
+commercial cities. By preventing the extension of the credit system it
+measurably cut off the means of speculation and retarded its progress in
+monopolizing the most valuable of the public lands. It has tended to save
+the new States from a non-resident proprietorship, one of the greatest
+obstacles to the advancement of a new country and the prosperity of an old
+one. It has tended to keep open the public lands for entry by emigrants at
+Government prices instead of their being compelled to purchase of
+speculators at double or triple prices. And it is conveying into the
+interior large sums in silver and gold, there to enter permanently into the
+currency of the country and place it on a firmer foundation. It is
+confidently believed that the country will find in the motives which
+induced that order and the happy consequences which will have ensued much
+to commend and nothing to condemn.
+
+It remains for Congress if they approve the policy which dictated this
+order to follow it up in its various bearings. Much good, in my judgment,
+would be produced by prohibiting sales of the public lands except to actual
+settlers at a reasonable reduction of price, and to limit the quantity
+which shall be sold to them. Although it is believed the General Government
+never ought to receive anything but the constitutional currency in exchange
+for the public lands, that point would be of less importance if the lands
+were sold for immediate settlement and cultivation. Indeed, there is
+scarcely a mischief arising out of our present land system, including the
+accumulating surplus of revenues, which would not be remedied at once by a
+restriction on land sales to actual settlers; and it promises other
+advantages to the country in general and to the new States in particular
+which can not fail to receive the most profound consideration of Congress.
+
+Experience continues to realize the expectations entertained as to the
+capacity of the State banks to perform the duties of fiscal agents for the
+Government at the time of the removal of the deposits. It was alleged by
+the advocates of the Bank of the United States that the State banks, what
+ever might be the regulations of the Treasury Department, could not make
+the transfers required by the Government or negotiate the domestic
+exchanges of the country. It is now well ascertained that the real domestic
+exchanges performed through discounts by the United States Bank and its 25
+branches were at least 1/3 less than those of the deposit banks for an
+equal period of time; and if a comparison be instituted between the amounts
+of service rendered by these institutions on the broader basis which has
+been used by the advocates of the United States Bank in estimating what
+they consider the domestic exchanges transacted by it, the result will be
+still more favorable to the deposit banks.
+
+The whole amount of public money transferred by the Bank of the United
+States in 1832 was $16,000,000. The amount transferred and actually paid by
+the deposit banks in the year ending the first of October last was
+$39,319,899; the amount transferred and paid between that period and the
+6th of November was $5,399,000, and the amount of transfer warrants
+outstanding on that day was $14,450,000, making an aggregate of
+$59,168,894. These enormous sums of money first mentioned have been
+transferred with the greatest promptitude and regularity, and the rates at
+which the exchanges have been negotiated previously to the passage of the
+deposit act were generally below those charged by the Bank of the United
+States. Independently of these services, which are far greater than those
+rendered by the United States Bank and its 25 branches, a number of the
+deposit banks have, with a commendable zeal to aid in the improvement of
+the currency, imported from abroad, at their own expense, large sums of the
+precious metals for coinage and circulation.
+
+In the same manner have nearly all the predictions turned out in respect to
+the effect of the removal of the deposits -- a step unquestionably
+necessary to prevent the evils which it was foreseen the bank itself would
+endeavor to create in a final struggle to procure a renewal of its charter.
+It may be thus, too, in some degree with the further steps which may be
+taken to prevent the excessive issue of other bank paper, but it is to be
+hoped that nothing will now deter the Federal and State authorities from
+the firm and vigorous performance of their duties to themselves and to the
+people in this respect.
+
+In reducing the revenue to the wants of the Government your particular
+attention is invited to those articles which constitute the necessaries of
+life. The duty on salt was laid as a war tax, and was no doubt continued to
+assist in providing for the payment of the war debt. There is no article
+the release of which from taxation would be felt so generally and so
+beneficially. To this may be added all kinds of fuel and provisions.
+Justice and benevolence unite in favor of releasing the poor of our cities
+from burdens which are not necessary to the support of our Government and
+tend only to increase the wants of the destitute.
+
+It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Treasury and the
+accompanying documents that the Bank of the United States has made no
+payment on account of the stock held by the Government in that institution,
+although urged to pay any portion which might suit its convenience, and
+that it has given no information when payment may be expected. Nor,
+although repeatedly requested, has it furnished the information in relation
+to its condition which Congress authorized the Secretary to collect at
+their last session. Such measures as are within the power of the Executive
+have been taken to ascertain the value of the stock and procure the payment
+as early as possible.
+
+The conduct and present condition of that bank and the great amount of
+capital vested in it by the United States require your careful attention.
+Its charter expired on the third day of March last, and it has now no power
+but that given in the twenty-first section, "to use the corporate name,
+style, and capacity for the purpose of suits for the final settlement and
+liquidation of the affairs and accounts of the corporation, and for the
+sale and disposition of their estate -- real, personal, and mixed -- but
+not for any other purpose or in any other manner what so ever, nor for a
+period exceeding two years after the expiration of the said term of
+incorporation".
+
+Before the expiration of the charter the stock-holders of the bank obtained
+an act of incorporation from the legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding
+only the United States. Instead of proceeding to wind up their concerns and
+pay over to the United States the amount due on account of the stock held
+by them, the president and directors of the old bank appear to have
+transferred the books, papers, notes, obligations, and most or all of its
+property to this new corporation, which entered upon business as a
+continuation of the old concern.
+
+Amongst other acts of questionable validity, the notes of the expired
+corporation are known to have been used as its own and again put in
+circulation. That the old bank had no right to issue or re-issue its notes
+after the expiration of its charter can not be denied, and that it could
+not confer any such right on its substitute any more than exercise it
+itself is equally plain. In law and honesty the notes of the bank in
+circulation at the expiration of its charter should have been called in by
+public advertisement, paid up as presented, and, together with those on
+hand, canceled and destroyed.
+
+Their re-issue is sanctioned by no law and warranted by no necessity. If
+the United States be responsible in their stock for the payment of these
+notes, their re- issue by the new corporation for their own profit is a
+fraud on the Government. If the United States is not responsible, then
+there is no legal responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud on the
+country. They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership, but,
+contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner and without his consent, are
+again re-issued and circulated.
+
+It is the high and peculiar duty of Congress to decide whether any further
+legislation be necessary for the security of the large amount of public
+property now held and in use by the new bank, and for vindicating the
+rights of the Government and compelling a speedy and honest settlement with
+all the creditors of the old bank, public and private, or whether the
+subject shall be left to the power now possessed by the Executive and
+judiciary. It remains to be seen whether the persons who as managers of the
+old bank undertook to control the Government, retained the public
+dividends, shut their doors upon a committee of the House of
+Representatives, and filled the country with panic to accomplish their own
+sinister objects may now as managers of a new bank continue with impunity
+to flood the country with a spurious currency, use the $7M of Government
+stock for their own profit, and refuse to the United States all information
+as to the present condition of their own property and the prospect of
+recovering it into their own possession.
+
+The lessons taught by the Bank of the United States can not well be lost
+upon the American people. They will take care never again to place so
+tremendous a power in irresponsible hands, and it will be fortunate if they
+seriously consider the consequences which are likely to result on a smaller
+scale from the facility with which corporate powers are granted by their
+State governments.
+
+It is believed that the law of the last session regulating the deposit
+banks operates onerously and unjustly upon them in many respects, and it is
+hoped that Congress, on proper representations, will adopt the
+modifications which are necessary to prevent this consequence.
+
+The report of the Secretary of War ad interim and the accompanying
+documents, all which are herewith laid before you, will give you a full
+view of the diversified and important operations of that Department during
+the past year.
+
+The military movements rendered necessary by the aggressions of the hostile
+portions of the Seminole and Creek tribes of Indians, and by other
+circumstances, have required the active employment of nearly our whole
+regular force, including the Marine Corps, and of large bodies of militia
+and volunteers. With all these events so far as they were known at the seat
+of Government before the termination of your last session you are already
+acquainted, and it is therefore only needful in this place to lay before
+you a brief summary of what has since occurred.
+
+The war with the Seminoles during the summer was on our part chiefly
+confined to the protection of our frontier settlements from the incursions
+of the enemy, and, as a necessary and important means for the
+accomplishment of that end, to the maintenance of the posts previously
+established. In the course of this duty several actions took place, in
+which the bravery and discipline of both officers and men were
+conspicuously displayed, and which I have deemed it proper to notice in
+respect to the former by the granting of brevet rank for gallant services
+in the field. But as the force of the Indians was not so far weakened by
+these partial successes as to lead them to submit, and as their savage
+inroads were frequently repeated, early measures were taken for placing at
+the disposal of Governor Call, who as commander in chief of the Territorial
+militia had been temporarily invested with the command, an ample force for
+the purpose of resuming offensive operations in the most efficient manner
+so soon as the season should permit. Major General Jesup was also directed,
+on the conclusion of his duties in the Creek country, to repair to Florida
+and assume the command.
+
+The result of the first movement made by the forces under the direction of
+Governor Call in October last, as detailed in the accompanying papers,
+excited much surprise and disappointment. A full explanation has been
+required of the causes which led to the failure of that movement, but has
+not yet been received. In the mean time, as it was feared that the health
+of Governor Call, who was understood to have suffered much from sickness,
+might not be adequate to the crisis, and as Major General Jesup was known
+to have reached Florida, that officer was directed to assume command, and
+to prosecute all needful operations with the utmost promptitude and vigor.
+From the force at his disposal and the dispositions he has made and is
+instructed to make, and from the very efficient measures which it is since
+ascertained have been taken by Governor Call, there is reason to hope that
+they will soon be enabled to reduce the enemy to subjection. In the mean
+time, as you will perceive from the report of the Secretary, there is
+urgent necessity for further appropriations to suppress these hostilities.
+
+Happily for the interests of humanity, the hostilities with the Creeks were
+brought to a close soon after your adjournment, without that effusion of
+blood which at one time was apprehended as inevitable. The unconditional
+submission of the hostile party was followed by their speedy removal to the
+country assigned them West of the Mississippi. The inquiry as to alleged
+frauds in the purchase of the reservations of these Indians and the causes
+of their hostilities, requested by the resolution of the House of
+Representatives of the first of July last [1836-07-01] to be made by the
+President, is now going on through the agency of commissioners appointed
+for that purpose. Their report may be expected during your present
+session.
+
+The difficulties apprehended in the Cherokee country have been prevented,
+and the peace and safety of that region and its vicinity effectually
+secured, by the timely measures taken by the War Department, and still
+continued.
+
+The discretionary authority given to General Gaines to cross the Sabine and
+to occupy a position as far West as Nacogdoches, in case he should deem
+such a step necessary to the protection of the frontier and to the
+fulfillment of the stipulations contained in our treaty with Mexico, and
+the movement subsequently made by that officer have been alluded to in a
+former part of this message. At the date of the latest intelligence from
+Nacogdoches our troops were yet at that station, but the officer who has
+succeeded General Gaines has recently been advised that from the facts
+known at the seat of Government there would seem to be no adequate cause
+for any longer maintaining that position, and he was accordingly
+instructed, in case the troops were not already withdrawn under the
+discretionary powers before possessed by him, to give the requisite orders
+for that purpose on the receipt of the instructions, unless he shall then
+have in his possession such information as shall satisfy him that the
+maintenance of the post is essential to the protection of our frontiers and
+to the due execution of our treaty stipulations, as previously explained to
+him.
+
+Whilst the necessities existing during the present year for the service of
+militia and volunteers have furnished new proofs of the patriotism of our
+fellow citizens, they have also strongly illustrated the importance of an
+increase in the rank and file of the Regular Army. The views of this
+subject submitted by the Secretary of War in his report meet my entire
+concurrence, and are earnestly commended to the deliberate attention of
+Congress. In this connection it is also proper to remind you that the
+defects in our present militia system are every day rendered more apparent.
+The duty of making further provision by law for organizing, arming, and
+disciplining this arm of defense has been so repeatedly presented to
+Congress by myself and my predecessors that I deem it sufficient on this
+occasion to refer to the last annual message and to former Executive
+communications in which the subject has been discussed.
+
+It appears from the reports of the officers charged with mustering into
+service the volunteers called for under the act of Congress of the last
+session that more presented themselves at the place of rendezvous in
+Tennessee than were sufficient to meet the requisition which had been made
+by the Secretary of War upon the governor of that State. This was
+occasioned by the omission of the governor to apportion the requisition to
+the different regiments of militia so as to obtain the proper number of
+troops and no more. It seems but just to the patriotic citizens who
+repaired to the general rendezvous under circumstances authorizing them to
+believe that their services were needed and would be accepted that the
+expenses incurred by them while absent from their homes should be paid by
+the Government. I accordingly recommend that a law to this effect be passed
+by Congress, giving them a compensation which will cover their expenses on
+the march to and from the place of rendezvous and while there; in
+connection with which it will also be proper to make provision for such
+other equitable claims growing out of the service of the militia as may not
+be embraced in the existing laws.
+
+On the unexpected breaking out of hostilities in Florida, Alabama, and
+Georgia it became necessary in some cases to take the property of
+individuals for public use. Provision should be made by law for
+indemnifying the owners; and I would also respectfully suggest whether some
+provision may not be made, consistently with the principles of our
+Government, for the relief of the sufferers by Indian depredations or by
+the operations of our own troops.
+
+No time was lost after the making of the requisite appropriations in
+resuming the great national work of completing the unfinished
+fortifications on our sea-board and of placing them in a proper state of
+defense. In consequence, however, of the very late day at which those bills
+were passed, but little progress could be made during the season which has
+just closed. A very large amount of the moneys granted at your last session
+accordingly remains unexpended; but as the work will be again resumed at
+the earliest moment in the coming spring, the balance of the existing
+appropriations, and in several cases which will be laid before you, with
+the proper estimates, further sums for the like objects, may be usefully
+expended during the next year.
+
+The recommendations of an increase in the Engineer Corps and for a
+reorganization of the Topographical Corps, submitted to you in my last
+annual message, derive additional strength from the great embarrassments
+experienced during the present year in those branches of the service, and
+under which they are now suffering. Several of the most important surveys
+and constructions directed by recent laws have been suspended in
+consequence of the want of adequate force in these corps.
+
+The like observations may be applied to the Ordnance Corps and to the
+general staff, the operations of which as they are now organized must
+either be frequently interrupted or performed by officers taken from the
+line of the Army, to the great prejudice of the service.
+
+For a general view of the condition of the Military Academy and of other
+branches of the military service not already noticed, as well as for
+further illustrations of those which have been mentioned, I refer you to
+the accompanying documents, and among the various proposals contained
+therein for legislative action I would particularly notice the suggestion
+of the Secretary of War for the revision of the pay of the Army as entitled
+to your favorable regard.
+
+The national policy, founded alike in interest and in humanity, so long and
+so steadily pursued by this Government for the removal of the Indian tribes
+originally settled on this side of the Mississippi to the W of that river,
+may be said to have been consummated by the conclusion of the late treaty
+with the Cherokees. The measures taken in the execution of that treaty and
+in relation to our Indian affairs generally will fully appear by referring
+to the accompanying papers. Without dwelling on the numerous and important
+topics embraced in them, I again invite your attention to the importance of
+providing a well-digested and comprehensive system for the protection,
+supervision, and improvement of the various tribes now planted in the
+Indian country.
+
+The suggestions submitted by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and
+enforced by the Secretary, on this subject, and also in regard to the
+establishment of additional military posts in the Indian country, are
+entitled to your profound consideration. Both measures are necessary, for
+the double purpose of protecting the Indians from intestine war, and in
+other respects complying with our engagements with them, and of securing
+our western frontier against incursions which otherwise will assuredly be
+made on it. The best hopes of humanity in regard to the aboriginal race,
+the welfare of our rapidly extending settlements, and the honor of the
+United States are all deeply involved in the relations existing between
+this Government and the emigrating tribes. I trust, therefore, that the
+various matters submitted in the accompanying documents in respect to those
+relations will receive your early and mature deliberation, and that it may
+issue in the adoption of legislative measures adapted to the circumstances
+and duties of the present crisis.
+
+You are referred to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for a
+satisfactory view of the operations of the Department under his charge
+during the present year. In the construction of vessels at the different
+navy yards and in the employment of our ships and squadrons at sea that
+branch of the service has been actively and usefully employed. While the
+situation of our commercial interests in the West Indies required a greater
+number than usual of armed vessels to be kept on that station, it is
+gratifying to perceive that the protection due to our commerce in other
+quarters of the world has not proved insufficient. Every effort has been
+made to facilitate the equipment of the exploring expedition authorized by
+the act of the last session, but all the preparation necessary to enable it
+to sail has not yet been completed. No means will be spared by the
+Government to fit out the expedition on a scale corresponding with the
+liberal appropriations for the purpose and with the elevated character of
+the objects which are to be effected by it.
+
+I beg leave to renew the recommendation made in my last annual message
+respecting the enlistment of boys in our naval service, and to urge upon
+your attention the necessity of further appropriations to increase the
+number of ships afloat and to enlarge generally the capacity and force of
+the Navy. The increase of our commerce and our position in regard to the
+other powers of the world will always make it our policy and interest to
+cherish the great naval resources of our country.
+
+The report of the PostMaster General presents a gratifying picture of the
+condition of the Post Office Department. Its revenues for the year ending
+the 30th June last were $3,398,455.19, showing an increase of revenue over
+that of the preceding year of $404,878.53, or more than 13%. The
+expenditures for the same year were $2,755,623.76, exhibiting a surplus of
+$642,831.43. The Department has been redeemed from embarrassment and debt,
+has accumulated a surplus exceeding half a million dollars, has largely
+extended and is preparing still further to extend the mail service, and
+recommends a reduction of postages equal to about 20%. It is practicing
+upon the great principle which should control every branch of our
+Government of rendering to the public the greatest good possible with the
+least possible taxation to the people.
+
+The scale of postages suggested by the PostMaster General recommends
+itself, not only by the reduction it proposes, but by the simplicity of its
+arrangement, its conformity with the Federal currency, and the improvement
+it will introduce into the accounts of the Department and its agents.
+
+Your particular attention is invited to the subject of mail contracts with
+railroad companies. The present laws providing for the making of contracts
+are based upon the presumption that competition among bidders will secure
+the service at a fair price; but on most of the railroad lines there is no
+competition in that kind of transportation, and advertising is therefore
+useless. No contract can now be made with them except such as shall be
+negotiated before the time of offering or afterwards, and the power of the
+PostMaster General to pay them high prices is practically without
+limitation. It would be a relief to him and no doubt would conduce to the
+public interest to prescribe by law some equitable basis upon which such
+contracts shall rest, and restrict him by a fixed rule of allowance. Under
+a liberal act of that sort he would undoubtedly be able to secure the
+services of most of the railroad companies, and the interest of the
+Department would be thus advanced.
+
+The correspondence between the people of the United States and the European
+nations, and particularly with the British Islands, has become very
+extensive, and requires the interposition of Congress to give it security.
+No obstacle is perceived to an interchange of mails between New York and
+Liverpool or other foreign ports, as proposed by the PostMaster General. On
+the contrary, it promises, by the security it will afford, to facilitate
+commercial transactions and give rise to an enlarged intercourse among the
+people of different nations, which can not but have a happy effect. Through
+the city of New York most of the correspondence between the Canadas and
+Europe is now carried on, and urgent representations have been received
+from the head of the provincial post office asking the interposition of the
+United States to guard it from the accidents and losses to which it is now
+subjected. Some legislation appears to be called for as well by our own
+interest as by comity to the adjoining British provinces.
+
+The expediency of providing a fire-proof building for the important books
+and papers of the Post Office Department is worthy of consideration. In the
+present condition of our Treasury it is neither necessary nor wise to leave
+essential public interests exposed to so much danger when they can so
+readily be made secure. There are weighty considerations in the location of
+a new building for that Department in favor of placing it near the other
+executive buildings.
+
+The important subjects of a survey of the coast and the manufacture of a
+standard of weights and measures for the different custom houses have been
+in progress for some years under the general direction of the Executive and
+the immediate superintendence of a gentleman possessing high scientific
+attainments. At the last session of Congress the making of a set of weights
+and measures for each State in the Union was added to the others by a joint
+resolution.
+
+The care and correspondence as to all these subjects have been devolved on
+the Treasury Department during the last year. A special report from the
+Secretary of the Treasury will soon be communicated to Congress, which will
+show what has been accomplished as to the whole, the number and
+compensation of the persons now employed in these duties, and the progress
+expected to be made during the ensuing year, with a copy of the various
+correspondence deemed necessary to throw light on the subjects which seem
+to require additional legislation.
+
+Claims have been made for retrospective allowances in behalf of the
+superintendent and some of his assistants, which I did not feel justified
+in granting. Other claims have been made for large increases in
+compensation, which, under the circumstances of the several cases, I
+declined making without the express sanction of Congress. In order to
+obtain that sanction the subject was at the last session, on my suggestion
+and by request of the immediate superintendent, submitted by the Treasury
+Department to the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives.
+But no legislative action having taken place, the early attention of
+Congress is now invited to the enactment of some express and detailed
+provisions in relation to the various claims made for the past, and to the
+compensation and allowances deemed proper for the future.
+
+It is further respectfully recommended that, such being the inconvenience
+of attention to these duties by the Chief Magistrate, and such the great
+pressure of business on the Treasury Department, the general supervision of
+the coast survey and the completion of the weights and measures, if the
+works are kept united, should be devolved on a board of officers organized
+specially for that purpose, or on the Navy Board attached to the Navy
+Department.
+
+All my experience and reflection confirm the conviction I have so often
+expressed to Congress in favor of an amendment of the Constitution which
+will prevent in any event the election of the President and Vice President
+of the United States devolving on the House of Representatives and the
+Senate, and I therefore beg leave again to solicit your attention to the
+subject. There were various other suggestions in my last annual message not
+acted upon, particularly that relating to the want of uniformity in the
+laws of the District of Columbia, that are deemed worthy of your favorable
+consideration.
+
+Before concluding this paper I think it due to the various Executive
+Departments to bear testimony to their prosperous condition and to the
+ability and integrity with which they have been conducted. It has been my
+aim to enforce in all of them a vigilant and faithful discharge of the
+public business, and it is gratifying to me to believe that there is no
+just cause of complaint from any quarter at the manner in which they have
+fulfilled the objects of their creation.
+
+Having now finished the observations deemed proper on this the last
+occasion I shall have of communicating with the two Houses of Congress at
+their meeting, I can not omit an expression of the gratitude which is due
+to the great body of my fellow citizens, in whose partiality and indulgence
+I have found encouragement and support in the many difficult and trying
+scenes through which it has been my lot to pass during my public career.
+Though deeply sensible that my exertions have not been crowned with a
+success corresponding to the degree of favor bestowed upon me, I am sure
+that they will be considered as having been directed by an earnest desire
+to promote the good of my country, and I am consoled by the persuasion that
+what ever errors have been committed will find a corrective in the
+intelligence and patriotism of those who will succeed us. All that has
+occurred during my Administration is calculated to inspire me with
+increased confidence in the stability of our institutions; and should I be
+spared to enter upon that retirement which is so suitable to my age and
+infirm health and so much desired by me in other respects, I shall not
+cease to invoke that beneficent Being to whose providence we are already so
+signally indebted for the continuance of His blessings on our beloved
+country.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY ANDREW JACKSON ***
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