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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of Martin van
+Buren, by Martin van Buren
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren
+
+Author: Martin van Buren
+
+Posting Date: November 21, 2014 [EBook #5017]
+Release Date: February, 2004
+First Posted: April 11, 2002
+Last Updated: December 16, 2004
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESSES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by James Linden.  HTML version by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren
+
+
+
+The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
+
+Dates of addresses by Martin van Buren in this eBook:
+
+  December 5, 1837
+  December 3, 1838
+  December 2, 1839
+  December 5, 1840
+
+
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 5, 1837
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+We have reason to renew the expression of our devout gratitude to the Giver
+of All Good for His benign protection. Our country presents on every side
+the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has
+gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous
+and powerful confederacy. We are blessed with domestic tranquillity and all
+the elements of national prosperity. The pestilence which, invading for a
+time some flourishing portions of the Union, interrupted the general
+prevalence of unusual health has happily been limited in extent and
+arrested in its fatal career. The industry and prudence of our citizens are
+gradually relieving them from the pecuniary embarrassments under which
+portions of them have labored; judicious legislation and the natural and
+boundless resources of the country have afforded wise end timely aid to
+private enterprise, and the activity always characteristic of our people
+has already in a great degree resumed its usual and profitable channels.
+
+The condition of our foreign relations has not materially changed since the
+last annual message of my predecessor. We remain at peace with all nations,
+and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights
+and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so
+consonant to our institutions. We have faithfully sustained the foreign
+policy with which the United States, under the guidance of their first
+President, took their stand in the family of nations--that of regulating
+their intercourse with other powers by the approved principles of private
+life; asking and according equal rights and equal privileges; rendering and
+demanding justice in all cases; advancing their own and discussing the
+pretensions of others with candor, directness, and sincerity; appealing at
+all times to reason, but never yielding to force nor seeking to acquire
+anything for themselves by its exercise.
+
+A rigid adherence to this policy has left this Government with scarcely a
+claim upon its justice for injuries arising from acts committed by its
+authority. The most imposing and perplexing of those of the United States
+upon foreign governments for aggressions upon our citizens were disposed of
+by my predecessor. Independently of the benefits conferred upon our
+citizens by restoring to the mercantile community so many millions of which
+they had been wrongfully divested, a great service was also rendered to his
+country by the satisfactory adjustment of so many ancient and irritating
+subjects of contention; and it reflects no ordinary credit on his
+successful administration of public affairs that this great object was
+accomplished without compromising on any occasion either the honor or the
+peace of the nation.
+
+With European powers no new subjects of difficulty have arisen, and those
+which were under discussion, although not terminated, do not present a more
+unfavorable aspect for the future preservation of that good understanding
+which it has ever been our desire to cultivate.
+
+Of pending questions the most important is that which exists with the
+Government of Great Britain in respect to our northeastern boundary. It is
+with unfeigned regret that the people of the United States must look back
+upon the abortive efforts made by the Executive, for a period of more than
+half a century, to determine what no nation should suffer long to remain in
+dispute--the true line which divides its possessions from those of other
+powers. The nature of the settlements on the borders of the United States
+and of the neighboring territory was for a season such that this, perhaps,
+was not indispensable to a faithful performance of the duties of the
+Federal Government. Time has, however, changed this state of things, and
+has brought about a condition of affairs in which the true interests of
+both countries imperatively require that this question should be put at
+rest. It is not to be disguised that, with full confidence, often
+expressed, in the desire of the British Government to terminate it, we are
+apparently as far from its adjustment as we were at the time of signing the
+treaty of peace in 1783. The sole result of long-pending negotiations and a
+perplexing arbitration appears to be a conviction on its part that a
+conventional line must be adopted, from the impossibility of ascertaining
+the true one according to the description contained in that treaty. Without
+coinciding in this opinion, which is not thought to be well rounded, my
+predecessor gave the strongest proof of the earnest desire of the United
+States to terminate satisfactorily this dispute by proposing the
+substitution of a conventional line if the consent of the States interested
+in the question could be obtained. To this proposition no answer has as yet
+been received. The attention of the British Government has, however, been
+urgently invited to the subject, and its reply can not, I am confident, be
+much longer delayed. The general relations between Great Britain and the
+United States are of the most friendly character, and I am well satisfied
+of the sincere disposition of that Government to maintain them upon their
+present footing. This disposition has also, I am persuaded, become more
+general with the people of England than at any previous period. It is
+scarcely necessary to say to you how cordially it is reciprocated by the
+Government and people of the United States. The conviction, which must be
+common to all, of the injurious consequences that result from keeping open
+this irritating question, and the certainty that its final settlement can
+not be much longer deferred, will, I trust, lead to an early and
+satisfactory adjustment. At your last session I laid before you the recent
+communications between the two Governments and between this Government and
+that of the State of Maine, in whose solicitude concerning a subject in
+which she has so deep an interest every portion of the Union participates.
+
+The feelings produced by a temporary interruption of those harmonious
+relations between France and the United States which are due as well to the
+recollections of former times as to a correct appreciation of existing
+interests have been happily succeeded by a cordial disposition on both
+sides to cultivate an active friendship in their future intercourse. The
+opinion, undoubtedly correct, and steadily entertained by us, that the
+commercial relations at present existing between the two countries are
+susceptible of great and reciprocally beneficial improvements is obviously
+gaining ground in France, and I am assured of the disposition of that
+Government to favor the accomplishment of such an object. This disposition
+shall be met in a proper spirit on our part. The few and comparatively
+unimportant questions that remain to be adjusted between us can, I have no
+doubt, be settled with entire satisfaction and without difficulty.
+
+Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be
+mutually cherished. Our minister recently accredited to that Court has been
+received with a frankness and cordiality and with evidences of respect for
+his country which leave us no room to doubt the preservation in future of
+those amicable and liberal relations which have so long and so
+uninterruptedly existed between the two countries. On the few subjects
+under discussion between us an early and just decision is confidently
+anticipated.
+
+A correspondence has been opened with the Government of Austria for the
+establishment of diplomatic relations, in conformity with the wishes of
+Congress as indicated by an appropriation act of the session of 1837, and
+arrangements made for the purpose, which will be duly carried into effect.
+
+With Austria and Prussia and with the States of the German Empire (now
+composing with the latter the Commercial League) our political relations
+are of the most friendly character, whilst our commercial intercourse is
+gradually extending, with benefit to all who are engaged in it.
+
+Civil war yet rages in Spain, producing intense suffering to its own
+people, and to other nations inconvenience and regret. Our citizens who
+have claims upon that country will be prejudiced for a time by the
+condition of its treasury, the inevitable consequence of long-continued and
+exhausting internal wars. The last installment of the interest of the debt
+due under the convention with the Queen of Spain has not been paid and
+similar failures may be expected to happen until a portion of the resources
+of her Kingdom can be devoted to the extinguishment of its foreign debt.
+
+Having received satisfactory evidence that discriminating tonnage duties
+were charged upon the vessels of the United States in the ports of
+Portugal, a proclamation was issued on the 11th day of October last, in
+compliance with the act of May 25, 1832, declaring that fact, and the
+duties on foreign tonnage which were levied upon Portuguese vessels in the
+United States previously to the passage of that act are accordingly
+revived.
+
+The act of July 4, 1836, suspending the discriminating duties upon the
+produce of Portugal imported into this country in Portuguese vessels, was
+passed, upon the application of that Government through its representative
+here, under the belief that no similar discrimination existed in Portugal
+to the prejudice of the United States. I regret to state that such duties
+are now exacted in that country upon the cargoes of American vessels, and
+as the act referred to vests no discretion in the Executive, it is for
+Congress to determine upon the expediency of further legislation on the
+subject. Against these discriminations affecting the vessels of this
+country and their cargoes seasonable remonstrance was made, and notice was
+given to the Portuguese Government that unless they should be discontinued
+the adoption of countervailing measures on the part of the United States
+would become necessary; but the reply of that Government, received at the
+Department of State through our charge d'affaires at Lisbon in the month of
+September last, afforded no ground to hope for the abandonment of a system
+so little in harmony with the treatment shown to the vessels of Portugal
+and their cargoes in the ports of this country and so contrary to the
+expectations we had a right to entertain.
+
+With Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and Belgium a friendly intercourse
+has been uninterruptedly maintained.
+
+With the Government of the Ottoman Porte and its dependencies on the coast
+of the Mediterranean peace and good will are carefully cultivated, and have
+been fostered by such good offices as the relative distance and the
+condition of those countries would permit.
+
+Our commerce with Greece is carried on under the laws of the two
+Governments, reciprocally beneficial to the navigating interests of both;
+and I have reason to look forward to the adoption of other measures which
+will be more extensively and permanently advantageous.
+
+Copies of the treaties concluded with the Governments of Siam and Muscat
+are transmitted for the information of Congress, the ratifications having
+been received and the treaties made public since the close of the last
+annual session. Already have we reason to congratulate ourselves on the
+prospect of considerable commercial benefit; and we have, besides, received
+from the Sultan of Muscat prompt evidence of his desire to cultivate the
+most friendly feelings, by liberal acts toward one of our vessels, bestowed
+in a manner so striking as to require on our part a grateful
+acknowledgment.
+
+Our commerce with the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico still labors under
+heavy restrictions, the continuance of which is a subject of regret. The
+only effect of an adherence to them will be to benefit the navigation of
+other countries at the expense of both the United States and Spain.
+
+The independent nations of this continent have ever since they emerged from
+the colonial state experienced severe trials in their progress to the
+permanent establishment of liberal political institutions. Their unsettled
+condition not only interrupts their own advances to prosperity, but has
+often seriously injured the other powers of the world. The claims of our
+citizens upon Peru, Chili, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, the Governments
+formed out of the Republics of Colombia and Mexico, are still pending,
+although many of them have been presented for examination more than twenty
+years. New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador have recently formed a
+convention for the purpose of ascertaining and adjusting claims upon the
+Republic of Colombia, from which it is earnestly hoped our citizens will
+ere long receive full compensation for the injuries inflicted upon them and
+for the delay in affording it.
+
+An advantageous treaty of commerce has been concluded by the United States
+with the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, which wants only the ratification of
+that Government. The progress of a subsequent negotiation for the
+settlement of claims upon Peru has been unfavorably affected by the war
+between that power and Chili and the Argentine Republic, and the same event
+is also likely to produce delays in the settlement of out demands on those
+powers.
+
+The aggravating circumstances connected with our claims upon Mexico and a
+variety of events touching the honor and integrity of our Government led my
+predecessor to make at the second session of the last Congress a special
+recommendation of the course to be pursued to obtain a speedy and final
+satisfaction of the injuries complained of by this Government and by our
+citizens. He recommended a final demand of redress, with a contingent
+authority to the Executive to make reprisals if that demand should be made
+in vain. From the proceedings of Congress on that recommendation it
+appeared that the opinion of both branches of the Legislature coincided
+with that of the Executive, that any mode of redress known to the law of
+nations might justifiably be used. It was obvious, too, that Congress
+believed with the President that another demand should be made, in order to
+give undeniable and satisfactory proof of our desire to avoid extremities
+with a neighboring power, but that there was an indisposition to vest a
+discretionary authority in the Executive to take redress should it
+unfortunately be either denied or unreasonably delayed by the Mexican
+Government.
+
+So soon as the necessary documents were prepared, after entering upon the
+duties of my office, a special messenger was sent to Mexico to make a final
+demand of redress, with the documents required by the provisions of our
+treaty. The demand was made on the 20th of July last. The reply, which
+bears date the 29th of the same month, contains assurances of a desire on
+the part of that Government to give a prompt and explicit answer respecting
+each of the complaints, but that the examination of them would necessarily
+be deliberate; that in this examination it would be guided by the
+principles of public law and the obligation of treaties; that nothing
+should be left undone that might lead to the most speedy and equitable
+adjustment of our demands, and that its determination in respect to each
+case should be communicated through the Mexican minister here.
+
+Since that time an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary has
+been accredited to this Government by that of the Mexican Republic. He
+brought with him assurances of a sincere desire that the pending
+differences between the two Governments should be terminated in a manner
+satisfactory to both. He was received with reciprocal assurances, and a
+hope was entertained that his mission would lead to a speedy, satisfactory,
+and final adjustment of all existing subjects of complaint. A sincere
+believer in the wisdom of the pacific policy by which the United States
+have always been governed in their intercourse with foreign nations, it was
+my particular desire, from the proximity of the Mexican Republic and
+well-known occurrences on our frontier, to be instrumental in obviating all
+existing difficulties with that Government and in restoring to the
+intercourse between the two Republics that liberal and friendly character
+by which they should always be distinguished. I regret, therefore, the more
+deeply to have found in the recent communications of that Government so
+little reason to hope that any future efforts of mine for the
+accomplishment of those desirable objects would be successful.
+
+Although the larger number--and many of them aggravated cases of personal
+wrongs--have been now for years before the Mexican Government, and some of
+the causes of national complaint, and those of the most offensive
+character, admitted of immediate, simple, and satisfactory replies, it is
+only within a few days past that any specific communication in answer to
+our last demand, made five months ago, has been received from the Mexican
+minister. By the report of the Secretary of State herewith presented and
+the accompanying documents it will be seen that for not one of our public
+complaints has satisfaction been given or offered, that but one of the
+cases of personal wrong has been favorably considered, and that but four
+cases of both descriptions out of all those formally presented and
+earnestly pressed have as yet been decided upon by the Mexican Government.
+
+Not perceiving in what manner any of the powers given to the Executive
+alone could be further usefully employed in bringing this unfortunate
+controversy to a satisfactory termination, the subject was by my
+predecessor referred to Congress as one calling for its interposition. In
+accordance with the clearly understood wishes of the Legislature, another
+and formal demand for satisfaction has been made upon the Mexican
+Government, with what success the documents now communicated will show. On
+a careful and deliberate examination of their contents, and considering the
+spirit manifested by the Mexican Government, it has become my painful duty
+to return the subject as it now stands to Congress, to whom it belongs to
+decide upon the time, the mode, and the measure of redress. Whatever may be
+your decision, it shall be faithfully executed, confident that it will be
+characterized by that moderation and justice which will, I trust, under all
+circumstances govern the councils of our country.
+
+The balance in the Treasury on the 1st January, 1837, was $45,968,523. The
+receipts during the present year from all sources, including the amount of
+Treasury notes issued, are estimated at $23,499,981, constituting an
+aggregate of $69,468,504. Of this amount about $35,281,361 will have been
+expended at the end of the year on appropriations made by Congress, and the
+residue, amounting to $34,187,143, will be the nominal balance in the
+Treasury on the 1st of January next; but of that sum only $1,085,498 is
+considered as immediately available for and applicable to public purposes.
+Those portions of it which will be for some time unavailable consist
+chiefly of sums deposited with the States and due from the former deposit
+banks. The details upon this subject will be found in the annual report of
+the Secretary of the Treasury. The amount of Treasury notes which it will
+be necessary to issue during the year on account of those funds being
+unavailable will, it is supposed, not exceed four and a half millions. It
+seemed proper, in the condition of the country, to have the estimates on
+all subjects made as low as practicable without prejudice to any great
+public measures. The Departments were therefore desired to prepare their
+estimates accordingly, and I am happy to find that they have been able to
+graduate them on so economical a scale. In the great and often unexpected
+fluctuations to which the revenue is subjected it is not possible to
+compute the receipts beforehand with great certainty, but should they not
+differ essentially from present anticipations, and should the
+appropriations not much exceed the estimates, no difficulty seems likely to
+happen in defraying the current expenses with promptitude and fidelity.
+
+Notwithstanding the great embarrassments which have recently occurred in
+commercial affairs, and the liberal indulgence which in consequence of
+these embarrassments has been extended to both the merchants and the banks,
+it is gratifying to be able to anticipate that the Treasury notes which
+have been issued during the present year will be redeemed and that the
+resources of the Treasury, without any resort to loans or increased taxes,
+will prove ample for defraying all charges imposed on it during 1838.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will afford you a more minute
+exposition of all matters connected with the administration of the finances
+during the current year--a period which for the amount of public moneys
+disbursed and deposited with the States, as well as the financial
+difficulties encountered and overcome, has few parallels in our history.
+
+Your attention was at the last session invited to the necessity of
+additional legislative provisions in respect to the collection,
+safe-keeping, and transfer of the public money. No law having been then
+matured, and not understanding the proceedings of Congress as intended to
+be final, it becomes my duty again to bring the subject to your notice.
+
+On that occasion three modes of performing this branch of the public
+service were presented for consideration. These were, the creation of a
+national bank; the revival, with modifications, of the deposit system
+established by the act of the 23d of June, 1836, permitting the use of the
+public moneys by the banks; and the discontinuance of the use of such
+institutions for the purposes referred to, with suitable provisions for
+their accomplishment through the agency of public officers. Considering the
+opinions of both Houses of Congress on the first two propositions as
+expressed in the negative, in which I entirely concur, it is unnecessary
+for me again in to recur to them. In respect to the last, you have had an
+opportunity since your adjournment not only to test still further the
+expediency of the measure by the continued practical operation of such
+parts of it as are now in force, but also to discover what should ever be
+sought for and regarded with the utmost deference--the opinions and wishes
+of the people.
+
+The national will is the supreme law of the Republic, and on all subjects
+within the limits of his constitutional powers should be faithfully obeyed
+by the public servant. Since the measure in question was submitted to your
+consideration most of you have enjoyed the advantage of personal
+communication with your constituents. For one State only has an election
+been held for the Federal Government; but the early day at which it took
+place deprived the measure under consideration of much of the support it
+might otherwise have derived from the result. Local elections for State
+officers have, however, been held in several of the States, at which the
+expediency of the plan proposed by the Executive has been more or less
+discussed. You will, I am confident, yield to their results the respect due
+to every expression of the public voice. Desiring, however, to arrive at
+truth and a just view of the subject in all its bearings, you will at the
+same time remember that questions of far deeper and more immediate local
+interest than the fiscal plans of the National Treasury were involved in
+those elections. Above all, we can not overlook the striking fact that
+there were at the time in those States more than one hundred and sixty
+millions of bank capital, of which large portions were subject to actual
+forfeiture, other large portions upheld only by special and limited
+legislative indulgences, and most of it, if not all, to a greater or less
+extent dependent for a continuance of its corporate existence upon the will
+of the State legislatures to be then chosen. Apprised of this circumstance,
+you will judge whether it is not most probable that the peculiar condition
+of that vast interest in these respects, the extent to which it has been
+spread through all the ramifications of society, its direct connection with
+the then pending elections, and the feelings it was calculated to infuse
+into the canvass have exercised a far greater influence over the result
+than any which could possibly have been produced by a conflict of opinion
+in respect to a question in the administration of the General Government
+more remote and far less important in its bearings upon that interest.
+
+I have found no reason to change my own opinion as to the expediency of
+adopting the system proposed, being perfectly satisfied that there will be
+neither stability nor safety either in the fiscal affairs of the Government
+or in the pecuniary transactions of individuals and corporations so long as
+a connection exists between them which, like the past, offers such strong
+inducements to make them the subjects of political agitation. Indeed, I am
+more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased
+exercise of political opinion--the only sure foundation and safeguard of
+republican government--would be exposed by any further increase of the
+already overgrown influence of corporate authorities. I can not, therefore,
+consistently with my views of duty, advise a renewal of a connection which
+circumstances have dissolved.
+
+The discontinuance of the use of State banks for fiscal purposes ought not
+to be regarded as a measure of hostility toward those institutions. Banks
+properly established and conducted are highly useful to the business of the
+country, and will doubtless continue to exist in the States so long as they
+conform to their laws and are found to be safe and beneficial. How they
+should be created, what privileges they should enjoy, under what
+responsibilities they should act, and to what restrictions they should be
+subject are questions which, as I observed on a previous occasion, belong
+to the States to decide. Upon their rights or the exercise of them the
+General Government can have no motive to encroach. Its duty toward them is
+well performed when it refrains from legislating for their special benefit,
+because such legislation would violate the spirit of the Constitution and
+be unjust to other interests; when it takes no steps to impair their
+usefulness, but so manages its own affairs as to make it the interest of
+those institutions to strengthen and improve their condition for the
+security and welfare of the community at large. They have no right to
+insist on a connection with the Federal Government, nor on the use of the
+public money for their own benefit. The object of the measure under
+consideration is to avoid for the future a compulsory connection of this
+kind. It proposes to place the General Government, in regard to the
+essential points of the collection, safe-keeping, and transfer of the
+public money, in a situation which shall relieve it from all dependence on
+the will of irresponsible individuals or corporations; to withdraw those
+moneys from the uses of private trade and confide them to agents
+constitutionally selected and controlled by law; to abstain from improper
+interference with the industry of the people and withhold inducements to
+improvident dealings on the part of individuals; to give stability to the
+concerns of the Treasury; to preserve the measures of the Government from
+the unavoidable reproaches that flow from such a connection, and the banks
+themselves from the injurious effects of a supposed participation in the
+political conflicts of the day, from which they will otherwise find it
+difficult to escape.
+
+These are my views upon this important subject, formed after careful
+reflection and with no desire but to arrive at what is most likely to
+promote the public interest. They are now, as they were before, submitted
+with unfeigned deference for the opinions of others. It was hardly to be
+hoped that changes so important on a subject so interesting could be made
+without producing a serious diversity of opinion; but so long as those
+conflicting views are kept above the influence of individual or local
+interests, so long as they pursue only the general good and are discussed
+with moderation and candor, such diversity is a benefit, not an injury. If
+a majority of Congress see the public welfare in a different light, and
+more especially if they should be satisfied that the measure proposed would
+not be acceptable to the people, I shall look to their wisdom to substitute
+such as may be more conducive to the one and more satisfactory to the
+other. In any event, they may confidently rely on my hearty cooperation to
+the fullest extent to which my views of the Constitution and my sense of
+duty will permit.
+
+It is obviously important to this branch of the public service and to the
+business and quiet of the country that the whole subject should in some way
+be settled and regulated by law, and, if possible, at your present session.
+Besides the plans above referred to, I am not aware that any one has been
+suggested except that of keeping the public money in the State banks in
+special deposit. This plan is to some extent in accordance with the
+practice of the Government and with the present arrangements of the
+Treasury Department, which, except, perhaps, during the operation of the
+late deposit act, has always been allowed, even during the existence of a
+national bank, to make a temporary use of the State banks in particular
+places for the safe-keeping of portions of the revenue. This discretionary
+power might be continued if Congress deem it desirable, whatever general
+system be adopted. So long as the connection is voluntary we need, perhaps,
+anticipate few of those difficulties and little of that dependence on the
+banks which must attend every such connection when compulsory in its nature
+and when so arranged as to make the banks a fixed part of the machinery of
+government. It is undoubtedly in the power of Congress so to regulate and
+guard it as to prevent the public money from being applied to the use or
+intermingled with the affairs of individuals. Thus arranged, although it
+would not give to the Government that entire control over its own funds
+which I desire to secure to it by the plan I have proposed, it would, it
+must be admitted, in a great degree accomplish one of the objects which has
+recommended that plan to my judgment--the separation of the fiscal concerns
+of the Government from those of individuals or corporations.
+
+With these observations I recommend the whole matter to your dispassionate
+reflection, confidently hoping that some conclusion may be reached by your
+deliberations which on the one hand shall give safety and stability to the
+fiscal operations of the Government, and be consistent, on the other, with
+the genius of our institutions and with the interests and wishes of the
+great mass of our constituents.
+
+It was my hope that nothing would occur to make necessary on this occasion
+any allusion to the late national bank. There are circumstances, however,
+connected with the present state of its affairs that bear so directly on
+the character of the Government and the welfare of the citizen that I
+should not feel myself excused in neglecting to notice them. The charter
+which terminated its banking privileges on the 4th of March, 1836,
+continued its corporate power two years more for the sole purpose of
+closing its affairs, with authority "to use the corporate name, style, and
+capacity for the purpose of suits for a final settlement and liquidation of
+the affairs and acts of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition
+of their estate--real, personal, and mixed--but for no other purpose or in
+any other manner whatsoever." Just before the banking privileges ceased,
+its effects were transferred by the bank to a new State institution, then
+recently incorporated, in trust, for the discharge of its debts and the
+settlement of its affairs. With this trustee, by authority of Congress, an
+adjustment was subsequently made of the large interest which the Government
+had in the stock of the institution. The manner in which a trust
+unexpectedly created upon the act granting the charter, and involving such
+great public interests, has been executed would under any circumstances be
+a fit subject of inquiry; but much more does it deserve your attention when
+it embraces the redemption of obligations to which the authority and credit
+of the United States have given value. The two years allowed are now nearly
+at an end. It is well understood that the trustee has not redeemed and
+canceled the outstanding notes of the bank, but has reissued and is
+actually reissuing, since the 3d of March, 1836, the notes which have been
+received by it to a vast amount. According to its own official statement,
+so late as the 1st of October last, nineteen months after the banking
+privileges given by the charter had expired, it had under its control
+uncanceled notes of the late Bank of the United States to the amount of
+$27,561,866, of which $6,175,861 were in actual circulation, $ 1,468,627 at
+State bank agencies, and $3,002,390 in transitu, thus showing that upward
+of ten millions and a half of the notes of the old bank were then still
+kept outstanding.
+
+The impropriety of this procedure is obvious, it being the duty of the
+trustee to cancel and not to put forth the notes of an institution whose
+concerns it had undertaken to wind up. If the trustee has a right to
+reissue these notes now, I can see no reason why it may not continue to do
+so after the expiration of the two years. As no one could have anticipated
+a course so extraordinary, the prohibitory clause of the charter above
+quoted was not accompanied by any penalty or other special provision for
+enforcing it, nor have we any general law for the prevention of similar
+acts in future.
+
+But it is not in this view of the subject alone that your interposition is
+required. The United States in settling with the trustee for their stock
+have withdrawn their funds from their former direct liability to the
+creditors of the old bank, yet notes of the institution continue to be sent
+forth in its name, and apparently upon the authority of the United States.
+The transactions connected with the employment of the bills of the old bank
+are of vast extent, and should they result unfortunately the interests of
+individuals may be deeply compromised. Without undertaking to decide how
+far or in what form, if any, the trustee could be made liable for notes
+which contain no obligation on its part, or the old bank for such as are
+put in circulation after the expiration of its charter and without its
+authority, or the Government for indemnity in case of loss, the question
+still presses itself upon your consideration whether it is consistent with
+duty and good faith on the part of the Government to witness this
+proceeding without a single effort to arrest it.
+
+The report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which will be
+laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury, will show how the affairs
+of that office have been conducted for the past year. The disposition of
+the public lands is one of the most important trusts confided to Congress.
+The practicability of retaining the title and control of such extensive
+domains in the General Government, and at the same time admitting the
+Territories embracing them into the Federal Union as coequals with the
+original States, was seriously doubted by many of our wisest statesmen. All
+feared that they would become a source of discord, and many carried their
+apprehensions so far as to see in them the seeds of a future dissolution of
+the Confederacy. But happily our experience has already been sufficient to
+quiet in a great degree all such apprehensions. The position at one time
+assumed, that the admission of new States into the Union on the same
+footing with the original States was incompatible with a right of soil in
+the United States and operated as a surrender thereof, notwithstanding the
+terms of the compacts by which their admission was designed to be
+regulated, has been wisely abandoned. Whether in the new or the old States,
+all now agree that the right of soil to the public lands remains in the
+Federal Government, and that these lands constitute a common property, to
+be disposed of for the common benefit of all the States, old and new.
+Acquiescence in this just principle by the people of the new States has
+naturally promoted a disposition to adopt the most liberal policy in the
+sale of the public lands. A policy which should be limited to the mere
+object of selling the lands for the greatest possible sum of money, without
+regard to higher considerations, finds but few advocates. On the contrary,
+it is generally conceded that whilst the mode of disposition adopted by the
+Government should always be a prudent one, yet its leading object ought to
+be the early settlement and cultivation of the lands sold, and that it
+should discountenance, if it can not prevent, the accumulation of large
+tracts in the same hands, which must necessarily retard the growth of the
+new States or entail upon them a dependent tenantry and its attendant
+evils.
+
+A question embracing such important interests and so well calculated to
+enlist the feelings of the people in every quarter of the Union has very
+naturally given rise to numerous plans for the improvement of the existing
+system. The distinctive features of the policy that has hitherto prevailed
+are to dispose of the public lands at moderate prices, thus enabling a
+greater number to enter into competition for their purchase and
+accomplishing a double object--of promoting their rapid settlement by the
+purchasers and at the same time increasing the receipts of the Treasury; to
+sell for cash, thereby preventing the disturbing influence of a large mass
+of private citizens indebted to the Government which they have a voice in
+controlling; to bring them into market no faster than good lands are
+supposed to be wanted for improvement, thereby preventing the accumulation
+of large tracts in few hands; and to apply the proceeds of the sales to the
+general purposes of the Government, thus diminishing the amount to be
+raised from the people of the States by taxation and giving each State its
+portion of the benefits to be derived from this common fund in a manner the
+most quiet, and at the same time, perhaps, the most equitable, that can be
+devised. These provisions, with occasional enactments in behalf of special
+interests deemed entitled to the favor of the Government, have in their
+execution produced results as beneficial upon the whole as could reasonably
+be expected in a matter so vast, so complicated, and so exciting. Upward of
+70,000,000, acres have been sold, the greater part of which is believed to
+have been purchased for actual settlement. The population of the new States
+and Territories created out of the public domain increased between 1800 and
+1830 from less than 60,000 to upward of 2,300,000 souls, constituting at
+the latter period about one-fifth of the whole people of the United States.
+The increase since can not be accurately known, but the whole may now be
+safely estimated at over three and a half millions of souls, composing nine
+States, the representatives of which constitute above one-third of the
+Senate and over one-sixth of the House of Representatives of the United
+States.
+
+Thus has been formed a body of free and independent landholders with a
+rapidity unequaled in the history of mankind; and this great result has
+been produced without leaving anything for future adjustment between the
+Government and its citizens. The system under which so much has been
+accomplished can not be intrinsically bad, and with occasional
+modifications to correct abuses and adapt it to changes of circumstances
+may, I think, be safely trusted for the future. There is in the management
+of such extensive interests much virtue in stability; and although great
+and obvious improvements should not be declined, changes should never be
+made without the fullest examination and the clearest demonstration of
+their practical utility. In the history of the past we have an assurance
+that this safe rule of action will not be departed from in relation to the
+public lands; nor is it believed that any necessity exists for interfering
+with the fundamental principles of the system, or that the public mind,
+even in the new States, is desirous of any radical alterations. On the
+contrary, the general disposition appears to be to make such modifications
+and additions only as will the more effectually carry out the original
+policy of filling our new States and Territories with an industrious and
+independent population.
+
+The modification most perseveringly pressed upon Congress, which has
+occupied so much of its time for years past, and will probably do so for a
+long time to come, if not sooner satisfactorily adjusted, is a reduction in
+the cost of such portions of the public lands as are ascertained to be
+unsalable at the rate now established by law, and a graduation according to
+their relative value of the prices at which they may hereafter be sold. It
+is worthy of consideration whether justice may not be done to every
+interest in this matter, and a vexed question set at rest, perhaps forever,
+by a reasonable compromise of conflicting opinions. Hitherto, after being
+offered at public sale, lands have been disposed of at one uniform price,
+whatever difference there might be in their intrinsic value. The leading
+considerations urged in favor of the measure referred to are that in almost
+all the land districts, and particularly in those in which the lands have
+been long surveyed and exposed to sale, there are still remaining numerous
+and large tracts of every gradation of value, from the Government price
+downward; that these lands will not be purchased at the Government price so
+long as better can be conveniently obtained for the same amount; that there
+are large tracts which even the improvements of the adjacent lands will
+never raise to that price, and that the present uniform price, combined
+with their irregular value, operates to prevent a desirable compactness of
+settlements in the new States and to retard the full development of that
+wise policy on which our land system is founded, to the injury not only of
+the several States where the lands lie, but of the United States as a
+whole.
+
+The remedy proposed has been a reduction of the prices according to the
+length of time the lands have been in market, without reference to any
+other circumstances. The certainty that the efflux of time would not always
+in such cases, and perhaps not even generally, furnish a true criterion of
+value, and the probability that persons residing in the vicinity, as the
+period for the reduction of prices approached, would postpone purchases
+they would otherwise make, for the purpose of availing themselves of the
+lower price, with other considerations of a similar character, have
+hitherto been successfully urged to defeat the graduation upon time.
+
+May not all reasonable desires upon this subject be satisfied without
+encountering any of these objections? All will concede the abstract
+principle that the price of the public lands should be proportioned to
+their relative value, so far as can be accomplished without departing from
+the rule heretofore observed requiring fixed prices in cases of private
+entries. The difficulty of the subject seems to lie in the mode of
+ascertaining what that value is. Would not the safest plan be that which
+has been adopted by many of the States as the basis of taxation--an actual
+valuation of lands and classification of them into different rates? Would
+it not be practicable and expedient to cause the relative value of the
+public lands in the old districts which have been for a certain length of
+time in market to be appraised and classed into two or more rates below the
+present minimum price by the officers now employed in this branch of the
+public service or in any other mode deemed preferable, and to make those
+prices permanent if upon the coming in of the report they shall prove
+satisfactory to Congress? Could not all the objects of graduation be
+accomplished in this way, and the objections which have hitherto been urged
+against it avoided? It would seem to me that such a step, with a
+restriction of the sales to limited quantities and for actual improvement,
+would be free from all just exception.
+
+By the full exposition of the value of the lands thus furnished and
+extensively promulgated persons living at a distance would be informed of
+their true condition and enabled to enter into competition with those
+residing in the vicinity; the means of acquiring an independent home would
+be brought within the reach of many who are unable to purchase at present
+prices; the population of the new States would be made more compact, and
+large tracts would be sold which would otherwise remain on hand. Not only
+would the land be brought within the means of a larger number of
+purchasers, but many persons possessed of greater means would be content to
+settle on a larger quantity of the poorer lands rather than emigrate
+farther west in pursuit of a smaller quantity of better lands. Such a
+measure would also seem to be more consistent with the policy of the
+existing laws--that of converting the public domain into cultivated farms
+owned by their occupants. That policy is not best promoted by sending
+emigration up the almost interminable streams of the West to occupy in
+groups the best spots of land, leaving immense wastes behind them and
+enlarging the frontier beyond the means of the Government to afford it
+adequate protection, but in encouraging it to occupy with reasonable
+denseness the territory over which it advances, and find its best defense
+in the compact front which it presents to the Indian tribes. Many of you
+will bring to the consideration of the subject the advantages of local
+knowledge and greater experience, and all will be desirous of making an
+early and final disposition of every disturbing question in regard to this
+important interest. If these suggestions shall in any degree contribute to
+the accomplishment of so important a result, it will afford me sincere
+satisfaction.
+
+In some sections of the country most of the public lands have been sold,
+and the registers and receivers have very little to do. It is a subject
+worthy of inquiry whether in many cases two or more districts may not be
+consolidated and the number of persons employed in this business
+considerably reduced. Indeed, the time will come when it will be the true
+policy of the General Government, as to some of the States, to transfer to
+them for a reasonable equivalent all the refuse and unsold lands and to
+withdraw the machinery of the Federal land offices altogether. All who take
+a comprehensive view of our federal system and believe that one of its
+greatest excellencies consists in interfering as little as possible with
+the internal concerns of the States look forward with great interest to
+this result.
+
+A modification of the existing laws in respect to the prices of the public
+lands might also have a favorable influence on the legislation of Congress
+in relation to another branch of the subject. Many who have not the ability
+to buy at present prices settle on those lands with the hope of acquiring
+from their cultivation the means of purchasing under preemption laws from
+time to time passed by Congress. For this encroachment on the rights of the
+United States they excuse themselves under the plea of their own
+necessities; the fact that they dispossess nobody and only enter upon the
+waste domain: that they give additional value to the public lands in their
+vicinity, and their intention ultimately to pay the Government price. So
+much weight has from time to time been attached to these considerations
+that Congress have passed laws giving actual settlers on the public lands a
+right of preemption to the tracts occupied by them at the minimum price.
+These laws have in all instances been retrospective in their operation, but
+in a few years after their passage crowds of new settlers have been found
+on the public lands for similar reasons and under like expectations, who
+have been indulged with the same privilege. This course of legislation
+tends to impair public respect for the laws of the country. Either the laws
+to prevent intrusion upon the public lands should be executed, or, if that
+should be impracticable or inexpedient, they should be modified or
+repealed. If the public lands are to be considered as open to be occupied
+by any, they should by law be thrown open to all. That which is intended in
+all instances to be legalized should at once be made legal, that those who
+are disposed to conform to the laws may enjoy at least equal privileges
+with those who are not. But it is not believed to be the disposition of
+Congress to open the public lands to occupancy without regular entry and
+payment of the Government price, as such a course must tend to worse evils
+than the credit system, which it was found necessary to abolish.
+
+It would seem, therefore, to be the part of wisdom and sound policy to
+remove as far as practicable the causes which produce intrusions upon the
+public lands, and then take efficient steps to prevent them in future.
+Would any single measure be so effective in removing all plausible grounds
+for these intrusions as the graduation of price already suggested? A short
+period of industry and economy in any part of our country would enable the
+poorest citizen to accumulate the means to buy him a home at the lower
+prices, and leave him without apology for settling on lands not his own. If
+he did not under such circumstances, he would enlist no sympathy in his
+favor, and the laws would be readily executed without doing violence to
+public opinion.
+
+A large portion of our citizens have seated themselves on the public lands
+without authority since the passage of the last preemption law, and now ask
+the enactment of another to enable them to retain the lands occupied upon
+payment of the minimum Government price. They ask that which has been
+repeatedly granted before. If the future may be judged of by the past,
+little harm can be done to the interests of the Treasury by yielding to
+their request. Upon a critical examination it is found that the lands sold
+at the public sales since the introduction of cash payments, in 1820, have
+produced on an average the net revenue of only 6 cents an acre more than
+the minimum Government price. There is no reason to suppose that future
+sales will be more productive. The Government, therefore, has no adequate
+pecuniary interest to induce it to drive these people from the lands they
+occupy for the purpose of selling them to others.
+
+Entertaining these views, I recommend the passage of a preemption law for
+their benefit in connection with the preparatory steps toward the
+graduation of the price of the public lands, and further and more effectual
+provisions to prevent intrusions hereafter. Indulgence to those who have
+settled on these lands with expectations that past legislation would be
+made a rule for the future, and at the same time removing the most
+plausible ground on which intrusions are excused and adopting more
+efficient means to prevent them hereafter, appears to me the most judicious
+disposition which can be made of this difficult subject. The limitations
+and restrictions to guard against abuses in the execution of a preemption
+law will necessarily attract the careful attention of Congress, but under
+no circumstances is it considered expedient to authorize floating claims in
+any shape. They have been heretofore, and doubtless would be hereafter,
+most prolific sources of fraud and oppression, and instead of operating to
+confer the favor of the Government on industrious settlers are often used
+only to minister to a spirit of cupidity at the expense of the most
+meritorious of that class.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will bring to your view the
+state of the Army and all the various subjects confided to the
+superintendence of that officer.
+
+The principal part of the Army has been concentrated in Florida, with a
+view and in the expectation of bringing the war in that Territory to a
+speedy close. The necessity of stripping the posts on the maritime and
+inland frontiers of their entire garrisons for the purpose of assembling in
+the field an army of less than 4,000 men would seem to indicate the
+necessity of increasing our regular forces; and the superior efficiency, as
+well as greatly diminished expense of that description of troops, recommend
+this measure as one of economy as well as of expediency. I refer to the
+report for the reasons which have induced the Secretary of War to urge the
+reorganization and enlargement of the staff of the Army, and of the
+Ordnance Corps, in which I fully concur.
+
+It is not, however, compatible with the interests of the people to maintain
+in time of peace a regular force adequate to the defense of our extensive
+frontiers. In periods of danger and alarm we must rely principally upon a
+well-organized militia, and some general arrangement that will render this
+description of force more efficient has long been a subject of anxious
+solicitude. It was recommended to the First Congress by General Washington,
+and has been since frequently brought to your notice, and recently its
+importance strongly urged by my immediate predecessor. The provision in the
+Constitution that renders it necessary to adopt a uniform system of
+organization for the militia throughout the United States presents an
+insurmountable obstacle to an efficient arrangement by the classification
+heretofore proposed, and I invite your attention to the plan which will be
+submitted by the Secretary of War, for the organization of volunteer corps
+and the instruction of militia officers, as more simple and practicable, if
+not equally advantageous, as a general arrangement of the whole militia of
+the United States.
+
+A moderate increase of the corps both of military and topographical
+engineers has been more than once recommended by my predecessor, and my
+conviction of the propriety, not to say necessity, of the measure, in order
+to enable them to perform the various and important duties imposed upon
+them, induces me to repeat the recommendation.
+
+The Military Academy continues to answer all the purposes of its
+establishment, and not only furnishes well-educated officers to the Army,
+but serves to diffuse throughout the mass of our citizens individuals
+possessed of military knowledge and the scientific attainments of civil and
+military engineering. At present the cadet is bound, with consent of his
+parents or guardians, to remain in service five years from the period of
+his enlistment, unless sooner discharged, thus exacting only one year's
+service in the Army after his education is completed. This does not appear
+to me sufficient. Government ought to command for a longer period the
+services of those who are educated at the public expense, and I recommend
+that the time of enlistment be extended to seven years, and the terms of
+the engagement strictly enforced.
+
+The creation of a national foundry for cannon, to be common to the service
+of the Army and Navy of the United States, has been heretofore recommended,
+and appears to be required in order to place our ordnance on an equal
+footing with that of other countries and to enable that branch of the
+service to control the prices of those articles and graduate the supplies
+to the wants of the Government, as well as to regulate their quality and
+insure their uniformity. The same reasons induce me to recommend the
+erection of a manufactory of gunpowder, to be under the direction of the
+Ordnance Office. The establishment of a manufactory of small arms west of
+the Alleghany Mountains, upon the plan proposed by the Secretary of War,
+will contribute to extend throughout that country the improvements which
+exist in establishments of a similar description in the Atlantic States,
+and tend to a much more economical distribution of the armament required in
+the western portion of our Union.
+
+The system of removing the Indians west of the Mississippi, commenced by
+Mr. Jefferson in 1804, has been steadily persevered in by every succeeding
+President, and may be considered the settled policy of the country.
+Unconnected at first with any well-defined system for their improvement,
+the inducements held out to the Indians were confined to the greater
+abundance of game to be found in the West; but when the beneficial effects
+of their removal were made apparent a more philanthropic and enlightened
+policy was adopted in purchasing their lands east of the Mississippi.
+Liberal prices were given and provisions inserted in all the treaties with
+them for the application of the funds they received in exchange to such
+purposes as were best calculated to promote their present welfare and
+advance their future civilization. These measures have been attended thus
+far with the happiest results.
+
+It will be seen by referring to the report of the Commissioner of Indian
+Affairs that the most sanguine expectations of the friends and promoters of
+this system have been realized. The Choctaws, Cherokees, and other tribes
+that first emigrated beyond the Mississippi have for the most part
+abandoned the hunter state and become cultivators of the soil. The
+improvement in their condition has been rapid, and it is believed that they
+are now fitted to enjoy the advantages of a simple form of government,
+which has been submitted to them and received their sanction; and I can not
+too strongly urge this subject upon the attention of Congress.
+
+Stipulations have been made with all the Indian tribes to remove them
+beyond the Mississippi, except with the bands of the Wyandots, the Six
+Nations in New York, the Menomonees, Munsees, and Stockbridges in
+Wisconsin, and Miamies in Indiana. With all but the Menomonees it is
+expected that arrangements for their emigration will be completed the
+present year. The resistance which has been opposed to their removal by
+some of the tribes even after treaties had been made with them to that
+effect has arisen from various causes, operating differently on each of
+them. In most instances they have been instigated to resistance by persons
+to whom the trade with them and the acquisition of their annuities were
+important, and in some by the personal influence of interested chiefs.
+These obstacles must be overcome, for the Government can not relinquish the
+execution of this policy without sacrificing important interests and
+abandoning the tribes remaining east of the Mississippi to certain
+destruction.
+
+The decrease in numbers of the tribes within the limits of the States and
+Territories has been most rapid. If they be removed, they can be protected
+from those associations and evil practices which exert so pernicious and
+destructive an influence over their destinies. They can be induced to labor
+and to acquire property, and its acquisition will inspire them with a
+feeling of independence. Their minds can be cultivated, and they can be
+taught the value of salutary and uniform laws and be made sensible of the
+blessings of free government and capable of enjoying its advantages. In the
+possession of property, knowledge, and a good government, free to give what
+direction they please to their labor, and sharers in the legislation by
+which their persons and the profits of their industry are to be protected
+and secured, they will have an ever-present conviction of the importance of
+union and peace among themselves and of the preservation of amicable
+relations with us. The interests of the United States would also be greatly
+promoted by freeing the relations between the General and State Governments
+from what has proved a most embarrassing incumbrance by a satisfactory
+adjustment of conflicting titles to lands caused by the occupation of the
+Indians, and by causing the resources of the whole country to be developed
+by the power of the State and General Governments and improved by the
+enterprise of a white population.
+
+Intimately connected with this subject is the obligation of the Government
+to fulfill its treaty stipulations and to protect the Indians thus
+assembled "at their new residences from all interruptions and disturbances
+from any other tribes or nations of Indians or from any other person or
+persons whatsoever," and the equally solemn obligation to guard from Indian
+hostility its own border settlements, stretching along a line of more than
+1,000 miles. To enable the Government to redeem this pledge to the Indians
+and to afford adequate protection to its own citizens will require the
+continual presence of a considerable regular force on the frontiers and the
+establishment of a chain of permanent posts. Examinations of the country
+are now making, with a view to decide on the most suitable points for the
+erection of fortresses and other works of defense, the results of which
+will be presented to you by the Secretary of War at an early day, together
+with a plan for the effectual protection of the friendly Indians and the
+permanent defense of the frontier States.
+
+By the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith communicated it appears
+that unremitted exertions have been made at the different navy-yards to
+carry into effect all authorized measures for the extension and employment
+of our naval force. The launching and preparation of the ship of the line
+Pennsylvania and the complete repairs of the ships of the line Ohio,
+Delaware, and Columbus may be noticed as forming a respectable addition to
+this important arm of our national defense. Our commerce and navigation
+have received increased aid and protection during the present year. Our
+squadrons in the Pacific and on the Brazilian station have been much
+increased, and that in the Mediterranean, although small, is adequate to
+the present wants of our commerce in that sea. Additions have been made to
+our squadron on the West India station, where the large force under
+Commodore Dallas has been most actively and efficiently employed in
+protecting our commerce, in preventing the importation of slaves, and in
+cooperating with the officers of the Army in carrying on the war in
+Florida.
+
+The satisfactory condition of our naval force abroad leaves at our disposal
+the means of conveniently providing for a home squadron for the protection
+of commerce upon our extensive coast. The amount of appropriations required
+for such a squadron will be found in the general estimates for the naval
+service for the year 1838.
+
+The naval officers engaged upon our coast survey have rendered important
+service to our navigation. The discovery of a new channel into the harbor
+of New York, through which our largest ships may pass without danger, must
+afford important commercial advantages to that harbor and add greatly to
+its value as a naval station. The accurate survey of Georges Shoals, off
+the coast of Massachusetts, lately completed, will render comparatively
+safe a navigation hitherto considered dangerous.
+
+Considerable additions have been made to the number of captains,
+commanders, lieutenants, surgeons, and assistant surgeons in the Navy.
+These additions were rendered necessary by the increased number of vessels
+put in commission to answer the exigencies of our growing commerce.
+
+Your attention is respectfully invited to the various suggestions of the
+Secretary for the improvement of the naval service.
+
+The report of the Postmaster-General exhibits the progress and condition of
+the mail service. The operations of the Post-Office Department constitute
+one of the most active elements of our national prosperity, and it is
+gratifying to observe with what vigor they are conducted. The mail routes
+of the United States cover an extent of about 142,877 miles, having been
+increased about 37,103 miles within the last two years. The annual mail
+transportation on these routes is about 36,228,962 miles, having been
+increased about 10,359,476 miles within the same period. The number of
+post-offices has also been increased from 10,770 to 12,099, very few of
+which receive the mails less than once a week, and a large portion of them
+daily. Contractors and postmasters in general are represented as attending
+to their duties with most commendable zeal and fidelity. The revenue of the
+Department within the year ending on the 30th of June last was
+$4,137,056.59, and its liabilities accruing within the same time were
+$3,380,847.75. The increase of revenue over that of the preceding year was
+$708,166.41.
+
+For many interesting details I refer you to the report of the
+Postmaster-General, with the accompanying papers, Your particular attention
+is invited to the necessity of providing a more safe and convenient
+building for the accommodation of that Department.
+
+I lay before Congress copies of reports submitted in pursuance of a call
+made by me upon the heads of Departments for such suggestions as their
+experience might enable them to make as to what further legislative
+provisions may be advantageously adopted to secure the faithful application
+of public moneys to the objects for which they are appropriated, to prevent
+their misapplication or embezzlement by those intrusted with the
+expenditure of them, and generally to increase the security of the
+Government against losses in their disbursement. It is needless to dilate
+on the importance of providing such new safeguards as are within the power
+of legislation to promote these ends, and I have little to add to the
+recommendations submitted in the accompanying papers.
+
+By law the terms of service of our most important collecting and disbursing
+officers in the civil departments are limited to four years, and when
+reappointed their bonds are required to be renewed. The safety of the
+public is much increased by this feature of the law, and there can be no
+doubt that its application to all officers intrusted with the collection or
+disbursement of the public money, whatever may be the tenure of their
+offices, would be equally beneficial. I therefore recommend, in addition to
+such of the suggestions presented by the heads of Departments as you may
+think useful, a general provision that all officers of the Army or Navy, or
+in the civil departments, intrusted with the receipt or payment of public
+money, and whose term of service is either unlimited or for a longer time
+than four years, be required to give new bonds, with good and sufficient
+sureties, at the expiration of every such period.
+
+A change in the period of terminating the fiscal year, from the 1st of
+October to the 1st of April, has been frequently recommended, and appears
+to be desirable.
+
+The distressing casualties in steamboats which have so frequently happened
+during the year seem to evince the necessity of attempting to prevent them
+by means of severe provisions connected with their customhouse papers. This
+subject was submitted to the attention of Congress by the Secretary of the
+Treasury in his last annual report, and will be again noticed at the
+present session, with additional details. It will doubtless receive that
+early and careful consideration which its pressing importance appears to
+require.
+
+Your attention has heretofore been frequently called to the affairs of the
+District of Columbia, and I should not again ask it did not their entire
+dependence on Congress give them a constant claim upon its notice.
+Separated by the Constitution from the rest of the Union, limited in
+extent, and aided by no legislature of its own, it would seem to be a spot
+where a wise and uniform system of local government might have been easily
+adopted. This District has, however, unfortunately been left to linger
+behind the rest of the Union. Its codes, civil and criminal, are not only
+very defective, but full of obsolete or inconvenient provisions. Being
+formed of portions of two States, discrepancies in the laws prevail in
+different parts of the territory, small as it is; and although it was
+selected as the seat of the General Government, the site of its public
+edifices, the depository of its archives, and the residence of officers
+intrusted with large amounts of public property and the management of
+public business, yet it has never been subjected to or received that
+special and comprehensive legislation which these circumstances peculiarly
+demand. I am well aware of the various subjects of greater magnitude and
+immediate interest that press themselves on the consideration of Congress,
+but I believe there is not one that appeals more directly to its justice
+than a liberal and even generous attention to the interests of the District
+of Columbia and a thorough and careful revision of its local government.
+
+M. VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 3, 1838
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+I congratulate you on the favorable circumstances in the condition of our
+country under which you reassemble for the performance of your official
+duties. Though the anticipations of an abundant harvest have not everywhere
+been realized, yet on the whole the labors of the husbandman are rewarded
+with a bountiful return; industry prospers in its various channels of
+business and enterprise; general health again prevails through our vast
+diversity of climate; nothing threatens from abroad the continuance of
+external peace; nor has anything at home impaired the strength of those
+fraternal and domestic ties which constitute the only guaranty to the
+success and permanency of our happy Union, and which, formed in the hour of
+peril, have hitherto been honorably sustained through every vicissitude in
+our national affairs. These blessings, which evince the care and
+beneficence of Providence, call for our devout and fervent gratitude.
+
+We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by the
+same munificent hand, and more exclusively our own.
+
+The present year closes the first half century of our Federal institutions,
+and our system, differing from all others in the acknowledged practical and
+unlimited operation which it has for so long a period given to the
+sovereignty of the people, has now been fully tested by experience.
+
+The Constitution devised by our forefathers as the framework and bond of
+that system, then untried, has become a settled form of government; not
+only preserving and protecting the great principles upon which it was
+rounded, but wonderfully promoting individual happiness and private
+interests. Though subject to change and entire revocation whenever deemed
+inadequate to all these purposes, yet such is the wisdom of its
+construction and so stable has been the public sentiment that it remains
+unaltered except in matters of detail comparatively unimportant. It has
+proved amply sufficient for the various emergencies incident to our
+condition as a nation. A formidable foreign war; agitating collisions
+between domestic, and in some respects rival, sovereignties; temptations to
+interfere in the intestine commotions of neighboring countries; the
+dangerous influences that arise in periods of excessive prosperity, and the
+antirepublican tendencies of associated wealth--these, with other trials
+not less formidable, have all been encountered, and thus far successfully
+resisted.
+
+It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantages of a
+government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular
+will, and our experience has shown that it is as beneficent in practice as
+it is just in theory. Each successive change made in our local institutions
+has contributed to extend the right of suffrage, has increased the direct
+influence of the mass of the community, given greater freedom to individual
+exertion, and restricted more and more the powers of Government; yet the
+intelligence, prudence, and patriotism of the people have kept pace with
+this augmented responsibility. In no country has education been so widely
+diffused. Domestic peace has nowhere so largely reigned. The close bonds of
+social intercourse have in no instance prevailed with such harmony over a
+space so vast. All forms of religion have united for the first time to
+diffuse charity and piety, because for the first time in the history of
+nations all have been totally untrammeled and absolutely free. The deepest
+recesses of the wilderness have been penetrated; yet instead of the
+rudeness in the social condition consequent upon such adventures elsewhere,
+numerous communities have sprung up, already unrivaled in prosperity,
+general intelligence, internal tranquillity, and the wisdom of their
+political institutions. Internal improvement, the fruit of individual
+enterprise, fostered by the protection of the States, has added new links
+to the Confederation and fresh rewards to provident industry. Doubtful
+questions of domestic policy have been quietly settled by mutual
+forbearance, and agriculture, commerce, and manufactures minister to each
+other. Taxation and public debt, the burdens which bear so heavily upon all
+other countries, have pressed with comparative lightness upon us. Without
+one entangling alliance, our friendship is prized by every nation, and the
+rights of our citizens are everywhere respected, because they are known to
+be guarded by a united, sensitive, and watchful people.
+
+To this practical operation of our institutions, so evident and successful,
+we owe that increased attachment to them which is among the most cheering
+exhibitions of popular sentiment and will prove their best security in time
+to come against foreign or domestic assault.
+
+This review of the results of our institutions for half a century, without
+exciting a spirit of vain exultation, should serve to impress upon us the
+great principles from which they have sprung--constant and direct
+supervision by the people over every public measure, strict forbearance on
+the part of the Government from exercising any doubtful or disputed powers,
+and a cautious abstinence from all interference with concerns which
+properly belong and are best left to State regulations and individual
+enterprise.
+
+Full information of the state of our foreign affairs having been recently
+on different occasions submitted to Congress, I deem it necessary now to
+bring to your notice only such events as have subsequently occurred or are
+of such importance as to require particular attention.
+
+The most amicable dispositions continue to be exhibited by all the nations
+with whom the Government and citizens of the United States have an habitual
+intercourse. At the date of my last annual message Mexico was the only
+nation which could not be included in so gratifying a reference to our
+foreign relations.
+
+I am happy to be now able to inform you that an advance has been made
+toward the adjustment of our differences with that Republic and the
+restoration of the customary good feeling between the two nations. This
+important change has been effected by conciliatory negotiations that have
+resulted in the conclusion of a treaty between the two Governments, which,
+when ratified, will refer to the arbitrament of a friendly power all the
+subjects of controversy between us growing out of injuries to individuals.
+There is at present also reason to believe that an equitable settlement of
+all disputed points will be attained without further difficulty or
+unnecessary delay, and thus authorize the free resumption of diplomatic
+intercourse with our sister Republic.
+
+With respect to the northeastern boundary of the United States, no official
+correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain has passed
+since that communicated to Congress toward the close of their last session.
+The offer to negotiate a convention for the appointment of a joint
+commission of survey and exploration I am, however, assured will be met by
+Her Majesty's Government in a conciliatory and friendly spirit, and
+instructions to enable the British minister here to conclude such an
+arrangement will be transmitted to him without needless delay. It is hoped
+and expected that these instructions will be of a liberal character, and
+that this negotiation, if successful, will prove to be an important step
+toward the satisfactory and final adjustment of the controversy.
+
+I had hoped that the respect for the laws and regard for the peace and
+honor of their own country which have ever characterized the citizens of
+the United States would have prevented any portion of them from using any
+means to promote insurrection in the territory of a power with which we are
+at peace, and with which the United States are desirous of maintaining the
+most friendly relations. I regret deeply, however, to be obliged to inform
+you that this has not been the case. Information has been given to me,
+derived from official and other sources, that many citizens of the United
+States have associated together to make hostile incursions from our
+territory into Canada and to aid and abet insurrection there, in violation
+of the obligations and laws of the United States and in open disregard of
+their own duties as citizens. This information has been in part confirmed
+by a hostile invasion actually made by citizens of the United States, in
+conjunction with Canadians and others, and accompanied by a forcible
+seizure of the property of our citizens and an application thereof to the
+prosecution of military operations against the authorities and people of
+Canada.
+
+The results of these criminal assaults upon the peace and order of a
+neighboring country have been, as was to be expected, fatally destructive
+to the misguided or deluded persons engaged in them and highly injurious to
+those in whose behalf they are professed to have been undertaken. The
+authorities in Canada, from intelligence received of such intended
+movements among our citizens, have felt themselves obliged to take
+precautionary measures against them; have actually embodied the militia and
+assumed an attitude to repel the invasion to which they believed the
+colonies were exposed from the United States. A state of feeling on both
+sides of the frontier has thus been produced which called for prompt and
+vigorous interference. If an insurrection existed in Canada, the amicable
+dispositions of the United States toward Great Britain, as well as their
+duty to themselves, would lead them to maintain a strict neutrality and to
+restrain their citizens from all violations of the laws which have been
+passed for its enforcement. But this Government recognizes a still higher
+obligation to repress all attempts on the part of its citizens to disturb
+the peace of a country where order prevails or has been reestablished.
+Depredations by our citizens upon nations at peace with the United States,
+or combinations for committing them, have at all times been regarded by the
+American Government and people with the greatest abhorrence. Military
+incursions by our citizens into countries so situated, and the commission
+of acts of violence on the members thereof, in order to effect a change in
+their government, or under any pretext whatever, have from the commencement
+of our Government been held equally criminal on the part of those engaged
+in them, and as much deserving of punishment as would be the disturbance of
+the public peace by the perpetration of similar acts within our own
+territory.
+
+By no country or persons have these invaluable principles of international
+law--principles the strict observance of which is so indispensable to the
+preservation of social order in the world--been more earnestly cherished or
+sacredly respected than by those great and good men who first declared and
+finally established the independence of our own country. They promulgated
+and maintained them at an early and critical period in our history; they
+were subsequently embodied in legislative enactments of a highly penal
+character, the faithful enforcement of which has hitherto been, and will, I
+trust, always continue to be, regarded as a duty inseparably associated
+with the maintenance of our national honor. That the people of the United
+States should feel an interest in the spread of political institutions as
+free as they regard their own to be is natural, nor can a sincere
+solicitude for the success of all those who are at any time in good faith
+struggling for their acquisition be imputed to our citizens as a crime.
+With the entire freedom of opinion and an undisguised expression thereof on
+their part the Government has neither the right nor, I trust, the
+disposition to interfere. But whether the interest or the honor of the
+United States requires that they should be made a party to any such
+struggle, and by inevitable consequence to the war which is waged in its
+support, is a question which by our Constitution is wisely left to Congress
+alone to decide. It is by the laws already made criminal in our citizens to
+embarrass or anticipate that decision by unauthorized military operations
+on their part. Offenses of this character, in addition to their criminality
+as violations of the laws of our country, have a direct tendency to draw
+down upon our own citizens at large the multiplied evils of a foreign war
+and expose to injurious imputations the good faith and honor of the
+country. As such they deserve to be put down with promptitude and decision.
+I can not be mistaken, I am confident, in counting on the cordial and
+general concurrence of our fellow-citizens in this sentiment. A copy of the
+proclamation which I have felt it my duty to issue is herewith
+communicated. I can not but hope that the good sense and patriotism, the
+regard for the honor and reputation of their country, the respect for the
+laws which they have themselves enacted for their own government, and the
+love of order for which the mass of our people have been so long and so
+justly distinguished will deter the comparatively few who are engaged in
+them from a further prosecution of such desperate enterprises. In the
+meantime the existing laws have been and will continue to be faithfully
+executed, and every effort will be made to carry them out in their full
+extent. Whether they are sufficient or not to meet the actual state of
+things on the Canadian frontier it is for Congress to decide.
+
+It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the
+Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the
+convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial
+Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that "hereafter there
+shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under the
+authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest coast of
+America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54° 40' of
+north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be none formed by
+Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same
+parallel;" and by the fourth article, "that during a term of ten years,
+counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both
+powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may
+reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas,
+gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned in the preceding
+article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the
+country." The reasons assigned for declining to renew the provisions of
+this article are, briefly, that the only use made by our citizens of the
+privileges it secures to them has been to supply the Indians with
+spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that this traffic has been
+excluded from the Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the
+United States are injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest
+coast and calculated to produce complaints between the two Governments, His
+Imperial Majesty thinks it for the interest of both countries not to accede
+to the proposition made by the American Government for the renewal of the
+article last referred to.
+
+The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds upon which
+we contend that the citizens of the United States have, independent of the
+provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to trade with the natives
+upon the coast in question at unoccupied places, liable, however, it is
+admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the creation of Russian
+establishments at such points. This right is denied by the Russian
+Government, which asserts that by the operation of the treaty of 1824 each
+party agreed to waive the general right to land on the vacant coasts on the
+respective sides of the degree of latitude referred to, and accepted in
+lieu thereof the mutual privileges mentioned in the fourth article. The
+capital and tonnage employed by our citizens in their trade with the
+northwest coast of America will, perhaps, on adverting to the official
+statements of the commerce and navigation of the United States for the last
+few years, be deemed too inconsiderable in amount to attract much
+attention; yet the subject may in other respects deserve the careful
+consideration of Congress.
+
+I regret to state that the blockade of the principal ports on the eastern
+coast of Mexico, which, in consequence of differences between that Republic
+and France, was instituted in May last, unfortunately still continues,
+enforced by a competent French naval armament, and is necessarily
+embarrassing to our own trade in the Gulf, in common with that of other
+nations. Every disposition, however, is believed to exist on the part of
+the French Government to render this measure as little onerous as
+practicable to the interests of the citizens of the United States and to
+those of neutral commerce, and it is to be hoped that an early settlement
+of the difficulties between France and Mexico will soon reestablish the
+harmonious relations formerly subsisting between them and again open the
+ports of that Republic to the vessels of all friendly nations.
+
+A convention for marking that part of the boundary between the United
+States and the Republic of Texas which extends from the mouth of the Sabine
+to the Red River was concluded and signed at this city on the 25th of April
+last. It has since been ratified by both Governments, and seasonable
+measures will be taken to carry it into effect on the part of the United
+States.
+
+The application of that Republic for admission into this Union, made in
+August, 1837, and which was declined for reasons already made known to you,
+has been formally withdrawn, as will appear from the accompanying copy of
+the note of the minister plenipotentiary of Texas, which was presented to
+the Secretary of State on the occasion of the exchange of the ratifications
+of the convention above mentioned.
+
+Copies of the convention with Texas, of a commercial treaty concluded with
+the King of Greece, and of a similar treaty with the Peru-Bolivian
+Confederation, the ratifications of which have been recently exchanged,
+accompany this message, for the information of Congress and for such
+legislative enactments as may be found necessary or expedient in relation
+to either of them.
+
+To watch over and foster the interests of a gradually increasing and widely
+extended commerce, to guard the rights of American citizens whom business
+or pleasure or other motives may tempt into distant climes, and at the same
+time to cultivate those sentiments of mutual respect and good will which
+experience has proved so beneficial in international intercourse, the
+Government of the United States has deemed it expedient from time to time
+to establish diplomatic connections with different foreign states, by the
+appointment of representatives to reside within their respective
+territories. I am gratified to be enabled to announce to you that since the
+close of your last session these relations have been opened under the
+happiest auspices with Austria and the Two Sicilies, that new nominations
+have been made in the respective missions of Russia, Brazil, Belgium, and
+Sweden and Norway in this country, and that a minister extraordinary has
+been received, accredited to this Government, from the Argentine
+Confederation.
+
+An exposition of the fiscal affairs of the Government and of their
+condition for the past year will be made to you by the Secretary of the
+Treasury.
+
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $2,765,342. The receipts of the year from customs and lands
+will probably amount to $20,615,598. These usual sources of revenue have
+been increased by an issue of Treasury notes, of which less than
+$8,000,000, including interest and principal, will be outstanding at the
+end of the year, and by the sale of one of the bonds of the Bank of the
+United States for $2,254,871. The aggregate of means from these and other
+sources, with the balance on hand on the 1st of January last, has been
+applied to the payment of appropriations by Congress. The whole expenditure
+for the year on their account, including the redemption of more than eight
+millions of Treasury notes, constitutes an aggregate of about $40,000,000,
+and will still leave in the Treasury the balance before stated.
+
+Nearly $8,000,000 of Treasury notes are to be paid during the coming year
+in addition to the ordinary appropriations for the support of Government.
+For both these purposes the resources of the Treasury will undoubtedly be
+sufficient if the charges upon it are not increased beyond the annual
+estimates. No excess, however, is likely to exist. Nor can the postponed
+installment of the surplus revenue be deposited with the States nor any
+considerable appropriations beyond the estimates be made without causing a
+deficiency in the Treasury. The great caution, advisable at all times, of
+limiting appropriations to the wants of the public service is rendered
+necessary at present by the prospective and rapid reduction of the tariff,
+while the vigilant jealousy evidently excited among the people by the
+occurrences of the last few years assures us that they expect from their
+representatives, and will sustain them in the exercise of, the most rigid
+economy. Much can be effected by postponing appropriations not immediately
+required for the ordinary public service or for any pressing emergency, and
+much by reducing the expenditures where the entire and immediate
+accomplishment of the objects in view is not indispensable.
+
+When we call to mind the recent and extreme embarrassments produced by
+excessive issues of bank paper, aggravated by the unforeseen withdrawal of
+much foreign capital and the inevitable derangement arising from the
+distribution of the surplus revenue among the States as required by
+Congress, and consider the heavy expenses incurred by the removal of Indian
+tribes, by the military operations in Florida, and on account of the
+unusually large appropriations made at the last two annual sessions of
+Congress for other objects, we have striking evidence in the present
+efficient state of our finances of the abundant resources of the country to
+fulfill all its obligations. Nor is it less gratifying to find that the
+general business of the community, deeply affected as it has been, is
+reviving with additional vigor, chastened by the lessons of the past and
+animated by the hopes of the future. By the curtailment of paper issues, by
+curbing the sanguine and adventurous spirit of speculation, and by the
+honorable application of all available means to the fulfillment of
+obligations, confidence has been restored both at home and abroad, and ease
+and facility secured to all the operations of trade.
+
+The agency of the Government in producing these results has been as
+efficient as its powers and means permitted. By withholding from the States
+the deposit of the fourth installment, and leaving several millions at long
+credits with the banks, principally in one section of the country, and more
+immediately beneficial to it, and at the same time aiding the banks and
+commercial communities in other sections by postponing the payment of bonds
+for duties to the amount of between four and five millions of dollars; by
+an issue of Treasury notes as a means to enable the Government to meet the
+consequences of their indulgences, but affording at the same time
+facilities for remittance and exchange; and by steadily declining to employ
+as general depositories of the public revenues, or receive the notes of,
+all banks which refused to redeem them with specie--by these measures,
+aided by the favorable action of some of the banks and by the support and
+cooperation of a large portion of the community, we have witnessed an early
+resumption of specie payments in our great commercial capital, promptly
+followed in almost every part of the United States. This result has been
+alike salutary to the true interests of agriculture, commerce, and
+manufactures; to public morals, respect for the laws, and that confidence
+between man and man which is so essential in all our social relations.
+
+The contrast between the suspension of 1814 and that of 1837 is most
+striking. The short duration of the latter, the prompt restoration of
+business, the evident benefits resulting from an adherence by the
+Government to the constitutional standard of value instead of sanctioning
+the suspension by the receipt of irredeemable paper, and the advantages
+derived from the large amount of specie introduced into the country
+previous to 1837 afford a valuable illustration of the true policy of the
+Government in such a crisis. Nor can the comparison fail to remove the
+impression that a national bank is necessary in such emergencies. Not only
+were specie payments resumed without its aid, but exchanges have also been
+more rapidly restored than when it existed, thereby showing that private
+capital, enterprise, and prudence are fully adequate to these ends. On all
+these points experience seems to have confirmed the views heretofore
+submitted to Congress. We have been saved the mortification of seeing the
+distresses of the community for the third time seized on to fasten upon the
+country so dangerous an institution, and we may also hope that the business
+of individuals will hereafter be relieved from the injurious effects of a
+continued agitation of that disturbing subject. The limited influence of a
+national bank in averting derangement in the exchanges of the country or in
+compelling the resumption of specie payments is now not less apparent than
+its tendency to increase inordinate speculation by sudden expansions and
+contractions; its disposition to create panic and embarrassment for the
+promotion of its own designs; its interference with politics, and its far
+greater power for evil than for good, either in regard to the local
+institutions or the operations of Government itself. What was in these
+respects but apprehension or opinion when a national bank was first
+established now stands confirmed by humiliating experience. The scenes
+through which we have passed conclusively prove how little our commerce,
+agriculture, manufactures, or finances require such an institution, and
+what dangers are attendant on its power--a power, I trust, never to be
+conferred by the American people upon their Government, and still less upon
+individuals not responsible to them for its unavoidable abuses.
+
+My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for the
+safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion in regard
+to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those objects have
+been already submitted to you. These have been strengthened by recent
+events, and in the full conviction that time and experience must still
+further demonstrate their propriety I feel it my duty, with respectful
+deference to the conflicting views of others, again to invite your
+attention to them.
+
+With the exception of limited sums deposited in the few banks still
+employed under the act of 1836, the amounts received for duties, and, with
+very inconsiderable exceptions, those accruing from lands also, have since
+the general suspension of specie payments by the deposit banks been kept
+and disbursed by the Treasurer under his general legal powers, subject to
+the superintendence of the Secretary of the Treasury. The propriety of
+defining more specifically and of regulating by law the exercise of this
+wide scope of Executive discretion has been already submitted to Congress.
+
+A change in the office of collector at one of our principal ports has
+brought to light a defalcation of the gravest character, the particulars of
+which will be laid before you in a special report from the Secretary of the
+Treasury. By his report and the accompanying documents it will be seen that
+the weekly returns of the defaulting officer apparently exhibited
+throughout a faithful administration of the affairs intrusted to his
+management. It, however, now appears that he commenced abstracting the
+public moneys shortly after his appointment and continued to do so,
+progressively increasing the amount, for the term of more than seven years,
+embracing a portion of the period during which the public moneys were
+deposited in the Bank of the United States, the whole of that of the State
+bank deposit system, and concluding only on his retirement from office,
+after that system had substantially failed in consequence of the suspension
+of specie payments.
+
+The way in which this defalcation was so long concealed and the steps taken
+to indemnify the United States, as far as practicable, against loss will
+also be presented to you. The case is one which imperatively claims the
+attention of Congress and furnishes the strongest motive for the
+establishment of a more severe and secure system for the safe-keeping and
+disbursement of the public moneys than any that has heretofore existed.
+
+It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to that
+of other countries the application of public money by an officer of
+Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with severe
+and ignominious punishment. This is already in effect the law in respect to
+the Mint, and has been productive of the most salutary results. Whatever
+system is adopted, such an enactment would be wise as an independent
+measure, since much of the public moneys must in their collection and
+ultimate disbursement pass twice through the hands of public officers, in
+whatever manner they are intermediately kept. The Government, it must be
+admitted, has been from its commencement comparatively fortunate in this
+respect. But the appointing power can not always be well advised in its
+selections, and the experience of every country has shown that public
+officers are not at all times proof against temptation. It is a duty,
+therefore, which the Government owes, as well to the interests committed to
+its care as to the officers themselves, to provide every guard against
+transgressions of this character that is consistent with reason and
+humanity. Congress can not be too jealous of the conduct of those who are
+intrusted with the public money, and I shall at all times be disposed to
+encourage a watchful discharge of this duty.
+
+If a more direct cooperation on the part of Congress in the supervision of
+the conduct of the officers intrusted with the custody and application of
+the public money is deemed desirable, it will give me pleasure to assist in
+the establishment of any judicious and constitutional plan by which that
+object may be accomplished. You will in your wisdom determine upon the
+propriety of adopting such a plan and upon the measures necessary to its
+effectual execution. When the late Bank of the United States was
+incorporated and made the depository of the public moneys, a right was
+reserved to Congress to inspect at its pleasure, by a committee of that
+body, the books and the proceedings of the bank. In one of the States,
+whose banking institutions are supposed to rank amongst the first in point
+of stability, they are subjected to constant examination by commissioners
+appointed for that purpose, and much of the success of its banking system
+is attributed to this watchful supervision.
+
+The same course has also, in view of its beneficial operation, been adopted
+by an adjoining State, favorably known for the care it has always bestowed
+upon whatever relates to its financial concerns. I submit to your
+consideration whether a committee of Congress might not be profitably
+employed in inspecting, at such intervals as might be deemed proper, the
+affairs and accounts of officers intrusted with the custody of the public
+moneys. The frequent performance of this duty might be made obligatory on
+the committee in respect to those officers who have large sums in their
+possession, and left discretionary in respect to others. They might report
+to the Executive such defalcations as were found to exist, with a view to a
+prompt removal from office unless the default was satisfactorily accounted
+for, and report also to Congress, at the commencement of each session, the
+result of their examinations and proceedings. It does appear to me that
+with a subjection of this class of public officers to the general
+supervision of the Executive, to examinations by a committee of Congress at
+periods of which they should have no previous notice, and to prosecution
+and punishment as for felony for every breach of trust, the safe-keeping of
+the public moneys might under the system proposed be placed on a surer
+foundation than it has ever occupied since the establishment of the
+Government.
+
+The Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you additional information
+containing new details on this interesting subject. To these I ask your
+early attention. That it should have given rise to great diversity of
+opinion can not be a subject of surprise. After the collection and custody
+of the public moneys had been for so many years connected with and made
+subsidiary to the advancement of private interests, a return to the simple
+self-denying ordinances of the Constitution could not but be difficult. But
+time and free discussion, eliciting the sentiments of the people, and aided
+by that conciliatory spirit which has ever characterized their course on
+great emergencies, were relied upon for a satisfactory settlement of the
+question. Already has this anticipation, on one important point at
+least--the impropriety of diverting public money to private purposes--been
+fully realized. There is no reason to suppose that legislation upon that
+branch of the subject would now be embarrassed by a difference of opinion,
+or fail to receive the cordial support of a large majority of our
+constituents.
+
+The connection which formerly existed between the Government and banks was
+in reality injurious to both, as well as to the general interests of the
+community at large. It aggravated the disasters of trade and the
+derangements of commercial intercourse, and administered new excitements
+and additional means to wild and reckless speculations, the disappointment
+of which threw the country into convulsions of panic, and all but produced
+violence and bloodshed. The imprudent expansion of bank credits, which was
+the natural result of the command of the revenues of the State, furnished
+the resources for unbounded license in every species of adventure, seduced
+industry from its regular and salutary occupations by the hope of abundance
+without labor, and deranged the social state by tempting all trades and
+professions into the vortex of speculation on remote contingencies.
+
+The same wide-spreading influence impeded also the resources of the
+Government, curtailed its useful operations, embarrassed the fulfillment of
+its obligations, and seriously interfered with the execution of the laws.
+Large appropriations and oppressive taxes are the natural consequences of
+such a connection, since they increase the profits of those who are allowed
+to use the public funds, and make it their interest that money should be
+accumulated and expenditures multiplied. It is thus that a concentrated
+money power is tempted to become an active agent in political affairs; and
+all past experience has shown on which side that influence will be arrayed.
+We deceive ourselves if we suppose that, it will ever be found asserting
+and supporting the rights of the community at large in opposition to the
+claims of the few.
+
+In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion
+and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals
+will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. Nor is it the
+nature of combinations for the acquisition of legislative influence to
+confine their interference to the single object for which they were
+originally formed. The temptation to extend it to other matters is, on the
+contrary, not unfrequently too strong to be resisted. The rightful
+influence in the direction of public affairs of the mass of the people is
+therefore in no slight danger of being sensibly and injuriously affected by
+giving to a comparatively small but very efficient class a direct and
+exclusive personal interest in so important a portion of the legislation of
+Congress as that which relates to the custody of the public moneys. If laws
+acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be
+confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the
+legislatures of the States. When not thus restricted they lead to
+combinations of powerful associations, foster an influence necessarily
+selfish, and turn the fair course of legislation to sinister ends rather
+than to objects that advance public liberty and promote the general good.
+
+The whole subject now rests with you, and I can not but express a hope that
+some definite measure will be adopted at the present session.
+
+It will not, I am sure, be deemed out of place for me here to remark that
+the declaration of my views in opposition to the policy of employing banks
+as depositories of the Government funds can not justly be construed as
+indicative of hostility, official or personal, to those institutions; or to
+repeat in this form and in connection with this subject opinions which I
+have uniformly entertained and on all proper occasions expressed. Though
+always opposed to their creation in the form of exclusive privileges, and,
+as a State magistrate, aiming by appropriate legislation to secure the
+community against the consequences of their occasional mismanagement, I
+have yet ever wished to see them protected in the exercise of rights
+conferred by law, and have never doubted their utility when properly
+managed in promoting the interests of trade, and through that channel the
+other interests of the community. To the General Government they present
+themselves merely as State institutions, having no necessary connection
+with its legislation or its administration. Like other State
+establishments, they may be used or not in conducting the affairs of the
+Government, as public policy and the general interests of the Union may
+seem to require. The only safe or proper principle upon which their
+intercourse with the Government can be regulated is that which regulates
+their intercourse with the private citizen--the conferring of mutual
+benefits. When the Government can accomplish a financial operation better
+with the aid of the banks than without it, it should be at liberty to seek
+that aid as it would the services of a private banker or other capitalist
+or agent, giving the preference to those who will serve it on the best
+terms. Nor can there ever exist an interest in the officers of the General
+Government, as such, inducing them to embarrass or annoy the State banks
+any more than to incur the hostility of any other class of State
+institutions or of private citizens. It is not in the nature of things that
+hostility to these institutions can spring from this source, or any
+opposition to their course of business, except when they themselves depart
+from the objects of their creation and attempt to usurp powers not
+conferred upon them or to subvert the standard of value established by the
+Constitution. While opposition to their regular operations can not exist in
+this quarter, resistance to any attempt to make the Government dependent
+upon them for the successful administration of public affairs is a matter
+of duty, as I trust it ever will be of inclination, no matter from what
+motive or consideration the attempt may originate.
+
+It is no more than just to the banks to say that in the late emergency most
+of them firmly resisted the strongest temptations to extend their paper
+issues when apparently sustained in a suspension of specie payments by
+public opinion, even though in some cases invited by legislative
+enactments. To this honorable course, aided by the resistance of the
+General Government, acting in obedience to the Constitution and laws of the
+United States, to the introduction of an irredeemable paper medium, may be
+attributed in a great degree the speedy restoration of our currency to a
+sound state and the business of the country to its wonted prosperity.
+
+The banks have but to continue in the same safe course and be content in
+their appropriate sphere to avoid all interference from the General
+Government and to derive from it all the protection and benefits which it
+bestows on other State establishments, on the people of the States, and on
+the States themselves. In this, their true position, they can not but
+secure the confidence and good will of the people and the Government, which
+they can only lose when, leaping from their legitimate sphere, they attempt
+to control the legislation of the country and pervert the operations of the
+Government to their own purposes.
+
+Our experience under the act, passed at the last session, to grant
+preemption rights to settlers on the public lands has as yet been too
+limited to enable us to pronounce with safety upon the efficacy of its
+provisions to carry out the wise and liberal policy of the Government in
+that respect. There is, however, the best reason to anticipate favorable
+results from its operation. The recommendations formerly submitted to you
+in respect to a graduation of the price of the public lands remain to be
+finally acted upon. Having found no reason to change the views then
+expressed, your attention to them is again respectfully requested.
+
+Every proper exertion has been made and will be continued to carry out the
+wishes of Congress in relation to the tobacco trade, as indicated in the
+several resolutions of the House of Representatives and the legislation of
+the two branches. A favorable impression has, I trust, been made in the
+different foreign countries to which particular attention has been
+directed; and although we can not hope for an early change in their policy,
+as in many of them a convenient and large revenue is derived from
+monopolies in the fabrication and sale of this article, yet, as these
+monopolies are really injurious to the people where they are established,
+and the revenue derived from them may be less injuriously and with equal
+facility obtained from another and a liberal system of administration, we
+can not doubt that our efforts will be eventually crowned with, success if
+persisted in with temperate firmness and sustained by prudent legislation.
+
+In recommending to Congress the adoption of the necessary provisions at
+this session for taking the next census or enumeration of the inhabitants
+of the United States, the suggestion presents itself whether the scope of
+the measure might not be usefully extended by causing it to embrace
+authentic statistical returns of the great interests specially intrusted to
+or necessarily affected by the legislation of Congress.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War presents a satisfactory
+account of the state of the Army and of the several branches of the public
+service confided to the superintendence of that officer.
+
+The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United
+States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been
+extensively and usefully employed during the past season.
+
+I would again call to your notice the subjects connected with and essential
+to the military defenses of the country which were submitted to you at the
+last session, but which were not acted upon, as is supposed, for want of
+time. The most important of them is the organization of the militia on the
+maritime and inland frontiers. This measure is deemed important, as it is
+believed that it will furnish an effective volunteer force in aid of the
+Regular Army, and may form the basis of a general system of organization
+for the entire militia of the United States. The erection of a national
+foundry and gunpowder manufactory, and one for making small arms, the
+latter to be situated at some point west of the Allegany Mountains, all
+appear to be of sufficient importance to be again urged upon your
+attention.
+
+The plan proposed by the Secretary of War for the distribution of the
+forces of the United States in time of peace is well calculated to promote
+regularity and economy in the fiscal administration of the service, to
+preserve the discipline of the troops, and to render them available for the
+maintenance of the peace and tranquillity of the Country. With this view,
+likewise, I recommend the adoption of the plan presented by that officer
+for the defense of the western frontier. The preservation of the lives and
+property of our fellow-citizens who are settled upon that border country,
+as well as the existence of the Indian population, which might be tempted
+by our want of preparation to rush on their own destruction and attack the
+white settlements, all seem to require that this subject should be acted
+upon without delay, and the War Department authorized to place that country
+in a state of complete defense against any assault from the numerous and
+warlike tribes which are congregated on that border.
+
+It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire
+removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the
+Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session, with
+a view to the long-standing controversy with them, have had the happiest
+effects. By an agreement concluded with them by the commanding general in
+that country, who has performed the duties assigned to him on the occasion
+with commendable energy and humanity, their removal has been principally
+under the conduct of their own chiefs, and they have emigrated without any
+apparent reluctance.
+
+The successful accomplishment of this important object, the removal also of
+the entire Creek Nation with the exception of a small number of fugitives
+amongst the Seminoles in Florida, the progress already made toward a speedy
+completion of the removal of the Chickasaws, the Choctaws, the
+Pottawatamies, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas, with the extensive purchases
+of Indian lands during the present year, have rendered the speedy and
+successful result of the long-established policy of the Government upon the
+subject of Indian affairs entirely certain. The occasion is therefore
+deemed a proper one to place this policy in such a point of view as will
+exonerate the Government of the United States from the undeserved reproach
+which has been cast upon it through several successive Administrations.
+That a mixed occupancy of the same territory by the white and red man is
+incompatible with the safety or happiness of either is a position in
+respect to which there has long since ceased to be room for a difference of
+opinion. Reason and experience have alike demonstrated its
+impracticability. The bitter fruits of every attempt heretofore to overcome
+the barriers interposed by nature have only been destruction, both physical
+and moral, to the Indian, dangerous conflicts of authority between the
+Federal and State Governments, and detriment to the individual prosperity
+of the citizen as well as to the general improvement of the country. The
+remedial policy, the principles of which were settled more than thirty
+years ago under the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, consists in an
+extinction, for a fair consideration, of the title to all the lands still
+occupied by the Indians within the States and Territories of the United
+States; their removal to a country west of the Mississippi much more
+extensive and better adapted to their condition than that on which they
+then resided; the guarantee to them by the United States of their exclusive
+possession of that country forever, exempt from all intrusions by white
+men, with ample provisions for their security against external violence and
+internal dissensions, and the extension to them of suitable facilities for
+their advancement in civilization. This has not been the policy of
+particular Administrations only, but of each in succession since the first
+attempt to carry it out under that of Mr. Monroe. All have labored for its
+accomplishment, only with different degrees of success. The manner of its
+execution has, it is true, from time to time given rise to conflicts of
+opinion and unjust imputations; but in respect to the wisdom and necessity
+of the policy itself there has not from the beginning existed a doubt in
+the mind of any calm, judicious, disinterested friend of the Indian race
+accustomed to reflection and enlightened by experience.
+
+Occupying the double character of contractor on its own account and
+guardian for the parties contracted with, it was hardly to be expected that
+the dealings of the Federal Government with the Indian tribes would escape
+misrepresentation. That there occurred ill the early settlement of this
+country, as in all others where the civilized race has succeeded to the
+possessions of the savage, instances of oppression and fraud on the part of
+the former there is too much reason to believe. No such offenses can,
+however, be justly charged upon this Government since it became free to
+pursue its own course. Its dealings with the Indian tribes have been just
+and friendly throughout; its efforts for their civilization constant, and
+directed by the best feelings of humanity; its watchfulness in protecting
+them from individual frauds unremitting; its forbearance under the keenest
+provocations, the deepest injuries, and the most flagrant outrages may
+challenge at least a comparison with any nation, ancient or modern, in
+similar circumstances; and if in future times a powerful, civilized, and
+happy nation of Indians shall be found to exist within the limits of this
+northern continent it will be owing to the consummation of that policy
+which has been so unjustly assailed. Only a very brief reference to facts
+in confirmation of this assertion can in this form be given, and you are
+therefore necessarily referred to the report of the Secretary of War for
+further details. To the Cherokees, whose case has perhaps excited the
+greatest share of attention and sympathy, the United States have granted in
+fee, with a perpetual guaranty of exclusive and peaceable possession,
+13,554,135 acres of land on the west side of the Mississippi, eligibly
+situated, in a healthy climate, and in all respects better suited to their
+condition than the country they have left, in exchange for only 9,492, 160
+acres on the east side of the same river. The United States have in
+addition stipulated to pay them $5,600,000 for their interest in and
+improvements on the lands thus relinquished, and $1,160,000 for subsistence
+and other beneficial purposes, thereby putting it in their power to become
+one of the most wealthy and independent separate communities of the same
+extent in the world.
+
+By the treaties made and ratified with the Miamies, the Chippewas, the
+Sioux, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Winnebagoes during the last year the
+Indian title to 18,458,000 acres has been extinguished. These purchases
+have been much more extensive than those of any previous year, and have,
+with other Indian expenses, borne very heavily upon the Treasury. They
+leave, however, but a small quantity of unbought Indian lands within the
+States and Territories, and the Legislature and Executive were equally
+sensible of the propriety of a final and more speedy extinction of Indian
+titles within those limits. The treaties, which were with a single
+exception made in pursuance of previous appropriations for defraying the
+expenses, have subsequently been ratified by the Senate, and received the
+sanction of Congress by the appropriations necessary to carry them into
+effect. Of the terms upon which these important negotiations were concluded
+I can speak from direct knowledge, and I feel no difficulty in affirming
+that the interest of the Indians in the extensive territory embraced by
+them is to be paid for at its fair value, and that no more favorable terms
+have been granted to the United States than would have been reasonably
+expected in a negotiation with civilized men fully capable of appreciating
+and protecting their own rights. For the Indian title to 116,349,897 acres
+acquired since the 4th of March, 1829, the United States have paid
+$72,560,056 in permanent annuities, lands, reservations for Indians,
+expenses of removal and subsistence, merchandise, mechanical and
+agricultural establishments and implements. When the heavy expenses
+incurred by the United States and the circumstance that so large a portion
+of the entire territory will be forever unsalable are considered, and this
+price is compared with that for which the United States sell their own
+lands, no one can doubt that justice has been done to the Indians in these
+purchases also. Certain it is that the transactions of the Federal
+Government with the Indians have been uniformly characterized by a sincere
+and paramount desire to promote their welfare; and it must be a source of
+the highest gratification to every friend to justice and humanity to learn
+that not withstanding the obstructions from time to time thrown in its way
+and the difficulties which have arisen from the peculiar and impracticable
+nature of the Indian character, the wise, humane, and undeviating policy of
+the Government in this the most difficult of all our relations, foreign or
+domestic, has at length been justified to the world in its near approach to
+a happy and certain consummation.
+
+The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them in
+the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early
+civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and
+turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. All those who have been
+established for any length of time in that fertile region maintain
+themselves by their own industry. There are among them traders of no
+inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent, but
+the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon the
+produce of their farms. The recent emigrants, although they have in some
+instances removed reluctantly, have readily acquiesced in their unavoidable
+destiny. They have found at once a recompense for past sufferings and an
+incentive to industrious habits in the abundance and comforts around them.
+There is reason to believe that all these tribes are friendly in their
+feelings toward the United States; and it is to be hoped that the
+acquisition of individual wealth, the pursuits of agriculture, and habits
+of industry will gradually subdue their warlike propensities and incline
+them to maintain peace among themselves. To effect this desirable object
+the attention of Congress is solicited to the measures recommended by the
+Secretary of War for their future government and protection, as well from
+each other as from the hostility of the warlike tribes around them and the
+intrusions of the whites. The policy of the Government has given them a
+permanent home and guaranteed to them its peaceful and undisturbed
+possession. It only remains to give them a government and laws which will
+encourage industry and secure to them the rewards of their exertions. The
+importance of some form of government can not be too much insisted upon.
+The earliest effects will be to diminish the causes and occasions for
+hostilities among the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of
+laws to which they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the
+securities of property and the motives for self-improvement. Intimately
+connected with this subject is the establishment of the military defenses
+recommended by the Secretary of War, which have been already referred to.
+Without them the Government will be powerless to redeem its pledge of
+protection to the emigrating Indians against the numerous warlike tribes
+that surround them and to provide for the safety of the frontier settlers
+of the bordering States.
+
+The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to the
+successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the homes
+assigned them west of the Mississippi. Four hundred of this tribe emigrated
+in 1836 and 1,500 in 1837 and 1838, leaving in the country, it is supposed,
+about 2,000 Indians. The continued treacherous conduct of these people; the
+savage and unprovoked murders they have lately committed, butchering whole
+families of the settlers of the Territory without distinction of age or
+sex, and making their way into the very center and heart of the country, so
+that no part of it is free from their ravages; their frequent attacks on
+the light-houses along that dangerous coast, and the barbarity with which
+they have murdered the passengers and crews of such vessels as have been
+wrecked upon the reefs and keys which border the Gulf, leave the Government
+no alternative but to continue the military operations against them until
+they are totally expelled from Florida. There are other motives which would
+urge the Government to pursue this course toward the Seminoles. The United
+States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the
+Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like
+performance of their obligations. To relax from this salutary rule because
+the Seminoles have maintained themselves so long in the territory they had
+relinquished, and in defiance of their frequent and solemn engagements
+still continue to wage a ruthless war against the United States, would not
+only evince a want of constancy on our part, but be of evil example in our
+intercourse with other tribes. Experience has shown that but little is to
+be gained by the march of armies through a country so intersected with
+inaccessible swamps and marshes, and which, from the fatal character of the
+climate, must be abandoned at the end of the winter. I recommend,
+therefore, to your attention the plan submitted by the Secretary of War in
+the accompanying report, for the permanent occupation of the portion of the
+Territory freed from the Indians and the more efficient protection of the
+people of Florida from their inhuman warfare.
+
+From the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith transmitted it will
+appear that a large portion of the disposable naval force is either
+actively employed or in a state of preparation for the purposes of
+experience and discipline and the protection of our commerce. So effectual
+has been this protection that so far as the information of Government
+extends not a single outrage has been attempted on a vessel carrying the
+flag of the United States within the present year, in any quarter, however
+distant or exposed.
+
+The exploring expedition sailed from Norfolk on the 19th of August last,
+and information has been received of its safe arrival at the island of
+Madeira. The best spirit animates the officers and crews, and there is
+every reason to anticipate from its efforts results beneficial to commerce
+and honorable to the nation.
+
+It will also be seen that no reduction of the force now in commission is
+contemplated. The unsettled state of a portion of South America renders it
+indispensable that our commerce should receive protection in that quarter;
+the vast and increasing interests embarked in the trade of the Indian and
+China seas, in the whale fisheries of the Pacific Ocean, and in the Gulf of
+Mexico require equal attention to their safety, and a small squadron may be
+employed to great advantage on our Atlantic coast in meeting sudden demands
+for the reenforcement of other stations, in aiding merchant vessels in
+distress, in affording active service to an additional number of officers,
+and in visiting the different ports of the United States, an accurate
+knowledge of which is obviously of the highest importance.
+
+The attention of Congress is respectfully called to that portion of the
+report recommending an increase in the number of smaller vessels, and to
+other suggestions contained in that document. The rapid increase and wide
+expansion of our commerce, which is every day seeking new avenues of
+profitable adventure; the absolute necessity of a naval force for its
+protection precisely in the degree of its extension; a due regard to the
+national rights and honor; the recollection of its former exploits, and the
+anticipation of its future triumphs whenever opportunity presents itself,
+which we may rightfully indulge from the experience of the past--all seem
+to point to the Navy as a most efficient arm of our national defense and a
+proper object of legislative encouragement.
+
+The progress and condition of the Post-Office Department will be seen by
+reference to the report of the Postmaster-General. The extent of post-roads
+covered by mail contracts is stated to be 134,818 miles, and the annual
+transportation upon them 34,580,202 miles. The number of post-offices in
+the United States is 12,553, and rapidly increasing. The gross revenue for
+the year ending on the 30th day of June last was $4,262,145; the accruing
+expenditures, $4,680,068; excess of expenditures, $417,923. This has been
+made up out of the surplus previously on hand. The cash on hand on the 1st
+instant was $314,068. The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1838, was
+$161,540 more than that for the year ending June 30, 1837. The expenditures
+of the Department had been graduated upon the anticipation of a largely
+increased revenue. A moderate curtailment of mail service consequently
+became necessary, and has been effected, to shield the Department against
+the danger of embarrassment. Its revenue is now improving, and it will soon
+resume its onward course in the march of improvement.
+
+Your particular attention is requested to so much of the
+Postmaster-Generals report as relates to the transportation of the mails
+upon railroads. The laws on that subject do not seem adequate to secure
+that service, now become almost essential to the public interests, and at
+the same time protect the Department from combinations and unreasonable
+demands.
+
+Nor can I too earnestly request your attention to the necessity of
+providing a more secure building for this Department. The danger of
+destruction to which its important books and papers are continually
+exposed, as well from the highly combustible character of the building
+occupied as from that of others in the vicinity, calls loudly for prompt
+action.
+
+Your attention is again earnestly invited to the suggestions and
+recommendations submitted at the last session in respect to the District of
+Columbia.
+
+I feel it my duty also to bring to your notice certain proceedings at law
+which have recently been prosecuted in this District in the name of the
+United States, on the relation of Messrs. Stockton & Stokes, of the State
+of Maryland, against the Postmaster-General, and which have resulted in the
+payment of money out of the National Treasury, for the first time since the
+establishment of the Government, by judicial compulsion exercised by the
+common-law writ of mandamus issued by the circuit court of this District.
+
+The facts of the case and the grounds of the proceedings will be found
+fully stated in the report of the decision, and any additional information
+which you may desire will be supplied by the proper Department. No
+interference in the particular case is contemplated. The money has been
+paid, the claims of the prosecutors have been satisfied, and the whole
+subject, so far as they are concerned, is finally disposed of; but it is on
+the supposition that the case may be regarded as an authoritative
+exposition of the law as it now stands that I have thought it necessary to
+present it to your consideration.
+
+The object of the application to the circuit court was to compel the
+Postmaster-General to carry into effect an award made by the Solicitor of
+the Treasury, under a special act of Congress for the settlement of certain
+claims of the relators on the Post-Office Department, which award the
+Postmaster-General declined to execute in full until he should receive
+further legislative direction on the subject. If the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General by that law was to be regarded as one of an official
+nature, belonging to his office as a branch of the executive, then it is
+obvious that the constitutional competency of the judiciary to direct and
+control him in its discharge was necessarily drawn in question; and if the
+duty so imposed on the Postmaster-General was to be considered as merely
+ministerial, and not executive, it yet remained to be shown that the
+circuit court of this District had authority to interfere by mandamus, such
+a power having never before been asserted or claimed by that court. With a
+view to the settlement of these important questions, the judgment of the
+circuit court was carried by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the
+United States. In the opinion of that tribunal the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General was not an official executive duty, but one of a merely
+ministerial nature. The grave constitutional questions which had been
+discussed were therefore excluded from the decision of the case, the court,
+indeed, expressly admitting that with powers and duties properly belonging
+to the executive no other department can interfere by the writ of
+mandamus; and the question therefore resolved itself into this: Has
+Congress conferred upon the circuit court of this District the power to
+issue such a writ to an officer of the General Government commanding him to
+perform a ministerial act? A majority of the court have decided that it
+has, but have rounded their decision upon a process of reasoning which in
+my judgment renders further legislative provision indispensable to the
+public interests and the equal administration of justice.
+
+It has long since been decided by the Supreme Court that neither that
+tribunal nor the circuit courts of the United States, held within the
+respective States, possess the power in question; but it is now held that
+this power, denied to both of these high tribunals (to the former by the
+Constitution and to the latter by Congress), has been by its legislation
+vested in the circuit court of this District. No such direct grant of power
+to the circuit court of this District is claimed, but it has been held to
+result by necessary implication from several sections of the law
+establishing the court. One of these sections declares that the laws of
+Maryland, as they existed at the time of the cession, should be in force in
+that part of the District ceded by that State, and by this provision the
+common law in civil and criminal cases, as it prevailed in Maryland in
+1801, was established in that part of the District.
+
+In England the court of king's bench--because the Sovereign, who, according
+to the theory of the constitution, is the fountain of justice originally
+sat there in person, and is still deemed to be present in construction of
+law--alone possesses the high power of issuing the writ of mandamus, not
+only to inferior jurisdictions and corporations, but also to magistrates
+and others, commanding them in the King's name to do what their duty
+requires in cases where there is a vested right and no other specific
+remedy. It has been held in the case referred to that as the Supreme Court
+of the United States is by the Constitution rendered incompetent to
+exercise this power, and as the circuit court of this District is a court
+of general jurisdiction in cases at common law, and the highest court of
+original jurisdiction in the District, the right to issue the writ of
+mandamus is incident to its common-law powers. Another ground relied upon
+to maintain the power in question is that it was included by fair
+construction in the powers granted to the circuit courts of the United
+States by the act "to provide for the more convenient organization of the
+courts of the United States," passed 13th February, 1801; that the act
+establishing the circuit court of this District, passed the 27th day of
+February, 1801, conferred upon that court and the judges thereof the same
+powers as were by law vested in the circuit courts of the United States and
+in the judges of the said courts; that the repeal of the first-mentioned
+act, which took place in the next year, did not divest the circuit court of
+this District of the authority in dispute, but left it still clothed with
+the powers over the subject which, it is conceded, were taken away from the
+circuit courts of the United States by the repeal of the act of 13th
+February, 1801.
+
+Admitting that the adoption of the laws of Maryland for a portion of this
+District confers on the circuit court thereof, in that portion, the
+transcendent extrajudicial prerogative powers of the court of king's bench
+in England, or that either of the acts of Congress by necessary implication
+authorizes the former court to issue a writ of mandamus to an officer of
+the United States to compel him to perform a ministerial duty, the
+consequences are in one respect the same. The result in either case is that
+the officers of the United States stationed in different parts of the
+United States are, in respect to the performance of their official duties,
+subject to different laws and a different supervision--those in the States
+to one rule, and those in the District of Columbia to another and a very
+different one. In the District their official conduct is subject to a
+judicial control from which in the States they are exempt.
+
+Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the expediency of vesting
+such a power in the judiciary in a system of government constituted like
+that of the United States, all must agree that these disparaging
+discrepancies in the law and in the administration of justice ought not to
+he permitted to continue; and as Congress alone can provide the remedy, the
+subject is unavoidably presented to your consideration.
+
+M. VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 2, 1839
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+I regret that I can not on this occasion congratulate you that the past
+year has been one of unalloyed prosperity. The ravages of fire and disease
+have painfully afflicted otherwise flourishing portions of our country, and
+serious embarrassments yet derange the trade of many of our cities. But
+notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, that general prosperity which
+has been heretofore so bountifully bestowed upon us by the Author of All
+Good still continues to call for our warmest gratitude. Especially have we
+reason to rejoice in the exuberant harvests which have lavishly recompensed
+well-directed industry and given to it that sure reward which is vainly
+sought in visionary speculations. I cannot, indeed, view without peculiar
+satisfaction the evidences afforded by the past season of the benefits that
+spring from the steady devotion of the husbandman to his honorable pursuit.
+No means of individual comfort is more certain and no source of national
+prosperity is so sure. Nothing can compensate a people for a dependence
+upon others for the bread they eat, and that cheerful abundance on which
+the happiness of everyone so much depends is to be looked for nowhere with
+such sure reliance as in the industry of the agriculturist and the bounties
+of the earth.
+
+With foreign countries our relations exhibit the same favorable aspect
+which was presented in my last annual message, and afford continued proof
+of the wisdom of the pacific, just, and forbearing policy adopted by the
+first Administration of the Federal Government and pursued by its
+successors. The extraordinary powers vested in me by an act of Congress for
+the defense of the country in an emergency, considered so far probable as
+to require that the Executive should possess ample means to meet it, have
+not been exerted. They have therefore been attended with no other result
+than to increase, by the confidence thus reposed in me, my obligations to
+maintain with religious exactness the cardinal principles that govern our
+intercourse with other nations. Happily, in our pending questions with
+Great Britain, out of which this unusual grant of authority arose, nothing
+has occurred to require its exertion, and as it is about to return to the
+Legislature I trust that no future necessity may call for its exercise by
+them or its delegation to another Department of the Government.
+
+For the settlement of our northeastern boundary the proposition promised by
+Great Britain for a commission of exploration and survey has been received,
+and a counter project, including also a provision for the certain and final
+adjustment of the limits in dispute, is now before the British Government
+for its consideration. A just regard to the delicate state of this question
+and a proper respect for the natural impatience of the State of Maine, not
+less than a conviction that the negotiation has been already protracted
+longer than is prudent on the part of either Government, have led me to
+believe that the present favorable moment should on no account be suffered
+to pass without putting the question forever at rest. I feel confident that
+the Government of Her Britannic Majesty will take the same view of this
+subject, as I am persuaded it is governed by desires equally strong and
+sincere for the amicable termination of the controversy.
+
+To the intrinsic difficulties of questions of boundary lines, especially
+those described in regions unoccupied and but partially known, is to be
+added in our country the embarrassment necessarily arising out of our
+Constitution by which the General Government is made the organ of
+negotiating and deciding upon the particular interests of the States on
+whose frontiers these lines are to be traced. To avoid another controversy
+in which a State government might rightfully claim to have her wishes
+consulted previously to the conclusion of conventional arrangements
+concerning her rights of jurisdiction or territory, I have thought it
+necessary to call the attention of the Government of Great Britain to
+another portion of our conterminous dominion of which the division still
+remains to be adjusted I refer to the line from the entrance of Lake
+Superior to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods,
+stipulations for the settlement of which are to be found in the seventh
+article of the treaty of Ghent. The commissioners appointed under that
+article by the two Governments having differed in their opinions, made
+separate reports, according to its stipulations, upon the points of
+disagreement, and these differences are now to be submitted to the
+arbitration of some friendly sovereign or state. The disputed points should
+be settled and the line designated before the Territorial government of
+which it is one of the boundaries takes its place in the Union as a State,
+and I rely upon the cordial cooperation of the British Government to effect
+that object.
+
+There is every reason to believe that disturbances like those which lately
+agitated the neighboring British Provinces will not again prove the sources
+of border contentions or interpose obstacles to the continuance of that
+good understanding which it is the mutual interest of Great Britain and the
+United States to preserve and maintain.
+
+Within the Provinces themselves tranquillity is restored, and on our
+frontier that misguided sympathy in favor of what was presumed to be a
+general effort in behalf of popular rights, and which in some instances
+misled a few of our more inexperienced citizens, has subsided into a
+rational conviction strongly opposed to all intermeddling with the internal
+affairs of our neighbors. The people of the United States feel, as it is
+hoped they always will, a warm solicitude for the success of all who are
+sincerely endeavoring to improve the political condition of mankind. This
+generous feeling they cherish toward the most distant nations, and it was
+natural, therefore, that it should be awakened with more than common warmth
+in behalf of their immediate neighbors; but it does not belong to their
+character as a community to seek the gratification of those feelings in
+acts which violate their duty as citizens, endanger the peace of their
+country, and tend to bring upon it the stain of a violated faith toward
+foreign nations. If, zealous to confer benefits on others, they appear for
+a moment to lose sight of the permanent obligations imposed upon them as
+citizens, they are seldom long misled. From all the information I receive,
+confirmed to some extent by personal observation, I am satisfied that no
+one can now hope to engage in such enterprises without encountering public
+indignation, in addition to the severest penalties of the law.
+
+Recent information also leads me to hope that the emigrants from Her
+Majesty's Provinces who have sought refuge within our boundaries are
+disposed to become peaceable residents and to abstain from all attempts to
+endanger the peace of that country which has afforded them an asylum. On a
+review of the occurrences on both sides of the line it is satisfactory to
+reflect that in almost every complaint against our country the offense may
+be traced to emigrants from the Provinces who have sought refuge here. In
+the few instances in which they were aided by citizens of the United States
+the acts of these misguided men were not only in direct contravention of
+the laws and well-known wishes of their own Government, but met with the
+decided disapprobation of the people of the United States.
+
+I regret to state the appearance of a different spirit among Her Majesty's
+subjects in the Canadas. The sentiments of hostility to our people and
+institutions which have been so frequently expressed there, and the
+disregard of our rights which has been manifested on some occasions, have,
+I am sorry to say, been applauded and encouraged by the people, and even by
+some of the subordinate local authorities, of the Provinces. The chief
+officers in Canada, fortunately, have not entertained the same feeling, and
+have probably prevented excesses that must have been fatal to the peace of
+the two countries.
+
+I look forward anxiously to a period when all the transactions which have
+grown out of this condition of our affairs, and which have been made the
+subjects of complaint and remonstrance by the two Governments,
+respectively, shall be fully examined, and the proper satisfaction given
+where it is due from either side.
+
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our intercourse with
+Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Naples, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, or
+Sweden. The internal state of Spain has sensibly improved, and a
+well-grounded hope exists that the return of peace will restore to the
+people of that country their former prosperity and enable the Government to
+fulfill all its obligations at home and abroad. The Government of Portugal,
+I have the satisfaction to state, has paid in full the eleventh and last
+installment due to our citizens for the claims embraced in the settlement
+made with it on the 3d of March, 1837.
+
+I lay before you treaties of commerce negotiated with the Kings of Sardinia
+and of the Netherlands, the ratifications of which have been exchanged
+since the adjournment of Congress. The liberal principles of these treaties
+will recommend them to your approbation. That with Sardinia is the first
+treaty of commerce formed by that Kingdom, and it will, I trust, answer the
+expectations of the present Sovereign by aiding the development of the
+resources of his country and stimulating the enterprise of his people. That
+with the Netherlands happily terminates a long-existing subject of dispute
+and removes from our future commercial intercourse all apprehension of
+embarrassment. The King of the Netherlands has also, in further
+illustration of his character for justice and of his desire to remove every
+cause of dissatisfaction, made compensation for an American vessel captured
+in 1800 by a French privateer, and carried into Curacoa, where the proceeds
+were appropriated to the use of the colony, then, and for a short time
+after, under the dominion of Holland.
+
+The death of the late Sultan has produced no alteration in our relations
+with Turkey. Our newly appointed minister resident has reached
+Constantinople, and I have received assurances from the present ruler that
+the obligations of our treaty and those of friendship will be fulfilled by
+himself in the same spirit that actuated his illustrious father.
+
+I regret to be obliged to inform you that no convention for the settlement
+of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico has yet been ratified by the
+Government of that country. The first convention formed for that purpose
+was not presented by the President of Mexico for the approbation of its
+Congress, from a belief that the King of Prussia, the arbitrator in case of
+disagreement in the joint commission to be appointed by the United States
+and Mexico, would not consent to take upon himself that friendly office.
+Although not entirely satisfied with the course pursued by Mexico, I felt
+no hesitation in receiving in the most conciliatory spirit the explanation
+offered, and also cheerfully consented to a new convention, in order to
+arrange the payments proposed to be made to our citizens in a manner which,
+while equally just to them, was deemed less onerous and inconvenient to the
+Mexican Government. Relying confidently upon the intentions of that
+Government, Mr. Ellis was directed to repair to Mexico, and diplomatic
+intercourse has been resumed between the two countries. The new convention
+has, he informs us, been recently submitted by the President of that
+Republic to its Congress under circumstances which promise a speedy
+ratification, a result which I can not allow myself to doubt.
+
+Instructions have been given to the commissioner of the United States under
+our convention with Texas for the demarcation of the line which separates
+us from that Republic. The commissioners of both Governments met in New
+Orleans in August last. The joint commission was organized, and adjourned
+to convene at the same place on the 12th of October. It is presumed to be
+now in the performance of its duties.
+
+The new Government of Texas has shown its desire to cultivate friendly
+relations with us by a prompt reparation for injuries complained of in the
+cases of two vessels of the United States.
+
+With Central America a convention has been concluded for the renewal of its
+former treaty with the United States. This was not ratified before the
+departure of our late charge d'affaires from that country, and the copy of
+it brought by him was not received before the adjournment of the Senate at
+the last session. In the meanwhile, the period limited for the exchange of
+ratifications having expired, I deemed it expedient, in consequence of the
+death of the charge d'affaires, to send a special agent to Central America
+to close the affairs of our mission there and to arrange with the
+Government an extension of the time for the exchange of ratifications.
+
+The commission created by the States which formerly composed the Republic
+of Colombia for adjusting the claims against that Government has by a very
+unexpected construction of the treaty under which it acts decided that no
+provision was made for those claims of citizens of the United States which
+arose from captures by Colombian privateers and were adjudged against the
+claimants in the judicial tribunals. This decision will compel the United
+States to apply to the several Governments formerly united for redress.
+With all these--New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador--a perfectly good
+understanding exists. Our treaty with Venezuela is faithfully carried into
+execution, and that country, in the enjoyment of tranquillity, is gradually
+advancing in prosperity under the guidance of its present distinguished
+President, General Paez. With Ecuador a liberal commercial convention has
+lately been concluded, which will be transmitted to the Senate at an early
+day.
+
+With the great American Empire of Brazil our relations continue unchanged,
+as does our friendly intercourse with the other Governments of South
+America--the Argentine Republic and the Republics of Uruguay, Chili, Peru,
+and Bolivia. The dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation may
+occasion some temporary inconvenience to our citizens in that quarter, but
+the obligations on the new Governments which have arisen out of that
+Confederation to observe its treaty stipulations will no doubt be soon
+understood, and it is presumed that no indisposition will exist to fulfill
+those which it contracted with the United States.
+
+The financial operations of the Government during the present year have, I
+am happy to say, been very successful. The difficulties under which the
+Treasury Department has labored, from known defects in the existing laws
+relative to the safe-keeping of the public moneys, aggravated by the
+suspension of specie payments by several of the banks holding public
+deposits or indebted to public officers for notes received in payment of
+public dues, have been surmounted to a very gratifying extent. The large
+current expenditures have been punctually met, and the faith of the
+Government in all its pecuniary concerns has been scrupulously maintained.
+
+The nineteen millions of Treasury notes authorized by the act of Congress
+of 1837, and the modifications thereof with a view to the indulgence of
+merchants on their duty bonds and of the deposit banks in the payment of
+public moneys held by them, have been so punctually redeemed as to leave
+less than the original ten millions outstanding at any one time, and the
+whole amount unredeemed now falls short of three millions. Of these the
+chief portion is not due till next year, and the whole would have been
+already extinguished could the Treasury have realized the payments due to
+it from the banks. If those due from them during the next year shall be
+punctually made, and if Congress shall keep the appropriations within the
+estimates, there is every reason to believe that all the outstanding
+Treasury notes can be redeemed and the ordinary expenses defrayed without
+imposing on the people any additional burden, either of loans or increased
+taxes.
+
+To avoid this and to keep the expenditures within reasonable bounds is a
+duty second only in importance to the preservation of our national
+character and the protection of our citizens in their civil and political
+rights. The creation in time of peace of a debt likely to become permanent
+is an evil for which there is no equivalent. The rapidity with which many
+of the States are apparently approaching to this condition admonishes us of
+our own duties in a manner too impressive to be disregarded. One, not the
+least important, is to keep the Federal Government always in a condition to
+discharge with ease and vigor its highest functions should their exercise
+be required by any sudden conjuncture of public affairs--a condition to
+which we are always exposed and which may occur when it is least expected.
+To this end it is indispensable that its finances should be untrammeled and
+its resources as far as practicable unencumbered. No circumstance could
+present greater obstacles to the accomplishment of these vitally important
+objects than the creation of an onerous national debt. Our own experience
+and also that of other nations have demonstrated the unavoidable and
+fearful rapidity with which a public debt is increased when the Government
+has once surrendered itself to the ruinous practice of supplying its
+supposed necessities by new loans. The struggle, therefore, on our part to
+be successful must be made at the threshold. To make our efforts effective,
+severe economy is necessary. This is the surest provision for the national
+welfare, and it is at the same time the best preservative of the principles
+on which our institutions rest. Simplicity and economy in the affairs of
+state have never failed to chasten and invigorate republican principles,
+while these have been as surely subverted by national prodigality, under
+whatever specious pretexts it may have been introduced or fostered.
+
+These considerations can not be lost upon a people who have never been
+inattentive to the effect of their policy upon the institutions they have
+created for themselves, but at the present moment their force is augmented
+by the necessity which a decreasing revenue must impose. The check lately
+given to importations of articles subject to duties, the derangements in
+the operations of internal trade, and especially the reduction gradually
+taking place in our tariff of duties, all tend materially to lessen our
+receipts; indeed, it is probable that the diminution resulting from the
+last cause alone will not fall short of $5,000,000 in the year 1842, as the
+final reduction of all duties to 20 per cent then takes effect. The whole
+revenue then accruing from the customs and from the sales of public lands,
+if not more, will undoubtedly be wanted to defray the necessary expenses of
+the Government under the most prudent administration of its affairs. These
+are circumstances that impose the necessity of rigid economy and require
+its prompt and constant exercise. With the Legislature rest the power and
+duty of so adjusting the public expenditure as to promote this end. By the
+provisions of the Constitution it is only in consequence of appropriations
+made by law that money can be drawn from the Treasury. No instance has
+occurred since the establishment of the Government in which the Executive,
+though a component part of the legislative power, has interposed an
+objection to an appropriation bill on the sole ground of its extravagance.
+His duty in this respect has been considered fulfilled by requesting such
+appropriations only as the public service may be reasonably expected to
+require. In the present earnest direction of the public mind toward this
+subject both the Executive and the Legislature have evidence of the strict
+responsibility to which they will be held; and while I am conscious of my
+own anxious efforts to perform with fidelity this portion of my public
+functions, it is a satisfaction to me to be able to count on a cordial
+cooperation from you.
+
+At the time I entered upon my present duties our ordinary disbursements,
+without including those on account of the public debt, the Post-Office, and
+the trust funds in charge of the Government, had been largely increased by
+appropriations for the removal of the Indians, for repelling Indian
+hostilities, and for other less urgent expenses which grew out of an
+overflowing Treasury. Independent of the redemption of the public debt and
+trusts, the gross expenditures of seventeen and eighteen millions in 1834
+and 1835 had by these causes swelled to twenty-nine millions in 1836, and
+the appropriations for 1837, made previously to the 4th of March, caused
+the expenditure to rise to the very large amount of thirty-three millions.
+We were enabled during the year 1838, notwithstanding the continuance of
+our Indian embarrassments, somewhat to reduce this amount, and that for the
+present year (1839) will not in all probability exceed twenty-six millions,
+or six millions less than it was last year. With a determination, so far as
+depends on me, to continue this reduction, I have directed the estimates
+for 1840 to be subjected to the severest scrutiny and to be limited to the
+absolute requirements of the public service. They will be found less than
+the expenditures of 1839 by over $5,000,000.
+
+The precautionary measures which will be recommended by the Secretary of
+the Treasury to protect faithfully the public credit under the fluctuations
+and contingencies to which our receipts and expenditures are exposed, and
+especially in a commercial crisis like the present, are commended to your
+early attention.
+
+On a former occasion your attention was invited to various considerations
+in support of a preemption law in behalf of the settlers on the public
+lands, and also of a law graduating the prices for such lands as had long
+been in the market unsold in consequence of their inferior quality. The
+execution of the act which was passed on the first subject has been
+attended with the happiest consequences in quieting titles and securing
+improvements to the industrious, and it has also to a very gratifying
+extent been exempt from the frauds which were practiced under previous
+preemption laws. It has at the same time, as was anticipated, contributed
+liberally during the present year to the receipts of the Treasury.
+
+The passage of a graduation law, with the guards before recommended, would
+also, I am persuaded, add considerably to the revenue for several years,
+and prove in other respects just and beneficial. Your early consideration
+of the subject is therefore once more earnestly requested.
+
+The present condition of the defenses of our principal seaports and
+navy-yards, as represented by the accompanying report of the Secretary of
+War, calls for the early and serious attention of Congress; and, as
+connecting itself intimately with this subject, I can not recommend too
+strongly to your consideration the plan submitted by that officer for the
+organization of the militia of the United States.
+
+In conformity with the expressed wishes of Congress, an attempt was made in
+the spring to terminate the Florida war by negotiation. It is to be
+regretted that these humane intentions should have been frustrated and that
+the effort to bring these unhappy difficulties to a satisfactory conclusion
+should have failed; but after entering into solemn engagements with the
+commanding general, the Indians, without any provocation, recommenced their
+acts of treachery and murder. The renewal of hostilities in that Territory
+renders it necessary that I should recommend to your favorable
+consideration the plan which will be submitted to you by the Secretary of
+War, in order to enable that Department to conduct them to a successful
+issue.
+
+Having had an opportunity of personally inspecting a portion of the troops
+during the last summer, it gives me pleasure to bear testimony to the
+success of the effort to improve their discipline by keeping them together
+in as large bodies as the nature of our service will permit. I recommend,
+therefore, that commodious and permanent barracks be constructed at the
+several posts designated by the Secretary of War. Notwithstanding the high
+state of their discipline and excellent police, the evils resulting to the
+service from the deficiency of company officers were very apparent, and I
+recommend that the staff officers be permanently separated from the line.
+
+The Navy has been usefully and honorably employed in protecting the rights
+and property of our citizens wherever the condition of affairs seemed to
+require its presence. With the exception of one instance, where an outrage,
+accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of the United States while
+engaged in a lawful commerce, nothing is known to have occurred to impede
+or molest the enterprise of our citizens on that element, where it is so
+signally displayed. On learning this daring act of piracy, Commodore Reed
+proceeded immediately to the spot, and receiving no satisfaction, either in
+the surrender of the murderers or the restoration of the plundered
+property, inflicted severe and merited chastisement on the barbarians.
+
+It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Navy respecting the
+disposition of our ships of war that it has been deemed necessary to
+station a competent force on the coast of Africa to prevent a fraudulent
+use of our flag by foreigners.
+
+Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing laws which
+relate to the sale and transfer of American vessels while abroad are
+extremely defective. Advantage has been taken of these defects to give to
+vessels wholly belonging to foreigners and navigating the ocean an apparent
+American ownership. This character has been so well simulated as to afford
+them comparative security in prosecuting the slave trade--a traffic
+emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded with abhorrence by our
+citizens, and of which the effectual suppression is nowhere more sincerely
+desired than in the United States. These circumstances make it proper to
+recommend to your early attention a careful revision of these laws, so that
+without impeding the freedom and facilities of our navigation or impairing
+an important branch of our industry connected with it the integrity and
+honor of our flag may be carefully preserved. Information derived from our
+consul at Havana showing the necessity of this was communicated to a
+committee of the Senate near the close of the last session, but too late,
+as it appeared, to be acted upon. It will be brought to your notice by the
+proper Department, with additional communications from other sources.
+
+The latest accounts from the exploring expedition represent it as
+proceeding successfully in its objects and promising results no less useful
+to trade and navigation than to science.
+
+The extent of post-roads covered by mail service on the 1st of July last
+was about 133,999 miles and the rate of annual transportation upon them
+34,496,878 miles. The number of post-offices on that day was 12,780 and on
+the 30th ultimo 13,028.
+
+The revenue of the Post-Office Department for the year ending with the 30th
+of June last was $4,476,638, exhibiting an increase over the preceding year
+of $241,560. The engagements and liabilities of the Department for the same
+period are $4,624,117.
+
+The excess of liabilities over the revenue for the last two years has been
+met out of the surplus which had previously accumulated. The cash on hand
+on the 30th ultimo was about $206,701.95 and the current income of the
+Department varies very little from the rate of current expenditures. Most
+of the service suspended last year has been restored, and most of the new
+routes established by the act of 7th July, 1838, have been set in
+operation, at an annual cost of $136,963. Notwithstanding the pecuniary
+difficulties of the country, the revenue of the Department appears to be
+increasing, and unless it shall be seriously checked by the recent
+suspension of payment by so many of the banks it will be able not only to
+maintain the present mail service, but in a short time to extend it. It is
+gratifying to witness the promptitude and fidelity with which the agents of
+this Department in general perform their public duties.
+
+Some difficulties have arisen in relation to contracts for the
+transportation of the mails by railroad and steamboat companies. It appears
+that the maximum of compensation provided by Congress for the
+transportation of the mails upon railroads is not sufficient to induce some
+of the companies to convey them at such hours as are required for the
+accommodation of the public. It is one of the most important duties of the
+General Government to provide and maintain for the use of the people of the
+States the best practicable mail establishment. To arrive at that end it is
+indispensable that the Post-Office Department shall be enabled to control
+the hours at which the mails shall be carried over railroads, as it now
+does over all other roads. Should serious inconveniences arise from the
+inadequacy of the compensation now provided by law, or from unreasonable
+demands by any of the railroad companies, the subject is of such general
+importance as to require the prompt attention of Congress.
+
+In relation to steamboat lines, the most efficient remedy is obvious and
+has been suggested by the Postmaster-General. The War and Navy Departments
+already employ steamboats in their service; and although it is by no means
+desirable that the Government should undertake the transportation of
+passengers or freight as a business, there can be no reasonable objection
+to running boats, temporarily, whenever it may be necessary to put down
+attempts at extortion, to be discontinued as soon as reasonable contracts
+can be obtained.
+
+The suggestions of the Postmaster-General relative to the inadequacy of the
+legal allowance to witnesses in cases of prosecutions for mail depredations
+merit your serious consideration. The safety of the mails requires that
+such prosecutions shall be efficient, and justice to the citizen whose time
+is required to be given to the public demands not only that his expenses
+shall be paid, but that he shall receive a reasonable compensation.
+
+The reports from the War, Navy, and Post-Office Departments will accompany
+this communication, and one from the Treasury Department will be presented
+to Congress in a few days.
+
+For various details in respect to the matters in charge of these
+Departments I would refer you to those important documents, satisfied that
+you will find in them many valuable suggestions which will be found well
+deserving the attention of the Legislature.
+
+From a report made in December of last year by the Secretary of State to
+the Senate, showing the trial docket of each of the circuit courts and the
+number of miles each judge has to travel in the performance of his duties,
+a great inequality appears in the amount of labor assigned to each judge.
+The number of terms to be held in each of the courts composing the ninth
+circuit, the distances between the places at which they sit and from thence
+to the seat of Government, are represented to be such as to render it
+impossible for the judge of that circuit to perform in a manner
+corresponding with the public exigencies his term and circuit duties. A
+revision, therefore, of the present arrangement of the circuit seems to be
+called for and is recommended to your notice.
+
+I think it proper to call your attention to the power assumed by
+Territorial legislatures to authorize the issue of bonds by corporate
+companies on the guaranty of the Territory. Congress passed a law in 1836
+providing that no act of a Territorial legislature incorporating banks
+should have the force of law until approved by Congress, but acts of a very
+exceptionable character previously passed by the legislature of Florida
+were suffered to remain in force, by virtue of which bonds may be issued to
+a very large amount by those institutions upon the faith of the Territory.
+A resolution, intending to be a joint one, passed the Senate at the same
+session, expressing the sense of Congress that the laws in question ought
+not to be permitted to remain in force unless amended in many material
+respects; but it failed in the House of Representatives for want of time,
+and the desired amendments have not been made. The interests involved are
+of great importance, and the subject deserves your early and careful
+attention.
+
+The continued agitation of the question relative to the best mode of
+keeping and disbursing the public money still injuriously affects the
+business of the country. The suspension of specie payments in 1837 rendered
+the use of deposit banks as prescribed by the act of 1836 a source rather
+of embarrassment than aid, and of necessity placed the custody of most of
+the public money afterwards collected in charge of the public officers. The
+new securities for its safety which this required were a principal cause of
+my convening an extra session of Congress, but in consequence of a
+disagreement between the two Houses neither then nor at any subsequent
+period has there been any legislation on the subject. The effort made at
+the last session to obtain the authority of Congress to punish the use of
+public money for private purposes as a crime a measure attended under other
+governments with signal advantage--was also unsuccessful, from diversities
+of opinion in that body, notwithstanding the anxiety doubtless felt by it
+to afford every practicable security. The result of this is still to leave
+the custody of the public money without those safeguards which have been
+for several years earnestly desired by the Executive, and as the remedy is
+only to be found in the action of the Legislature it imposes on me the duty
+of again submitting to you the propriety of passing a law providing for the
+safe-keeping of the public moneys, and especially to ask that its use for
+private purposes by any officers intrusted with it may be declared to be a
+felony, punishable with penalties proportioned to the magnitude of the
+offense.
+
+These circumstances, added to known defects in the existing laws and
+unusual derangement in the general operations of trade, have during the
+last three years much increased the difficulties attendant on the
+collection, keeping, and disbursement of the revenue, and called forth
+corresponding exertions from those having them in charge. Happily these
+have been successful beyond expectation. Vast sums have been collected and
+disbursed by the several Departments with unexpected cheapness and ease,
+transfers have been readily made to every part of the Union, however
+distant, and defalcations have been far less than might have been
+anticipated from the absence of adequate legal restraints. Since the
+officers of the Treasury and Post-Office Departments were charged with the
+custody of most of the public moneys received by them there have been
+collected $66,000,000, and, excluding the case of the late collector at New
+York, the aggregate amount of losses sustained in the collection can not,
+it is believed, exceed $60,000. The defalcation of the late collector at
+that city, of the extent and circumstances of which Congress have been
+fully informed, ran through all the modes of keeping the public money that
+have been hitherto in use, and was distinguished by an aggravated disregard
+of duty that broke through the restraints of every system, and can not,
+therefore, be usefully referred to as a test of the comparative safety of
+either. Additional information will also be furnished by the report of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to a call made upon that officer by the
+House of Representatives at the last session requiring detailed information
+on the subject of defaults by public officers or agents under each
+Administration from 1789 to 1837. This document will be submitted to you in
+a few days. The general results (independent of the Post-Office, which is
+kept separately and will be stated by itself), so far as they bear upon
+this subject, are that the losses which have been and are likely to be
+sustained by any class of agents have been the greatest by banks,
+including, as required in the resolution, their depreciated paper received
+for public dues; that the next largest have been by disbursing officers,
+and the least by collectors and receivers. If the losses on duty bonds are
+included, they alone will be threefold those by both collectors and
+receivers. Our whole experience, therefore, furnishes the strongest
+evidence that the desired legislation of Congress is alone wanting to
+insure in those operations the highest degree of security and facility.
+Such also appears to have been the experience of other nations. From the
+results of inquiries made by the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the
+practice among them I am enabled to state that in twenty-two out of
+twenty-seven foreign governments from which undoubted information has been
+obtained the public moneys are kept in charge of public officers. This
+concurrence of opinion in favor of that system is perhaps as great as
+exists on any question of internal administration.
+
+In the modes of business and official restraints on disbursing officers no
+legal change was produced by the suspension of specie payments. The report
+last referred to will be found to contain also much useful information in
+relation to this subject.
+
+I have heretofore assigned to Congress my reasons for believing that the
+establishment of an independent National Treasury, as contemplated by the
+Constitution, is necessary to the safe action of the Federal Government.
+The suspension of specie payments in 1837 by the banks having the custody
+of the public money showed in so alarming a degree our dependence on those
+institutions for the performance of duties required by law that I then
+recommended the entire dissolution of that connection. This recommendation
+has been subjected, as I desired it should be, to severe scrutiny and
+animated discussion, and I allow myself to believe that notwithstanding the
+natural diversities of opinion which may be anticipated on all subjects
+involving such important considerations, it has secured in its favor as
+general a concurrence of public sentiment as could be expected on one of
+such magnitude.
+
+Recent events have also continued to develop new objections to such a
+connection. Seldom is any bank, under the existing system and practice,
+able to meet on demand all its liabilities for deposits and notes in
+circulation. It maintains specie payments and transacts a profitable
+business only by the confidence of the public in its solvency, and whenever
+this is destroyed the demands of its depositors and note holders, pressed
+more rapidly than it can make collections from its debtors, force it to
+stop payment. This loss of confidence, with its consequences, occurred in
+1837, and afforded the apology of the banks for their suspension. The
+public then acquiesced in the validity of the excuse, and while the State
+legislatures did not exact from them their forfeited charters, Congress, in
+accordance with the recommendation of the Executive, allowed them time to
+pay over the public money they held, although compelled to issue Treasury
+notes to supply the deficiency thus created.
+
+It now appears that there are other motives than a want of public
+confidence under which the banks seek to justify themselves in a refusal to
+meet their obligations. Scarcely were the country and Government relieved
+in a degree from the difficulties occasioned by the general suspension of
+1837 when a partial one, occurring within thirty months of the former,
+produced new and serious embarrassments, though it had no palliation in
+such circumstances as were alleged in justification of that which had
+previously taken place. There was nothing in the condition of the country
+to endanger a well-managed banking institution; commerce was deranged by no
+foreign war; every branch of manufacturing industry was crowned with rich
+rewards, and the more than usual abundance of our harvests, after supplying
+our domestic wants, had left our granaries and storehouses filled with a
+surplus for exportation. It is in the midst of this that an irredeemable
+and depreciated paper currency is entailed upon the people by a large
+portion of the banks. They are not driven to it by the exhibition of a loss
+of public confidence or of a sudden pressure from their depositors or note
+holders, but they excuse themselves by alleging that the current of
+business and exchange with foreign countries, which draws the precious
+metals from their vaults, would require in order to meet it a larger
+curtailment of their loans to a comparatively small portion of the
+community than it will be convenient for them to bear or perhaps safe for
+the banks to exact. The plea has ceased to be one of necessity. Convenience
+and policy are now deemed sufficient to warrant these institutions in
+disregarding their solemn obligations. Such conduct is not merely an injury
+to individual creditors, but it is a wrong to the whole community, from
+whose liberality they hold most valuable privileges, whose rights they
+violate, whose business they derange, and the value of whose property they
+render unstable and insecure. It must be evident that this new ground for
+bank suspensions, in reference to which their action is not only
+disconnected with, but wholly independent of, that of the public, gives a
+character to their suspensions more alarming than any which they exhibited
+before, and greatly increases the impropriety of relying on the banks in
+the transactions of the Government.
+
+A large and highly respectable portion of our banking institutions are, it
+affords me unfeigned pleasure to state, exempted from all blame on account
+of this second delinquency. They have, to their great credit, not only
+continued to meet their engagements, but have even repudiated the grounds
+of suspension now resorted to. It is only by such a course that the
+confidence and good will of the community can be preserved, and in the
+sequel the best interests of the institutions themselves promoted.
+
+New dangers to the banks are also daily disclosed from the extension of
+that system of extravagant credit of which they are the pillars. Formerly
+our foreign commerce was principally rounded on an exchange of commodities,
+including the precious metals, and leaving in its transactions but little
+foreign debt. Such is not now the case. Aided by the facilities afforded by
+the banks, mere credit has become too commonly the basis of trade. Many of
+the banks themselves, not content with largely stimulating this system
+among others, have usurped the business, while they impair the stability,
+of the mercantile community; they have become borrowers instead of lenders;
+they establish their agencies abroad; they deal largely in stocks and
+merchandise; they encourage the issue of State securities until the foreign
+market is glutted with them; and, unsatisfied with the legitimate use of
+their own capital and the exercise of their lawful privileges, they raise
+by large loans additional means for every variety of speculation. The
+disasters attendant on this deviation from the former course of business in
+this country are now shared alike by banks and individuals to an extent of
+which there is perhaps no previous example in the annals of our country. So
+long as a willingness of the foreign lender and a sufficient export of our
+productions to meet any necessary partial payments leave the flow of credit
+undisturbed all appears to be prosperous, but as soon as it is checked by
+any hesitation abroad or by an inability to make payment there in our
+productions the evils of the system are disclosed. The paper currency,
+which might serve for domestic purposes, is useless to pay the debt due in
+Europe. Gold and silver are therefore drawn in exchange for their notes
+from the banks. To keep up their supply of coin these institutions are
+obliged to call upon their own debtors, who pay them principally in their
+own notes, which are as unavailable to them as they are to the merchants to
+meet the foreign demand. The calls of the banks, therefore, in such
+emergencies of necessity exceed that demand, and produce a corresponding
+curtailment of their accommodations and of the currency at the very moment
+when the state of trade renders it most inconvenient to be borne. The
+intensity of this pressure on the community is in proportion to the
+previous liberality of credit and consequent expansion of the currency.
+Forced sales of property are made at the time when the means of purchasing
+are most reduced, and the worst calamities to individuals are only at last
+arrested by an open violation of their obligations by the banks--a refusal
+to pay specie for their notes and an imposition upon the community of a
+fluctuating and depreciated currency.
+
+These consequences are inherent in the present system. They are not
+influenced by the banks being large or small, created by National or State
+Governments. They are the results of the irresistible laws of trade or
+credit. In the recent events, which have so strikingly illustrated the
+certain effects of these laws, we have seen the bank of the largest capital
+in the Union, established under a national charter, and lately
+strengthened, as we were authoritatively informed, by exchanging that for a
+State charter with new and unusual privileges--in a condition, too, as it
+was said, of entire soundness and great prosperity--not merely unable to
+resist these effects, but the first to yield to them.
+
+Nor is it to be overlooked that there exists a chain of necessary
+dependence among these institutions which obliges them to a great extent to
+follow the course of others, notwithstanding its injustice to their own
+immediate creditors or injury to the particular community in which they are
+placed. This dependence of a bank, which is in proportion to the extent of
+its debts for circulation and deposits, is not merely on others in its own
+vicinity, but on all those which connect it with the center of trade.
+Distant banks may fail without seriously affecting those in our principal
+commercial cities, but the failure of the latter is felt at the extremities
+of the Union. The suspension at New York in 1837 was everywhere, with very
+few exceptions, followed as soon as it was known. That recently at
+Philadelphia immediately affected the banks of the South and West in a
+similar manner. This dependence of our whole banking system on the
+institutions in a few large cities is not found in the laws of their
+organization, but in those of trade and exchange. The banks at that center,
+to which currency flows and where it is required in payments for
+merchandise, hold the power of controlling those in regions whence it
+comes, while the latter possess no means of restraining them; so that the
+value of individual property and the prosperity of trade through the whole
+interior of the country are made to depend on the good or bad management of
+the banking institutions in the great seats of trade on the seaboard.
+
+But this chain of dependence does not stop here. It does not terminate at
+Philadelphia or New York. It reaches across the ocean and ends in London,
+the center of the credit system. The same laws of trade which give to the
+banks in our principal cities power over the whole banking system of the
+United States subject the former, in their turn, to the money power in
+Great Britain. It is not denied that the suspension of the New York banks
+in 1837, which was followed in quick succession throughout the Union, was
+produced by an application of that power, and it is now alleged, in
+extenuation of the present condition of so large a portion of our banks,
+that their embarrassments have arisen from the same cause.
+
+From this influence they can not now entirely escape, for it has its origin
+in the credit currencies of the two countries; it is strengthened by the
+current of trade and exchange which centers in London, and is rendered
+almost irresistible by the large debts contracted there by our merchants,
+our banks, and our States. It is thus that an introduction of a new bank
+into the most distant of our villages places the business of that village
+within the influence of the money power in England; it is thus that every
+new debt which we contract in that country seriously affects our own
+currency and extends over the pursuits of our citizens its powerful
+influence. We can not escape from this by making new banks, great or small,
+State or national. The same chains which bind those now existing to the
+center of this system of paper credit must equally fetter every similar
+institution we create. It is only by the extent to which this system has
+been pushed of late that we have been made fully aware of its irresistible
+tendency to subject our own banks and currency to a vast controlling power
+in a foreign lad, and it adds a new argument to those which illustrate
+their precarious situation.. Endangered in the first place by their own
+mismanagement and again by the conduct of every institution which connects
+them with the center of trade in our own country, they are yet subjected
+beyond all this to the effect of whatever measures policy, necessity, or
+caprice may induce those who control the credits of England to resort to. I
+mean not to comment upon these measures, present or past, and much less to
+discourage the prosecution of fair commercial dealing between the two
+countries, based on reciprocal benefits; but it having now been made
+manifest that the power of inflicting these and similar injuries is by the
+resistless law of a credit currency and credit trade equally capable of
+extending their consequences through all the ramifications of our banking
+system, and by that means indirectly obtaining, particularly when our banks
+are used as depositories of the public moneys, a dangerous political
+influence in the United States, I have deemed it my duty to bring the
+subject to your notice and ask for it your serious consideration.
+
+Is an argument required beyond the exposition of these facts to show the
+impropriety of using our banking institutions as depositories of the public
+money? Can we venture not only to encounter the risk of their individual
+and mutual mismanagement, but at the same time to place our foreign and
+domestic policy entirely under the control of a foreign moneyed interest?
+To do so is to impair the independence of our Government, as the present
+credit system has already impaired the independence of our banks; it is to
+submit all its important operations, whether of peace or war, to be
+controlled or thwarted, at first by our own banks and then by a power
+abroad greater than themselves. I can not bring myself to depict the
+humiliation to which this Government and people might be sooner or later
+reduced if the means for defending their rights are to be made dependent
+upon those who may have the most powerful of motives to impair them.
+
+Nor is it only in reference to the effect of this state of things on the
+independence of our Government or of our banks that the subject presents
+itself for consideration; it is to be viewed also in its relations to the
+general trade of our country. The time is not long passed when a deficiency
+of foreign crops was thought to afford a profitable market for the surplus
+of our industry, but now we await with feverish anxiety the news of the
+English harvest, not so much from motives of commendable sympathy, but
+fearful lest its anticipated failure should narrow the field of credit
+there. Does not this speak volumes to the patriot? Can a system be
+beneficent, wise, or just which creates greater anxiety for interests
+dependent on foreign credit than for the general prosperity of our own
+country and the profitable exportation of the surplus produce of our
+labor?
+
+The circumstances to which I have thus adverted appear to me to afford
+weighty reasons, developed by late events, to be added to those which I
+have on former occasions offered when submitting to your better knowledge
+and discernment the propriety of separating the custody of the public money
+from banking institutions. Nor has anything occurred to lessen, in my
+opinion, the force of what has been heretofore urged. The only ground on
+which that custody can be desired by the banks is the profitable use which
+they may make of the money. Such use would be regarded in individuals as a
+breach of trust or a crime of great magnitude, and yet it may be reasonably
+doubted whether, first and last, it is not attended with more mischievous
+consequences when permitted to the former than to the latter. The practice
+of permitting the public money to be used by its keepers, as here, is
+believed to be peculiar to this country and to exist scarcely anywhere
+else. To procure it here improper influences are appealed to, unwise
+connections are established between the Government and vast numbers of
+powerful State institutions, other motives than the public good are brought
+to bear both on the executive and legislative departments, and selfish
+combinations leading to special legislation are formed. It is made the
+interest of banking institutions and their stockholders throughout the
+Union to use their exertions for the increase of taxation and the
+accumulation of a surplus revenue, and while an excuse is afforded the
+means are furnished for those excessive issues which lead to extravagant
+trading and speculation and are the forerunners of a vast debt abroad and a
+suspension of the banks at home.
+
+Impressed, therefore, as I am with the propriety of the funds of the
+Government being withdrawn from the private use of either banks or
+individuals, and the public money kept by duly appointed public agents, and
+believing as I do that such also is the judgment which discussion,
+reflection, and experience have produced on the public mind, I leave the
+subject with you. It is, at all events, essential to the interests of the
+community and the business of the Government that a decision should be
+made.
+
+Most of the arguments that dissuade us from employing banks in the custody
+and disbursement of the public money apply with equal force to the receipt
+of their notes for public dues. The difference is only in form. In one
+instance the Government is a creditor for its deposits, and in the other
+for the notes it holds. They afford the same opportunity for using the
+public moneys, and equally lead to all the evils attendant upon it, since a
+bank can as safely extend its discounts on a deposit of its notes in the
+hands of a public officer as on one made in its own vaults. On the other
+hand, it would give to the Government no greater security, for in case of
+failure the claim of the note holder would be no better than that of a
+depositor.
+
+I am aware that the danger of inconvenience to the public and unreasonable
+pressure upon sound banks have been urged as objections to requiring the
+payment of the revenue in gold and silver. These objections have been
+greatly exaggerated. From the best estimates we may safely fix the amount
+of specie in the country at $85,000,000, and the portion of that which
+would be employed at any one time in the receipts and disbursements of the
+Government, even if the proposed change were made at once, would not, it is
+now, after fuller investigation, believed exceed four or five millions. If
+the change were gradual, several years would elapse before that sum would
+be required, with annual opportunities in the meantime to alter the law
+should experience prove it to be oppressive or inconvenient. The portions
+of the community on whose business the change would immediately operate are
+comparatively small, nor is it believed that its effect would be in the
+least unjust or injurious to them.
+
+In the payment of duties, which constitute by far the greater portion of
+the revenue, a very large proportion is derived from foreign commission
+houses and agents of foreign manufacturers, who sell the goods consigned to
+them generally at auction, and after paying the duties out of the avails
+remit the rest abroad in specie or its equivalent. That the amount of
+duties should in such cases be also retained in specie can hardly be made a
+matter of complaint. Our own importing merchants, by whom the residue of
+the duties is paid, are not only peculiarly interested in maintaining a
+sound currency, which the measure in question will especially promote, but
+are from the nature of their dealings best able to know when specie will be
+needed and to procure it with the least difficulty or sacrifice. Residing,
+too, almost universally in places where the revenue is received and where
+the drafts used by the Government for its disbursements must concentrate,
+they have every opportunity to obtain and use them in place of specie
+should it be for their interest or convenience. Of the number of these
+drafts and the facilities they may afford, as well as of the rapidity with
+which the public funds are drawn and disbursed, an idea may be formed from
+the fact that of nearly $20,000,000 paid to collectors and receivers during
+the present year the average amount in their hands at any one time has not
+exceeded a million and a half, and of the fifteen millions received by the
+collector of New York alone during the present year the average amount held
+by him subject to draft during each week has been less than half a
+million.
+
+The ease and safety of the operations of the Treasury in keeping the public
+money are promoted by the application of its own drafts to the public dues.
+The objection arising from having them too long outstanding might be
+obviated and they yet made to afford to merchants and banks holding them an
+equivalent for specie, and in that way greatly lessen the amount actually
+required. Still less inconvenience will attend the requirement of specie in
+purchases of public lands. Such purchases, except when made on speculation,
+are in general but single transactions, rarely repeated by the same person;
+and it is a fact that for the last year and a half, during which the notes
+of sound banks have been received, more than a moiety of these payments has
+been voluntarily made in specie, being a larger proportion than would have
+been required in three years under the graduation proposed.
+
+It is, moreover, a principle than which none is better settled by
+experience that the supply of the precious metals will always be found
+adequate to the uses for which they are required. They abound in countries
+where no other currency is allowed. In our own States, where small notes
+are excluded, gold and silver supply their place. When driven to their
+hiding places by bank suspensions, a little firmness in the community soon
+restores them in a sufficient quantity for ordinary purposes. Postage and
+other public dues have been collected in coin without serious inconvenience
+even in States where a depreciated paper currency has existed for years,
+and this, with the aid of Treasury notes for a part of the time, was done
+without interruption during the suspension of 1837. At the present moment
+the receipts and disbursements of the Government are made in legal currency
+in the largest portion of the Union. No one suggests a departure from this
+rule, and if it can now be successfully carried out it will be surely
+attended with even less difficulty when bank notes are again redeemed in
+specie.
+
+Indeed, I can not think that a serious objection would anywhere be raised
+to the receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public transactions
+were it not from an apprehension that a surplus in the Treasury might
+withdraw a large portion of it from circulation and lock it up unprofitably
+in the public vaults. It would not, in my opinion, be difficult to prevent
+such an inconvenience from occurring; but the authentic statements which I
+have already submitted to you in regard to the actual amount in the public
+Treasury at any one time during the period embraced in them and the little
+probability of a different state of the Treasury for at least some years to
+come seem to render it unnecessary to dwell upon it. Congress, moreover, as
+I have before observed, will in every year have an opportunity to guard
+against it should the occurrence of any circumstances lead us to apprehend
+injury from this source. Viewing the subject in all its aspects, I can not
+believe that any period will be more auspicious than the present for the
+adoption of all measures necessary to maintain the sanctity of our own
+engagements and to aid in securing to the community that abundant supply of
+the precious metals which adds so much to their prosperity and gives such
+increased stability to all their dealings.
+
+In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably always
+exist, but this serves only to render it the more incumbent on us,
+notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our
+respective stations to mitigate the evils they produce; to take from them
+as rapidly as the obligations of public faith and a careful consideration
+of the immediate interests of the community will permit the unjust
+character of monopolies; to check, so far as may be practicable, by prudent
+legislation those temptations of interest and those opportunities for their
+dangerous indulgence which beset them on every side, and to confine them
+strictly to the performance of their paramount duty--that of aiding the
+operations of commerce rather than consulting their own exclusive
+advantage. These and other salutary reforms may, it is believed, be
+accomplished without the violation of any of the great principles of the
+social compact, the observance of which is indispensable to its existence,
+or interfering in any way with the useful and profitable employment of real
+capital.
+
+Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving to
+commercial intercourse all necessary facilities without inflating or
+depreciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus accomplishing
+their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their
+protection and encouragement in the good will of the community. Among a
+people so just as ours the same results could not fail to attend a similar
+course. The direct supervision of the banks belongs, from the nature of our
+Government, to the States who authorize them. It is to their legislatures
+that the people must mainly look for action on that subject. But as the
+conduct of the Federal Government in the management of its revenue has also
+a powerful, though less immediate, influence upon them, it becomes our duty
+to see that a proper direction is given to it. While the keeping of the
+public revenue in a separate and independent treasury and of collecting it
+in gold and silver will have a salutary influence on the system of paper
+credit with which all banks are connected, and thus aid those that are
+sound and well managed, it will at the same time sensibly check such as are
+otherwise by at once withholding the means of extravagance afforded by the
+public funds and restraining them from excessive issues of notes which they
+would be constantly called upon to redeem.
+
+I am aware it has been urged that this control may be best attained and
+exerted by means of a national bank. The constitutional objections which I
+am well known to entertain would prevent me in any event from proposing or
+assenting to that remedy; but in addition to this, I can not after past
+experience bring myself to think that it can any longer be extensively
+regarded as effective for such a purpose. The history of the late national
+bank, through all its mutations, shows that it was not so. On the contrary,
+it may, after a careful consideration of the subject, be, I think, safely
+stated that at every period of banking excess it took the lead; that in
+1817 and 1818, in 1823, in 1831, and in 1834 its vast expansions, followed
+by distressing contractions, led to those of the State institutions. It
+swelled and maddened the tides of the banking system, but seldom allayed or
+safely directed them. At a few periods only was a salutary control
+exercised, but an eager desire, on the contrary, exhibited for profit in
+the first place; and if afterwards its measures were severe toward other
+institutions, it was because its own safety compelled it to adopt them. It
+did not differ from them in principle or in form; its measures emanated
+from the same spirit of gain; it felt the same temptation to overissues; it
+suffered from and was totally unable to avert those inevitable laws of
+trade by which it was itself affected equally with them; and at least on
+one occasion, at an early day, it was saved only by extraordinary exertions
+from the same fate that attended the weakest institution it professed to
+supervise. In 1837 it failed equally with others in redeeming its notes
+(though the two years allowed by its charter for that purpose had not
+expired), a large amount of which remains to the present time outstanding.
+It is true that, having so vast a capital and strengthened by the use of
+all the revenues of the Government, it possessed more power; but while it
+was itself by that circumstance freed from the control which all banks
+require, its paramount object and inducement were left the same--to make
+the most for its stockholders, not to regulate the currency of the country.
+Nor has it, as far as we are advised, been found to be greatly otherwise
+elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of England has not
+prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to
+keep off a suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter
+of a century. And why should we expect it to be otherwise? A national
+institution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the
+State banks, is yet constituted upon the same principles, is conducted by
+men equally exposed to temptation, and is liable to the same disasters,
+with the additional disadvantage that its magnitude occasions an extent of
+confusion and distress which the mismanagement of smaller institutions
+could not produce. It can scarcely be doubted that the recent suspension of
+the United State Bank of Pennsylvania, of which the effects are felt not in
+that State alone, but over half the Union, had its origin in a course of
+business commenced while it was a national institution, and there is no
+good reason for supposing that the same consequences would not have
+followed had it still derived its powers from the General Government. It is
+in vain, when the influences and impulses are the same, to look for a
+difference in conduct or results. By such creations we do, therefore, but
+increase the mass of paper credit and paper currency, without checking
+their attendant evils and fluctuations. The extent of power and the
+efficiency of organization which we give, so far from being beneficial, are
+in practice positively injurious. They strengthen the chain of dependence
+throughout the Union, subject all parts more certainly to common disaster,
+and bind every bank more effectually in the first instance to those of our
+commercial cities, and in the end to a foreign power. In a word, I can not
+but believe that, with the full understanding of the operations of our
+banking system which experience has produced, public sentiment is not less
+opposed to the creation of a national bank for purposes connected with
+currency and commerce than for those connected with the fiscal operations
+of the Government.
+
+Yet the commerce and currency of the country are suffering evils from the
+operations of the State banks which can not and ought not to be overlooked.
+By their means we have been flooded with a depreciated paper, which it was
+evidently the design of the framers of the Constitution to prevent when
+they required Congress to "Coin money and regulate the value of foreign
+coins," and when they forbade the States "to coin money, emit bills of
+credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts," or
+"pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts." If they did not guard
+more explicitly against the present state of things, it was because they
+could not have anticipated that the few banks then existing were to swell
+to an extent which would expel to so great a degree the gold and silver for
+which they had provided from the channels of circulation, and fill them
+with a currency that defeats the objects they had in view. The remedy for
+this must chiefly rest with the States from whose legislation it has
+sprung. No good that might accrue in a particular case front the exercise
+of powers not obviously conferred on the General Government would authorize
+its interference or justify a course that might in the slightest degree
+increase at the expense of the States the power of the Federal authorities;
+nor do I doubt that the States will apply the remedy. Within the last few
+years events have appealed to them too strongly to be disregarded. They
+have seen that the Constitution, though theoretically adhered to, is
+subverted in practice; that while on the statute books there is no legal
+tender but gold and silver, no law impairing the obligations of contracts,
+yet that in point of fact the privileges conferred on banking corporations
+have made their notes the currency of the country; that the obligations
+imposed by these notes are violated under the impulses of interest or
+convenience, and that the number and power of the persons connected with
+these corporations or placed under their influence give them a fearful
+weight when their interest is in opposition to the spirit of the
+Constitution and laws. To the people it is immaterial whether these results
+are produced by open violations of the latter or by the workings of a
+system of which the result is the same. An inflexible execution even of the
+existing statutes of most of the States would redress many evils now
+endured, would effectually show the banks the dangers of mismanagement
+which impunity encourages them to repeat, and would teach all corporations
+the useful lesson that they are the subjects of the law and the servants of
+the people. What is still wanting to effect these objects must be sought in
+additional legislation, or, if that be inadequate, in such further
+constitutional grants or restrictions as may bring us back into the path
+from which we have so widely wandered.
+
+In the meantime it is the duty of the General Government to cooperate with
+the States by a wise exercise of its constitutional powers and the
+enforcement of its existing laws. The extent to which it may do so by
+further enactments I have already adverted to, and the wisdom of Congress
+may yet enlarge them. But above all, it is incumbent upon us to hold erect
+the principles of morality and law, constantly executing our own contracts
+in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, and thus serving as
+a rallying point by which our whole country may be brought back to that
+safe and honored standard.
+
+Our people will not long be insensible to the extent of the burdens
+entailed upon them by the false system that has been operating on their
+sanguine, energetic, and industrious character, nor to the means necessary
+to extricate themselves from these embarrassments. The weight which presses
+upon a large portion of the people and the States is an enormous debt,
+foreign and domestic. The foreign debt of our States, corporations, and men
+of business can scarcely be less than $200,000,000, requiring more than
+$10,000,000 a year to pay the interest. This sum has to be paid out of the
+exports of the country, and must of necessity cut off imports to that
+extent or plunge the country more deeply in debt from year to year. It is
+easy to see that the increase of this foreign debt must augment the annual
+demand on the exports to pay the interest, and to the same extent diminish
+the imports, and in proportion to the enlargement of the foreign debt and
+the consequent increase of interest must be the decrease of the import
+trade. In lieu of the comforts which it now brings us we might have our.
+gigantic banking institutions and splendid, but in many instances
+profitless, railroads and canals absorbing to a great extent in interest
+upon the capital borrowed to construct them the surplus fruits of national
+industry for years to come, and securing to posterity no adequate return
+for the comforts which the labors of their hands might otherwise have
+secured. It is not by the increase of this debt that relief is to be
+sought, but in its diminution. Upon this point there is, I am happy to say,
+hope before us; not so much in the return of confidence abroad, which will
+enable the States to borrow more money, as in a change of public feeling at
+home, which prompts our people to pause in their career and think of the
+means by which debts are to be paid before they are contracted. If we would
+escape embarrassment, public and private, we must cease to run in debt
+except for objects of necessity or such as will yield a certain return. Let
+the faith of the States, corporations, and individuals already pledged be
+kept with the most punctilious regard. It is due to our national character
+as well as to justice that this should on the part of each be a fixed
+principle of conduct. But it behooves us all to be more chary in pledging
+it hereafter. By ceasing to run in debt and applying the surplus of our
+crops and incomes to the discharge of existing obligations, buying less and
+selling more, and managing all affairs, public and private, with strict
+economy and frugality, we shall see our country soon recover from a
+temporary depression, arising not from natural and permanent causes, but
+from those I have enumerated, and advance with renewed vigor in her career
+of prosperity.
+
+Fortunately for us at this moment, when the balance of trade is greatly
+against us and the difficulty of meeting it enhanced by the disturbed state
+of our money affairs, the bounties of Providence have come to relieve us
+from the consequences of past errors. A faithful application of the immense
+results of the labors of the last season will afford partial relief for the
+present, and perseverance in the same course will in due season accomplish
+the rest. We have had full experience in times past of the extraordinary
+results which can in this respect be brought about in a short period by the
+united and well-directed efforts of a community like ours. Our surplus
+profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the wonderful
+advantages which Providence has bestowed upon our country in its climate,
+its various productions, indispensable to other nations, will in due time
+afford abundant means to perfect the most useful of those objects for which
+the States have been plunging themselves of late in embarrassment and debt,
+without imposing on ourselves or our children such fearful burdens.
+
+But let it be indelibly engraved on our minds that relief is not to be
+found in expedients. Indebtedness can not be lessened by borrowing more
+money or by changing the form of the debt. The balance of trade is not to
+be turned in our favor by creating new demands upon us abroad. Our currency
+can not be improved by the creation of new banks or more issues from those
+which now exist. Although these devices sometimes appear to give temporary
+relief, they almost invariably aggravate the evil in the end. It is only by
+retrenchment and reform--by curtailing public and private expenditures, by
+paying our debts, and by reforming our banking system--that we are to
+expect effectual relief, security for the future, and an enduring
+prosperity. In shaping the institutions and policy of the General
+Government so as to promote as far as it can with its limited powers these
+important ends, you may rely on my most cordial cooperation.
+
+That there should have been in the progress of recent events doubts in many
+quarters and in some a heated opposition to every change can not surprise
+us. Doubts are properly attendant on all reform, and it is peculiarly in
+the nature of such abuses as we are now encountering to seek to perpetuate
+their power by means of the influence they have been permitted to acquire.
+It is their result, if not their object, to gain for the few an ascendency
+over the many by securing to them a monopoly of the currency, the medium
+through which most of the wants of mankind are supplied; to produce
+throughout society a chain of dependence which leads all classes to look to
+privileged associations for the means of speculation and extravagance; to
+nourish, in preference to the manly virtues that give dignity to human
+nature, a craving desire for luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which
+renders those who seek them dependent on those who supply them; to
+substitute for republican simplicity and economical habits a sickly
+appetite for effeminate indulgence and an imitation of that reckless
+extravagance which impoverished and enslaved the industrious people of
+foreign lands, and at last to fix upon us, instead of those equal political
+rights the acquisition of which was alike the object and supposed reward of
+our Revolutionary struggle, a system of exclusive privileges conferred by
+partial legislation. To remove the influences which had thus gradually
+grown up among us, to deprive them of their deceptive advantages, to test
+them by the light of wisdom and truth, to oppose the force which they
+concentrate in their sup-port--all this was necessarily the work of time,
+even among a people so enlightened and pure as that of the United States.
+In most other countries, perhaps, it could only be accomplished through
+that series of revolutionary movements which are too often found necessary
+to effect any great and radical reform; but it is the crowning merit of our
+institutions that they create and nourish in the vast majority of our
+people a disposition and a power peaceably to remedy abuses which have
+elsewhere caused the effusion of rivers of blood and the sacrifice of
+thousands of the human race. The result thus far is most honorable to the
+self-denial, the intelligence, and the patriotism of our citizens; it
+justifies the confident hope that they will carry through the reform which
+has been so well begun, and that they will go still further than they have
+yet gone in illustrating the important truth that a people as free and
+enlightened as ours will, whenever it becomes necessary, show themselves to
+be indeed capable of self-government by voluntarily adopting appropriate
+remedies for every abuse, and submitting to temporary sacrifices, however
+great, to insure their permanent welfare.
+
+My own exertions for the furtherance of these desirable objects have been
+bestowed throughout my official career with a zeal that is nourished by
+ardent wishes for the welfare of my country, and by an unlimited reliance
+on the wisdom that marks its ultimate decision on all great and
+controverted questions. Impressed with the solemn obligations imposed upon
+me by the Constitution, desirous also of laying before my fellow-citizens,
+with whose confidence and support I have been so highly honored, such
+measures as appear to me conducive to their prosperity, and anxious to
+submit to their fullest consideration the grounds upon which my opinions
+are formed, I have on this as on preceding occasions freely offered my
+views on those points of domestic policy that seem at the present time most
+prominently to require the action of the Government. I know that they will
+receive from Congress that full and able consideration which the importance
+of the subjects merits, and I can repeat the assurance heretofore made that
+I shall cheerfully and readily cooperate with you in every measure that
+will tend to promote the welfare of the Union.
+
+M. VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 5, 1840
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having graciously
+continued to our beloved country through the vicissitudes of another year
+the invaluable blessings of health, plenty, and peace. Seldom has this
+favored land been so generally exempted from the ravages of disease or the
+labor of the husbandman more amply rewarded, and never before have our
+relations with other countries been placed on a more favorable basis than
+that which they so happily occupy at this critical conjuncture in the
+affairs of the world. A rigid and persevering abstinence from all
+interference with the domestic and political relations of other States,
+alike due to the genius and distinctive character of our Government and to
+the principles by which it is directed; a faithful observance in the
+management of our foreign relations of the practice of speaking plainly,
+dealing justly, and requiring truth and justice in return as the best
+conservatives of the peace of nations; a strict impartiality in our
+manifestations of friendship in the commercial privileges we concede and
+those we require from others--these, accompanied by a disposition as prompt
+to maintain in every emergency our own rights as we are from principle
+averse to the invasion of those of others, have given to our country and
+Government a standing in the great family of nations of which we have just
+cause to be proud and the advantages of which are experienced by our
+citizens throughout every portion of the earth to which their enterprising
+and adventurous spirit may carry them. Few, if any, remain insensible to
+the value of our friendship or ignorant of the terms on which it can be
+acquired and by which it can alone be preserved.
+
+A series of questions of long standing, difficult in their adjustment and
+important in their consequences, in which the rights of our citizens and
+the honor of the country were deeply involved, have in the course of a few
+years (the most of them during the successful Administration of my
+immediate predecessor) been brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and the
+most important of those remaining are, I am happy to believe, in a fair way
+of being speedily and satisfactorily adjusted.
+
+With all the powers of the world our relations are those of honorable
+peace. Since your adjournment nothing serious has occurred to interrupt or
+threaten this desirable harmony. If clouds have lowered above the other
+hemisphere, they have not cast their portentous shadows upon our happy
+shores. Bound by no entangling alliances, yet linked by a common nature and
+interest with the other nations of mankind, our aspirations are for the
+preservation of peace, in whose solid and civilizing triumphs all may
+participate with a generous emulation. Yet it behooves us to be prepared
+for any event and to be always ready to maintain those just and enlightened
+principles of national intercourse for which this Government has ever
+contended. In the shock of contending empires it is only by assuming a
+resolute bearing and clothing themselves with defensive armor that neutral
+nations can maintain their independent rights.
+
+The excitement which grew out of the territorial controversy between the
+United States and Great Britain having in a great measure subsided, it is
+hoped that a favorable period is approaching for its final settlement. Both
+Governments must now be convinced of the dangers with which the question is
+fraught, and it must be their desire, as it is their interest, that this
+perpetual cause of irritation should be removed as speedily as practicable.
+In my last annual message you were informed that the proposition for a
+commission of exploration and survey promised by Great Britain had been
+received, and that a counter project, including also a provision for the
+certain and final adjustment of the limits in dispute, was then before the
+British Government for its consideration. The answer of that Government,
+accompanied by additional propositions of its own, was received through its
+minister here since your separation. These were promptly considered, such
+as were deemed correct in principle and consistent with a due regard to the
+just rights of the United States and of the State of Maine concurred in,
+and the reasons for dissenting from the residue, with an additional
+suggestion on our part, communicated by the Secretary of State to Mr. Fox.
+That minister, not feeling himself sufficiently instructed upon some of the
+points raised in the discussion, felt it to be his duty to refer the matter
+to his own Government for its further decision. Having now been for some
+time under its advisement, a speedy answer may be confidently expected.
+From the character of the points still in difference and the undoubted
+disposition of both parties to bring the matter to an early conclusion, I
+look with entire confidence to a prompt and satisfactory termination of the
+negotiation. Three commissioners were appointed shortly after the
+adjournment of Congress under the act of the last session providing for the
+exploration and survey of the line which separates the States of Maine and
+New Hampshire from the British Provinces. They have been actively employed
+until their progress was interrupted by the inclemency of the season, and
+will resume their labors as soon as practicable in the ensuing year.
+
+It is understood that their respective examinations will throw new light
+upon the subject in controversy and serve to remove any erroneous
+impressions which may have been made elsewhere prejudicial to the rights of
+the United States. It was, among other reasons, with a view of preventing
+the embarrassments which in our peculiar system of government impede and
+complicate negotiations involving the territorial rights of a State that I
+thought it my duty, as you have been informed on a previous occasion, to
+propose to the British Government, through its minister at Washington, that
+early steps should be taken to adjust the points of difference on the line
+of boundary from the entrance of Lake Superior to the most northwestern
+point of the Lake of the Woods by the arbitration of a friendly power in
+conformity with the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent. No answer has
+yet been returned by the British Government to this proposition.
+
+With Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the remaining powers of Europe I
+am happy to inform you our relations continue to be of the most friendly
+character. With Belgium a treaty of commerce and navigation, based upon
+liberal principles of reciprocity and equality, was concluded in March
+last, and, having been ratified by the Belgian Government, will be duly
+laid before the Senate. It is a subject of congratulation that it provides
+for the satisfactory adjustment of a long-standing question of controversy,
+thus removing the only obstacle which could obstruct the friendly and
+mutually advantageous intercourse between the two nations. A messenger has
+been dispatched with the Hanoverian treaty to Berlin, where, according to
+stipulation, the ratifications are to be exchanged. I am happy to announce
+to you that after many delays and difficulties a treaty of commerce and
+navigation between the United States and Portugal was concluded and signed
+at Lisbon on the 26th of August last by the plenipotentiaries of the two
+Governments. Its stipulations are founded upon those principles of mutual
+liberality and advantage which the United States have always sought to make
+the basis of their intercourse with foreign powers, and it is hoped they
+will tend to foster and strengthen the commercial intercourse of the two
+countries.
+
+Under the appropriation of the last session of Congress an agent has been
+sent to Germany for the purpose of promoting the interests of our tobacco
+trade.
+
+The commissioners appointed under the convention for the adjustment of
+claims of citizens of the United States upon Mexico having met and
+organized at Washington in August last, the papers in the possession of the
+Government relating to those claims were communicated to the board. The
+claims not embraced by that convention are now the subject of negotiation
+between the two Governments through the medium of our minister at Mexico.
+
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our relations with the
+different Governments of South America. I regret, however, to be obliged to
+inform you that the claims of our citizens upon the late Republic of
+Colombia have not yet been satisfied by the separate Governments into which
+it has been resolved.
+
+The charge d'affaires of Brazil having expressed the intention of his
+Government not to prolong the treaty of 1828, it will cease to be
+obligatory upon either party on the 12th day of December, 1841, when the
+extensive commercial intercourse between the United States and that vast
+Empire will no longer be regulated by express stipulations.
+
+It affords me pleasure to communicate to you that the Government of Chili
+has entered into an agreement to indemnify the claimants in the case of the
+Macectonian for American property seized in 1819, and to add that
+information has also been received which justifies the hope of an early
+adjustment of the remaining claims upon that Government.
+
+The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the convention between the
+United States and Texas for marking the boundary between them have,
+according to the last report received from our commissioner, surveyed and
+established the whole extent of the boundary north along the western bank
+of the Sabine River from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico to the
+thirty-second degree of north latitude. The commission adjourned on the
+16th of June last, to reassemble on the 1st of November for the purpose of
+establishing accurately the intersection of the thirty-second degree of
+latitude with the western bank of the Sabine and the meridian line thence
+to Red River. It is presumed that the work will be concluded in the present
+season.
+
+The present sound condition of their finances and the success with which
+embarrassments in regard to them, at times apparently insurmountable, have
+been overcome are matters upon which the people and Government of the
+United States may well congratulate themselves. An overflowing Treasury,
+however it may be regarded as an evidence of public prosperity, is seldom
+conducive to the permanent welfare of any people, and experience has
+demonstrated its incompatibility with the salutary action of political
+institutions like those of the United States. Our safest reliance for
+financial efficiency and independence has, on the contrary, been found to
+consist in ample resources unencumbered with debt, and in this respect the
+Federal Government occupies a singularly fortunate and truly enviable
+position.
+
+When I entered upon the discharge of my official duties in March, 1837, the
+act for the distribution of the surplus revenue was in a course of rapid
+execution. Nearly $28,000,000 of the public moneys were, in pursuance of
+its provisions, deposited with the States in the months of January, April,
+and July of that year. In May there occurred a general suspension of specie
+payments by the banks, including, with very few exceptions, those in which
+the public moneys were deposited and upon whose fidelity the Government had
+unfortunately made itself dependent for the revenues which had been
+collected from the people and were indispensable to the public service.
+
+This suspension and the excesses in banking and commerce out of which it
+arose, and which were greatly aggravated by its occurrence, made to a great
+extent unavailable the principal part of the public money then on hand,
+suspended the collection of many millions accruing on merchants' bonds, and
+greatly reduced the revenue arising from customs and the public lands.
+These effects have continued to operate in various degrees to the present
+period, and in addition to the decrease in the revenue thus produced two
+and a half millions of duties have been relinquished by two biennial
+reductions under the act of 1833, and probably as much more upon the
+importation of iron for railroads by special legislation.
+
+Whilst such has been our condition for the last four years in relation to
+revenue, we have during the same period been subjected to an unavoidable
+continuance of large extraordinary expenses necessarily growing out of past
+transactions, and which could not be immediately arrested without great
+prejudice to the public interest. Of these, the charge upon the Treasurer
+in consequence of the Cherokee treaty alone, without adverting to others
+arising out of Indian treaties, has already exceeded $5,000,000; that for
+the prosecution of measures for the removal of the Seminole Indians, which
+were found in progress, has been nearly fourteen millions, and the public
+buildings have required the unusual sum of nearly three millions.
+
+It affords me, however, great pleasure to be able to say that from the
+commencement of this period to the present day every demand upon the
+Government, at home or abroad, has been promptly met. This has been done
+not only without creating a permanent debt or a resort to additional
+taxation in any form, but in the midst of a steadily progressive reduction
+of existing burdens upon the people, leaving still a considerable balance
+of available funds which will remain in the Treasury at the end of the
+year. The small amount of Treasury notes, not exceeding $4,500,000, still
+outstanding, and less by twenty-three millions than the United States have
+in deposit with the States, is composed of such only as are not yet due or
+have not been presented for payment. They may be redeemed out of the
+accruing revenue if the expenditures do not exceed the amount within which
+they may, it is thought, be kept without prejudice to the public interest,
+and the revenue shall prove to be as large as may justly be anticipated.
+
+Among the reflections arising from the contemplation of these
+circumstances, one, not the least gratifying, is the consciousness that the
+Government had the resolution and the ability to adhere in every emergency
+to the sacred obligations of law, to execute all its contracts according to
+the requirements of the Constitution, and thus to present when most needed
+a rallying point by which the business of the whole country might be
+brought back to a safe and unvarying standard--a result vitally important
+as well to the interests as to the morals of the people. There can surely
+now be no difference of opinion in regard to the incalculable evils that
+would have arisen if the Government at that critical moment had suffered
+itself to be deterred from upholding the only true standard of value,
+either by the pressure of adverse circumstances or the violence of
+unmerited denunciation. The manner in which the people sustained the
+performance of this duty was highly honorable to their fortitude and
+patriotism. It can not fail to stimulate their agents to adhere under all
+circumstances to the line of duty and to satisfy them of the safety with
+which a course really right and demanded by a financial crisis may in a
+community like ours be pursued, however apparently severe its immediate
+operation.
+
+The policy of the Federal Government in extinguishing as rapidly as
+possible the national debt, and subsequently in resisting every temptation
+to create a new one, deserves to be regarded in the same favorable light.
+Among the many objections to a national debt, the certain tendency of
+public securities to concentrate ultimately in the coffers of foreign
+stockholders is one which is every day gathering strength. Already have the
+resources of many of the States and the future industry of their citizens
+been indefinitely mortgaged to the subjects of European Governments to the
+amount of twelve millions annually to pay the constantly accruing interest
+on borrowed money--a sum exceeding half the ordinary revenues of the whole
+United States. The pretext which this relation affords to foreigners to
+scrutinize the management of our domestic affairs, if not actually to
+intermeddle with them, presents a subject for earnest attention, not to say
+of serious alarm. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with the exception
+of an obligation entered into in behalf of the District of Columbia, which
+must soon be discharged, is wholly exempt from any such embarrassment. It
+is also, as is believed, the only Government which, having fully and
+faithfully paid all its creditors, has also relieved itself entirely from
+debt. To maintain a distinction so desirable and so honorable to our
+national character should be an object of earnest solicitude. Never should
+a free people, if it be possible to avoid it, expose themselves to the
+necessity of having to treat of the peace, the honor, or the safety of the
+Republic with the governments of foreign creditors, who, however well
+disposed they may be to cultivate with us in general friendly relations,
+are nevertheless by the law of their own condition made hostile to the
+success and permanency of political institutions like ours. Most
+humiliating may be the embarrassments consequent upon such a condition.
+Another objection, scarcely less formidable, to the commencement of a new
+debt is its inevitable tendency to increase in magnitude and to foster
+national extravagance. He has been an unprofitable observer of events who
+needs at this day to be admonished of the difficulties which a government
+habitually dependent on loans to sustain its ordinary expenditures has to
+encounter in resisting the influences constantly exerted in favor of
+additional loans; by capitalists, who enrich themselves by government
+securities for amounts much exceeding the money they actually advance--a
+prolific source of individual aggrandizement in all borrowing countries; by
+stockholders, who seek their gains in the rise and fall of public stocks;
+and by the selfish importunities of applicants for appropriations for works
+avowedly for the accommodation of the public, but the real objects of which
+are too frequently the advancement of private interests. The known
+necessity which so many of the States will be under to impose taxes for the
+payment of the interest on their debts furnishes an additional and very
+cogent reason why the Federal Governments should refrain from creating a
+national debt, by which the people would be exposed to double taxation for
+a similar object. We possess within ourselves ample resources for every
+emergency, and we may be quite sure that our citizens in no future exigency
+will be unwilling to supply the Government with all the means asked for the
+defense of the country. In time of peace there can, at all events, be no
+justification for the creation of a permanent debt by the Federal
+Government. Its limited range of constitutional duties may certainly under
+such circumstances be performed without such a resort. It has, it is seen,
+been avoided during four years of greater fiscal difficulties than have
+existed in a similar period since the adoption of the Constitution, and one
+also remarkable for the occurrence of extraordinary causes of
+expenditures.
+
+But to accomplish so desirable an object two things are indispensable:
+First, that the action of the Federal Government be kept within the
+boundaries prescribed by its founders, and, secondly, that all
+appropriations for objects admitted to be constitutional, and the
+expenditure of them also, be subjected to a standard of rigid but
+well-considered and practical economy. The first depends chiefly on the
+people themselves--the opinions they form of the true construction of the
+Constitution and the confidence they repose in the political sentiments of
+those they select as their representatives in the Federal Legislature; the
+second rests upon the fidelity with which their more immediate
+representatives and other public functionaries discharge the trusts
+committed to them. The duty of economizing the expenses of the public
+service is admitted on all hands; yet there are few subjects upon which
+there exists a wider difference of opinion than is constantly manifested in
+regard to the fidelity with which that duty is discharged. Neither
+diversity of sentiment nor even mutual recriminations upon a point in
+respect to which the public mind is so justly sensitive can well be
+entirely avoided, and least so at periods of great political excitement. An
+intelligent people, however, seldom fail to arrive in the end at correct
+conclusions in such a matter. Practical economy in the management of public
+affairs can have no adverse influence to contend with more powerful than a
+large surplus revenue, and the unusually large appropriations for 1837 may
+without doubt, independently of the extraordinary requisitions for the
+public service growing out of the state of our Indian relations, be in no
+inconsiderable degree traced to this source. The sudden and rapid
+distribution of the large surplus then in the Treasury and the equally
+sudden and unprecedentedly severe revulsion in the commerce and business of
+the country, pointing with unerring certainty to a great and protracted
+reduction of the revenue, strengthened the propriety of the earliest
+practicable reduction of the public expenditures.
+
+But to change a system operating upon so large a surface and applicable to
+such numerous and diversified interests and objects was more than the work
+of a day. The attention of every department of the Government was
+immediately and in good faith directed to that end, and has been so
+continued to the present moment. The estimates and appropriations for the
+year 1838 (the first over which I had any control) were somewhat
+diminished. The expenditures of 1839 were reduced $6,000,000. Those of
+1840, exclusive of disbursements for public debt and trust claims, will
+probably not exceed twenty-two and a half millions, being between two and
+three millions less than those of the preceding year and nine or ten
+millions less than those of 1837. Nor has it been found necessary in order
+to produce this result to resort to the power conferred by Congress of
+postponing certain classes of the public works, except by deferring
+expenditures for a short period upon a limited portion of them, and which
+postponement terminated some time since--at the moment the Treasury
+Department by further receipts from the indebted banks became fully assured
+of its ability to meet them without prejudice to the public service in
+other respects. Causes are in operation which will, it is believed, justify
+a still further reduction without injury to any important national
+interest. The expenses of sustaining the troops employed in Florida have
+been gradually and greatly reduced through the persevering efforts of the
+War Department, and a reasonable hope may be entertained that the necessity
+for military operations in that quarter will soon cease. The removal of the
+Indians from within our settled borders is nearly completed. The pension
+list, one of the heaviest charges upon the Treasury, is rapidly diminishing
+by death. The most costly of our public buildings are either finished or
+nearly so, and we may, I think, safely promise ourselves a continued
+exemption from border difficulties.
+
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $ 1,500,000. This sum, with the expected receipts from all
+sources during the next year, will, it is believed, be sufficient to enable
+the Government to meet every engagement and have a suitable balance, in the
+Treasury at the end of the year, if the remedial measures connected with
+the customs and the public lands heretofore recommended are adopted and the
+new appropriations by Congress shall not carry the expenditures beyond the
+official estimates.
+
+The new system established by Congress for the safe-keeping of the public
+money, prescribing the kind of currency to be received for the public
+revenue and providing additional guards and securities against losses, has
+now been several mouths in operation. Although it might be premature upon
+an experience of such limited duration to form a definite opinion in regard
+to the extent of its influences in correcting many evils under which the
+Federal Government and the country have hitherto suffered, especially those
+that have grown out of banking expansions, a depreciated currency, and
+official defalcations, yet it is but right to say that nothing has occurred
+in the practical operation of the system to weaken in the slightest degree,
+but much to strengthen, the confident anticipations of its friends. The
+grounds of these have been heretofore so fully explained as to require no
+recapitulation. In respect to the facility and convenience it affords in
+conducting the public service, and the ability of the Government to
+discharge through its agency every duty attendant on the collection,
+transfer, and disbursement of the public money with promptitude and
+success, I can say with confidence that the apprehensions of those who felt
+it to be their duty to oppose its adoption have proved to be unfounded. On
+the contrary, this branch of the fiscal affairs of the Government has been,
+and it is believed may always be, thus carried on with every desirable
+facility and security. A few changes and improvements in the details of the
+system, without affecting any principles involved in it, will be submitted
+to you by the Secretary of the Treasury, and will, I am sure, receive at
+your hands that attention to which they may on examination be found to be
+entitled.
+
+I have deemed this brief summary of our fiscal affairs necessary to the due
+performance of a duty specially enjoined upon me by the Constitution. It
+will serve also to illustrate more fully the principles by which I have
+been guided in reference to two contested points in our public policy which
+were earliest in their development and have been more important in their
+consequences than any that have arisen under our complicated and difficult,
+yet admirable, system of government. I allude to a national debt and a
+national bank. It was in these that the political contests by which the
+country has been agitated ever since the adoption of the Constitution in a
+great measure originated, and there is too much reason to apprehend that
+the conflicting interests and opposing principles thus marshaled will
+continue as heretofore to produce similar if not aggravated consequences.
+Coming into office the declared enemy of both, I have earnestly endeavored
+to prevent a resort to either.
+
+The consideration that a large public debt affords an apology, and produces
+in some degree a necessity also, for resorting to a system and extent of
+taxation which is not only oppressive throughout, but is likewise so apt to
+lead in the end to the commission of that most odious of all offenses
+against the principles of republican government, the prostitution of
+political power, conferred for the general benefit, to the aggrandizement
+of particular classes and the gratification of individual cupidity, is
+alone sufficient, independently of the weighty objections which have
+already been urged, to render its creation and existence the sources of
+bitter and unappeasable discord. If we add to this its inevitable tendency
+to produce and foster extravagant expenditures of the public moneys, by
+which a necessity is created for new loans and new burdens on the people,
+and, finally, refer to the examples of every government which has existed
+for proof, how seldom it is that the system, when once adopted and
+implanted in the policy of a country, has failed to expand itself until
+public credit was exhausted and the people were no longer able to endure
+its increasing weight, it seems impossible to resist the conclusion that no
+benefits resulting from its career, no extent of conquest, no accession of
+wealth to particular classes, nor any nor all its combined advantages, can
+counterbalance its ultimate but certain results--a splendid government and
+an impoverished people.
+
+If a national bank was, as is undeniable, repudiated by the framers of the
+Constitution as incompatible with the rights of the States and the
+liberties of the people; if from the beginning it has been regarded by
+large portions of our citizens as coming in direct collision with that
+great and vital amendment of the Constitution which declares that all
+powers not conferred by that instrument on the General Government are
+reserved to the States and to the people; if it has been viewed by them as
+the first great step in the march of latitudinous construction, which
+unchecked would render that sacred instrument of as little value as an
+unwritten constitution, dependent, as it would alone be, for its meaning on
+the interested interpretation of a dominant party, and affording no
+security to the rights of the minority--if such is undeniably the case,
+what rational grounds could have been conceived for anticipating aught but
+determined opposition to such an institution at the present day.
+
+Could a different result have been expected when the consequences which
+have flowed from its creation, and particularly from its struggles to
+perpetuate its existence, had confirmed in so striking a manner the
+apprehensions of its earliest opponents; when it had been so clearly
+demonstrated that a concentrated money power, wielding so vast a capital
+and combining such incalculable means of influence, may in those peculiar
+conjunctures to which this Government is unavoidably exposed prove an
+overmatch for the political power of the people themselves; when the true
+character of its capacity to regulate according to its will and its
+interests and the interests of its favorites the value and production of
+the labor and property of every man in this extended country had been so
+fully and fearfully developed; when it was notorious that all classes of
+this great community had, by means of the power and influence it thus
+possesses, been infected to madness with a spirit of heedless speculation;
+when it had been seen that, secure in the support of the combination of
+influences by which it was surrounded, it could violate its charter and set
+the laws at defiance with impunity; and when, too, it had become most
+apparent that to believe that such an accumulation of powers can ever be
+granted without the certainty of being abused was to indulge in a fatal
+delusion?
+
+To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences
+I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of
+confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as
+are clearly within the constitutional authority of the Federal Government;
+of excluding from its expenses those improvident and unauthorized grants of
+public money for works of internal improvement which were so wisely
+arrested by the constitutional interposition of my predecessor, and which,
+if they had not been so checked, would long before this time have involved
+the finances of the General Government in embarrassments far greater than
+those which are now experienced by any of the States; of limiting all our
+expenditures to that simple, unostentatious, and economical administration
+of public affairs which is alone consistent with the character of our
+institutions; of collecting annually from the customs, and the sales of
+public lands a revenue fully adequate to defray all the expenses thus
+incurred; but under no pretense whatsoever to impose taxes upon the people
+to a greater amount than was actually necessary to the public service
+conducted upon the principles I have stated.
+
+In lieu of a national bank or a dependence upon banks of any description
+for the management of our fiscal affairs, I recommended the adoption of the
+system which is now in successful operation. That system affords every
+requisite facility for the transaction of the pecuniary concerns of the
+Government; will, it is confidently anticipated, produce in other respects
+many of the benefits which have been from time to time expected from the
+creation of a national bank, but which have never been realized; avoid the
+manifold evils inseparable from such an institution; diminish to a greater
+extent than could be accomplished by any other measure of reform the
+patronage of the Federal Government--a wise policy in all governments, but
+more especially so in one like ours, which works well only in proportion as
+it is made to rely for its support upon the unbiased and unadulterated
+opinions of its constituents; do away forever all dependence on corporate
+bodies either in the raising, collecting, safekeeping, or disbursing the
+public revenues, and place the Government equally above the temptation of
+fostering a dangerous and unconstitutional institution at home or the
+necessity of adapting its policy to the views and interests of a still more
+formidable money power abroad.
+
+It is by adopting and carrying out these principles under circumstances the
+most arduous and discouraging that the attempt has been made, thus far
+successfully, to demonstrate to the people of the United States that a
+national bank at all times, and a national debt except it be incurred at a
+period when the honor and safety of the nation demand the temporary
+sacrifice of a policy which should only be abandoned in such exigencies,
+are not merely unnecessary, but in direct and deadly hostility to the
+principles of their Government and to their own permanent welfare.
+
+The progress made in the development of these positions appears in the
+preceding sketch of the past history and present state of the financial
+concerns of the Federal Government. The facts there stated fully authorize
+the assertion that all the purposes for which this Government was
+instituted have been accomplished during four years of greater pecuniary
+embarrassment than were ever before experienced in time of peace, and in
+the face of opposition as formidable as any that was ever before arrayed
+against the policy of an Administration; that this has been done when the
+ordinary revenues of the Government were generally decreasing as well from
+the operation of the laws as the condition of the country, without the
+creation of a permanent public debt or incurring any liability other than
+such as the ordinary resources of the Government will speedily discharge,
+and without the agency of a national bank.
+
+If this view of the proceedings of the Government for the period it
+embraces be warranted by the facts as they are known to exist; if the Army
+and Navy have been sustained to the full extent authorized by law, and
+which Congress deemed sufficient for the defense of the country and the
+protection of its rights and its honor; if its civil and diplomatic service
+has been equally sustained; if ample provision has been made for the
+administration of justice and the execution of the laws; if the claims upon
+public gratitude in behalf of the soldiers of the Revolution have been
+promptly met and faithfully discharged; if there have been no failures in
+defraying the very large expenditures growing out of that long-continued
+and salutary policy of peacefully removing the Indians to regions of
+comparative safety and prosperity; if the public faith has at all times and
+everywhere been most scrupulously maintained by a prompt discharge of the
+numerous, extended, and diversified claims on the Treasury--if all these
+great and permanent objects, with many others that might be stated, have
+for a series of years, marked by peculiar obstacles and difficulties, been
+successfully accomplished without a resort to a permanent debt or the aid
+of a national bank, have we not a right to expect that a policy the object
+of which has been to sustain the public service independently of either of
+these fruitful sources of discord will receive the final sanction of a
+people whose unbiased and fairly elicited judgment upon public affairs is
+never ultimately wrong?
+
+That embarrassments in the pecuniary concerns of individuals of unexampled
+extent and duration have recently existed in this as in other commercial
+nations is undoubtedly true. To suppose it necessary now to trace these
+reverses to their sources would be a reflection on the intelligence of my
+fellow-citizens. Whatever may have been the obscurity in which the subject
+was involved during the earlier stages of the revulsion, there can not now
+be many by whom the whole question is not fully understood.
+
+Not deeming it within the constitutional powers of the General Government
+to repair private losses sustained by reverses in business having no
+connection with the public service, either by direct appropriations from
+the Treasury or by special legislation designed to secure exclusive
+privileges and immunities to individuals or classes in preference to or at
+the expense of the great majority necessarily debarred from any
+participation in them, no attempt to do so has been either made,
+recommended, or encouraged by the present Executive.
+
+It is believed, however, that the great purposes for the attainment of
+which the Federal Government was instituted have not been lost sight of.
+Intrusted only with certain limited powers, cautiously enumerated,
+distinctly specified, and defined with a precision and clearness which
+would seem to defy misconstruction, it has been my constant aim to confine
+myself within the limits so clearly marked out and so carefully guarded.
+Having always been of opinion that the best preservative of the union of
+the States is to be found in a total abstinence from the exercise of all
+doubtful powers on the part of the Federal Government rather than in
+attempts to assume them by a loose construction of the Constitution or an
+ingenious perversion of its words, I have endeavored to avoid recommending
+any measure which I had reason to apprehend would, in the opinion even of a
+considerable minority of my fellow-citizens, be regarded as trenching on
+the rights of the States or the provisions of the hallowed instrument of
+our Union. Viewing the aggregate powers of the Federal Government as a
+voluntary concession of the States, it seemed to me that such only should
+be exercised as were at the time intended to be given.
+
+I have been strengthened, too, in the propriety of this course by the
+conviction that all efforts to go beyond this tend only to produce
+dissatisfaction and distrust, to excite jealousies, and to provoke
+resistance. Instead of adding strength to the Federal Government, even when
+successful they must ever prove a source of incurable weakness by
+alienating a portion of those whose adhesion is indispensable to the great
+aggregate of united strength and whose voluntary attachment is in my
+estimation far more essential to the efficiency of a government strong in
+the best of all possible strength--the confidence and attachment of all
+those who make up its constituent elements.
+
+Thus believing, it has been my purpose to secure to the whole people and to
+every member of the Confederacy, by general, salutary, and equal laws
+alone, the benefit of those republican institutions which it was the end
+and aim of the Constitution to establish, and the impartial influence of
+which is in my judgment indispensable to their preservation. I can not
+bring myself to believe that the lasting happiness of the people, the
+prosperity of the States, or the permanency of their Union can be
+maintained by giving preference or priority to any class of citizens in the
+distribution of benefits or privileges, or by the adoption of measures
+which enrich one portion of the Union at the expense of another; nor can I
+see in the interference of the Federal Government with the local
+legislation and reserved rights of the States a remedy for present or a
+security against future dangers.
+
+The first, and assuredly not the least, important step toward relieving the
+country from the condition into which it had been plunged by excesses in
+trade, banking, and credits of all kinds was to place the business
+transactions of the Government itself on a solid basis, giving and
+receiving in all cases value for value, and neither countenancing nor
+encouraging in others that delusive system of credits from which it has
+been found so difficult to escape, and which has left nothing behind it but
+the wrecks that mark its fatal career.
+
+That the financial affairs of the Government are now and have been during
+the whole period of these wide-spreading difficulties conducted with a
+strict and invariable regard to this great fundamental principle, and that
+by the assumption and maintenance of the stand thus taken on the very
+threshold of the approaching crisis more than by any other cause or causes
+whatever the community at large has been shielded from the incalculable
+evils of a general and indefinite suspension of specie payments, and a
+consequent annihilation for the whole period it might have lasted of a just
+and invariable standard of value, will, it is believed, at this period
+scarcely be questioned.
+
+A steady adherence on the part of the Government to the policy which has
+produced such salutary results, aided by judicious State legislation and,
+what is not less .important, by the industry, enterprise, perseverance, and
+economy of the American people, can not fail to raise the whole country at
+an early period to a state of solid and enduring prosperity, not subject to
+be again overthrown by the suspension of banks or the explosion of a
+bloated credit system. It is for the people and their representatives to
+decide whether or not the permanent welfare of the country (which all good
+citizens equally desire, however widely they may differ as to the means of
+its accomplishment) shall be in this way secured, or whether the management
+of the pecuniary concerns of the Government, and by consequence to a great
+extent those of individuals also, shall be carried back to a condition of
+things which fostered those contractions and expansions of the currency and
+those reckless abuses of credit from the baleful effects of which the
+country has so deeply suffered--a return that can promise in the end no
+better results than to reproduce the embarrassments the Government has
+experienced, and to remove from the shoulders of the present to those of
+fresh victims the bitter fruits of that spirit of speculative enterprise to
+which our countrymen are so liable and upon which the lessons of experience
+are so unavailing. The choice is an important one, and I sincerely hope
+that it may be wisely made.
+
+A report from the Secretary of War, presenting a detailed view of the
+affairs of that Department, accompanies this communication.
+
+The desultory duties connected with the removal of the Indians, in which
+the Army has been constantly engaged on the northern and western frontiers
+and in Florida, have rendered it impracticable to carry into full effect
+the plan recommended by the Secretary for improving its discipline. In
+every instance where the regiments have been concentrated they have made
+great progress, and the best results may be anticipated from a continuance
+of this system. During the last season a part of the troops have been
+employed in removing Indians from the interior to the territory assigned
+them in the West--a duty which they have performed efficiently and with
+praiseworthy humanity--and that portion of them which has been stationed in
+Florida continued active operations there throughout the heats of summer.
+
+The policy of the United States in regard to the Indians, of which a
+succinct account is given in my message of 1838, and of the wisdom and
+expediency of which I am fully satisfied, has been continued in active
+operation throughout the whole period of my Administration. Since the
+spring of 1837 more than 40,000 Indians have been removed to their new
+homes west of the Mississippi, and I am happy to add that all accounts
+concur in representing the result of this measure as eminently beneficial
+to that people.
+
+The emigration of the Seminoles alone has been attended with serious
+difficulty and occasioned bloodshed, hostilities having been commenced by
+the Indians in Florida under the apprehension that they would be compelled
+by force to comply with their treaty stipulations. The execution of the
+treaty of Paynes Landing, signed in 1832, but not ratified until 1834, was
+postponed at the solicitation of the Indians until 1836, when they again
+renewed their agreement to remove peaceably to their new homes in the West.
+In the face of this solemn and renewed compact they broke their faith and
+commenced hostilities by the massacre of Major Dade's command, the murder
+of their agent, General Thompson, and other acts of cruel treachery. When
+this alarming and unexpected intelligence reached the seat of Government,
+every effort appears to have been made to reenforce General Clinch, who
+commanded the troops then in Florida. General Eustis was dispatched with
+reenforcements from Charleston, troops were called out from Alabama,
+Tennessee, and Georgia, and General Scott was sent to take the command,
+with ample powers and ample means. At the first alarm General Gaines
+organized a force at New Orleans, and without waiting for orders landed in
+Florida, where he delivered over the troops he had brought with him to
+General Scott.
+
+Governor Call was subsequently appointed to conduct a summer campaign, and
+at the close of it was replaced by General Jesup. These events and changes
+took place under the Administration of my predecessor. Notwithstanding the
+exertions of the experienced officers who had command there for eighteen
+months, on entering upon the administration of the Government I found the
+Territory of Florida a prey to Indian atrocities. A strenuous effort was
+immediately made to bring those hostilities to a close, and the army under
+General Jesup was reenforced until it amounted to 10,000 men, and furnished
+with abundant supplies of every description. In this campaign a great
+number of the enemy were captured and destroyed, but the character of the
+contest only was changed. The Indians, having been defeated in every
+engagement, dispersed in small bands throughout the country and became an
+enterprising, formidable, and ruthless banditti. General Taylor, who
+succeeded General Jesup, used his best exertions to subdue them, and was
+seconded in his efforts by the officers under his command; but he too
+failed to protect the Territory from their depredations. By an act of
+signal and cruel treachery they broke the truce made with them by General
+MacGrab, who was sent from Washington for the purpose of carrying into
+effect the expressed wishes of Congress, and have continued their
+devastations ever since. General Armistead, who was in Florida when General
+Taylor left the army by permission, assumed the command, and after active
+summer operations was met by propositions for peace, and from the fortunate
+coincidence of the arrival in Florida at the same period of a delegation
+from the Seminoles who are happily settled west of the Mississippi and are
+now anxious to persuade their countrymen to join them there hopes were for
+some time entertained that the Indians might be induced to leave the
+Territory without further difficulty. These hopes have proved fallacious
+and hostilities have been renewed throughout the whole of the Territory.
+That this contest has endured so long is to be attributed to causes beyond
+the control of the Government. Experienced generals have had the command of
+the troops, officers and soldiers have alike distinguished themselves for
+their activity, patience, and enduring courage, the army has been
+constantly furnished with supplies of every description, and we must look
+for the causes which have so long procrastinated the issue of the contest
+in the vast extent of the theater of hostilities, the almost insurmountable
+obstacles presented by the nature of the country, the climate, and the wily
+character of the savages.
+
+The sites for marine hospitals on the rivers and lakes which I was
+authorized to select and cause to be purchased have all been designated,
+but the appropriation not proving sufficient, conditional arrangements only
+have been made for their acquisition. It is for Congress to decide whether
+these Conditional purchases shall be sanctioned and the humane intentions
+of the law carried into full effect.
+
+The Navy, as will appear from the accompanying report of the Secretary, has
+been usefully and honorably employed in the protection of our commerce and
+citizens in the Mediterranean, the Pacific, on the coast of Brazil, and in
+the Gulf of Mexico. A small squadron, consisting of the frigate
+Constellation and the sloop of war Boston, under Commodore Kearney, is now
+on its way to the China and Indian seas for the purpose of attending to our
+interests in that quarter, and Commander Aulick, in the sloop of war
+Yorktown, has been instructed to visit the Sandwich and Society islands,
+the coasts of New Zealand and Japan, together with other ports and islands
+frequented by our whale ships, for the purpose of giving them countenance
+and protection should they be required. Other smaller vessels have been and
+still are employed in prosecuting the surveys of the coast of the United
+States directed by various acts of Congress, and those which have been
+completed will shortly be laid before you.
+
+The exploring expedition at the latest date was preparing to leave the Bay
+of Islands, New Zealand, in further prosecution of objects which have thus
+far been successfully accomplished. The discovery of a new continent, which
+was first seen in latitude 66° 2' south, longitude 154° 27' east,
+and afterwards in latitude 66° 31' south, longitude 153° 40' east,
+by Lieutenants Wilkes and Hudson, for an extent of 1,800 miles, but on
+which they were prevented from landing by vast bodies of ice which
+encompassed it, is one of the honorable results of the enterprise.
+Lieutenant Wilkes bears testimony to the zeal and good conduct of his
+officers and men, and it is but justice to that officer to state that he
+appears to have performed the duties assigned him with an ardor, ability,
+and perseverance which give every assurance of an honorable issue to the
+undertaking.
+
+The report of the Postmaster-General herewith transmitted will exhibit the
+service of that Department the past year and its present condition. The
+transportation has been maintained during the year to the full extent
+authorized by the existing laws; some improvements have been effected which
+the public interest seemed urgently to demand, but not involving any
+material additional expenditure; the contractors have generally performed
+their engagements with fidelity; the postmasters, with few exceptions, have
+rendered their accounts and paid their quarterly balances with promptitude,
+and the whole service of the Department has maintained the efficiency for
+which it has for several years been distinguished.
+
+The acts of Congress establishing new mail routes and requiring more
+expensive services on others and the increasing wants of the country have
+for three years past carried the expenditures something beyond the accruing
+revenues, the excess having been met until the past year by the surplus
+which had previously accumulated. That surplus having been exhausted and
+the anticipated increase in the revenue not having been realized owing to
+the depression in the commercial business of the country, the finances of
+the Department exhibit a small deficiency at the close of the last fiscal
+year. Its resources, however, are ample, and the reduced rates of
+compensation for the transportation service which may be expected on the
+future lettings from the general reduction of prices, with the increase of
+revenue that may reasonably be anticipated from the revival of commercial
+activity, must soon place the finances of the Department in a prosperous
+condition.
+
+Considering the unfavorable circumstances which have existed during the
+past year, it is a gratifying result that the revenue has not declined as
+compared with the preceding year, but, on the contrary, exhibits a small
+increase, the circumstances referred to having had no other effect than to
+check the expected income.
+
+It will be seen that the Postmaster-General suggests certain improvements
+in the establishment designed to reduce the weight of the mails, cheapen
+the transportation, insure greater regularity in the service, and secure a
+considerable reduction in the rates of letter postage--an object highly
+desirable. The subject is one of general interest to the community, and is
+respectfully recommended to your consideration.
+
+The suppression of the African slave trade has received the continued
+attention of the Government. The brig Dolphin and schooner Grampus have
+been employed during the last season on the coast of Africa for the purpose
+of preventing such portions of that trade as were said to be prosecuted
+under the American flag. After cruising off those parts of the coast most
+usually resorted to by slavers until the commencement of the rainy season,
+these vessels returned to the United States for supplies, and have since
+been dispatched on a similar service.
+
+From the reports of the commanding officers it appears that the trade is
+now principally carried on under Portuguese colors, and they express the
+opinion that the apprehension of their presence on the slave coast has in a
+great degree arrested the prostitution of the American flag to this inhuman
+purpose. It is hoped that by continuing to maintain this force in that
+quarter and by the exertions of the officers in command much will be done
+to put a stop to whatever portion of this traffic may have been carried on
+under the American flag and to prevent its use in a trade which, while it
+violates the laws, is equally an outrage on the rights of others and the
+feelings of humanity. The efforts of the several Governments who are
+anxiously seeking to suppress this traffic must, however, be directed
+against the facilities afforded by what are now recognized as legitimate
+commercial pursuits before that object can be fully accomplished.
+
+Supplies of provisions, water casks, merchandise, and articles connected
+with the prosecution of the slave trade are, it is understood, freely
+carried by vessels of different nations to the slave factories, and the
+effects of the factors are transported openly from one slave station to
+another without interruption or punishment by either of the nations to
+which they belong engaged in the commerce of that region. I submit to your
+judgments whether this Government, having been the first to prohibit by
+adequate penalties the slave trade, the first to declare it piracy, should
+not be the first also to forbid to its citizens all trade with the slave
+factories on the coast of Africa, giving an example to all nations in this
+respect which if fairly followed can not fail to produce the most effective
+results in breaking up those dens of iniquity.
+
+M. VAN BUREN
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of Martin
+van Buren, by Martin van Buren
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of Martin van
+Buren, by Martin van Buren
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
+the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+Title: State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren
+
+Author: Martin van Buren
+
+Posting Date: November 21, 2014 [EBook #5017]
+Release Date: February, 2004
+First Posted: April 11, 2002
+Last Updated: December 16, 2004
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESSES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by James Linden.  HTML version by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>
+<br /><br /><br />
+State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren
+</h1>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<br /><br />
+The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Dates of addresses by Martin van Buren in this eBook:
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+  <a href="#dec1837">December 5, 1837</a><br />
+  <a href="#dec1838">December 3, 1838</a><br />
+  <a href="#dec1839">December 2, 1839</a><br />
+  <a href="#dec1840">December 5, 1840</a><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+***
+</p>
+
+<p><a id="dec1837"></a></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+State of the Union Address<br />
+Martin van Buren<br />
+December 5, 1837<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We have reason to renew the expression of our devout gratitude to the Giver
+of All Good for His benign protection. Our country presents on every side
+the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has
+gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous
+and powerful confederacy. We are blessed with domestic tranquillity and all
+the elements of national prosperity. The pestilence which, invading for a
+time some flourishing portions of the Union, interrupted the general
+prevalence of unusual health has happily been limited in extent and
+arrested in its fatal career. The industry and prudence of our citizens are
+gradually relieving them from the pecuniary embarrassments under which
+portions of them have labored; judicious legislation and the natural and
+boundless resources of the country have afforded wise end timely aid to
+private enterprise, and the activity always characteristic of our people
+has already in a great degree resumed its usual and profitable channels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The condition of our foreign relations has not materially changed since the
+last annual message of my predecessor. We remain at peace with all nations,
+and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights
+and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so
+consonant to our institutions. We have faithfully sustained the foreign
+policy with which the United States, under the guidance of their first
+President, took their stand in the family of nations--that of regulating
+their intercourse with other powers by the approved principles of private
+life; asking and according equal rights and equal privileges; rendering and
+demanding justice in all cases; advancing their own and discussing the
+pretensions of others with candor, directness, and sincerity; appealing at
+all times to reason, but never yielding to force nor seeking to acquire
+anything for themselves by its exercise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A rigid adherence to this policy has left this Government with scarcely a
+claim upon its justice for injuries arising from acts committed by its
+authority. The most imposing and perplexing of those of the United States
+upon foreign governments for aggressions upon our citizens were disposed of
+by my predecessor. Independently of the benefits conferred upon our
+citizens by restoring to the mercantile community so many millions of which
+they had been wrongfully divested, a great service was also rendered to his
+country by the satisfactory adjustment of so many ancient and irritating
+subjects of contention; and it reflects no ordinary credit on his
+successful administration of public affairs that this great object was
+accomplished without compromising on any occasion either the honor or the
+peace of the nation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With European powers no new subjects of difficulty have arisen, and those
+which were under discussion, although not terminated, do not present a more
+unfavorable aspect for the future preservation of that good understanding
+which it has ever been our desire to cultivate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of pending questions the most important is that which exists with the
+Government of Great Britain in respect to our northeastern boundary. It is
+with unfeigned regret that the people of the United States must look back
+upon the abortive efforts made by the Executive, for a period of more than
+half a century, to determine what no nation should suffer long to remain in
+dispute--the true line which divides its possessions from those of other
+powers. The nature of the settlements on the borders of the United States
+and of the neighboring territory was for a season such that this, perhaps,
+was not indispensable to a faithful performance of the duties of the
+Federal Government. Time has, however, changed this state of things, and
+has brought about a condition of affairs in which the true interests of
+both countries imperatively require that this question should be put at
+rest. It is not to be disguised that, with full confidence, often
+expressed, in the desire of the British Government to terminate it, we are
+apparently as far from its adjustment as we were at the time of signing the
+treaty of peace in 1783. The sole result of long-pending negotiations and a
+perplexing arbitration appears to be a conviction on its part that a
+conventional line must be adopted, from the impossibility of ascertaining
+the true one according to the description contained in that treaty. Without
+coinciding in this opinion, which is not thought to be well rounded, my
+predecessor gave the strongest proof of the earnest desire of the United
+States to terminate satisfactorily this dispute by proposing the
+substitution of a conventional line if the consent of the States interested
+in the question could be obtained. To this proposition no answer has as yet
+been received. The attention of the British Government has, however, been
+urgently invited to the subject, and its reply can not, I am confident, be
+much longer delayed. The general relations between Great Britain and the
+United States are of the most friendly character, and I am well satisfied
+of the sincere disposition of that Government to maintain them upon their
+present footing. This disposition has also, I am persuaded, become more
+general with the people of England than at any previous period. It is
+scarcely necessary to say to you how cordially it is reciprocated by the
+Government and people of the United States. The conviction, which must be
+common to all, of the injurious consequences that result from keeping open
+this irritating question, and the certainty that its final settlement can
+not be much longer deferred, will, I trust, lead to an early and
+satisfactory adjustment. At your last session I laid before you the recent
+communications between the two Governments and between this Government and
+that of the State of Maine, in whose solicitude concerning a subject in
+which she has so deep an interest every portion of the Union participates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The feelings produced by a temporary interruption of those harmonious
+relations between France and the United States which are due as well to the
+recollections of former times as to a correct appreciation of existing
+interests have been happily succeeded by a cordial disposition on both
+sides to cultivate an active friendship in their future intercourse. The
+opinion, undoubtedly correct, and steadily entertained by us, that the
+commercial relations at present existing between the two countries are
+susceptible of great and reciprocally beneficial improvements is obviously
+gaining ground in France, and I am assured of the disposition of that
+Government to favor the accomplishment of such an object. This disposition
+shall be met in a proper spirit on our part. The few and comparatively
+unimportant questions that remain to be adjusted between us can, I have no
+doubt, be settled with entire satisfaction and without difficulty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be
+mutually cherished. Our minister recently accredited to that Court has been
+received with a frankness and cordiality and with evidences of respect for
+his country which leave us no room to doubt the preservation in future of
+those amicable and liberal relations which have so long and so
+uninterruptedly existed between the two countries. On the few subjects
+under discussion between us an early and just decision is confidently
+anticipated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A correspondence has been opened with the Government of Austria for the
+establishment of diplomatic relations, in conformity with the wishes of
+Congress as indicated by an appropriation act of the session of 1837, and
+arrangements made for the purpose, which will be duly carried into effect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With Austria and Prussia and with the States of the German Empire (now
+composing with the latter the Commercial League) our political relations
+are of the most friendly character, whilst our commercial intercourse is
+gradually extending, with benefit to all who are engaged in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Civil war yet rages in Spain, producing intense suffering to its own
+people, and to other nations inconvenience and regret. Our citizens who
+have claims upon that country will be prejudiced for a time by the
+condition of its treasury, the inevitable consequence of long-continued and
+exhausting internal wars. The last installment of the interest of the debt
+due under the convention with the Queen of Spain has not been paid and
+similar failures may be expected to happen until a portion of the resources
+of her Kingdom can be devoted to the extinguishment of its foreign debt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having received satisfactory evidence that discriminating tonnage duties
+were charged upon the vessels of the United States in the ports of
+Portugal, a proclamation was issued on the 11th day of October last, in
+compliance with the act of May 25, 1832, declaring that fact, and the
+duties on foreign tonnage which were levied upon Portuguese vessels in the
+United States previously to the passage of that act are accordingly
+revived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The act of July 4, 1836, suspending the discriminating duties upon the
+produce of Portugal imported into this country in Portuguese vessels, was
+passed, upon the application of that Government through its representative
+here, under the belief that no similar discrimination existed in Portugal
+to the prejudice of the United States. I regret to state that such duties
+are now exacted in that country upon the cargoes of American vessels, and
+as the act referred to vests no discretion in the Executive, it is for
+Congress to determine upon the expediency of further legislation on the
+subject. Against these discriminations affecting the vessels of this
+country and their cargoes seasonable remonstrance was made, and notice was
+given to the Portuguese Government that unless they should be discontinued
+the adoption of countervailing measures on the part of the United States
+would become necessary; but the reply of that Government, received at the
+Department of State through our charge d'affaires at Lisbon in the month of
+September last, afforded no ground to hope for the abandonment of a system
+so little in harmony with the treatment shown to the vessels of Portugal
+and their cargoes in the ports of this country and so contrary to the
+expectations we had a right to entertain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and Belgium a friendly intercourse
+has been uninterruptedly maintained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the Government of the Ottoman Porte and its dependencies on the coast
+of the Mediterranean peace and good will are carefully cultivated, and have
+been fostered by such good offices as the relative distance and the
+condition of those countries would permit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our commerce with Greece is carried on under the laws of the two
+Governments, reciprocally beneficial to the navigating interests of both;
+and I have reason to look forward to the adoption of other measures which
+will be more extensively and permanently advantageous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Copies of the treaties concluded with the Governments of Siam and Muscat
+are transmitted for the information of Congress, the ratifications having
+been received and the treaties made public since the close of the last
+annual session. Already have we reason to congratulate ourselves on the
+prospect of considerable commercial benefit; and we have, besides, received
+from the Sultan of Muscat prompt evidence of his desire to cultivate the
+most friendly feelings, by liberal acts toward one of our vessels, bestowed
+in a manner so striking as to require on our part a grateful
+acknowledgment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our commerce with the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico still labors under
+heavy restrictions, the continuance of which is a subject of regret. The
+only effect of an adherence to them will be to benefit the navigation of
+other countries at the expense of both the United States and Spain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The independent nations of this continent have ever since they emerged from
+the colonial state experienced severe trials in their progress to the
+permanent establishment of liberal political institutions. Their unsettled
+condition not only interrupts their own advances to prosperity, but has
+often seriously injured the other powers of the world. The claims of our
+citizens upon Peru, Chili, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, the Governments
+formed out of the Republics of Colombia and Mexico, are still pending,
+although many of them have been presented for examination more than twenty
+years. New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador have recently formed a
+convention for the purpose of ascertaining and adjusting claims upon the
+Republic of Colombia, from which it is earnestly hoped our citizens will
+ere long receive full compensation for the injuries inflicted upon them and
+for the delay in affording it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An advantageous treaty of commerce has been concluded by the United States
+with the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, which wants only the ratification of
+that Government. The progress of a subsequent negotiation for the
+settlement of claims upon Peru has been unfavorably affected by the war
+between that power and Chili and the Argentine Republic, and the same event
+is also likely to produce delays in the settlement of out demands on those
+powers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The aggravating circumstances connected with our claims upon Mexico and a
+variety of events touching the honor and integrity of our Government led my
+predecessor to make at the second session of the last Congress a special
+recommendation of the course to be pursued to obtain a speedy and final
+satisfaction of the injuries complained of by this Government and by our
+citizens. He recommended a final demand of redress, with a contingent
+authority to the Executive to make reprisals if that demand should be made
+in vain. From the proceedings of Congress on that recommendation it
+appeared that the opinion of both branches of the Legislature coincided
+with that of the Executive, that any mode of redress known to the law of
+nations might justifiably be used. It was obvious, too, that Congress
+believed with the President that another demand should be made, in order to
+give undeniable and satisfactory proof of our desire to avoid extremities
+with a neighboring power, but that there was an indisposition to vest a
+discretionary authority in the Executive to take redress should it
+unfortunately be either denied or unreasonably delayed by the Mexican
+Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So soon as the necessary documents were prepared, after entering upon the
+duties of my office, a special messenger was sent to Mexico to make a final
+demand of redress, with the documents required by the provisions of our
+treaty. The demand was made on the 20th of July last. The reply, which
+bears date the 29th of the same month, contains assurances of a desire on
+the part of that Government to give a prompt and explicit answer respecting
+each of the complaints, but that the examination of them would necessarily
+be deliberate; that in this examination it would be guided by the
+principles of public law and the obligation of treaties; that nothing
+should be left undone that might lead to the most speedy and equitable
+adjustment of our demands, and that its determination in respect to each
+case should be communicated through the Mexican minister here.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Since that time an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary has
+been accredited to this Government by that of the Mexican Republic. He
+brought with him assurances of a sincere desire that the pending
+differences between the two Governments should be terminated in a manner
+satisfactory to both. He was received with reciprocal assurances, and a
+hope was entertained that his mission would lead to a speedy, satisfactory,
+and final adjustment of all existing subjects of complaint. A sincere
+believer in the wisdom of the pacific policy by which the United States
+have always been governed in their intercourse with foreign nations, it was
+my particular desire, from the proximity of the Mexican Republic and
+well-known occurrences on our frontier, to be instrumental in obviating all
+existing difficulties with that Government and in restoring to the
+intercourse between the two Republics that liberal and friendly character
+by which they should always be distinguished. I regret, therefore, the more
+deeply to have found in the recent communications of that Government so
+little reason to hope that any future efforts of mine for the
+accomplishment of those desirable objects would be successful.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Although the larger number--and many of them aggravated cases of personal
+wrongs--have been now for years before the Mexican Government, and some of
+the causes of national complaint, and those of the most offensive
+character, admitted of immediate, simple, and satisfactory replies, it is
+only within a few days past that any specific communication in answer to
+our last demand, made five months ago, has been received from the Mexican
+minister. By the report of the Secretary of State herewith presented and
+the accompanying documents it will be seen that for not one of our public
+complaints has satisfaction been given or offered, that but one of the
+cases of personal wrong has been favorably considered, and that but four
+cases of both descriptions out of all those formally presented and
+earnestly pressed have as yet been decided upon by the Mexican Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not perceiving in what manner any of the powers given to the Executive
+alone could be further usefully employed in bringing this unfortunate
+controversy to a satisfactory termination, the subject was by my
+predecessor referred to Congress as one calling for its interposition. In
+accordance with the clearly understood wishes of the Legislature, another
+and formal demand for satisfaction has been made upon the Mexican
+Government, with what success the documents now communicated will show. On
+a careful and deliberate examination of their contents, and considering the
+spirit manifested by the Mexican Government, it has become my painful duty
+to return the subject as it now stands to Congress, to whom it belongs to
+decide upon the time, the mode, and the measure of redress. Whatever may be
+your decision, it shall be faithfully executed, confident that it will be
+characterized by that moderation and justice which will, I trust, under all
+circumstances govern the councils of our country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The balance in the Treasury on the 1st January, 1837, was $45,968,523. The
+receipts during the present year from all sources, including the amount of
+Treasury notes issued, are estimated at $23,499,981, constituting an
+aggregate of $69,468,504. Of this amount about $35,281,361 will have been
+expended at the end of the year on appropriations made by Congress, and the
+residue, amounting to $34,187,143, will be the nominal balance in the
+Treasury on the 1st of January next; but of that sum only $1,085,498 is
+considered as immediately available for and applicable to public purposes.
+Those portions of it which will be for some time unavailable consist
+chiefly of sums deposited with the States and due from the former deposit
+banks. The details upon this subject will be found in the annual report of
+the Secretary of the Treasury. The amount of Treasury notes which it will
+be necessary to issue during the year on account of those funds being
+unavailable will, it is supposed, not exceed four and a half millions. It
+seemed proper, in the condition of the country, to have the estimates on
+all subjects made as low as practicable without prejudice to any great
+public measures. The Departments were therefore desired to prepare their
+estimates accordingly, and I am happy to find that they have been able to
+graduate them on so economical a scale. In the great and often unexpected
+fluctuations to which the revenue is subjected it is not possible to
+compute the receipts beforehand with great certainty, but should they not
+differ essentially from present anticipations, and should the
+appropriations not much exceed the estimates, no difficulty seems likely to
+happen in defraying the current expenses with promptitude and fidelity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Notwithstanding the great embarrassments which have recently occurred in
+commercial affairs, and the liberal indulgence which in consequence of
+these embarrassments has been extended to both the merchants and the banks,
+it is gratifying to be able to anticipate that the Treasury notes which
+have been issued during the present year will be redeemed and that the
+resources of the Treasury, without any resort to loans or increased taxes,
+will prove ample for defraying all charges imposed on it during 1838.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will afford you a more minute
+exposition of all matters connected with the administration of the finances
+during the current year--a period which for the amount of public moneys
+disbursed and deposited with the States, as well as the financial
+difficulties encountered and overcome, has few parallels in our history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Your attention was at the last session invited to the necessity of
+additional legislative provisions in respect to the collection,
+safe-keeping, and transfer of the public money. No law having been then
+matured, and not understanding the proceedings of Congress as intended to
+be final, it becomes my duty again to bring the subject to your notice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On that occasion three modes of performing this branch of the public
+service were presented for consideration. These were, the creation of a
+national bank; the revival, with modifications, of the deposit system
+established by the act of the 23d of June, 1836, permitting the use of the
+public moneys by the banks; and the discontinuance of the use of such
+institutions for the purposes referred to, with suitable provisions for
+their accomplishment through the agency of public officers. Considering the
+opinions of both Houses of Congress on the first two propositions as
+expressed in the negative, in which I entirely concur, it is unnecessary
+for me again in to recur to them. In respect to the last, you have had an
+opportunity since your adjournment not only to test still further the
+expediency of the measure by the continued practical operation of such
+parts of it as are now in force, but also to discover what should ever be
+sought for and regarded with the utmost deference--the opinions and wishes
+of the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The national will is the supreme law of the Republic, and on all subjects
+within the limits of his constitutional powers should be faithfully obeyed
+by the public servant. Since the measure in question was submitted to your
+consideration most of you have enjoyed the advantage of personal
+communication with your constituents. For one State only has an election
+been held for the Federal Government; but the early day at which it took
+place deprived the measure under consideration of much of the support it
+might otherwise have derived from the result. Local elections for State
+officers have, however, been held in several of the States, at which the
+expediency of the plan proposed by the Executive has been more or less
+discussed. You will, I am confident, yield to their results the respect due
+to every expression of the public voice. Desiring, however, to arrive at
+truth and a just view of the subject in all its bearings, you will at the
+same time remember that questions of far deeper and more immediate local
+interest than the fiscal plans of the National Treasury were involved in
+those elections. Above all, we can not overlook the striking fact that
+there were at the time in those States more than one hundred and sixty
+millions of bank capital, of which large portions were subject to actual
+forfeiture, other large portions upheld only by special and limited
+legislative indulgences, and most of it, if not all, to a greater or less
+extent dependent for a continuance of its corporate existence upon the will
+of the State legislatures to be then chosen. Apprised of this circumstance,
+you will judge whether it is not most probable that the peculiar condition
+of that vast interest in these respects, the extent to which it has been
+spread through all the ramifications of society, its direct connection with
+the then pending elections, and the feelings it was calculated to infuse
+into the canvass have exercised a far greater influence over the result
+than any which could possibly have been produced by a conflict of opinion
+in respect to a question in the administration of the General Government
+more remote and far less important in its bearings upon that interest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have found no reason to change my own opinion as to the expediency of
+adopting the system proposed, being perfectly satisfied that there will be
+neither stability nor safety either in the fiscal affairs of the Government
+or in the pecuniary transactions of individuals and corporations so long as
+a connection exists between them which, like the past, offers such strong
+inducements to make them the subjects of political agitation. Indeed, I am
+more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased
+exercise of political opinion--the only sure foundation and safeguard of
+republican government--would be exposed by any further increase of the
+already overgrown influence of corporate authorities. I can not, therefore,
+consistently with my views of duty, advise a renewal of a connection which
+circumstances have dissolved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The discontinuance of the use of State banks for fiscal purposes ought not
+to be regarded as a measure of hostility toward those institutions. Banks
+properly established and conducted are highly useful to the business of the
+country, and will doubtless continue to exist in the States so long as they
+conform to their laws and are found to be safe and beneficial. How they
+should be created, what privileges they should enjoy, under what
+responsibilities they should act, and to what restrictions they should be
+subject are questions which, as I observed on a previous occasion, belong
+to the States to decide. Upon their rights or the exercise of them the
+General Government can have no motive to encroach. Its duty toward them is
+well performed when it refrains from legislating for their special benefit,
+because such legislation would violate the spirit of the Constitution and
+be unjust to other interests; when it takes no steps to impair their
+usefulness, but so manages its own affairs as to make it the interest of
+those institutions to strengthen and improve their condition for the
+security and welfare of the community at large. They have no right to
+insist on a connection with the Federal Government, nor on the use of the
+public money for their own benefit. The object of the measure under
+consideration is to avoid for the future a compulsory connection of this
+kind. It proposes to place the General Government, in regard to the
+essential points of the collection, safe-keeping, and transfer of the
+public money, in a situation which shall relieve it from all dependence on
+the will of irresponsible individuals or corporations; to withdraw those
+moneys from the uses of private trade and confide them to agents
+constitutionally selected and controlled by law; to abstain from improper
+interference with the industry of the people and withhold inducements to
+improvident dealings on the part of individuals; to give stability to the
+concerns of the Treasury; to preserve the measures of the Government from
+the unavoidable reproaches that flow from such a connection, and the banks
+themselves from the injurious effects of a supposed participation in the
+political conflicts of the day, from which they will otherwise find it
+difficult to escape.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These are my views upon this important subject, formed after careful
+reflection and with no desire but to arrive at what is most likely to
+promote the public interest. They are now, as they were before, submitted
+with unfeigned deference for the opinions of others. It was hardly to be
+hoped that changes so important on a subject so interesting could be made
+without producing a serious diversity of opinion; but so long as those
+conflicting views are kept above the influence of individual or local
+interests, so long as they pursue only the general good and are discussed
+with moderation and candor, such diversity is a benefit, not an injury. If
+a majority of Congress see the public welfare in a different light, and
+more especially if they should be satisfied that the measure proposed would
+not be acceptable to the people, I shall look to their wisdom to substitute
+such as may be more conducive to the one and more satisfactory to the
+other. In any event, they may confidently rely on my hearty cooperation to
+the fullest extent to which my views of the Constitution and my sense of
+duty will permit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is obviously important to this branch of the public service and to the
+business and quiet of the country that the whole subject should in some way
+be settled and regulated by law, and, if possible, at your present session.
+Besides the plans above referred to, I am not aware that any one has been
+suggested except that of keeping the public money in the State banks in
+special deposit. This plan is to some extent in accordance with the
+practice of the Government and with the present arrangements of the
+Treasury Department, which, except, perhaps, during the operation of the
+late deposit act, has always been allowed, even during the existence of a
+national bank, to make a temporary use of the State banks in particular
+places for the safe-keeping of portions of the revenue. This discretionary
+power might be continued if Congress deem it desirable, whatever general
+system be adopted. So long as the connection is voluntary we need, perhaps,
+anticipate few of those difficulties and little of that dependence on the
+banks which must attend every such connection when compulsory in its nature
+and when so arranged as to make the banks a fixed part of the machinery of
+government. It is undoubtedly in the power of Congress so to regulate and
+guard it as to prevent the public money from being applied to the use or
+intermingled with the affairs of individuals. Thus arranged, although it
+would not give to the Government that entire control over its own funds
+which I desire to secure to it by the plan I have proposed, it would, it
+must be admitted, in a great degree accomplish one of the objects which has
+recommended that plan to my judgment--the separation of the fiscal concerns
+of the Government from those of individuals or corporations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With these observations I recommend the whole matter to your dispassionate
+reflection, confidently hoping that some conclusion may be reached by your
+deliberations which on the one hand shall give safety and stability to the
+fiscal operations of the Government, and be consistent, on the other, with
+the genius of our institutions and with the interests and wishes of the
+great mass of our constituents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was my hope that nothing would occur to make necessary on this occasion
+any allusion to the late national bank. There are circumstances, however,
+connected with the present state of its affairs that bear so directly on
+the character of the Government and the welfare of the citizen that I
+should not feel myself excused in neglecting to notice them. The charter
+which terminated its banking privileges on the 4th of March, 1836,
+continued its corporate power two years more for the sole purpose of
+closing its affairs, with authority "to use the corporate name, style, and
+capacity for the purpose of suits for a final settlement and liquidation of
+the affairs and acts of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition
+of their estate--real, personal, and mixed--but for no other purpose or in
+any other manner whatsoever." Just before the banking privileges ceased,
+its effects were transferred by the bank to a new State institution, then
+recently incorporated, in trust, for the discharge of its debts and the
+settlement of its affairs. With this trustee, by authority of Congress, an
+adjustment was subsequently made of the large interest which the Government
+had in the stock of the institution. The manner in which a trust
+unexpectedly created upon the act granting the charter, and involving such
+great public interests, has been executed would under any circumstances be
+a fit subject of inquiry; but much more does it deserve your attention when
+it embraces the redemption of obligations to which the authority and credit
+of the United States have given value. The two years allowed are now nearly
+at an end. It is well understood that the trustee has not redeemed and
+canceled the outstanding notes of the bank, but has reissued and is
+actually reissuing, since the 3d of March, 1836, the notes which have been
+received by it to a vast amount. According to its own official statement,
+so late as the 1st of October last, nineteen months after the banking
+privileges given by the charter had expired, it had under its control
+uncanceled notes of the late Bank of the United States to the amount of
+$27,561,866, of which $6,175,861 were in actual circulation, $ 1,468,627 at
+State bank agencies, and $3,002,390 in transitu, thus showing that upward
+of ten millions and a half of the notes of the old bank were then still
+kept outstanding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The impropriety of this procedure is obvious, it being the duty of the
+trustee to cancel and not to put forth the notes of an institution whose
+concerns it had undertaken to wind up. If the trustee has a right to
+reissue these notes now, I can see no reason why it may not continue to do
+so after the expiration of the two years. As no one could have anticipated
+a course so extraordinary, the prohibitory clause of the charter above
+quoted was not accompanied by any penalty or other special provision for
+enforcing it, nor have we any general law for the prevention of similar
+acts in future.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it is not in this view of the subject alone that your interposition is
+required. The United States in settling with the trustee for their stock
+have withdrawn their funds from their former direct liability to the
+creditors of the old bank, yet notes of the institution continue to be sent
+forth in its name, and apparently upon the authority of the United States.
+The transactions connected with the employment of the bills of the old bank
+are of vast extent, and should they result unfortunately the interests of
+individuals may be deeply compromised. Without undertaking to decide how
+far or in what form, if any, the trustee could be made liable for notes
+which contain no obligation on its part, or the old bank for such as are
+put in circulation after the expiration of its charter and without its
+authority, or the Government for indemnity in case of loss, the question
+still presses itself upon your consideration whether it is consistent with
+duty and good faith on the part of the Government to witness this
+proceeding without a single effort to arrest it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which will be
+laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury, will show how the affairs
+of that office have been conducted for the past year. The disposition of
+the public lands is one of the most important trusts confided to Congress.
+The practicability of retaining the title and control of such extensive
+domains in the General Government, and at the same time admitting the
+Territories embracing them into the Federal Union as coequals with the
+original States, was seriously doubted by many of our wisest statesmen. All
+feared that they would become a source of discord, and many carried their
+apprehensions so far as to see in them the seeds of a future dissolution of
+the Confederacy. But happily our experience has already been sufficient to
+quiet in a great degree all such apprehensions. The position at one time
+assumed, that the admission of new States into the Union on the same
+footing with the original States was incompatible with a right of soil in
+the United States and operated as a surrender thereof, notwithstanding the
+terms of the compacts by which their admission was designed to be
+regulated, has been wisely abandoned. Whether in the new or the old States,
+all now agree that the right of soil to the public lands remains in the
+Federal Government, and that these lands constitute a common property, to
+be disposed of for the common benefit of all the States, old and new.
+Acquiescence in this just principle by the people of the new States has
+naturally promoted a disposition to adopt the most liberal policy in the
+sale of the public lands. A policy which should be limited to the mere
+object of selling the lands for the greatest possible sum of money, without
+regard to higher considerations, finds but few advocates. On the contrary,
+it is generally conceded that whilst the mode of disposition adopted by the
+Government should always be a prudent one, yet its leading object ought to
+be the early settlement and cultivation of the lands sold, and that it
+should discountenance, if it can not prevent, the accumulation of large
+tracts in the same hands, which must necessarily retard the growth of the
+new States or entail upon them a dependent tenantry and its attendant
+evils.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A question embracing such important interests and so well calculated to
+enlist the feelings of the people in every quarter of the Union has very
+naturally given rise to numerous plans for the improvement of the existing
+system. The distinctive features of the policy that has hitherto prevailed
+are to dispose of the public lands at moderate prices, thus enabling a
+greater number to enter into competition for their purchase and
+accomplishing a double object--of promoting their rapid settlement by the
+purchasers and at the same time increasing the receipts of the Treasury; to
+sell for cash, thereby preventing the disturbing influence of a large mass
+of private citizens indebted to the Government which they have a voice in
+controlling; to bring them into market no faster than good lands are
+supposed to be wanted for improvement, thereby preventing the accumulation
+of large tracts in few hands; and to apply the proceeds of the sales to the
+general purposes of the Government, thus diminishing the amount to be
+raised from the people of the States by taxation and giving each State its
+portion of the benefits to be derived from this common fund in a manner the
+most quiet, and at the same time, perhaps, the most equitable, that can be
+devised. These provisions, with occasional enactments in behalf of special
+interests deemed entitled to the favor of the Government, have in their
+execution produced results as beneficial upon the whole as could reasonably
+be expected in a matter so vast, so complicated, and so exciting. Upward of
+70,000,000, acres have been sold, the greater part of which is believed to
+have been purchased for actual settlement. The population of the new States
+and Territories created out of the public domain increased between 1800 and
+1830 from less than 60,000 to upward of 2,300,000 souls, constituting at
+the latter period about one-fifth of the whole people of the United States.
+The increase since can not be accurately known, but the whole may now be
+safely estimated at over three and a half millions of souls, composing nine
+States, the representatives of which constitute above one-third of the
+Senate and over one-sixth of the House of Representatives of the United
+States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus has been formed a body of free and independent landholders with a
+rapidity unequaled in the history of mankind; and this great result has
+been produced without leaving anything for future adjustment between the
+Government and its citizens. The system under which so much has been
+accomplished can not be intrinsically bad, and with occasional
+modifications to correct abuses and adapt it to changes of circumstances
+may, I think, be safely trusted for the future. There is in the management
+of such extensive interests much virtue in stability; and although great
+and obvious improvements should not be declined, changes should never be
+made without the fullest examination and the clearest demonstration of
+their practical utility. In the history of the past we have an assurance
+that this safe rule of action will not be departed from in relation to the
+public lands; nor is it believed that any necessity exists for interfering
+with the fundamental principles of the system, or that the public mind,
+even in the new States, is desirous of any radical alterations. On the
+contrary, the general disposition appears to be to make such modifications
+and additions only as will the more effectually carry out the original
+policy of filling our new States and Territories with an industrious and
+independent population.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The modification most perseveringly pressed upon Congress, which has
+occupied so much of its time for years past, and will probably do so for a
+long time to come, if not sooner satisfactorily adjusted, is a reduction in
+the cost of such portions of the public lands as are ascertained to be
+unsalable at the rate now established by law, and a graduation according to
+their relative value of the prices at which they may hereafter be sold. It
+is worthy of consideration whether justice may not be done to every
+interest in this matter, and a vexed question set at rest, perhaps forever,
+by a reasonable compromise of conflicting opinions. Hitherto, after being
+offered at public sale, lands have been disposed of at one uniform price,
+whatever difference there might be in their intrinsic value. The leading
+considerations urged in favor of the measure referred to are that in almost
+all the land districts, and particularly in those in which the lands have
+been long surveyed and exposed to sale, there are still remaining numerous
+and large tracts of every gradation of value, from the Government price
+downward; that these lands will not be purchased at the Government price so
+long as better can be conveniently obtained for the same amount; that there
+are large tracts which even the improvements of the adjacent lands will
+never raise to that price, and that the present uniform price, combined
+with their irregular value, operates to prevent a desirable compactness of
+settlements in the new States and to retard the full development of that
+wise policy on which our land system is founded, to the injury not only of
+the several States where the lands lie, but of the United States as a
+whole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The remedy proposed has been a reduction of the prices according to the
+length of time the lands have been in market, without reference to any
+other circumstances. The certainty that the efflux of time would not always
+in such cases, and perhaps not even generally, furnish a true criterion of
+value, and the probability that persons residing in the vicinity, as the
+period for the reduction of prices approached, would postpone purchases
+they would otherwise make, for the purpose of availing themselves of the
+lower price, with other considerations of a similar character, have
+hitherto been successfully urged to defeat the graduation upon time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+May not all reasonable desires upon this subject be satisfied without
+encountering any of these objections? All will concede the abstract
+principle that the price of the public lands should be proportioned to
+their relative value, so far as can be accomplished without departing from
+the rule heretofore observed requiring fixed prices in cases of private
+entries. The difficulty of the subject seems to lie in the mode of
+ascertaining what that value is. Would not the safest plan be that which
+has been adopted by many of the States as the basis of taxation--an actual
+valuation of lands and classification of them into different rates? Would
+it not be practicable and expedient to cause the relative value of the
+public lands in the old districts which have been for a certain length of
+time in market to be appraised and classed into two or more rates below the
+present minimum price by the officers now employed in this branch of the
+public service or in any other mode deemed preferable, and to make those
+prices permanent if upon the coming in of the report they shall prove
+satisfactory to Congress? Could not all the objects of graduation be
+accomplished in this way, and the objections which have hitherto been urged
+against it avoided? It would seem to me that such a step, with a
+restriction of the sales to limited quantities and for actual improvement,
+would be free from all just exception.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the full exposition of the value of the lands thus furnished and
+extensively promulgated persons living at a distance would be informed of
+their true condition and enabled to enter into competition with those
+residing in the vicinity; the means of acquiring an independent home would
+be brought within the reach of many who are unable to purchase at present
+prices; the population of the new States would be made more compact, and
+large tracts would be sold which would otherwise remain on hand. Not only
+would the land be brought within the means of a larger number of
+purchasers, but many persons possessed of greater means would be content to
+settle on a larger quantity of the poorer lands rather than emigrate
+farther west in pursuit of a smaller quantity of better lands. Such a
+measure would also seem to be more consistent with the policy of the
+existing laws--that of converting the public domain into cultivated farms
+owned by their occupants. That policy is not best promoted by sending
+emigration up the almost interminable streams of the West to occupy in
+groups the best spots of land, leaving immense wastes behind them and
+enlarging the frontier beyond the means of the Government to afford it
+adequate protection, but in encouraging it to occupy with reasonable
+denseness the territory over which it advances, and find its best defense
+in the compact front which it presents to the Indian tribes. Many of you
+will bring to the consideration of the subject the advantages of local
+knowledge and greater experience, and all will be desirous of making an
+early and final disposition of every disturbing question in regard to this
+important interest. If these suggestions shall in any degree contribute to
+the accomplishment of so important a result, it will afford me sincere
+satisfaction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In some sections of the country most of the public lands have been sold,
+and the registers and receivers have very little to do. It is a subject
+worthy of inquiry whether in many cases two or more districts may not be
+consolidated and the number of persons employed in this business
+considerably reduced. Indeed, the time will come when it will be the true
+policy of the General Government, as to some of the States, to transfer to
+them for a reasonable equivalent all the refuse and unsold lands and to
+withdraw the machinery of the Federal land offices altogether. All who take
+a comprehensive view of our federal system and believe that one of its
+greatest excellencies consists in interfering as little as possible with
+the internal concerns of the States look forward with great interest to
+this result.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A modification of the existing laws in respect to the prices of the public
+lands might also have a favorable influence on the legislation of Congress
+in relation to another branch of the subject. Many who have not the ability
+to buy at present prices settle on those lands with the hope of acquiring
+from their cultivation the means of purchasing under preemption laws from
+time to time passed by Congress. For this encroachment on the rights of the
+United States they excuse themselves under the plea of their own
+necessities; the fact that they dispossess nobody and only enter upon the
+waste domain: that they give additional value to the public lands in their
+vicinity, and their intention ultimately to pay the Government price. So
+much weight has from time to time been attached to these considerations
+that Congress have passed laws giving actual settlers on the public lands a
+right of preemption to the tracts occupied by them at the minimum price.
+These laws have in all instances been retrospective in their operation, but
+in a few years after their passage crowds of new settlers have been found
+on the public lands for similar reasons and under like expectations, who
+have been indulged with the same privilege. This course of legislation
+tends to impair public respect for the laws of the country. Either the laws
+to prevent intrusion upon the public lands should be executed, or, if that
+should be impracticable or inexpedient, they should be modified or
+repealed. If the public lands are to be considered as open to be occupied
+by any, they should by law be thrown open to all. That which is intended in
+all instances to be legalized should at once be made legal, that those who
+are disposed to conform to the laws may enjoy at least equal privileges
+with those who are not. But it is not believed to be the disposition of
+Congress to open the public lands to occupancy without regular entry and
+payment of the Government price, as such a course must tend to worse evils
+than the credit system, which it was found necessary to abolish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It would seem, therefore, to be the part of wisdom and sound policy to
+remove as far as practicable the causes which produce intrusions upon the
+public lands, and then take efficient steps to prevent them in future.
+Would any single measure be so effective in removing all plausible grounds
+for these intrusions as the graduation of price already suggested? A short
+period of industry and economy in any part of our country would enable the
+poorest citizen to accumulate the means to buy him a home at the lower
+prices, and leave him without apology for settling on lands not his own. If
+he did not under such circumstances, he would enlist no sympathy in his
+favor, and the laws would be readily executed without doing violence to
+public opinion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A large portion of our citizens have seated themselves on the public lands
+without authority since the passage of the last preemption law, and now ask
+the enactment of another to enable them to retain the lands occupied upon
+payment of the minimum Government price. They ask that which has been
+repeatedly granted before. If the future may be judged of by the past,
+little harm can be done to the interests of the Treasury by yielding to
+their request. Upon a critical examination it is found that the lands sold
+at the public sales since the introduction of cash payments, in 1820, have
+produced on an average the net revenue of only 6 cents an acre more than
+the minimum Government price. There is no reason to suppose that future
+sales will be more productive. The Government, therefore, has no adequate
+pecuniary interest to induce it to drive these people from the lands they
+occupy for the purpose of selling them to others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Entertaining these views, I recommend the passage of a preemption law for
+their benefit in connection with the preparatory steps toward the
+graduation of the price of the public lands, and further and more effectual
+provisions to prevent intrusions hereafter. Indulgence to those who have
+settled on these lands with expectations that past legislation would be
+made a rule for the future, and at the same time removing the most
+plausible ground on which intrusions are excused and adopting more
+efficient means to prevent them hereafter, appears to me the most judicious
+disposition which can be made of this difficult subject. The limitations
+and restrictions to guard against abuses in the execution of a preemption
+law will necessarily attract the careful attention of Congress, but under
+no circumstances is it considered expedient to authorize floating claims in
+any shape. They have been heretofore, and doubtless would be hereafter,
+most prolific sources of fraud and oppression, and instead of operating to
+confer the favor of the Government on industrious settlers are often used
+only to minister to a spirit of cupidity at the expense of the most
+meritorious of that class.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will bring to your view the
+state of the Army and all the various subjects confided to the
+superintendence of that officer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The principal part of the Army has been concentrated in Florida, with a
+view and in the expectation of bringing the war in that Territory to a
+speedy close. The necessity of stripping the posts on the maritime and
+inland frontiers of their entire garrisons for the purpose of assembling in
+the field an army of less than 4,000 men would seem to indicate the
+necessity of increasing our regular forces; and the superior efficiency, as
+well as greatly diminished expense of that description of troops, recommend
+this measure as one of economy as well as of expediency. I refer to the
+report for the reasons which have induced the Secretary of War to urge the
+reorganization and enlargement of the staff of the Army, and of the
+Ordnance Corps, in which I fully concur.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not, however, compatible with the interests of the people to maintain
+in time of peace a regular force adequate to the defense of our extensive
+frontiers. In periods of danger and alarm we must rely principally upon a
+well-organized militia, and some general arrangement that will render this
+description of force more efficient has long been a subject of anxious
+solicitude. It was recommended to the First Congress by General Washington,
+and has been since frequently brought to your notice, and recently its
+importance strongly urged by my immediate predecessor. The provision in the
+Constitution that renders it necessary to adopt a uniform system of
+organization for the militia throughout the United States presents an
+insurmountable obstacle to an efficient arrangement by the classification
+heretofore proposed, and I invite your attention to the plan which will be
+submitted by the Secretary of War, for the organization of volunteer corps
+and the instruction of militia officers, as more simple and practicable, if
+not equally advantageous, as a general arrangement of the whole militia of
+the United States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A moderate increase of the corps both of military and topographical
+engineers has been more than once recommended by my predecessor, and my
+conviction of the propriety, not to say necessity, of the measure, in order
+to enable them to perform the various and important duties imposed upon
+them, induces me to repeat the recommendation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Military Academy continues to answer all the purposes of its
+establishment, and not only furnishes well-educated officers to the Army,
+but serves to diffuse throughout the mass of our citizens individuals
+possessed of military knowledge and the scientific attainments of civil and
+military engineering. At present the cadet is bound, with consent of his
+parents or guardians, to remain in service five years from the period of
+his enlistment, unless sooner discharged, thus exacting only one year's
+service in the Army after his education is completed. This does not appear
+to me sufficient. Government ought to command for a longer period the
+services of those who are educated at the public expense, and I recommend
+that the time of enlistment be extended to seven years, and the terms of
+the engagement strictly enforced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The creation of a national foundry for cannon, to be common to the service
+of the Army and Navy of the United States, has been heretofore recommended,
+and appears to be required in order to place our ordnance on an equal
+footing with that of other countries and to enable that branch of the
+service to control the prices of those articles and graduate the supplies
+to the wants of the Government, as well as to regulate their quality and
+insure their uniformity. The same reasons induce me to recommend the
+erection of a manufactory of gunpowder, to be under the direction of the
+Ordnance Office. The establishment of a manufactory of small arms west of
+the Alleghany Mountains, upon the plan proposed by the Secretary of War,
+will contribute to extend throughout that country the improvements which
+exist in establishments of a similar description in the Atlantic States,
+and tend to a much more economical distribution of the armament required in
+the western portion of our Union.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The system of removing the Indians west of the Mississippi, commenced by
+Mr. Jefferson in 1804, has been steadily persevered in by every succeeding
+President, and may be considered the settled policy of the country.
+Unconnected at first with any well-defined system for their improvement,
+the inducements held out to the Indians were confined to the greater
+abundance of game to be found in the West; but when the beneficial effects
+of their removal were made apparent a more philanthropic and enlightened
+policy was adopted in purchasing their lands east of the Mississippi.
+Liberal prices were given and provisions inserted in all the treaties with
+them for the application of the funds they received in exchange to such
+purposes as were best calculated to promote their present welfare and
+advance their future civilization. These measures have been attended thus
+far with the happiest results.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It will be seen by referring to the report of the Commissioner of Indian
+Affairs that the most sanguine expectations of the friends and promoters of
+this system have been realized. The Choctaws, Cherokees, and other tribes
+that first emigrated beyond the Mississippi have for the most part
+abandoned the hunter state and become cultivators of the soil. The
+improvement in their condition has been rapid, and it is believed that they
+are now fitted to enjoy the advantages of a simple form of government,
+which has been submitted to them and received their sanction; and I can not
+too strongly urge this subject upon the attention of Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Stipulations have been made with all the Indian tribes to remove them
+beyond the Mississippi, except with the bands of the Wyandots, the Six
+Nations in New York, the Menomonees, Munsees, and Stockbridges in
+Wisconsin, and Miamies in Indiana. With all but the Menomonees it is
+expected that arrangements for their emigration will be completed the
+present year. The resistance which has been opposed to their removal by
+some of the tribes even after treaties had been made with them to that
+effect has arisen from various causes, operating differently on each of
+them. In most instances they have been instigated to resistance by persons
+to whom the trade with them and the acquisition of their annuities were
+important, and in some by the personal influence of interested chiefs.
+These obstacles must be overcome, for the Government can not relinquish the
+execution of this policy without sacrificing important interests and
+abandoning the tribes remaining east of the Mississippi to certain
+destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The decrease in numbers of the tribes within the limits of the States and
+Territories has been most rapid. If they be removed, they can be protected
+from those associations and evil practices which exert so pernicious and
+destructive an influence over their destinies. They can be induced to labor
+and to acquire property, and its acquisition will inspire them with a
+feeling of independence. Their minds can be cultivated, and they can be
+taught the value of salutary and uniform laws and be made sensible of the
+blessings of free government and capable of enjoying its advantages. In the
+possession of property, knowledge, and a good government, free to give what
+direction they please to their labor, and sharers in the legislation by
+which their persons and the profits of their industry are to be protected
+and secured, they will have an ever-present conviction of the importance of
+union and peace among themselves and of the preservation of amicable
+relations with us. The interests of the United States would also be greatly
+promoted by freeing the relations between the General and State Governments
+from what has proved a most embarrassing incumbrance by a satisfactory
+adjustment of conflicting titles to lands caused by the occupation of the
+Indians, and by causing the resources of the whole country to be developed
+by the power of the State and General Governments and improved by the
+enterprise of a white population.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Intimately connected with this subject is the obligation of the Government
+to fulfill its treaty stipulations and to protect the Indians thus
+assembled "at their new residences from all interruptions and disturbances
+from any other tribes or nations of Indians or from any other person or
+persons whatsoever," and the equally solemn obligation to guard from Indian
+hostility its own border settlements, stretching along a line of more than
+1,000 miles. To enable the Government to redeem this pledge to the Indians
+and to afford adequate protection to its own citizens will require the
+continual presence of a considerable regular force on the frontiers and the
+establishment of a chain of permanent posts. Examinations of the country
+are now making, with a view to decide on the most suitable points for the
+erection of fortresses and other works of defense, the results of which
+will be presented to you by the Secretary of War at an early day, together
+with a plan for the effectual protection of the friendly Indians and the
+permanent defense of the frontier States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith communicated it appears
+that unremitted exertions have been made at the different navy-yards to
+carry into effect all authorized measures for the extension and employment
+of our naval force. The launching and preparation of the ship of the line
+Pennsylvania and the complete repairs of the ships of the line Ohio,
+Delaware, and Columbus may be noticed as forming a respectable addition to
+this important arm of our national defense. Our commerce and navigation
+have received increased aid and protection during the present year. Our
+squadrons in the Pacific and on the Brazilian station have been much
+increased, and that in the Mediterranean, although small, is adequate to
+the present wants of our commerce in that sea. Additions have been made to
+our squadron on the West India station, where the large force under
+Commodore Dallas has been most actively and efficiently employed in
+protecting our commerce, in preventing the importation of slaves, and in
+cooperating with the officers of the Army in carrying on the war in
+Florida.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The satisfactory condition of our naval force abroad leaves at our disposal
+the means of conveniently providing for a home squadron for the protection
+of commerce upon our extensive coast. The amount of appropriations required
+for such a squadron will be found in the general estimates for the naval
+service for the year 1838.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The naval officers engaged upon our coast survey have rendered important
+service to our navigation. The discovery of a new channel into the harbor
+of New York, through which our largest ships may pass without danger, must
+afford important commercial advantages to that harbor and add greatly to
+its value as a naval station. The accurate survey of Georges Shoals, off
+the coast of Massachusetts, lately completed, will render comparatively
+safe a navigation hitherto considered dangerous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Considerable additions have been made to the number of captains,
+commanders, lieutenants, surgeons, and assistant surgeons in the Navy.
+These additions were rendered necessary by the increased number of vessels
+put in commission to answer the exigencies of our growing commerce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Your attention is respectfully invited to the various suggestions of the
+Secretary for the improvement of the naval service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The report of the Postmaster-General exhibits the progress and condition of
+the mail service. The operations of the Post-Office Department constitute
+one of the most active elements of our national prosperity, and it is
+gratifying to observe with what vigor they are conducted. The mail routes
+of the United States cover an extent of about 142,877 miles, having been
+increased about 37,103 miles within the last two years. The annual mail
+transportation on these routes is about 36,228,962 miles, having been
+increased about 10,359,476 miles within the same period. The number of
+post-offices has also been increased from 10,770 to 12,099, very few of
+which receive the mails less than once a week, and a large portion of them
+daily. Contractors and postmasters in general are represented as attending
+to their duties with most commendable zeal and fidelity. The revenue of the
+Department within the year ending on the 30th of June last was
+$4,137,056.59, and its liabilities accruing within the same time were
+$3,380,847.75. The increase of revenue over that of the preceding year was
+$708,166.41.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For many interesting details I refer you to the report of the
+Postmaster-General, with the accompanying papers, Your particular attention
+is invited to the necessity of providing a more safe and convenient
+building for the accommodation of that Department.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I lay before Congress copies of reports submitted in pursuance of a call
+made by me upon the heads of Departments for such suggestions as their
+experience might enable them to make as to what further legislative
+provisions may be advantageously adopted to secure the faithful application
+of public moneys to the objects for which they are appropriated, to prevent
+their misapplication or embezzlement by those intrusted with the
+expenditure of them, and generally to increase the security of the
+Government against losses in their disbursement. It is needless to dilate
+on the importance of providing such new safeguards as are within the power
+of legislation to promote these ends, and I have little to add to the
+recommendations submitted in the accompanying papers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By law the terms of service of our most important collecting and disbursing
+officers in the civil departments are limited to four years, and when
+reappointed their bonds are required to be renewed. The safety of the
+public is much increased by this feature of the law, and there can be no
+doubt that its application to all officers intrusted with the collection or
+disbursement of the public money, whatever may be the tenure of their
+offices, would be equally beneficial. I therefore recommend, in addition to
+such of the suggestions presented by the heads of Departments as you may
+think useful, a general provision that all officers of the Army or Navy, or
+in the civil departments, intrusted with the receipt or payment of public
+money, and whose term of service is either unlimited or for a longer time
+than four years, be required to give new bonds, with good and sufficient
+sureties, at the expiration of every such period.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A change in the period of terminating the fiscal year, from the 1st of
+October to the 1st of April, has been frequently recommended, and appears
+to be desirable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The distressing casualties in steamboats which have so frequently happened
+during the year seem to evince the necessity of attempting to prevent them
+by means of severe provisions connected with their customhouse papers. This
+subject was submitted to the attention of Congress by the Secretary of the
+Treasury in his last annual report, and will be again noticed at the
+present session, with additional details. It will doubtless receive that
+early and careful consideration which its pressing importance appears to
+require.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Your attention has heretofore been frequently called to the affairs of the
+District of Columbia, and I should not again ask it did not their entire
+dependence on Congress give them a constant claim upon its notice.
+Separated by the Constitution from the rest of the Union, limited in
+extent, and aided by no legislature of its own, it would seem to be a spot
+where a wise and uniform system of local government might have been easily
+adopted. This District has, however, unfortunately been left to linger
+behind the rest of the Union. Its codes, civil and criminal, are not only
+very defective, but full of obsolete or inconvenient provisions. Being
+formed of portions of two States, discrepancies in the laws prevail in
+different parts of the territory, small as it is; and although it was
+selected as the seat of the General Government, the site of its public
+edifices, the depository of its archives, and the residence of officers
+intrusted with large amounts of public property and the management of
+public business, yet it has never been subjected to or received that
+special and comprehensive legislation which these circumstances peculiarly
+demand. I am well aware of the various subjects of greater magnitude and
+immediate interest that press themselves on the consideration of Congress,
+but I believe there is not one that appeals more directly to its justice
+than a liberal and even generous attention to the interests of the District
+of Columbia and a thorough and careful revision of its local government.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+M. VAN BUREN
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+***
+</p>
+
+<p><a id="dec1838"></a></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+State of the Union Address<br />
+Martin van Buren<br />
+December 3, 1838<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I congratulate you on the favorable circumstances in the condition of our
+country under which you reassemble for the performance of your official
+duties. Though the anticipations of an abundant harvest have not everywhere
+been realized, yet on the whole the labors of the husbandman are rewarded
+with a bountiful return; industry prospers in its various channels of
+business and enterprise; general health again prevails through our vast
+diversity of climate; nothing threatens from abroad the continuance of
+external peace; nor has anything at home impaired the strength of those
+fraternal and domestic ties which constitute the only guaranty to the
+success and permanency of our happy Union, and which, formed in the hour of
+peril, have hitherto been honorably sustained through every vicissitude in
+our national affairs. These blessings, which evince the care and
+beneficence of Providence, call for our devout and fervent gratitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by the
+same munificent hand, and more exclusively our own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The present year closes the first half century of our Federal institutions,
+and our system, differing from all others in the acknowledged practical and
+unlimited operation which it has for so long a period given to the
+sovereignty of the people, has now been fully tested by experience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Constitution devised by our forefathers as the framework and bond of
+that system, then untried, has become a settled form of government; not
+only preserving and protecting the great principles upon which it was
+rounded, but wonderfully promoting individual happiness and private
+interests. Though subject to change and entire revocation whenever deemed
+inadequate to all these purposes, yet such is the wisdom of its
+construction and so stable has been the public sentiment that it remains
+unaltered except in matters of detail comparatively unimportant. It has
+proved amply sufficient for the various emergencies incident to our
+condition as a nation. A formidable foreign war; agitating collisions
+between domestic, and in some respects rival, sovereignties; temptations to
+interfere in the intestine commotions of neighboring countries; the
+dangerous influences that arise in periods of excessive prosperity, and the
+antirepublican tendencies of associated wealth--these, with other trials
+not less formidable, have all been encountered, and thus far successfully
+resisted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantages of a
+government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular
+will, and our experience has shown that it is as beneficent in practice as
+it is just in theory. Each successive change made in our local institutions
+has contributed to extend the right of suffrage, has increased the direct
+influence of the mass of the community, given greater freedom to individual
+exertion, and restricted more and more the powers of Government; yet the
+intelligence, prudence, and patriotism of the people have kept pace with
+this augmented responsibility. In no country has education been so widely
+diffused. Domestic peace has nowhere so largely reigned. The close bonds of
+social intercourse have in no instance prevailed with such harmony over a
+space so vast. All forms of religion have united for the first time to
+diffuse charity and piety, because for the first time in the history of
+nations all have been totally untrammeled and absolutely free. The deepest
+recesses of the wilderness have been penetrated; yet instead of the
+rudeness in the social condition consequent upon such adventures elsewhere,
+numerous communities have sprung up, already unrivaled in prosperity,
+general intelligence, internal tranquillity, and the wisdom of their
+political institutions. Internal improvement, the fruit of individual
+enterprise, fostered by the protection of the States, has added new links
+to the Confederation and fresh rewards to provident industry. Doubtful
+questions of domestic policy have been quietly settled by mutual
+forbearance, and agriculture, commerce, and manufactures minister to each
+other. Taxation and public debt, the burdens which bear so heavily upon all
+other countries, have pressed with comparative lightness upon us. Without
+one entangling alliance, our friendship is prized by every nation, and the
+rights of our citizens are everywhere respected, because they are known to
+be guarded by a united, sensitive, and watchful people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this practical operation of our institutions, so evident and successful,
+we owe that increased attachment to them which is among the most cheering
+exhibitions of popular sentiment and will prove their best security in time
+to come against foreign or domestic assault.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This review of the results of our institutions for half a century, without
+exciting a spirit of vain exultation, should serve to impress upon us the
+great principles from which they have sprung--constant and direct
+supervision by the people over every public measure, strict forbearance on
+the part of the Government from exercising any doubtful or disputed powers,
+and a cautious abstinence from all interference with concerns which
+properly belong and are best left to State regulations and individual
+enterprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Full information of the state of our foreign affairs having been recently
+on different occasions submitted to Congress, I deem it necessary now to
+bring to your notice only such events as have subsequently occurred or are
+of such importance as to require particular attention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The most amicable dispositions continue to be exhibited by all the nations
+with whom the Government and citizens of the United States have an habitual
+intercourse. At the date of my last annual message Mexico was the only
+nation which could not be included in so gratifying a reference to our
+foreign relations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am happy to be now able to inform you that an advance has been made
+toward the adjustment of our differences with that Republic and the
+restoration of the customary good feeling between the two nations. This
+important change has been effected by conciliatory negotiations that have
+resulted in the conclusion of a treaty between the two Governments, which,
+when ratified, will refer to the arbitrament of a friendly power all the
+subjects of controversy between us growing out of injuries to individuals.
+There is at present also reason to believe that an equitable settlement of
+all disputed points will be attained without further difficulty or
+unnecessary delay, and thus authorize the free resumption of diplomatic
+intercourse with our sister Republic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With respect to the northeastern boundary of the United States, no official
+correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain has passed
+since that communicated to Congress toward the close of their last session.
+The offer to negotiate a convention for the appointment of a joint
+commission of survey and exploration I am, however, assured will be met by
+Her Majesty's Government in a conciliatory and friendly spirit, and
+instructions to enable the British minister here to conclude such an
+arrangement will be transmitted to him without needless delay. It is hoped
+and expected that these instructions will be of a liberal character, and
+that this negotiation, if successful, will prove to be an important step
+toward the satisfactory and final adjustment of the controversy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had hoped that the respect for the laws and regard for the peace and
+honor of their own country which have ever characterized the citizens of
+the United States would have prevented any portion of them from using any
+means to promote insurrection in the territory of a power with which we are
+at peace, and with which the United States are desirous of maintaining the
+most friendly relations. I regret deeply, however, to be obliged to inform
+you that this has not been the case. Information has been given to me,
+derived from official and other sources, that many citizens of the United
+States have associated together to make hostile incursions from our
+territory into Canada and to aid and abet insurrection there, in violation
+of the obligations and laws of the United States and in open disregard of
+their own duties as citizens. This information has been in part confirmed
+by a hostile invasion actually made by citizens of the United States, in
+conjunction with Canadians and others, and accompanied by a forcible
+seizure of the property of our citizens and an application thereof to the
+prosecution of military operations against the authorities and people of
+Canada.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The results of these criminal assaults upon the peace and order of a
+neighboring country have been, as was to be expected, fatally destructive
+to the misguided or deluded persons engaged in them and highly injurious to
+those in whose behalf they are professed to have been undertaken. The
+authorities in Canada, from intelligence received of such intended
+movements among our citizens, have felt themselves obliged to take
+precautionary measures against them; have actually embodied the militia and
+assumed an attitude to repel the invasion to which they believed the
+colonies were exposed from the United States. A state of feeling on both
+sides of the frontier has thus been produced which called for prompt and
+vigorous interference. If an insurrection existed in Canada, the amicable
+dispositions of the United States toward Great Britain, as well as their
+duty to themselves, would lead them to maintain a strict neutrality and to
+restrain their citizens from all violations of the laws which have been
+passed for its enforcement. But this Government recognizes a still higher
+obligation to repress all attempts on the part of its citizens to disturb
+the peace of a country where order prevails or has been reestablished.
+Depredations by our citizens upon nations at peace with the United States,
+or combinations for committing them, have at all times been regarded by the
+American Government and people with the greatest abhorrence. Military
+incursions by our citizens into countries so situated, and the commission
+of acts of violence on the members thereof, in order to effect a change in
+their government, or under any pretext whatever, have from the commencement
+of our Government been held equally criminal on the part of those engaged
+in them, and as much deserving of punishment as would be the disturbance of
+the public peace by the perpetration of similar acts within our own
+territory.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By no country or persons have these invaluable principles of international
+law--principles the strict observance of which is so indispensable to the
+preservation of social order in the world--been more earnestly cherished or
+sacredly respected than by those great and good men who first declared and
+finally established the independence of our own country. They promulgated
+and maintained them at an early and critical period in our history; they
+were subsequently embodied in legislative enactments of a highly penal
+character, the faithful enforcement of which has hitherto been, and will, I
+trust, always continue to be, regarded as a duty inseparably associated
+with the maintenance of our national honor. That the people of the United
+States should feel an interest in the spread of political institutions as
+free as they regard their own to be is natural, nor can a sincere
+solicitude for the success of all those who are at any time in good faith
+struggling for their acquisition be imputed to our citizens as a crime.
+With the entire freedom of opinion and an undisguised expression thereof on
+their part the Government has neither the right nor, I trust, the
+disposition to interfere. But whether the interest or the honor of the
+United States requires that they should be made a party to any such
+struggle, and by inevitable consequence to the war which is waged in its
+support, is a question which by our Constitution is wisely left to Congress
+alone to decide. It is by the laws already made criminal in our citizens to
+embarrass or anticipate that decision by unauthorized military operations
+on their part. Offenses of this character, in addition to their criminality
+as violations of the laws of our country, have a direct tendency to draw
+down upon our own citizens at large the multiplied evils of a foreign war
+and expose to injurious imputations the good faith and honor of the
+country. As such they deserve to be put down with promptitude and decision.
+I can not be mistaken, I am confident, in counting on the cordial and
+general concurrence of our fellow-citizens in this sentiment. A copy of the
+proclamation which I have felt it my duty to issue is herewith
+communicated. I can not but hope that the good sense and patriotism, the
+regard for the honor and reputation of their country, the respect for the
+laws which they have themselves enacted for their own government, and the
+love of order for which the mass of our people have been so long and so
+justly distinguished will deter the comparatively few who are engaged in
+them from a further prosecution of such desperate enterprises. In the
+meantime the existing laws have been and will continue to be faithfully
+executed, and every effort will be made to carry them out in their full
+extent. Whether they are sufficient or not to meet the actual state of
+things on the Canadian frontier it is for Congress to decide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the
+Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the
+convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial
+Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that "hereafter there
+shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under the
+authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest coast of
+America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54° 40' of
+north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be none formed by
+Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same
+parallel;" and by the fourth article, "that during a term of ten years,
+counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both
+powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may
+reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas,
+gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned in the preceding
+article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the
+country." The reasons assigned for declining to renew the provisions of
+this article are, briefly, that the only use made by our citizens of the
+privileges it secures to them has been to supply the Indians with
+spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that this traffic has been
+excluded from the Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the
+United States are injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest
+coast and calculated to produce complaints between the two Governments, His
+Imperial Majesty thinks it for the interest of both countries not to accede
+to the proposition made by the American Government for the renewal of the
+article last referred to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds upon which
+we contend that the citizens of the United States have, independent of the
+provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to trade with the natives
+upon the coast in question at unoccupied places, liable, however, it is
+admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the creation of Russian
+establishments at such points. This right is denied by the Russian
+Government, which asserts that by the operation of the treaty of 1824 each
+party agreed to waive the general right to land on the vacant coasts on the
+respective sides of the degree of latitude referred to, and accepted in
+lieu thereof the mutual privileges mentioned in the fourth article. The
+capital and tonnage employed by our citizens in their trade with the
+northwest coast of America will, perhaps, on adverting to the official
+statements of the commerce and navigation of the United States for the last
+few years, be deemed too inconsiderable in amount to attract much
+attention; yet the subject may in other respects deserve the careful
+consideration of Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I regret to state that the blockade of the principal ports on the eastern
+coast of Mexico, which, in consequence of differences between that Republic
+and France, was instituted in May last, unfortunately still continues,
+enforced by a competent French naval armament, and is necessarily
+embarrassing to our own trade in the Gulf, in common with that of other
+nations. Every disposition, however, is believed to exist on the part of
+the French Government to render this measure as little onerous as
+practicable to the interests of the citizens of the United States and to
+those of neutral commerce, and it is to be hoped that an early settlement
+of the difficulties between France and Mexico will soon reestablish the
+harmonious relations formerly subsisting between them and again open the
+ports of that Republic to the vessels of all friendly nations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A convention for marking that part of the boundary between the United
+States and the Republic of Texas which extends from the mouth of the Sabine
+to the Red River was concluded and signed at this city on the 25th of April
+last. It has since been ratified by both Governments, and seasonable
+measures will be taken to carry it into effect on the part of the United
+States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The application of that Republic for admission into this Union, made in
+August, 1837, and which was declined for reasons already made known to you,
+has been formally withdrawn, as will appear from the accompanying copy of
+the note of the minister plenipotentiary of Texas, which was presented to
+the Secretary of State on the occasion of the exchange of the ratifications
+of the convention above mentioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Copies of the convention with Texas, of a commercial treaty concluded with
+the King of Greece, and of a similar treaty with the Peru-Bolivian
+Confederation, the ratifications of which have been recently exchanged,
+accompany this message, for the information of Congress and for such
+legislative enactments as may be found necessary or expedient in relation
+to either of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To watch over and foster the interests of a gradually increasing and widely
+extended commerce, to guard the rights of American citizens whom business
+or pleasure or other motives may tempt into distant climes, and at the same
+time to cultivate those sentiments of mutual respect and good will which
+experience has proved so beneficial in international intercourse, the
+Government of the United States has deemed it expedient from time to time
+to establish diplomatic connections with different foreign states, by the
+appointment of representatives to reside within their respective
+territories. I am gratified to be enabled to announce to you that since the
+close of your last session these relations have been opened under the
+happiest auspices with Austria and the Two Sicilies, that new nominations
+have been made in the respective missions of Russia, Brazil, Belgium, and
+Sweden and Norway in this country, and that a minister extraordinary has
+been received, accredited to this Government, from the Argentine
+Confederation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An exposition of the fiscal affairs of the Government and of their
+condition for the past year will be made to you by the Secretary of the
+Treasury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $2,765,342. The receipts of the year from customs and lands
+will probably amount to $20,615,598. These usual sources of revenue have
+been increased by an issue of Treasury notes, of which less than
+$8,000,000, including interest and principal, will be outstanding at the
+end of the year, and by the sale of one of the bonds of the Bank of the
+United States for $2,254,871. The aggregate of means from these and other
+sources, with the balance on hand on the 1st of January last, has been
+applied to the payment of appropriations by Congress. The whole expenditure
+for the year on their account, including the redemption of more than eight
+millions of Treasury notes, constitutes an aggregate of about $40,000,000,
+and will still leave in the Treasury the balance before stated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nearly $8,000,000 of Treasury notes are to be paid during the coming year
+in addition to the ordinary appropriations for the support of Government.
+For both these purposes the resources of the Treasury will undoubtedly be
+sufficient if the charges upon it are not increased beyond the annual
+estimates. No excess, however, is likely to exist. Nor can the postponed
+installment of the surplus revenue be deposited with the States nor any
+considerable appropriations beyond the estimates be made without causing a
+deficiency in the Treasury. The great caution, advisable at all times, of
+limiting appropriations to the wants of the public service is rendered
+necessary at present by the prospective and rapid reduction of the tariff,
+while the vigilant jealousy evidently excited among the people by the
+occurrences of the last few years assures us that they expect from their
+representatives, and will sustain them in the exercise of, the most rigid
+economy. Much can be effected by postponing appropriations not immediately
+required for the ordinary public service or for any pressing emergency, and
+much by reducing the expenditures where the entire and immediate
+accomplishment of the objects in view is not indispensable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we call to mind the recent and extreme embarrassments produced by
+excessive issues of bank paper, aggravated by the unforeseen withdrawal of
+much foreign capital and the inevitable derangement arising from the
+distribution of the surplus revenue among the States as required by
+Congress, and consider the heavy expenses incurred by the removal of Indian
+tribes, by the military operations in Florida, and on account of the
+unusually large appropriations made at the last two annual sessions of
+Congress for other objects, we have striking evidence in the present
+efficient state of our finances of the abundant resources of the country to
+fulfill all its obligations. Nor is it less gratifying to find that the
+general business of the community, deeply affected as it has been, is
+reviving with additional vigor, chastened by the lessons of the past and
+animated by the hopes of the future. By the curtailment of paper issues, by
+curbing the sanguine and adventurous spirit of speculation, and by the
+honorable application of all available means to the fulfillment of
+obligations, confidence has been restored both at home and abroad, and ease
+and facility secured to all the operations of trade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The agency of the Government in producing these results has been as
+efficient as its powers and means permitted. By withholding from the States
+the deposit of the fourth installment, and leaving several millions at long
+credits with the banks, principally in one section of the country, and more
+immediately beneficial to it, and at the same time aiding the banks and
+commercial communities in other sections by postponing the payment of bonds
+for duties to the amount of between four and five millions of dollars; by
+an issue of Treasury notes as a means to enable the Government to meet the
+consequences of their indulgences, but affording at the same time
+facilities for remittance and exchange; and by steadily declining to employ
+as general depositories of the public revenues, or receive the notes of,
+all banks which refused to redeem them with specie--by these measures,
+aided by the favorable action of some of the banks and by the support and
+cooperation of a large portion of the community, we have witnessed an early
+resumption of specie payments in our great commercial capital, promptly
+followed in almost every part of the United States. This result has been
+alike salutary to the true interests of agriculture, commerce, and
+manufactures; to public morals, respect for the laws, and that confidence
+between man and man which is so essential in all our social relations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The contrast between the suspension of 1814 and that of 1837 is most
+striking. The short duration of the latter, the prompt restoration of
+business, the evident benefits resulting from an adherence by the
+Government to the constitutional standard of value instead of sanctioning
+the suspension by the receipt of irredeemable paper, and the advantages
+derived from the large amount of specie introduced into the country
+previous to 1837 afford a valuable illustration of the true policy of the
+Government in such a crisis. Nor can the comparison fail to remove the
+impression that a national bank is necessary in such emergencies. Not only
+were specie payments resumed without its aid, but exchanges have also been
+more rapidly restored than when it existed, thereby showing that private
+capital, enterprise, and prudence are fully adequate to these ends. On all
+these points experience seems to have confirmed the views heretofore
+submitted to Congress. We have been saved the mortification of seeing the
+distresses of the community for the third time seized on to fasten upon the
+country so dangerous an institution, and we may also hope that the business
+of individuals will hereafter be relieved from the injurious effects of a
+continued agitation of that disturbing subject. The limited influence of a
+national bank in averting derangement in the exchanges of the country or in
+compelling the resumption of specie payments is now not less apparent than
+its tendency to increase inordinate speculation by sudden expansions and
+contractions; its disposition to create panic and embarrassment for the
+promotion of its own designs; its interference with politics, and its far
+greater power for evil than for good, either in regard to the local
+institutions or the operations of Government itself. What was in these
+respects but apprehension or opinion when a national bank was first
+established now stands confirmed by humiliating experience. The scenes
+through which we have passed conclusively prove how little our commerce,
+agriculture, manufactures, or finances require such an institution, and
+what dangers are attendant on its power--a power, I trust, never to be
+conferred by the American people upon their Government, and still less upon
+individuals not responsible to them for its unavoidable abuses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for the
+safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion in regard
+to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those objects have
+been already submitted to you. These have been strengthened by recent
+events, and in the full conviction that time and experience must still
+further demonstrate their propriety I feel it my duty, with respectful
+deference to the conflicting views of others, again to invite your
+attention to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the exception of limited sums deposited in the few banks still
+employed under the act of 1836, the amounts received for duties, and, with
+very inconsiderable exceptions, those accruing from lands also, have since
+the general suspension of specie payments by the deposit banks been kept
+and disbursed by the Treasurer under his general legal powers, subject to
+the superintendence of the Secretary of the Treasury. The propriety of
+defining more specifically and of regulating by law the exercise of this
+wide scope of Executive discretion has been already submitted to Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A change in the office of collector at one of our principal ports has
+brought to light a defalcation of the gravest character, the particulars of
+which will be laid before you in a special report from the Secretary of the
+Treasury. By his report and the accompanying documents it will be seen that
+the weekly returns of the defaulting officer apparently exhibited
+throughout a faithful administration of the affairs intrusted to his
+management. It, however, now appears that he commenced abstracting the
+public moneys shortly after his appointment and continued to do so,
+progressively increasing the amount, for the term of more than seven years,
+embracing a portion of the period during which the public moneys were
+deposited in the Bank of the United States, the whole of that of the State
+bank deposit system, and concluding only on his retirement from office,
+after that system had substantially failed in consequence of the suspension
+of specie payments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The way in which this defalcation was so long concealed and the steps taken
+to indemnify the United States, as far as practicable, against loss will
+also be presented to you. The case is one which imperatively claims the
+attention of Congress and furnishes the strongest motive for the
+establishment of a more severe and secure system for the safe-keeping and
+disbursement of the public moneys than any that has heretofore existed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to that
+of other countries the application of public money by an officer of
+Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with severe
+and ignominious punishment. This is already in effect the law in respect to
+the Mint, and has been productive of the most salutary results. Whatever
+system is adopted, such an enactment would be wise as an independent
+measure, since much of the public moneys must in their collection and
+ultimate disbursement pass twice through the hands of public officers, in
+whatever manner they are intermediately kept. The Government, it must be
+admitted, has been from its commencement comparatively fortunate in this
+respect. But the appointing power can not always be well advised in its
+selections, and the experience of every country has shown that public
+officers are not at all times proof against temptation. It is a duty,
+therefore, which the Government owes, as well to the interests committed to
+its care as to the officers themselves, to provide every guard against
+transgressions of this character that is consistent with reason and
+humanity. Congress can not be too jealous of the conduct of those who are
+intrusted with the public money, and I shall at all times be disposed to
+encourage a watchful discharge of this duty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If a more direct cooperation on the part of Congress in the supervision of
+the conduct of the officers intrusted with the custody and application of
+the public money is deemed desirable, it will give me pleasure to assist in
+the establishment of any judicious and constitutional plan by which that
+object may be accomplished. You will in your wisdom determine upon the
+propriety of adopting such a plan and upon the measures necessary to its
+effectual execution. When the late Bank of the United States was
+incorporated and made the depository of the public moneys, a right was
+reserved to Congress to inspect at its pleasure, by a committee of that
+body, the books and the proceedings of the bank. In one of the States,
+whose banking institutions are supposed to rank amongst the first in point
+of stability, they are subjected to constant examination by commissioners
+appointed for that purpose, and much of the success of its banking system
+is attributed to this watchful supervision.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The same course has also, in view of its beneficial operation, been adopted
+by an adjoining State, favorably known for the care it has always bestowed
+upon whatever relates to its financial concerns. I submit to your
+consideration whether a committee of Congress might not be profitably
+employed in inspecting, at such intervals as might be deemed proper, the
+affairs and accounts of officers intrusted with the custody of the public
+moneys. The frequent performance of this duty might be made obligatory on
+the committee in respect to those officers who have large sums in their
+possession, and left discretionary in respect to others. They might report
+to the Executive such defalcations as were found to exist, with a view to a
+prompt removal from office unless the default was satisfactorily accounted
+for, and report also to Congress, at the commencement of each session, the
+result of their examinations and proceedings. It does appear to me that
+with a subjection of this class of public officers to the general
+supervision of the Executive, to examinations by a committee of Congress at
+periods of which they should have no previous notice, and to prosecution
+and punishment as for felony for every breach of trust, the safe-keeping of
+the public moneys might under the system proposed be placed on a surer
+foundation than it has ever occupied since the establishment of the
+Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you additional information
+containing new details on this interesting subject. To these I ask your
+early attention. That it should have given rise to great diversity of
+opinion can not be a subject of surprise. After the collection and custody
+of the public moneys had been for so many years connected with and made
+subsidiary to the advancement of private interests, a return to the simple
+self-denying ordinances of the Constitution could not but be difficult. But
+time and free discussion, eliciting the sentiments of the people, and aided
+by that conciliatory spirit which has ever characterized their course on
+great emergencies, were relied upon for a satisfactory settlement of the
+question. Already has this anticipation, on one important point at
+least--the impropriety of diverting public money to private purposes--been
+fully realized. There is no reason to suppose that legislation upon that
+branch of the subject would now be embarrassed by a difference of opinion,
+or fail to receive the cordial support of a large majority of our
+constituents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The connection which formerly existed between the Government and banks was
+in reality injurious to both, as well as to the general interests of the
+community at large. It aggravated the disasters of trade and the
+derangements of commercial intercourse, and administered new excitements
+and additional means to wild and reckless speculations, the disappointment
+of which threw the country into convulsions of panic, and all but produced
+violence and bloodshed. The imprudent expansion of bank credits, which was
+the natural result of the command of the revenues of the State, furnished
+the resources for unbounded license in every species of adventure, seduced
+industry from its regular and salutary occupations by the hope of abundance
+without labor, and deranged the social state by tempting all trades and
+professions into the vortex of speculation on remote contingencies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The same wide-spreading influence impeded also the resources of the
+Government, curtailed its useful operations, embarrassed the fulfillment of
+its obligations, and seriously interfered with the execution of the laws.
+Large appropriations and oppressive taxes are the natural consequences of
+such a connection, since they increase the profits of those who are allowed
+to use the public funds, and make it their interest that money should be
+accumulated and expenditures multiplied. It is thus that a concentrated
+money power is tempted to become an active agent in political affairs; and
+all past experience has shown on which side that influence will be arrayed.
+We deceive ourselves if we suppose that, it will ever be found asserting
+and supporting the rights of the community at large in opposition to the
+claims of the few.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion
+and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals
+will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. Nor is it the
+nature of combinations for the acquisition of legislative influence to
+confine their interference to the single object for which they were
+originally formed. The temptation to extend it to other matters is, on the
+contrary, not unfrequently too strong to be resisted. The rightful
+influence in the direction of public affairs of the mass of the people is
+therefore in no slight danger of being sensibly and injuriously affected by
+giving to a comparatively small but very efficient class a direct and
+exclusive personal interest in so important a portion of the legislation of
+Congress as that which relates to the custody of the public moneys. If laws
+acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be
+confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the
+legislatures of the States. When not thus restricted they lead to
+combinations of powerful associations, foster an influence necessarily
+selfish, and turn the fair course of legislation to sinister ends rather
+than to objects that advance public liberty and promote the general good.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The whole subject now rests with you, and I can not but express a hope that
+some definite measure will be adopted at the present session.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It will not, I am sure, be deemed out of place for me here to remark that
+the declaration of my views in opposition to the policy of employing banks
+as depositories of the Government funds can not justly be construed as
+indicative of hostility, official or personal, to those institutions; or to
+repeat in this form and in connection with this subject opinions which I
+have uniformly entertained and on all proper occasions expressed. Though
+always opposed to their creation in the form of exclusive privileges, and,
+as a State magistrate, aiming by appropriate legislation to secure the
+community against the consequences of their occasional mismanagement, I
+have yet ever wished to see them protected in the exercise of rights
+conferred by law, and have never doubted their utility when properly
+managed in promoting the interests of trade, and through that channel the
+other interests of the community. To the General Government they present
+themselves merely as State institutions, having no necessary connection
+with its legislation or its administration. Like other State
+establishments, they may be used or not in conducting the affairs of the
+Government, as public policy and the general interests of the Union may
+seem to require. The only safe or proper principle upon which their
+intercourse with the Government can be regulated is that which regulates
+their intercourse with the private citizen--the conferring of mutual
+benefits. When the Government can accomplish a financial operation better
+with the aid of the banks than without it, it should be at liberty to seek
+that aid as it would the services of a private banker or other capitalist
+or agent, giving the preference to those who will serve it on the best
+terms. Nor can there ever exist an interest in the officers of the General
+Government, as such, inducing them to embarrass or annoy the State banks
+any more than to incur the hostility of any other class of State
+institutions or of private citizens. It is not in the nature of things that
+hostility to these institutions can spring from this source, or any
+opposition to their course of business, except when they themselves depart
+from the objects of their creation and attempt to usurp powers not
+conferred upon them or to subvert the standard of value established by the
+Constitution. While opposition to their regular operations can not exist in
+this quarter, resistance to any attempt to make the Government dependent
+upon them for the successful administration of public affairs is a matter
+of duty, as I trust it ever will be of inclination, no matter from what
+motive or consideration the attempt may originate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is no more than just to the banks to say that in the late emergency most
+of them firmly resisted the strongest temptations to extend their paper
+issues when apparently sustained in a suspension of specie payments by
+public opinion, even though in some cases invited by legislative
+enactments. To this honorable course, aided by the resistance of the
+General Government, acting in obedience to the Constitution and laws of the
+United States, to the introduction of an irredeemable paper medium, may be
+attributed in a great degree the speedy restoration of our currency to a
+sound state and the business of the country to its wonted prosperity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The banks have but to continue in the same safe course and be content in
+their appropriate sphere to avoid all interference from the General
+Government and to derive from it all the protection and benefits which it
+bestows on other State establishments, on the people of the States, and on
+the States themselves. In this, their true position, they can not but
+secure the confidence and good will of the people and the Government, which
+they can only lose when, leaping from their legitimate sphere, they attempt
+to control the legislation of the country and pervert the operations of the
+Government to their own purposes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our experience under the act, passed at the last session, to grant
+preemption rights to settlers on the public lands has as yet been too
+limited to enable us to pronounce with safety upon the efficacy of its
+provisions to carry out the wise and liberal policy of the Government in
+that respect. There is, however, the best reason to anticipate favorable
+results from its operation. The recommendations formerly submitted to you
+in respect to a graduation of the price of the public lands remain to be
+finally acted upon. Having found no reason to change the views then
+expressed, your attention to them is again respectfully requested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Every proper exertion has been made and will be continued to carry out the
+wishes of Congress in relation to the tobacco trade, as indicated in the
+several resolutions of the House of Representatives and the legislation of
+the two branches. A favorable impression has, I trust, been made in the
+different foreign countries to which particular attention has been
+directed; and although we can not hope for an early change in their policy,
+as in many of them a convenient and large revenue is derived from
+monopolies in the fabrication and sale of this article, yet, as these
+monopolies are really injurious to the people where they are established,
+and the revenue derived from them may be less injuriously and with equal
+facility obtained from another and a liberal system of administration, we
+can not doubt that our efforts will be eventually crowned with, success if
+persisted in with temperate firmness and sustained by prudent legislation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In recommending to Congress the adoption of the necessary provisions at
+this session for taking the next census or enumeration of the inhabitants
+of the United States, the suggestion presents itself whether the scope of
+the measure might not be usefully extended by causing it to embrace
+authentic statistical returns of the great interests specially intrusted to
+or necessarily affected by the legislation of Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War presents a satisfactory
+account of the state of the Army and of the several branches of the public
+service confided to the superintendence of that officer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United
+States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been
+extensively and usefully employed during the past season.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I would again call to your notice the subjects connected with and essential
+to the military defenses of the country which were submitted to you at the
+last session, but which were not acted upon, as is supposed, for want of
+time. The most important of them is the organization of the militia on the
+maritime and inland frontiers. This measure is deemed important, as it is
+believed that it will furnish an effective volunteer force in aid of the
+Regular Army, and may form the basis of a general system of organization
+for the entire militia of the United States. The erection of a national
+foundry and gunpowder manufactory, and one for making small arms, the
+latter to be situated at some point west of the Allegany Mountains, all
+appear to be of sufficient importance to be again urged upon your
+attention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The plan proposed by the Secretary of War for the distribution of the
+forces of the United States in time of peace is well calculated to promote
+regularity and economy in the fiscal administration of the service, to
+preserve the discipline of the troops, and to render them available for the
+maintenance of the peace and tranquillity of the Country. With this view,
+likewise, I recommend the adoption of the plan presented by that officer
+for the defense of the western frontier. The preservation of the lives and
+property of our fellow-citizens who are settled upon that border country,
+as well as the existence of the Indian population, which might be tempted
+by our want of preparation to rush on their own destruction and attack the
+white settlements, all seem to require that this subject should be acted
+upon without delay, and the War Department authorized to place that country
+in a state of complete defense against any assault from the numerous and
+warlike tribes which are congregated on that border.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire
+removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the
+Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session, with
+a view to the long-standing controversy with them, have had the happiest
+effects. By an agreement concluded with them by the commanding general in
+that country, who has performed the duties assigned to him on the occasion
+with commendable energy and humanity, their removal has been principally
+under the conduct of their own chiefs, and they have emigrated without any
+apparent reluctance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The successful accomplishment of this important object, the removal also of
+the entire Creek Nation with the exception of a small number of fugitives
+amongst the Seminoles in Florida, the progress already made toward a speedy
+completion of the removal of the Chickasaws, the Choctaws, the
+Pottawatamies, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas, with the extensive purchases
+of Indian lands during the present year, have rendered the speedy and
+successful result of the long-established policy of the Government upon the
+subject of Indian affairs entirely certain. The occasion is therefore
+deemed a proper one to place this policy in such a point of view as will
+exonerate the Government of the United States from the undeserved reproach
+which has been cast upon it through several successive Administrations.
+That a mixed occupancy of the same territory by the white and red man is
+incompatible with the safety or happiness of either is a position in
+respect to which there has long since ceased to be room for a difference of
+opinion. Reason and experience have alike demonstrated its
+impracticability. The bitter fruits of every attempt heretofore to overcome
+the barriers interposed by nature have only been destruction, both physical
+and moral, to the Indian, dangerous conflicts of authority between the
+Federal and State Governments, and detriment to the individual prosperity
+of the citizen as well as to the general improvement of the country. The
+remedial policy, the principles of which were settled more than thirty
+years ago under the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, consists in an
+extinction, for a fair consideration, of the title to all the lands still
+occupied by the Indians within the States and Territories of the United
+States; their removal to a country west of the Mississippi much more
+extensive and better adapted to their condition than that on which they
+then resided; the guarantee to them by the United States of their exclusive
+possession of that country forever, exempt from all intrusions by white
+men, with ample provisions for their security against external violence and
+internal dissensions, and the extension to them of suitable facilities for
+their advancement in civilization. This has not been the policy of
+particular Administrations only, but of each in succession since the first
+attempt to carry it out under that of Mr. Monroe. All have labored for its
+accomplishment, only with different degrees of success. The manner of its
+execution has, it is true, from time to time given rise to conflicts of
+opinion and unjust imputations; but in respect to the wisdom and necessity
+of the policy itself there has not from the beginning existed a doubt in
+the mind of any calm, judicious, disinterested friend of the Indian race
+accustomed to reflection and enlightened by experience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Occupying the double character of contractor on its own account and
+guardian for the parties contracted with, it was hardly to be expected that
+the dealings of the Federal Government with the Indian tribes would escape
+misrepresentation. That there occurred ill the early settlement of this
+country, as in all others where the civilized race has succeeded to the
+possessions of the savage, instances of oppression and fraud on the part of
+the former there is too much reason to believe. No such offenses can,
+however, be justly charged upon this Government since it became free to
+pursue its own course. Its dealings with the Indian tribes have been just
+and friendly throughout; its efforts for their civilization constant, and
+directed by the best feelings of humanity; its watchfulness in protecting
+them from individual frauds unremitting; its forbearance under the keenest
+provocations, the deepest injuries, and the most flagrant outrages may
+challenge at least a comparison with any nation, ancient or modern, in
+similar circumstances; and if in future times a powerful, civilized, and
+happy nation of Indians shall be found to exist within the limits of this
+northern continent it will be owing to the consummation of that policy
+which has been so unjustly assailed. Only a very brief reference to facts
+in confirmation of this assertion can in this form be given, and you are
+therefore necessarily referred to the report of the Secretary of War for
+further details. To the Cherokees, whose case has perhaps excited the
+greatest share of attention and sympathy, the United States have granted in
+fee, with a perpetual guaranty of exclusive and peaceable possession,
+13,554,135 acres of land on the west side of the Mississippi, eligibly
+situated, in a healthy climate, and in all respects better suited to their
+condition than the country they have left, in exchange for only 9,492, 160
+acres on the east side of the same river. The United States have in
+addition stipulated to pay them $5,600,000 for their interest in and
+improvements on the lands thus relinquished, and $1,160,000 for subsistence
+and other beneficial purposes, thereby putting it in their power to become
+one of the most wealthy and independent separate communities of the same
+extent in the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the treaties made and ratified with the Miamies, the Chippewas, the
+Sioux, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Winnebagoes during the last year the
+Indian title to 18,458,000 acres has been extinguished. These purchases
+have been much more extensive than those of any previous year, and have,
+with other Indian expenses, borne very heavily upon the Treasury. They
+leave, however, but a small quantity of unbought Indian lands within the
+States and Territories, and the Legislature and Executive were equally
+sensible of the propriety of a final and more speedy extinction of Indian
+titles within those limits. The treaties, which were with a single
+exception made in pursuance of previous appropriations for defraying the
+expenses, have subsequently been ratified by the Senate, and received the
+sanction of Congress by the appropriations necessary to carry them into
+effect. Of the terms upon which these important negotiations were concluded
+I can speak from direct knowledge, and I feel no difficulty in affirming
+that the interest of the Indians in the extensive territory embraced by
+them is to be paid for at its fair value, and that no more favorable terms
+have been granted to the United States than would have been reasonably
+expected in a negotiation with civilized men fully capable of appreciating
+and protecting their own rights. For the Indian title to 116,349,897 acres
+acquired since the 4th of March, 1829, the United States have paid
+$72,560,056 in permanent annuities, lands, reservations for Indians,
+expenses of removal and subsistence, merchandise, mechanical and
+agricultural establishments and implements. When the heavy expenses
+incurred by the United States and the circumstance that so large a portion
+of the entire territory will be forever unsalable are considered, and this
+price is compared with that for which the United States sell their own
+lands, no one can doubt that justice has been done to the Indians in these
+purchases also. Certain it is that the transactions of the Federal
+Government with the Indians have been uniformly characterized by a sincere
+and paramount desire to promote their welfare; and it must be a source of
+the highest gratification to every friend to justice and humanity to learn
+that not withstanding the obstructions from time to time thrown in its way
+and the difficulties which have arisen from the peculiar and impracticable
+nature of the Indian character, the wise, humane, and undeviating policy of
+the Government in this the most difficult of all our relations, foreign or
+domestic, has at length been justified to the world in its near approach to
+a happy and certain consummation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them in
+the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early
+civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and
+turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. All those who have been
+established for any length of time in that fertile region maintain
+themselves by their own industry. There are among them traders of no
+inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent, but
+the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon the
+produce of their farms. The recent emigrants, although they have in some
+instances removed reluctantly, have readily acquiesced in their unavoidable
+destiny. They have found at once a recompense for past sufferings and an
+incentive to industrious habits in the abundance and comforts around them.
+There is reason to believe that all these tribes are friendly in their
+feelings toward the United States; and it is to be hoped that the
+acquisition of individual wealth, the pursuits of agriculture, and habits
+of industry will gradually subdue their warlike propensities and incline
+them to maintain peace among themselves. To effect this desirable object
+the attention of Congress is solicited to the measures recommended by the
+Secretary of War for their future government and protection, as well from
+each other as from the hostility of the warlike tribes around them and the
+intrusions of the whites. The policy of the Government has given them a
+permanent home and guaranteed to them its peaceful and undisturbed
+possession. It only remains to give them a government and laws which will
+encourage industry and secure to them the rewards of their exertions. The
+importance of some form of government can not be too much insisted upon.
+The earliest effects will be to diminish the causes and occasions for
+hostilities among the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of
+laws to which they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the
+securities of property and the motives for self-improvement. Intimately
+connected with this subject is the establishment of the military defenses
+recommended by the Secretary of War, which have been already referred to.
+Without them the Government will be powerless to redeem its pledge of
+protection to the emigrating Indians against the numerous warlike tribes
+that surround them and to provide for the safety of the frontier settlers
+of the bordering States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to the
+successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the homes
+assigned them west of the Mississippi. Four hundred of this tribe emigrated
+in 1836 and 1,500 in 1837 and 1838, leaving in the country, it is supposed,
+about 2,000 Indians. The continued treacherous conduct of these people; the
+savage and unprovoked murders they have lately committed, butchering whole
+families of the settlers of the Territory without distinction of age or
+sex, and making their way into the very center and heart of the country, so
+that no part of it is free from their ravages; their frequent attacks on
+the light-houses along that dangerous coast, and the barbarity with which
+they have murdered the passengers and crews of such vessels as have been
+wrecked upon the reefs and keys which border the Gulf, leave the Government
+no alternative but to continue the military operations against them until
+they are totally expelled from Florida. There are other motives which would
+urge the Government to pursue this course toward the Seminoles. The United
+States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the
+Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like
+performance of their obligations. To relax from this salutary rule because
+the Seminoles have maintained themselves so long in the territory they had
+relinquished, and in defiance of their frequent and solemn engagements
+still continue to wage a ruthless war against the United States, would not
+only evince a want of constancy on our part, but be of evil example in our
+intercourse with other tribes. Experience has shown that but little is to
+be gained by the march of armies through a country so intersected with
+inaccessible swamps and marshes, and which, from the fatal character of the
+climate, must be abandoned at the end of the winter. I recommend,
+therefore, to your attention the plan submitted by the Secretary of War in
+the accompanying report, for the permanent occupation of the portion of the
+Territory freed from the Indians and the more efficient protection of the
+people of Florida from their inhuman warfare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith transmitted it will
+appear that a large portion of the disposable naval force is either
+actively employed or in a state of preparation for the purposes of
+experience and discipline and the protection of our commerce. So effectual
+has been this protection that so far as the information of Government
+extends not a single outrage has been attempted on a vessel carrying the
+flag of the United States within the present year, in any quarter, however
+distant or exposed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exploring expedition sailed from Norfolk on the 19th of August last,
+and information has been received of its safe arrival at the island of
+Madeira. The best spirit animates the officers and crews, and there is
+every reason to anticipate from its efforts results beneficial to commerce
+and honorable to the nation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It will also be seen that no reduction of the force now in commission is
+contemplated. The unsettled state of a portion of South America renders it
+indispensable that our commerce should receive protection in that quarter;
+the vast and increasing interests embarked in the trade of the Indian and
+China seas, in the whale fisheries of the Pacific Ocean, and in the Gulf of
+Mexico require equal attention to their safety, and a small squadron may be
+employed to great advantage on our Atlantic coast in meeting sudden demands
+for the reenforcement of other stations, in aiding merchant vessels in
+distress, in affording active service to an additional number of officers,
+and in visiting the different ports of the United States, an accurate
+knowledge of which is obviously of the highest importance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The attention of Congress is respectfully called to that portion of the
+report recommending an increase in the number of smaller vessels, and to
+other suggestions contained in that document. The rapid increase and wide
+expansion of our commerce, which is every day seeking new avenues of
+profitable adventure; the absolute necessity of a naval force for its
+protection precisely in the degree of its extension; a due regard to the
+national rights and honor; the recollection of its former exploits, and the
+anticipation of its future triumphs whenever opportunity presents itself,
+which we may rightfully indulge from the experience of the past--all seem
+to point to the Navy as a most efficient arm of our national defense and a
+proper object of legislative encouragement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The progress and condition of the Post-Office Department will be seen by
+reference to the report of the Postmaster-General. The extent of post-roads
+covered by mail contracts is stated to be 134,818 miles, and the annual
+transportation upon them 34,580,202 miles. The number of post-offices in
+the United States is 12,553, and rapidly increasing. The gross revenue for
+the year ending on the 30th day of June last was $4,262,145; the accruing
+expenditures, $4,680,068; excess of expenditures, $417,923. This has been
+made up out of the surplus previously on hand. The cash on hand on the 1st
+instant was $314,068. The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1838, was
+$161,540 more than that for the year ending June 30, 1837. The expenditures
+of the Department had been graduated upon the anticipation of a largely
+increased revenue. A moderate curtailment of mail service consequently
+became necessary, and has been effected, to shield the Department against
+the danger of embarrassment. Its revenue is now improving, and it will soon
+resume its onward course in the march of improvement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Your particular attention is requested to so much of the
+Postmaster-Generals report as relates to the transportation of the mails
+upon railroads. The laws on that subject do not seem adequate to secure
+that service, now become almost essential to the public interests, and at
+the same time protect the Department from combinations and unreasonable
+demands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor can I too earnestly request your attention to the necessity of
+providing a more secure building for this Department. The danger of
+destruction to which its important books and papers are continually
+exposed, as well from the highly combustible character of the building
+occupied as from that of others in the vicinity, calls loudly for prompt
+action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Your attention is again earnestly invited to the suggestions and
+recommendations submitted at the last session in respect to the District of
+Columbia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I feel it my duty also to bring to your notice certain proceedings at law
+which have recently been prosecuted in this District in the name of the
+United States, on the relation of Messrs. Stockton &amp; Stokes, of the State
+of Maryland, against the Postmaster-General, and which have resulted in the
+payment of money out of the National Treasury, for the first time since the
+establishment of the Government, by judicial compulsion exercised by the
+common-law writ of mandamus issued by the circuit court of this District.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The facts of the case and the grounds of the proceedings will be found
+fully stated in the report of the decision, and any additional information
+which you may desire will be supplied by the proper Department. No
+interference in the particular case is contemplated. The money has been
+paid, the claims of the prosecutors have been satisfied, and the whole
+subject, so far as they are concerned, is finally disposed of; but it is on
+the supposition that the case may be regarded as an authoritative
+exposition of the law as it now stands that I have thought it necessary to
+present it to your consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The object of the application to the circuit court was to compel the
+Postmaster-General to carry into effect an award made by the Solicitor of
+the Treasury, under a special act of Congress for the settlement of certain
+claims of the relators on the Post-Office Department, which award the
+Postmaster-General declined to execute in full until he should receive
+further legislative direction on the subject. If the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General by that law was to be regarded as one of an official
+nature, belonging to his office as a branch of the executive, then it is
+obvious that the constitutional competency of the judiciary to direct and
+control him in its discharge was necessarily drawn in question; and if the
+duty so imposed on the Postmaster-General was to be considered as merely
+ministerial, and not executive, it yet remained to be shown that the
+circuit court of this District had authority to interfere by mandamus, such
+a power having never before been asserted or claimed by that court. With a
+view to the settlement of these important questions, the judgment of the
+circuit court was carried by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the
+United States. In the opinion of that tribunal the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General was not an official executive duty, but one of a merely
+ministerial nature. The grave constitutional questions which had been
+discussed were therefore excluded from the decision of the case, the court,
+indeed, expressly admitting that with powers and duties properly belonging
+to the executive no other department can interfere by the writ of
+mandamus; and the question therefore resolved itself into this: Has
+Congress conferred upon the circuit court of this District the power to
+issue such a writ to an officer of the General Government commanding him to
+perform a ministerial act? A majority of the court have decided that it
+has, but have rounded their decision upon a process of reasoning which in
+my judgment renders further legislative provision indispensable to the
+public interests and the equal administration of justice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has long since been decided by the Supreme Court that neither that
+tribunal nor the circuit courts of the United States, held within the
+respective States, possess the power in question; but it is now held that
+this power, denied to both of these high tribunals (to the former by the
+Constitution and to the latter by Congress), has been by its legislation
+vested in the circuit court of this District. No such direct grant of power
+to the circuit court of this District is claimed, but it has been held to
+result by necessary implication from several sections of the law
+establishing the court. One of these sections declares that the laws of
+Maryland, as they existed at the time of the cession, should be in force in
+that part of the District ceded by that State, and by this provision the
+common law in civil and criminal cases, as it prevailed in Maryland in
+1801, was established in that part of the District.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In England the court of king's bench--because the Sovereign, who, according
+to the theory of the constitution, is the fountain of justice originally
+sat there in person, and is still deemed to be present in construction of
+law--alone possesses the high power of issuing the writ of mandamus, not
+only to inferior jurisdictions and corporations, but also to magistrates
+and others, commanding them in the King's name to do what their duty
+requires in cases where there is a vested right and no other specific
+remedy. It has been held in the case referred to that as the Supreme Court
+of the United States is by the Constitution rendered incompetent to
+exercise this power, and as the circuit court of this District is a court
+of general jurisdiction in cases at common law, and the highest court of
+original jurisdiction in the District, the right to issue the writ of
+mandamus is incident to its common-law powers. Another ground relied upon
+to maintain the power in question is that it was included by fair
+construction in the powers granted to the circuit courts of the United
+States by the act "to provide for the more convenient organization of the
+courts of the United States," passed 13th February, 1801; that the act
+establishing the circuit court of this District, passed the 27th day of
+February, 1801, conferred upon that court and the judges thereof the same
+powers as were by law vested in the circuit courts of the United States and
+in the judges of the said courts; that the repeal of the first-mentioned
+act, which took place in the next year, did not divest the circuit court of
+this District of the authority in dispute, but left it still clothed with
+the powers over the subject which, it is conceded, were taken away from the
+circuit courts of the United States by the repeal of the act of 13th
+February, 1801.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Admitting that the adoption of the laws of Maryland for a portion of this
+District confers on the circuit court thereof, in that portion, the
+transcendent extrajudicial prerogative powers of the court of king's bench
+in England, or that either of the acts of Congress by necessary implication
+authorizes the former court to issue a writ of mandamus to an officer of
+the United States to compel him to perform a ministerial duty, the
+consequences are in one respect the same. The result in either case is that
+the officers of the United States stationed in different parts of the
+United States are, in respect to the performance of their official duties,
+subject to different laws and a different supervision--those in the States
+to one rule, and those in the District of Columbia to another and a very
+different one. In the District their official conduct is subject to a
+judicial control from which in the States they are exempt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the expediency of vesting
+such a power in the judiciary in a system of government constituted like
+that of the United States, all must agree that these disparaging
+discrepancies in the law and in the administration of justice ought not to
+he permitted to continue; and as Congress alone can provide the remedy, the
+subject is unavoidably presented to your consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+M. VAN BUREN
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+***
+</p>
+
+<p><a id="dec1839"></a></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+State of the Union Address<br />
+Martin van Buren<br />
+December 2, 1839<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I regret that I can not on this occasion congratulate you that the past
+year has been one of unalloyed prosperity. The ravages of fire and disease
+have painfully afflicted otherwise flourishing portions of our country, and
+serious embarrassments yet derange the trade of many of our cities. But
+notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, that general prosperity which
+has been heretofore so bountifully bestowed upon us by the Author of All
+Good still continues to call for our warmest gratitude. Especially have we
+reason to rejoice in the exuberant harvests which have lavishly recompensed
+well-directed industry and given to it that sure reward which is vainly
+sought in visionary speculations. I cannot, indeed, view without peculiar
+satisfaction the evidences afforded by the past season of the benefits that
+spring from the steady devotion of the husbandman to his honorable pursuit.
+No means of individual comfort is more certain and no source of national
+prosperity is so sure. Nothing can compensate a people for a dependence
+upon others for the bread they eat, and that cheerful abundance on which
+the happiness of everyone so much depends is to be looked for nowhere with
+such sure reliance as in the industry of the agriculturist and the bounties
+of the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With foreign countries our relations exhibit the same favorable aspect
+which was presented in my last annual message, and afford continued proof
+of the wisdom of the pacific, just, and forbearing policy adopted by the
+first Administration of the Federal Government and pursued by its
+successors. The extraordinary powers vested in me by an act of Congress for
+the defense of the country in an emergency, considered so far probable as
+to require that the Executive should possess ample means to meet it, have
+not been exerted. They have therefore been attended with no other result
+than to increase, by the confidence thus reposed in me, my obligations to
+maintain with religious exactness the cardinal principles that govern our
+intercourse with other nations. Happily, in our pending questions with
+Great Britain, out of which this unusual grant of authority arose, nothing
+has occurred to require its exertion, and as it is about to return to the
+Legislature I trust that no future necessity may call for its exercise by
+them or its delegation to another Department of the Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the settlement of our northeastern boundary the proposition promised by
+Great Britain for a commission of exploration and survey has been received,
+and a counter project, including also a provision for the certain and final
+adjustment of the limits in dispute, is now before the British Government
+for its consideration. A just regard to the delicate state of this question
+and a proper respect for the natural impatience of the State of Maine, not
+less than a conviction that the negotiation has been already protracted
+longer than is prudent on the part of either Government, have led me to
+believe that the present favorable moment should on no account be suffered
+to pass without putting the question forever at rest. I feel confident that
+the Government of Her Britannic Majesty will take the same view of this
+subject, as I am persuaded it is governed by desires equally strong and
+sincere for the amicable termination of the controversy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To the intrinsic difficulties of questions of boundary lines, especially
+those described in regions unoccupied and but partially known, is to be
+added in our country the embarrassment necessarily arising out of our
+Constitution by which the General Government is made the organ of
+negotiating and deciding upon the particular interests of the States on
+whose frontiers these lines are to be traced. To avoid another controversy
+in which a State government might rightfully claim to have her wishes
+consulted previously to the conclusion of conventional arrangements
+concerning her rights of jurisdiction or territory, I have thought it
+necessary to call the attention of the Government of Great Britain to
+another portion of our conterminous dominion of which the division still
+remains to be adjusted I refer to the line from the entrance of Lake
+Superior to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods,
+stipulations for the settlement of which are to be found in the seventh
+article of the treaty of Ghent. The commissioners appointed under that
+article by the two Governments having differed in their opinions, made
+separate reports, according to its stipulations, upon the points of
+disagreement, and these differences are now to be submitted to the
+arbitration of some friendly sovereign or state. The disputed points should
+be settled and the line designated before the Territorial government of
+which it is one of the boundaries takes its place in the Union as a State,
+and I rely upon the cordial cooperation of the British Government to effect
+that object.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is every reason to believe that disturbances like those which lately
+agitated the neighboring British Provinces will not again prove the sources
+of border contentions or interpose obstacles to the continuance of that
+good understanding which it is the mutual interest of Great Britain and the
+United States to preserve and maintain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Within the Provinces themselves tranquillity is restored, and on our
+frontier that misguided sympathy in favor of what was presumed to be a
+general effort in behalf of popular rights, and which in some instances
+misled a few of our more inexperienced citizens, has subsided into a
+rational conviction strongly opposed to all intermeddling with the internal
+affairs of our neighbors. The people of the United States feel, as it is
+hoped they always will, a warm solicitude for the success of all who are
+sincerely endeavoring to improve the political condition of mankind. This
+generous feeling they cherish toward the most distant nations, and it was
+natural, therefore, that it should be awakened with more than common warmth
+in behalf of their immediate neighbors; but it does not belong to their
+character as a community to seek the gratification of those feelings in
+acts which violate their duty as citizens, endanger the peace of their
+country, and tend to bring upon it the stain of a violated faith toward
+foreign nations. If, zealous to confer benefits on others, they appear for
+a moment to lose sight of the permanent obligations imposed upon them as
+citizens, they are seldom long misled. From all the information I receive,
+confirmed to some extent by personal observation, I am satisfied that no
+one can now hope to engage in such enterprises without encountering public
+indignation, in addition to the severest penalties of the law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Recent information also leads me to hope that the emigrants from Her
+Majesty's Provinces who have sought refuge within our boundaries are
+disposed to become peaceable residents and to abstain from all attempts to
+endanger the peace of that country which has afforded them an asylum. On a
+review of the occurrences on both sides of the line it is satisfactory to
+reflect that in almost every complaint against our country the offense may
+be traced to emigrants from the Provinces who have sought refuge here. In
+the few instances in which they were aided by citizens of the United States
+the acts of these misguided men were not only in direct contravention of
+the laws and well-known wishes of their own Government, but met with the
+decided disapprobation of the people of the United States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I regret to state the appearance of a different spirit among Her Majesty's
+subjects in the Canadas. The sentiments of hostility to our people and
+institutions which have been so frequently expressed there, and the
+disregard of our rights which has been manifested on some occasions, have,
+I am sorry to say, been applauded and encouraged by the people, and even by
+some of the subordinate local authorities, of the Provinces. The chief
+officers in Canada, fortunately, have not entertained the same feeling, and
+have probably prevented excesses that must have been fatal to the peace of
+the two countries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I look forward anxiously to a period when all the transactions which have
+grown out of this condition of our affairs, and which have been made the
+subjects of complaint and remonstrance by the two Governments,
+respectively, shall be fully examined, and the proper satisfaction given
+where it is due from either side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our intercourse with
+Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Naples, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, or
+Sweden. The internal state of Spain has sensibly improved, and a
+well-grounded hope exists that the return of peace will restore to the
+people of that country their former prosperity and enable the Government to
+fulfill all its obligations at home and abroad. The Government of Portugal,
+I have the satisfaction to state, has paid in full the eleventh and last
+installment due to our citizens for the claims embraced in the settlement
+made with it on the 3d of March, 1837.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I lay before you treaties of commerce negotiated with the Kings of Sardinia
+and of the Netherlands, the ratifications of which have been exchanged
+since the adjournment of Congress. The liberal principles of these treaties
+will recommend them to your approbation. That with Sardinia is the first
+treaty of commerce formed by that Kingdom, and it will, I trust, answer the
+expectations of the present Sovereign by aiding the development of the
+resources of his country and stimulating the enterprise of his people. That
+with the Netherlands happily terminates a long-existing subject of dispute
+and removes from our future commercial intercourse all apprehension of
+embarrassment. The King of the Netherlands has also, in further
+illustration of his character for justice and of his desire to remove every
+cause of dissatisfaction, made compensation for an American vessel captured
+in 1800 by a French privateer, and carried into Curacoa, where the proceeds
+were appropriated to the use of the colony, then, and for a short time
+after, under the dominion of Holland.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The death of the late Sultan has produced no alteration in our relations
+with Turkey. Our newly appointed minister resident has reached
+Constantinople, and I have received assurances from the present ruler that
+the obligations of our treaty and those of friendship will be fulfilled by
+himself in the same spirit that actuated his illustrious father.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I regret to be obliged to inform you that no convention for the settlement
+of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico has yet been ratified by the
+Government of that country. The first convention formed for that purpose
+was not presented by the President of Mexico for the approbation of its
+Congress, from a belief that the King of Prussia, the arbitrator in case of
+disagreement in the joint commission to be appointed by the United States
+and Mexico, would not consent to take upon himself that friendly office.
+Although not entirely satisfied with the course pursued by Mexico, I felt
+no hesitation in receiving in the most conciliatory spirit the explanation
+offered, and also cheerfully consented to a new convention, in order to
+arrange the payments proposed to be made to our citizens in a manner which,
+while equally just to them, was deemed less onerous and inconvenient to the
+Mexican Government. Relying confidently upon the intentions of that
+Government, Mr. Ellis was directed to repair to Mexico, and diplomatic
+intercourse has been resumed between the two countries. The new convention
+has, he informs us, been recently submitted by the President of that
+Republic to its Congress under circumstances which promise a speedy
+ratification, a result which I can not allow myself to doubt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instructions have been given to the commissioner of the United States under
+our convention with Texas for the demarcation of the line which separates
+us from that Republic. The commissioners of both Governments met in New
+Orleans in August last. The joint commission was organized, and adjourned
+to convene at the same place on the 12th of October. It is presumed to be
+now in the performance of its duties.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The new Government of Texas has shown its desire to cultivate friendly
+relations with us by a prompt reparation for injuries complained of in the
+cases of two vessels of the United States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With Central America a convention has been concluded for the renewal of its
+former treaty with the United States. This was not ratified before the
+departure of our late charge d'affaires from that country, and the copy of
+it brought by him was not received before the adjournment of the Senate at
+the last session. In the meanwhile, the period limited for the exchange of
+ratifications having expired, I deemed it expedient, in consequence of the
+death of the charge d'affaires, to send a special agent to Central America
+to close the affairs of our mission there and to arrange with the
+Government an extension of the time for the exchange of ratifications.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The commission created by the States which formerly composed the Republic
+of Colombia for adjusting the claims against that Government has by a very
+unexpected construction of the treaty under which it acts decided that no
+provision was made for those claims of citizens of the United States which
+arose from captures by Colombian privateers and were adjudged against the
+claimants in the judicial tribunals. This decision will compel the United
+States to apply to the several Governments formerly united for redress.
+With all these--New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador--a perfectly good
+understanding exists. Our treaty with Venezuela is faithfully carried into
+execution, and that country, in the enjoyment of tranquillity, is gradually
+advancing in prosperity under the guidance of its present distinguished
+President, General Paez. With Ecuador a liberal commercial convention has
+lately been concluded, which will be transmitted to the Senate at an early
+day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the great American Empire of Brazil our relations continue unchanged,
+as does our friendly intercourse with the other Governments of South
+America--the Argentine Republic and the Republics of Uruguay, Chili, Peru,
+and Bolivia. The dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation may
+occasion some temporary inconvenience to our citizens in that quarter, but
+the obligations on the new Governments which have arisen out of that
+Confederation to observe its treaty stipulations will no doubt be soon
+understood, and it is presumed that no indisposition will exist to fulfill
+those which it contracted with the United States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The financial operations of the Government during the present year have, I
+am happy to say, been very successful. The difficulties under which the
+Treasury Department has labored, from known defects in the existing laws
+relative to the safe-keeping of the public moneys, aggravated by the
+suspension of specie payments by several of the banks holding public
+deposits or indebted to public officers for notes received in payment of
+public dues, have been surmounted to a very gratifying extent. The large
+current expenditures have been punctually met, and the faith of the
+Government in all its pecuniary concerns has been scrupulously maintained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The nineteen millions of Treasury notes authorized by the act of Congress
+of 1837, and the modifications thereof with a view to the indulgence of
+merchants on their duty bonds and of the deposit banks in the payment of
+public moneys held by them, have been so punctually redeemed as to leave
+less than the original ten millions outstanding at any one time, and the
+whole amount unredeemed now falls short of three millions. Of these the
+chief portion is not due till next year, and the whole would have been
+already extinguished could the Treasury have realized the payments due to
+it from the banks. If those due from them during the next year shall be
+punctually made, and if Congress shall keep the appropriations within the
+estimates, there is every reason to believe that all the outstanding
+Treasury notes can be redeemed and the ordinary expenses defrayed without
+imposing on the people any additional burden, either of loans or increased
+taxes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To avoid this and to keep the expenditures within reasonable bounds is a
+duty second only in importance to the preservation of our national
+character and the protection of our citizens in their civil and political
+rights. The creation in time of peace of a debt likely to become permanent
+is an evil for which there is no equivalent. The rapidity with which many
+of the States are apparently approaching to this condition admonishes us of
+our own duties in a manner too impressive to be disregarded. One, not the
+least important, is to keep the Federal Government always in a condition to
+discharge with ease and vigor its highest functions should their exercise
+be required by any sudden conjuncture of public affairs--a condition to
+which we are always exposed and which may occur when it is least expected.
+To this end it is indispensable that its finances should be untrammeled and
+its resources as far as practicable unencumbered. No circumstance could
+present greater obstacles to the accomplishment of these vitally important
+objects than the creation of an onerous national debt. Our own experience
+and also that of other nations have demonstrated the unavoidable and
+fearful rapidity with which a public debt is increased when the Government
+has once surrendered itself to the ruinous practice of supplying its
+supposed necessities by new loans. The struggle, therefore, on our part to
+be successful must be made at the threshold. To make our efforts effective,
+severe economy is necessary. This is the surest provision for the national
+welfare, and it is at the same time the best preservative of the principles
+on which our institutions rest. Simplicity and economy in the affairs of
+state have never failed to chasten and invigorate republican principles,
+while these have been as surely subverted by national prodigality, under
+whatever specious pretexts it may have been introduced or fostered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These considerations can not be lost upon a people who have never been
+inattentive to the effect of their policy upon the institutions they have
+created for themselves, but at the present moment their force is augmented
+by the necessity which a decreasing revenue must impose. The check lately
+given to importations of articles subject to duties, the derangements in
+the operations of internal trade, and especially the reduction gradually
+taking place in our tariff of duties, all tend materially to lessen our
+receipts; indeed, it is probable that the diminution resulting from the
+last cause alone will not fall short of $5,000,000 in the year 1842, as the
+final reduction of all duties to 20 per cent then takes effect. The whole
+revenue then accruing from the customs and from the sales of public lands,
+if not more, will undoubtedly be wanted to defray the necessary expenses of
+the Government under the most prudent administration of its affairs. These
+are circumstances that impose the necessity of rigid economy and require
+its prompt and constant exercise. With the Legislature rest the power and
+duty of so adjusting the public expenditure as to promote this end. By the
+provisions of the Constitution it is only in consequence of appropriations
+made by law that money can be drawn from the Treasury. No instance has
+occurred since the establishment of the Government in which the Executive,
+though a component part of the legislative power, has interposed an
+objection to an appropriation bill on the sole ground of its extravagance.
+His duty in this respect has been considered fulfilled by requesting such
+appropriations only as the public service may be reasonably expected to
+require. In the present earnest direction of the public mind toward this
+subject both the Executive and the Legislature have evidence of the strict
+responsibility to which they will be held; and while I am conscious of my
+own anxious efforts to perform with fidelity this portion of my public
+functions, it is a satisfaction to me to be able to count on a cordial
+cooperation from you.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the time I entered upon my present duties our ordinary disbursements,
+without including those on account of the public debt, the Post-Office, and
+the trust funds in charge of the Government, had been largely increased by
+appropriations for the removal of the Indians, for repelling Indian
+hostilities, and for other less urgent expenses which grew out of an
+overflowing Treasury. Independent of the redemption of the public debt and
+trusts, the gross expenditures of seventeen and eighteen millions in 1834
+and 1835 had by these causes swelled to twenty-nine millions in 1836, and
+the appropriations for 1837, made previously to the 4th of March, caused
+the expenditure to rise to the very large amount of thirty-three millions.
+We were enabled during the year 1838, notwithstanding the continuance of
+our Indian embarrassments, somewhat to reduce this amount, and that for the
+present year (1839) will not in all probability exceed twenty-six millions,
+or six millions less than it was last year. With a determination, so far as
+depends on me, to continue this reduction, I have directed the estimates
+for 1840 to be subjected to the severest scrutiny and to be limited to the
+absolute requirements of the public service. They will be found less than
+the expenditures of 1839 by over $5,000,000.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The precautionary measures which will be recommended by the Secretary of
+the Treasury to protect faithfully the public credit under the fluctuations
+and contingencies to which our receipts and expenditures are exposed, and
+especially in a commercial crisis like the present, are commended to your
+early attention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On a former occasion your attention was invited to various considerations
+in support of a preemption law in behalf of the settlers on the public
+lands, and also of a law graduating the prices for such lands as had long
+been in the market unsold in consequence of their inferior quality. The
+execution of the act which was passed on the first subject has been
+attended with the happiest consequences in quieting titles and securing
+improvements to the industrious, and it has also to a very gratifying
+extent been exempt from the frauds which were practiced under previous
+preemption laws. It has at the same time, as was anticipated, contributed
+liberally during the present year to the receipts of the Treasury.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The passage of a graduation law, with the guards before recommended, would
+also, I am persuaded, add considerably to the revenue for several years,
+and prove in other respects just and beneficial. Your early consideration
+of the subject is therefore once more earnestly requested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The present condition of the defenses of our principal seaports and
+navy-yards, as represented by the accompanying report of the Secretary of
+War, calls for the early and serious attention of Congress; and, as
+connecting itself intimately with this subject, I can not recommend too
+strongly to your consideration the plan submitted by that officer for the
+organization of the militia of the United States.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In conformity with the expressed wishes of Congress, an attempt was made in
+the spring to terminate the Florida war by negotiation. It is to be
+regretted that these humane intentions should have been frustrated and that
+the effort to bring these unhappy difficulties to a satisfactory conclusion
+should have failed; but after entering into solemn engagements with the
+commanding general, the Indians, without any provocation, recommenced their
+acts of treachery and murder. The renewal of hostilities in that Territory
+renders it necessary that I should recommend to your favorable
+consideration the plan which will be submitted to you by the Secretary of
+War, in order to enable that Department to conduct them to a successful
+issue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having had an opportunity of personally inspecting a portion of the troops
+during the last summer, it gives me pleasure to bear testimony to the
+success of the effort to improve their discipline by keeping them together
+in as large bodies as the nature of our service will permit. I recommend,
+therefore, that commodious and permanent barracks be constructed at the
+several posts designated by the Secretary of War. Notwithstanding the high
+state of their discipline and excellent police, the evils resulting to the
+service from the deficiency of company officers were very apparent, and I
+recommend that the staff officers be permanently separated from the line.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Navy has been usefully and honorably employed in protecting the rights
+and property of our citizens wherever the condition of affairs seemed to
+require its presence. With the exception of one instance, where an outrage,
+accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of the United States while
+engaged in a lawful commerce, nothing is known to have occurred to impede
+or molest the enterprise of our citizens on that element, where it is so
+signally displayed. On learning this daring act of piracy, Commodore Reed
+proceeded immediately to the spot, and receiving no satisfaction, either in
+the surrender of the murderers or the restoration of the plundered
+property, inflicted severe and merited chastisement on the barbarians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Navy respecting the
+disposition of our ships of war that it has been deemed necessary to
+station a competent force on the coast of Africa to prevent a fraudulent
+use of our flag by foreigners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing laws which
+relate to the sale and transfer of American vessels while abroad are
+extremely defective. Advantage has been taken of these defects to give to
+vessels wholly belonging to foreigners and navigating the ocean an apparent
+American ownership. This character has been so well simulated as to afford
+them comparative security in prosecuting the slave trade--a traffic
+emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded with abhorrence by our
+citizens, and of which the effectual suppression is nowhere more sincerely
+desired than in the United States. These circumstances make it proper to
+recommend to your early attention a careful revision of these laws, so that
+without impeding the freedom and facilities of our navigation or impairing
+an important branch of our industry connected with it the integrity and
+honor of our flag may be carefully preserved. Information derived from our
+consul at Havana showing the necessity of this was communicated to a
+committee of the Senate near the close of the last session, but too late,
+as it appeared, to be acted upon. It will be brought to your notice by the
+proper Department, with additional communications from other sources.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The latest accounts from the exploring expedition represent it as
+proceeding successfully in its objects and promising results no less useful
+to trade and navigation than to science.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The extent of post-roads covered by mail service on the 1st of July last
+was about 133,999 miles and the rate of annual transportation upon them
+34,496,878 miles. The number of post-offices on that day was 12,780 and on
+the 30th ultimo 13,028.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The revenue of the Post-Office Department for the year ending with the 30th
+of June last was $4,476,638, exhibiting an increase over the preceding year
+of $241,560. The engagements and liabilities of the Department for the same
+period are $4,624,117.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The excess of liabilities over the revenue for the last two years has been
+met out of the surplus which had previously accumulated. The cash on hand
+on the 30th ultimo was about $206,701.95 and the current income of the
+Department varies very little from the rate of current expenditures. Most
+of the service suspended last year has been restored, and most of the new
+routes established by the act of 7th July, 1838, have been set in
+operation, at an annual cost of $136,963. Notwithstanding the pecuniary
+difficulties of the country, the revenue of the Department appears to be
+increasing, and unless it shall be seriously checked by the recent
+suspension of payment by so many of the banks it will be able not only to
+maintain the present mail service, but in a short time to extend it. It is
+gratifying to witness the promptitude and fidelity with which the agents of
+this Department in general perform their public duties.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some difficulties have arisen in relation to contracts for the
+transportation of the mails by railroad and steamboat companies. It appears
+that the maximum of compensation provided by Congress for the
+transportation of the mails upon railroads is not sufficient to induce some
+of the companies to convey them at such hours as are required for the
+accommodation of the public. It is one of the most important duties of the
+General Government to provide and maintain for the use of the people of the
+States the best practicable mail establishment. To arrive at that end it is
+indispensable that the Post-Office Department shall be enabled to control
+the hours at which the mails shall be carried over railroads, as it now
+does over all other roads. Should serious inconveniences arise from the
+inadequacy of the compensation now provided by law, or from unreasonable
+demands by any of the railroad companies, the subject is of such general
+importance as to require the prompt attention of Congress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In relation to steamboat lines, the most efficient remedy is obvious and
+has been suggested by the Postmaster-General. The War and Navy Departments
+already employ steamboats in their service; and although it is by no means
+desirable that the Government should undertake the transportation of
+passengers or freight as a business, there can be no reasonable objection
+to running boats, temporarily, whenever it may be necessary to put down
+attempts at extortion, to be discontinued as soon as reasonable contracts
+can be obtained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The suggestions of the Postmaster-General relative to the inadequacy of the
+legal allowance to witnesses in cases of prosecutions for mail depredations
+merit your serious consideration. The safety of the mails requires that
+such prosecutions shall be efficient, and justice to the citizen whose time
+is required to be given to the public demands not only that his expenses
+shall be paid, but that he shall receive a reasonable compensation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The reports from the War, Navy, and Post-Office Departments will accompany
+this communication, and one from the Treasury Department will be presented
+to Congress in a few days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For various details in respect to the matters in charge of these
+Departments I would refer you to those important documents, satisfied that
+you will find in them many valuable suggestions which will be found well
+deserving the attention of the Legislature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From a report made in December of last year by the Secretary of State to
+the Senate, showing the trial docket of each of the circuit courts and the
+number of miles each judge has to travel in the performance of his duties,
+a great inequality appears in the amount of labor assigned to each judge.
+The number of terms to be held in each of the courts composing the ninth
+circuit, the distances between the places at which they sit and from thence
+to the seat of Government, are represented to be such as to render it
+impossible for the judge of that circuit to perform in a manner
+corresponding with the public exigencies his term and circuit duties. A
+revision, therefore, of the present arrangement of the circuit seems to be
+called for and is recommended to your notice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I think it proper to call your attention to the power assumed by
+Territorial legislatures to authorize the issue of bonds by corporate
+companies on the guaranty of the Territory. Congress passed a law in 1836
+providing that no act of a Territorial legislature incorporating banks
+should have the force of law until approved by Congress, but acts of a very
+exceptionable character previously passed by the legislature of Florida
+were suffered to remain in force, by virtue of which bonds may be issued to
+a very large amount by those institutions upon the faith of the Territory.
+A resolution, intending to be a joint one, passed the Senate at the same
+session, expressing the sense of Congress that the laws in question ought
+not to be permitted to remain in force unless amended in many material
+respects; but it failed in the House of Representatives for want of time,
+and the desired amendments have not been made. The interests involved are
+of great importance, and the subject deserves your early and careful
+attention.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The continued agitation of the question relative to the best mode of
+keeping and disbursing the public money still injuriously affects the
+business of the country. The suspension of specie payments in 1837 rendered
+the use of deposit banks as prescribed by the act of 1836 a source rather
+of embarrassment than aid, and of necessity placed the custody of most of
+the public money afterwards collected in charge of the public officers. The
+new securities for its safety which this required were a principal cause of
+my convening an extra session of Congress, but in consequence of a
+disagreement between the two Houses neither then nor at any subsequent
+period has there been any legislation on the subject. The effort made at
+the last session to obtain the authority of Congress to punish the use of
+public money for private purposes as a crime a measure attended under other
+governments with signal advantage--was also unsuccessful, from diversities
+of opinion in that body, notwithstanding the anxiety doubtless felt by it
+to afford every practicable security. The result of this is still to leave
+the custody of the public money without those safeguards which have been
+for several years earnestly desired by the Executive, and as the remedy is
+only to be found in the action of the Legislature it imposes on me the duty
+of again submitting to you the propriety of passing a law providing for the
+safe-keeping of the public moneys, and especially to ask that its use for
+private purposes by any officers intrusted with it may be declared to be a
+felony, punishable with penalties proportioned to the magnitude of the
+offense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These circumstances, added to known defects in the existing laws and
+unusual derangement in the general operations of trade, have during the
+last three years much increased the difficulties attendant on the
+collection, keeping, and disbursement of the revenue, and called forth
+corresponding exertions from those having them in charge. Happily these
+have been successful beyond expectation. Vast sums have been collected and
+disbursed by the several Departments with unexpected cheapness and ease,
+transfers have been readily made to every part of the Union, however
+distant, and defalcations have been far less than might have been
+anticipated from the absence of adequate legal restraints. Since the
+officers of the Treasury and Post-Office Departments were charged with the
+custody of most of the public moneys received by them there have been
+collected $66,000,000, and, excluding the case of the late collector at New
+York, the aggregate amount of losses sustained in the collection can not,
+it is believed, exceed $60,000. The defalcation of the late collector at
+that city, of the extent and circumstances of which Congress have been
+fully informed, ran through all the modes of keeping the public money that
+have been hitherto in use, and was distinguished by an aggravated disregard
+of duty that broke through the restraints of every system, and can not,
+therefore, be usefully referred to as a test of the comparative safety of
+either. Additional information will also be furnished by the report of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to a call made upon that officer by the
+House of Representatives at the last session requiring detailed information
+on the subject of defaults by public officers or agents under each
+Administration from 1789 to 1837. This document will be submitted to you in
+a few days. The general results (independent of the Post-Office, which is
+kept separately and will be stated by itself), so far as they bear upon
+this subject, are that the losses which have been and are likely to be
+sustained by any class of agents have been the greatest by banks,
+including, as required in the resolution, their depreciated paper received
+for public dues; that the next largest have been by disbursing officers,
+and the least by collectors and receivers. If the losses on duty bonds are
+included, they alone will be threefold those by both collectors and
+receivers. Our whole experience, therefore, furnishes the strongest
+evidence that the desired legislation of Congress is alone wanting to
+insure in those operations the highest degree of security and facility.
+Such also appears to have been the experience of other nations. From the
+results of inquiries made by the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the
+practice among them I am enabled to state that in twenty-two out of
+twenty-seven foreign governments from which undoubted information has been
+obtained the public moneys are kept in charge of public officers. This
+concurrence of opinion in favor of that system is perhaps as great as
+exists on any question of internal administration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the modes of business and official restraints on disbursing officers no
+legal change was produced by the suspension of specie payments. The report
+last referred to will be found to contain also much useful information in
+relation to this subject.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have heretofore assigned to Congress my reasons for believing that the
+establishment of an independent National Treasury, as contemplated by the
+Constitution, is necessary to the safe action of the Federal Government.
+The suspension of specie payments in 1837 by the banks having the custody
+of the public money showed in so alarming a degree our dependence on those
+institutions for the performance of duties required by law that I then
+recommended the entire dissolution of that connection. This recommendation
+has been subjected, as I desired it should be, to severe scrutiny and
+animated discussion, and I allow myself to believe that notwithstanding the
+natural diversities of opinion which may be anticipated on all subjects
+involving such important considerations, it has secured in its favor as
+general a concurrence of public sentiment as could be expected on one of
+such magnitude.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Recent events have also continued to develop new objections to such a
+connection. Seldom is any bank, under the existing system and practice,
+able to meet on demand all its liabilities for deposits and notes in
+circulation. It maintains specie payments and transacts a profitable
+business only by the confidence of the public in its solvency, and whenever
+this is destroyed the demands of its depositors and note holders, pressed
+more rapidly than it can make collections from its debtors, force it to
+stop payment. This loss of confidence, with its consequences, occurred in
+1837, and afforded the apology of the banks for their suspension. The
+public then acquiesced in the validity of the excuse, and while the State
+legislatures did not exact from them their forfeited charters, Congress, in
+accordance with the recommendation of the Executive, allowed them time to
+pay over the public money they held, although compelled to issue Treasury
+notes to supply the deficiency thus created.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It now appears that there are other motives than a want of public
+confidence under which the banks seek to justify themselves in a refusal to
+meet their obligations. Scarcely were the country and Government relieved
+in a degree from the difficulties occasioned by the general suspension of
+1837 when a partial one, occurring within thirty months of the former,
+produced new and serious embarrassments, though it had no palliation in
+such circumstances as were alleged in justification of that which had
+previously taken place. There was nothing in the condition of the country
+to endanger a well-managed banking institution; commerce was deranged by no
+foreign war; every branch of manufacturing industry was crowned with rich
+rewards, and the more than usual abundance of our harvests, after supplying
+our domestic wants, had left our granaries and storehouses filled with a
+surplus for exportation. It is in the midst of this that an irredeemable
+and depreciated paper currency is entailed upon the people by a large
+portion of the banks. They are not driven to it by the exhibition of a loss
+of public confidence or of a sudden pressure from their depositors or note
+holders, but they excuse themselves by alleging that the current of
+business and exchange with foreign countries, which draws the precious
+metals from their vaults, would require in order to meet it a larger
+curtailment of their loans to a comparatively small portion of the
+community than it will be convenient for them to bear or perhaps safe for
+the banks to exact. The plea has ceased to be one of necessity. Convenience
+and policy are now deemed sufficient to warrant these institutions in
+disregarding their solemn obligations. Such conduct is not merely an injury
+to individual creditors, but it is a wrong to the whole community, from
+whose liberality they hold most valuable privileges, whose rights they
+violate, whose business they derange, and the value of whose property they
+render unstable and insecure. It must be evident that this new ground for
+bank suspensions, in reference to which their action is not only
+disconnected with, but wholly independent of, that of the public, gives a
+character to their suspensions more alarming than any which they exhibited
+before, and greatly increases the impropriety of relying on the banks in
+the transactions of the Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A large and highly respectable portion of our banking institutions are, it
+affords me unfeigned pleasure to state, exempted from all blame on account
+of this second delinquency. They have, to their great credit, not only
+continued to meet their engagements, but have even repudiated the grounds
+of suspension now resorted to. It is only by such a course that the
+confidence and good will of the community can be preserved, and in the
+sequel the best interests of the institutions themselves promoted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+New dangers to the banks are also daily disclosed from the extension of
+that system of extravagant credit of which they are the pillars. Formerly
+our foreign commerce was principally rounded on an exchange of commodities,
+including the precious metals, and leaving in its transactions but little
+foreign debt. Such is not now the case. Aided by the facilities afforded by
+the banks, mere credit has become too commonly the basis of trade. Many of
+the banks themselves, not content with largely stimulating this system
+among others, have usurped the business, while they impair the stability,
+of the mercantile community; they have become borrowers instead of lenders;
+they establish their agencies abroad; they deal largely in stocks and
+merchandise; they encourage the issue of State securities until the foreign
+market is glutted with them; and, unsatisfied with the legitimate use of
+their own capital and the exercise of their lawful privileges, they raise
+by large loans additional means for every variety of speculation. The
+disasters attendant on this deviation from the former course of business in
+this country are now shared alike by banks and individuals to an extent of
+which there is perhaps no previous example in the annals of our country. So
+long as a willingness of the foreign lender and a sufficient export of our
+productions to meet any necessary partial payments leave the flow of credit
+undisturbed all appears to be prosperous, but as soon as it is checked by
+any hesitation abroad or by an inability to make payment there in our
+productions the evils of the system are disclosed. The paper currency,
+which might serve for domestic purposes, is useless to pay the debt due in
+Europe. Gold and silver are therefore drawn in exchange for their notes
+from the banks. To keep up their supply of coin these institutions are
+obliged to call upon their own debtors, who pay them principally in their
+own notes, which are as unavailable to them as they are to the merchants to
+meet the foreign demand. The calls of the banks, therefore, in such
+emergencies of necessity exceed that demand, and produce a corresponding
+curtailment of their accommodations and of the currency at the very moment
+when the state of trade renders it most inconvenient to be borne. The
+intensity of this pressure on the community is in proportion to the
+previous liberality of credit and consequent expansion of the currency.
+Forced sales of property are made at the time when the means of purchasing
+are most reduced, and the worst calamities to individuals are only at last
+arrested by an open violation of their obligations by the banks--a refusal
+to pay specie for their notes and an imposition upon the community of a
+fluctuating and depreciated currency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These consequences are inherent in the present system. They are not
+influenced by the banks being large or small, created by National or State
+Governments. They are the results of the irresistible laws of trade or
+credit. In the recent events, which have so strikingly illustrated the
+certain effects of these laws, we have seen the bank of the largest capital
+in the Union, established under a national charter, and lately
+strengthened, as we were authoritatively informed, by exchanging that for a
+State charter with new and unusual privileges--in a condition, too, as it
+was said, of entire soundness and great prosperity--not merely unable to
+resist these effects, but the first to yield to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor is it to be overlooked that there exists a chain of necessary
+dependence among these institutions which obliges them to a great extent to
+follow the course of others, notwithstanding its injustice to their own
+immediate creditors or injury to the particular community in which they are
+placed. This dependence of a bank, which is in proportion to the extent of
+its debts for circulation and deposits, is not merely on others in its own
+vicinity, but on all those which connect it with the center of trade.
+Distant banks may fail without seriously affecting those in our principal
+commercial cities, but the failure of the latter is felt at the extremities
+of the Union. The suspension at New York in 1837 was everywhere, with very
+few exceptions, followed as soon as it was known. That recently at
+Philadelphia immediately affected the banks of the South and West in a
+similar manner. This dependence of our whole banking system on the
+institutions in a few large cities is not found in the laws of their
+organization, but in those of trade and exchange. The banks at that center,
+to which currency flows and where it is required in payments for
+merchandise, hold the power of controlling those in regions whence it
+comes, while the latter possess no means of restraining them; so that the
+value of individual property and the prosperity of trade through the whole
+interior of the country are made to depend on the good or bad management of
+the banking institutions in the great seats of trade on the seaboard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But this chain of dependence does not stop here. It does not terminate at
+Philadelphia or New York. It reaches across the ocean and ends in London,
+the center of the credit system. The same laws of trade which give to the
+banks in our principal cities power over the whole banking system of the
+United States subject the former, in their turn, to the money power in
+Great Britain. It is not denied that the suspension of the New York banks
+in 1837, which was followed in quick succession throughout the Union, was
+produced by an application of that power, and it is now alleged, in
+extenuation of the present condition of so large a portion of our banks,
+that their embarrassments have arisen from the same cause.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this influence they can not now entirely escape, for it has its origin
+in the credit currencies of the two countries; it is strengthened by the
+current of trade and exchange which centers in London, and is rendered
+almost irresistible by the large debts contracted there by our merchants,
+our banks, and our States. It is thus that an introduction of a new bank
+into the most distant of our villages places the business of that village
+within the influence of the money power in England; it is thus that every
+new debt which we contract in that country seriously affects our own
+currency and extends over the pursuits of our citizens its powerful
+influence. We can not escape from this by making new banks, great or small,
+State or national. The same chains which bind those now existing to the
+center of this system of paper credit must equally fetter every similar
+institution we create. It is only by the extent to which this system has
+been pushed of late that we have been made fully aware of its irresistible
+tendency to subject our own banks and currency to a vast controlling power
+in a foreign lad, and it adds a new argument to those which illustrate
+their precarious situation.. Endangered in the first place by their own
+mismanagement and again by the conduct of every institution which connects
+them with the center of trade in our own country, they are yet subjected
+beyond all this to the effect of whatever measures policy, necessity, or
+caprice may induce those who control the credits of England to resort to. I
+mean not to comment upon these measures, present or past, and much less to
+discourage the prosecution of fair commercial dealing between the two
+countries, based on reciprocal benefits; but it having now been made
+manifest that the power of inflicting these and similar injuries is by the
+resistless law of a credit currency and credit trade equally capable of
+extending their consequences through all the ramifications of our banking
+system, and by that means indirectly obtaining, particularly when our banks
+are used as depositories of the public moneys, a dangerous political
+influence in the United States, I have deemed it my duty to bring the
+subject to your notice and ask for it your serious consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is an argument required beyond the exposition of these facts to show the
+impropriety of using our banking institutions as depositories of the public
+money? Can we venture not only to encounter the risk of their individual
+and mutual mismanagement, but at the same time to place our foreign and
+domestic policy entirely under the control of a foreign moneyed interest?
+To do so is to impair the independence of our Government, as the present
+credit system has already impaired the independence of our banks; it is to
+submit all its important operations, whether of peace or war, to be
+controlled or thwarted, at first by our own banks and then by a power
+abroad greater than themselves. I can not bring myself to depict the
+humiliation to which this Government and people might be sooner or later
+reduced if the means for defending their rights are to be made dependent
+upon those who may have the most powerful of motives to impair them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor is it only in reference to the effect of this state of things on the
+independence of our Government or of our banks that the subject presents
+itself for consideration; it is to be viewed also in its relations to the
+general trade of our country. The time is not long passed when a deficiency
+of foreign crops was thought to afford a profitable market for the surplus
+of our industry, but now we await with feverish anxiety the news of the
+English harvest, not so much from motives of commendable sympathy, but
+fearful lest its anticipated failure should narrow the field of credit
+there. Does not this speak volumes to the patriot? Can a system be
+beneficent, wise, or just which creates greater anxiety for interests
+dependent on foreign credit than for the general prosperity of our own
+country and the profitable exportation of the surplus produce of our
+labor?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The circumstances to which I have thus adverted appear to me to afford
+weighty reasons, developed by late events, to be added to those which I
+have on former occasions offered when submitting to your better knowledge
+and discernment the propriety of separating the custody of the public money
+from banking institutions. Nor has anything occurred to lessen, in my
+opinion, the force of what has been heretofore urged. The only ground on
+which that custody can be desired by the banks is the profitable use which
+they may make of the money. Such use would be regarded in individuals as a
+breach of trust or a crime of great magnitude, and yet it may be reasonably
+doubted whether, first and last, it is not attended with more mischievous
+consequences when permitted to the former than to the latter. The practice
+of permitting the public money to be used by its keepers, as here, is
+believed to be peculiar to this country and to exist scarcely anywhere
+else. To procure it here improper influences are appealed to, unwise
+connections are established between the Government and vast numbers of
+powerful State institutions, other motives than the public good are brought
+to bear both on the executive and legislative departments, and selfish
+combinations leading to special legislation are formed. It is made the
+interest of banking institutions and their stockholders throughout the
+Union to use their exertions for the increase of taxation and the
+accumulation of a surplus revenue, and while an excuse is afforded the
+means are furnished for those excessive issues which lead to extravagant
+trading and speculation and are the forerunners of a vast debt abroad and a
+suspension of the banks at home.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Impressed, therefore, as I am with the propriety of the funds of the
+Government being withdrawn from the private use of either banks or
+individuals, and the public money kept by duly appointed public agents, and
+believing as I do that such also is the judgment which discussion,
+reflection, and experience have produced on the public mind, I leave the
+subject with you. It is, at all events, essential to the interests of the
+community and the business of the Government that a decision should be
+made.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most of the arguments that dissuade us from employing banks in the custody
+and disbursement of the public money apply with equal force to the receipt
+of their notes for public dues. The difference is only in form. In one
+instance the Government is a creditor for its deposits, and in the other
+for the notes it holds. They afford the same opportunity for using the
+public moneys, and equally lead to all the evils attendant upon it, since a
+bank can as safely extend its discounts on a deposit of its notes in the
+hands of a public officer as on one made in its own vaults. On the other
+hand, it would give to the Government no greater security, for in case of
+failure the claim of the note holder would be no better than that of a
+depositor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am aware that the danger of inconvenience to the public and unreasonable
+pressure upon sound banks have been urged as objections to requiring the
+payment of the revenue in gold and silver. These objections have been
+greatly exaggerated. From the best estimates we may safely fix the amount
+of specie in the country at $85,000,000, and the portion of that which
+would be employed at any one time in the receipts and disbursements of the
+Government, even if the proposed change were made at once, would not, it is
+now, after fuller investigation, believed exceed four or five millions. If
+the change were gradual, several years would elapse before that sum would
+be required, with annual opportunities in the meantime to alter the law
+should experience prove it to be oppressive or inconvenient. The portions
+of the community on whose business the change would immediately operate are
+comparatively small, nor is it believed that its effect would be in the
+least unjust or injurious to them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the payment of duties, which constitute by far the greater portion of
+the revenue, a very large proportion is derived from foreign commission
+houses and agents of foreign manufacturers, who sell the goods consigned to
+them generally at auction, and after paying the duties out of the avails
+remit the rest abroad in specie or its equivalent. That the amount of
+duties should in such cases be also retained in specie can hardly be made a
+matter of complaint. Our own importing merchants, by whom the residue of
+the duties is paid, are not only peculiarly interested in maintaining a
+sound currency, which the measure in question will especially promote, but
+are from the nature of their dealings best able to know when specie will be
+needed and to procure it with the least difficulty or sacrifice. Residing,
+too, almost universally in places where the revenue is received and where
+the drafts used by the Government for its disbursements must concentrate,
+they have every opportunity to obtain and use them in place of specie
+should it be for their interest or convenience. Of the number of these
+drafts and the facilities they may afford, as well as of the rapidity with
+which the public funds are drawn and disbursed, an idea may be formed from
+the fact that of nearly $20,000,000 paid to collectors and receivers during
+the present year the average amount in their hands at any one time has not
+exceeded a million and a half, and of the fifteen millions received by the
+collector of New York alone during the present year the average amount held
+by him subject to draft during each week has been less than half a
+million.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ease and safety of the operations of the Treasury in keeping the public
+money are promoted by the application of its own drafts to the public dues.
+The objection arising from having them too long outstanding might be
+obviated and they yet made to afford to merchants and banks holding them an
+equivalent for specie, and in that way greatly lessen the amount actually
+required. Still less inconvenience will attend the requirement of specie in
+purchases of public lands. Such purchases, except when made on speculation,
+are in general but single transactions, rarely repeated by the same person;
+and it is a fact that for the last year and a half, during which the notes
+of sound banks have been received, more than a moiety of these payments has
+been voluntarily made in specie, being a larger proportion than would have
+been required in three years under the graduation proposed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is, moreover, a principle than which none is better settled by
+experience that the supply of the precious metals will always be found
+adequate to the uses for which they are required. They abound in countries
+where no other currency is allowed. In our own States, where small notes
+are excluded, gold and silver supply their place. When driven to their
+hiding places by bank suspensions, a little firmness in the community soon
+restores them in a sufficient quantity for ordinary purposes. Postage and
+other public dues have been collected in coin without serious inconvenience
+even in States where a depreciated paper currency has existed for years,
+and this, with the aid of Treasury notes for a part of the time, was done
+without interruption during the suspension of 1837. At the present moment
+the receipts and disbursements of the Government are made in legal currency
+in the largest portion of the Union. No one suggests a departure from this
+rule, and if it can now be successfully carried out it will be surely
+attended with even less difficulty when bank notes are again redeemed in
+specie.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Indeed, I can not think that a serious objection would anywhere be raised
+to the receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public transactions
+were it not from an apprehension that a surplus in the Treasury might
+withdraw a large portion of it from circulation and lock it up unprofitably
+in the public vaults. It would not, in my opinion, be difficult to prevent
+such an inconvenience from occurring; but the authentic statements which I
+have already submitted to you in regard to the actual amount in the public
+Treasury at any one time during the period embraced in them and the little
+probability of a different state of the Treasury for at least some years to
+come seem to render it unnecessary to dwell upon it. Congress, moreover, as
+I have before observed, will in every year have an opportunity to guard
+against it should the occurrence of any circumstances lead us to apprehend
+injury from this source. Viewing the subject in all its aspects, I can not
+believe that any period will be more auspicious than the present for the
+adoption of all measures necessary to maintain the sanctity of our own
+engagements and to aid in securing to the community that abundant supply of
+the precious metals which adds so much to their prosperity and gives such
+increased stability to all their dealings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably always
+exist, but this serves only to render it the more incumbent on us,
+notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our
+respective stations to mitigate the evils they produce; to take from them
+as rapidly as the obligations of public faith and a careful consideration
+of the immediate interests of the community will permit the unjust
+character of monopolies; to check, so far as may be practicable, by prudent
+legislation those temptations of interest and those opportunities for their
+dangerous indulgence which beset them on every side, and to confine them
+strictly to the performance of their paramount duty--that of aiding the
+operations of commerce rather than consulting their own exclusive
+advantage. These and other salutary reforms may, it is believed, be
+accomplished without the violation of any of the great principles of the
+social compact, the observance of which is indispensable to its existence,
+or interfering in any way with the useful and profitable employment of real
+capital.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving to
+commercial intercourse all necessary facilities without inflating or
+depreciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus accomplishing
+their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their
+protection and encouragement in the good will of the community. Among a
+people so just as ours the same results could not fail to attend a similar
+course. The direct supervision of the banks belongs, from the nature of our
+Government, to the States who authorize them. It is to their legislatures
+that the people must mainly look for action on that subject. But as the
+conduct of the Federal Government in the management of its revenue has also
+a powerful, though less immediate, influence upon them, it becomes our duty
+to see that a proper direction is given to it. While the keeping of the
+public revenue in a separate and independent treasury and of collecting it
+in gold and silver will have a salutary influence on the system of paper
+credit with which all banks are connected, and thus aid those that are
+sound and well managed, it will at the same time sensibly check such as are
+otherwise by at once withholding the means of extravagance afforded by the
+public funds and restraining them from excessive issues of notes which they
+would be constantly called upon to redeem.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am aware it has been urged that this control may be best attained and
+exerted by means of a national bank. The constitutional objections which I
+am well known to entertain would prevent me in any event from proposing or
+assenting to that remedy; but in addition to this, I can not after past
+experience bring myself to think that it can any longer be extensively
+regarded as effective for such a purpose. The history of the late national
+bank, through all its mutations, shows that it was not so. On the contrary,
+it may, after a careful consideration of the subject, be, I think, safely
+stated that at every period of banking excess it took the lead; that in
+1817 and 1818, in 1823, in 1831, and in 1834 its vast expansions, followed
+by distressing contractions, led to those of the State institutions. It
+swelled and maddened the tides of the banking system, but seldom allayed or
+safely directed them. At a few periods only was a salutary control
+exercised, but an eager desire, on the contrary, exhibited for profit in
+the first place; and if afterwards its measures were severe toward other
+institutions, it was because its own safety compelled it to adopt them. It
+did not differ from them in principle or in form; its measures emanated
+from the same spirit of gain; it felt the same temptation to overissues; it
+suffered from and was totally unable to avert those inevitable laws of
+trade by which it was itself affected equally with them; and at least on
+one occasion, at an early day, it was saved only by extraordinary exertions
+from the same fate that attended the weakest institution it professed to
+supervise. In 1837 it failed equally with others in redeeming its notes
+(though the two years allowed by its charter for that purpose had not
+expired), a large amount of which remains to the present time outstanding.
+It is true that, having so vast a capital and strengthened by the use of
+all the revenues of the Government, it possessed more power; but while it
+was itself by that circumstance freed from the control which all banks
+require, its paramount object and inducement were left the same--to make
+the most for its stockholders, not to regulate the currency of the country.
+Nor has it, as far as we are advised, been found to be greatly otherwise
+elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of England has not
+prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to
+keep off a suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter
+of a century. And why should we expect it to be otherwise? A national
+institution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the
+State banks, is yet constituted upon the same principles, is conducted by
+men equally exposed to temptation, and is liable to the same disasters,
+with the additional disadvantage that its magnitude occasions an extent of
+confusion and distress which the mismanagement of smaller institutions
+could not produce. It can scarcely be doubted that the recent suspension of
+the United State Bank of Pennsylvania, of which the effects are felt not in
+that State alone, but over half the Union, had its origin in a course of
+business commenced while it was a national institution, and there is no
+good reason for supposing that the same consequences would not have
+followed had it still derived its powers from the General Government. It is
+in vain, when the influences and impulses are the same, to look for a
+difference in conduct or results. By such creations we do, therefore, but
+increase the mass of paper credit and paper currency, without checking
+their attendant evils and fluctuations. The extent of power and the
+efficiency of organization which we give, so far from being beneficial, are
+in practice positively injurious. They strengthen the chain of dependence
+throughout the Union, subject all parts more certainly to common disaster,
+and bind every bank more effectually in the first instance to those of our
+commercial cities, and in the end to a foreign power. In a word, I can not
+but believe that, with the full understanding of the operations of our
+banking system which experience has produced, public sentiment is not less
+opposed to the creation of a national bank for purposes connected with
+currency and commerce than for those connected with the fiscal operations
+of the Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet the commerce and currency of the country are suffering evils from the
+operations of the State banks which can not and ought not to be overlooked.
+By their means we have been flooded with a depreciated paper, which it was
+evidently the design of the framers of the Constitution to prevent when
+they required Congress to "Coin money and regulate the value of foreign
+coins," and when they forbade the States "to coin money, emit bills of
+credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts," or
+"pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts." If they did not guard
+more explicitly against the present state of things, it was because they
+could not have anticipated that the few banks then existing were to swell
+to an extent which would expel to so great a degree the gold and silver for
+which they had provided from the channels of circulation, and fill them
+with a currency that defeats the objects they had in view. The remedy for
+this must chiefly rest with the States from whose legislation it has
+sprung. No good that might accrue in a particular case front the exercise
+of powers not obviously conferred on the General Government would authorize
+its interference or justify a course that might in the slightest degree
+increase at the expense of the States the power of the Federal authorities;
+nor do I doubt that the States will apply the remedy. Within the last few
+years events have appealed to them too strongly to be disregarded. They
+have seen that the Constitution, though theoretically adhered to, is
+subverted in practice; that while on the statute books there is no legal
+tender but gold and silver, no law impairing the obligations of contracts,
+yet that in point of fact the privileges conferred on banking corporations
+have made their notes the currency of the country; that the obligations
+imposed by these notes are violated under the impulses of interest or
+convenience, and that the number and power of the persons connected with
+these corporations or placed under their influence give them a fearful
+weight when their interest is in opposition to the spirit of the
+Constitution and laws. To the people it is immaterial whether these results
+are produced by open violations of the latter or by the workings of a
+system of which the result is the same. An inflexible execution even of the
+existing statutes of most of the States would redress many evils now
+endured, would effectually show the banks the dangers of mismanagement
+which impunity encourages them to repeat, and would teach all corporations
+the useful lesson that they are the subjects of the law and the servants of
+the people. What is still wanting to effect these objects must be sought in
+additional legislation, or, if that be inadequate, in such further
+constitutional grants or restrictions as may bring us back into the path
+from which we have so widely wandered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the meantime it is the duty of the General Government to cooperate with
+the States by a wise exercise of its constitutional powers and the
+enforcement of its existing laws. The extent to which it may do so by
+further enactments I have already adverted to, and the wisdom of Congress
+may yet enlarge them. But above all, it is incumbent upon us to hold erect
+the principles of morality and law, constantly executing our own contracts
+in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, and thus serving as
+a rallying point by which our whole country may be brought back to that
+safe and honored standard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our people will not long be insensible to the extent of the burdens
+entailed upon them by the false system that has been operating on their
+sanguine, energetic, and industrious character, nor to the means necessary
+to extricate themselves from these embarrassments. The weight which presses
+upon a large portion of the people and the States is an enormous debt,
+foreign and domestic. The foreign debt of our States, corporations, and men
+of business can scarcely be less than $200,000,000, requiring more than
+$10,000,000 a year to pay the interest. This sum has to be paid out of the
+exports of the country, and must of necessity cut off imports to that
+extent or plunge the country more deeply in debt from year to year. It is
+easy to see that the increase of this foreign debt must augment the annual
+demand on the exports to pay the interest, and to the same extent diminish
+the imports, and in proportion to the enlargement of the foreign debt and
+the consequent increase of interest must be the decrease of the import
+trade. In lieu of the comforts which it now brings us we might have our.
+gigantic banking institutions and splendid, but in many instances
+profitless, railroads and canals absorbing to a great extent in interest
+upon the capital borrowed to construct them the surplus fruits of national
+industry for years to come, and securing to posterity no adequate return
+for the comforts which the labors of their hands might otherwise have
+secured. It is not by the increase of this debt that relief is to be
+sought, but in its diminution. Upon this point there is, I am happy to say,
+hope before us; not so much in the return of confidence abroad, which will
+enable the States to borrow more money, as in a change of public feeling at
+home, which prompts our people to pause in their career and think of the
+means by which debts are to be paid before they are contracted. If we would
+escape embarrassment, public and private, we must cease to run in debt
+except for objects of necessity or such as will yield a certain return. Let
+the faith of the States, corporations, and individuals already pledged be
+kept with the most punctilious regard. It is due to our national character
+as well as to justice that this should on the part of each be a fixed
+principle of conduct. But it behooves us all to be more chary in pledging
+it hereafter. By ceasing to run in debt and applying the surplus of our
+crops and incomes to the discharge of existing obligations, buying less and
+selling more, and managing all affairs, public and private, with strict
+economy and frugality, we shall see our country soon recover from a
+temporary depression, arising not from natural and permanent causes, but
+from those I have enumerated, and advance with renewed vigor in her career
+of prosperity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Fortunately for us at this moment, when the balance of trade is greatly
+against us and the difficulty of meeting it enhanced by the disturbed state
+of our money affairs, the bounties of Providence have come to relieve us
+from the consequences of past errors. A faithful application of the immense
+results of the labors of the last season will afford partial relief for the
+present, and perseverance in the same course will in due season accomplish
+the rest. We have had full experience in times past of the extraordinary
+results which can in this respect be brought about in a short period by the
+united and well-directed efforts of a community like ours. Our surplus
+profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the wonderful
+advantages which Providence has bestowed upon our country in its climate,
+its various productions, indispensable to other nations, will in due time
+afford abundant means to perfect the most useful of those objects for which
+the States have been plunging themselves of late in embarrassment and debt,
+without imposing on ourselves or our children such fearful burdens.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But let it be indelibly engraved on our minds that relief is not to be
+found in expedients. Indebtedness can not be lessened by borrowing more
+money or by changing the form of the debt. The balance of trade is not to
+be turned in our favor by creating new demands upon us abroad. Our currency
+can not be improved by the creation of new banks or more issues from those
+which now exist. Although these devices sometimes appear to give temporary
+relief, they almost invariably aggravate the evil in the end. It is only by
+retrenchment and reform--by curtailing public and private expenditures, by
+paying our debts, and by reforming our banking system--that we are to
+expect effectual relief, security for the future, and an enduring
+prosperity. In shaping the institutions and policy of the General
+Government so as to promote as far as it can with its limited powers these
+important ends, you may rely on my most cordial cooperation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That there should have been in the progress of recent events doubts in many
+quarters and in some a heated opposition to every change can not surprise
+us. Doubts are properly attendant on all reform, and it is peculiarly in
+the nature of such abuses as we are now encountering to seek to perpetuate
+their power by means of the influence they have been permitted to acquire.
+It is their result, if not their object, to gain for the few an ascendency
+over the many by securing to them a monopoly of the currency, the medium
+through which most of the wants of mankind are supplied; to produce
+throughout society a chain of dependence which leads all classes to look to
+privileged associations for the means of speculation and extravagance; to
+nourish, in preference to the manly virtues that give dignity to human
+nature, a craving desire for luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which
+renders those who seek them dependent on those who supply them; to
+substitute for republican simplicity and economical habits a sickly
+appetite for effeminate indulgence and an imitation of that reckless
+extravagance which impoverished and enslaved the industrious people of
+foreign lands, and at last to fix upon us, instead of those equal political
+rights the acquisition of which was alike the object and supposed reward of
+our Revolutionary struggle, a system of exclusive privileges conferred by
+partial legislation. To remove the influences which had thus gradually
+grown up among us, to deprive them of their deceptive advantages, to test
+them by the light of wisdom and truth, to oppose the force which they
+concentrate in their sup-port--all this was necessarily the work of time,
+even among a people so enlightened and pure as that of the United States.
+In most other countries, perhaps, it could only be accomplished through
+that series of revolutionary movements which are too often found necessary
+to effect any great and radical reform; but it is the crowning merit of our
+institutions that they create and nourish in the vast majority of our
+people a disposition and a power peaceably to remedy abuses which have
+elsewhere caused the effusion of rivers of blood and the sacrifice of
+thousands of the human race. The result thus far is most honorable to the
+self-denial, the intelligence, and the patriotism of our citizens; it
+justifies the confident hope that they will carry through the reform which
+has been so well begun, and that they will go still further than they have
+yet gone in illustrating the important truth that a people as free and
+enlightened as ours will, whenever it becomes necessary, show themselves to
+be indeed capable of self-government by voluntarily adopting appropriate
+remedies for every abuse, and submitting to temporary sacrifices, however
+great, to insure their permanent welfare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My own exertions for the furtherance of these desirable objects have been
+bestowed throughout my official career with a zeal that is nourished by
+ardent wishes for the welfare of my country, and by an unlimited reliance
+on the wisdom that marks its ultimate decision on all great and
+controverted questions. Impressed with the solemn obligations imposed upon
+me by the Constitution, desirous also of laying before my fellow-citizens,
+with whose confidence and support I have been so highly honored, such
+measures as appear to me conducive to their prosperity, and anxious to
+submit to their fullest consideration the grounds upon which my opinions
+are formed, I have on this as on preceding occasions freely offered my
+views on those points of domestic policy that seem at the present time most
+prominently to require the action of the Government. I know that they will
+receive from Congress that full and able consideration which the importance
+of the subjects merits, and I can repeat the assurance heretofore made that
+I shall cheerfully and readily cooperate with you in every measure that
+will tend to promote the welfare of the Union.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+M. VAN BUREN
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+***
+</p>
+
+<p><a id="dec1840"></a></p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+State of the Union Address<br />
+Martin van Buren<br />
+December 5, 1840<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having graciously
+continued to our beloved country through the vicissitudes of another year
+the invaluable blessings of health, plenty, and peace. Seldom has this
+favored land been so generally exempted from the ravages of disease or the
+labor of the husbandman more amply rewarded, and never before have our
+relations with other countries been placed on a more favorable basis than
+that which they so happily occupy at this critical conjuncture in the
+affairs of the world. A rigid and persevering abstinence from all
+interference with the domestic and political relations of other States,
+alike due to the genius and distinctive character of our Government and to
+the principles by which it is directed; a faithful observance in the
+management of our foreign relations of the practice of speaking plainly,
+dealing justly, and requiring truth and justice in return as the best
+conservatives of the peace of nations; a strict impartiality in our
+manifestations of friendship in the commercial privileges we concede and
+those we require from others--these, accompanied by a disposition as prompt
+to maintain in every emergency our own rights as we are from principle
+averse to the invasion of those of others, have given to our country and
+Government a standing in the great family of nations of which we have just
+cause to be proud and the advantages of which are experienced by our
+citizens throughout every portion of the earth to which their enterprising
+and adventurous spirit may carry them. Few, if any, remain insensible to
+the value of our friendship or ignorant of the terms on which it can be
+acquired and by which it can alone be preserved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A series of questions of long standing, difficult in their adjustment and
+important in their consequences, in which the rights of our citizens and
+the honor of the country were deeply involved, have in the course of a few
+years (the most of them during the successful Administration of my
+immediate predecessor) been brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and the
+most important of those remaining are, I am happy to believe, in a fair way
+of being speedily and satisfactorily adjusted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With all the powers of the world our relations are those of honorable
+peace. Since your adjournment nothing serious has occurred to interrupt or
+threaten this desirable harmony. If clouds have lowered above the other
+hemisphere, they have not cast their portentous shadows upon our happy
+shores. Bound by no entangling alliances, yet linked by a common nature and
+interest with the other nations of mankind, our aspirations are for the
+preservation of peace, in whose solid and civilizing triumphs all may
+participate with a generous emulation. Yet it behooves us to be prepared
+for any event and to be always ready to maintain those just and enlightened
+principles of national intercourse for which this Government has ever
+contended. In the shock of contending empires it is only by assuming a
+resolute bearing and clothing themselves with defensive armor that neutral
+nations can maintain their independent rights.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The excitement which grew out of the territorial controversy between the
+United States and Great Britain having in a great measure subsided, it is
+hoped that a favorable period is approaching for its final settlement. Both
+Governments must now be convinced of the dangers with which the question is
+fraught, and it must be their desire, as it is their interest, that this
+perpetual cause of irritation should be removed as speedily as practicable.
+In my last annual message you were informed that the proposition for a
+commission of exploration and survey promised by Great Britain had been
+received, and that a counter project, including also a provision for the
+certain and final adjustment of the limits in dispute, was then before the
+British Government for its consideration. The answer of that Government,
+accompanied by additional propositions of its own, was received through its
+minister here since your separation. These were promptly considered, such
+as were deemed correct in principle and consistent with a due regard to the
+just rights of the United States and of the State of Maine concurred in,
+and the reasons for dissenting from the residue, with an additional
+suggestion on our part, communicated by the Secretary of State to Mr. Fox.
+That minister, not feeling himself sufficiently instructed upon some of the
+points raised in the discussion, felt it to be his duty to refer the matter
+to his own Government for its further decision. Having now been for some
+time under its advisement, a speedy answer may be confidently expected.
+From the character of the points still in difference and the undoubted
+disposition of both parties to bring the matter to an early conclusion, I
+look with entire confidence to a prompt and satisfactory termination of the
+negotiation. Three commissioners were appointed shortly after the
+adjournment of Congress under the act of the last session providing for the
+exploration and survey of the line which separates the States of Maine and
+New Hampshire from the British Provinces. They have been actively employed
+until their progress was interrupted by the inclemency of the season, and
+will resume their labors as soon as practicable in the ensuing year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is understood that their respective examinations will throw new light
+upon the subject in controversy and serve to remove any erroneous
+impressions which may have been made elsewhere prejudicial to the rights of
+the United States. It was, among other reasons, with a view of preventing
+the embarrassments which in our peculiar system of government impede and
+complicate negotiations involving the territorial rights of a State that I
+thought it my duty, as you have been informed on a previous occasion, to
+propose to the British Government, through its minister at Washington, that
+early steps should be taken to adjust the points of difference on the line
+of boundary from the entrance of Lake Superior to the most northwestern
+point of the Lake of the Woods by the arbitration of a friendly power in
+conformity with the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent. No answer has
+yet been returned by the British Government to this proposition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the remaining powers of Europe I
+am happy to inform you our relations continue to be of the most friendly
+character. With Belgium a treaty of commerce and navigation, based upon
+liberal principles of reciprocity and equality, was concluded in March
+last, and, having been ratified by the Belgian Government, will be duly
+laid before the Senate. It is a subject of congratulation that it provides
+for the satisfactory adjustment of a long-standing question of controversy,
+thus removing the only obstacle which could obstruct the friendly and
+mutually advantageous intercourse between the two nations. A messenger has
+been dispatched with the Hanoverian treaty to Berlin, where, according to
+stipulation, the ratifications are to be exchanged. I am happy to announce
+to you that after many delays and difficulties a treaty of commerce and
+navigation between the United States and Portugal was concluded and signed
+at Lisbon on the 26th of August last by the plenipotentiaries of the two
+Governments. Its stipulations are founded upon those principles of mutual
+liberality and advantage which the United States have always sought to make
+the basis of their intercourse with foreign powers, and it is hoped they
+will tend to foster and strengthen the commercial intercourse of the two
+countries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Under the appropriation of the last session of Congress an agent has been
+sent to Germany for the purpose of promoting the interests of our tobacco
+trade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The commissioners appointed under the convention for the adjustment of
+claims of citizens of the United States upon Mexico having met and
+organized at Washington in August last, the papers in the possession of the
+Government relating to those claims were communicated to the board. The
+claims not embraced by that convention are now the subject of negotiation
+between the two Governments through the medium of our minister at Mexico.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our relations with the
+different Governments of South America. I regret, however, to be obliged to
+inform you that the claims of our citizens upon the late Republic of
+Colombia have not yet been satisfied by the separate Governments into which
+it has been resolved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The charge d'affaires of Brazil having expressed the intention of his
+Government not to prolong the treaty of 1828, it will cease to be
+obligatory upon either party on the 12th day of December, 1841, when the
+extensive commercial intercourse between the United States and that vast
+Empire will no longer be regulated by express stipulations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It affords me pleasure to communicate to you that the Government of Chili
+has entered into an agreement to indemnify the claimants in the case of the
+Macectonian for American property seized in 1819, and to add that
+information has also been received which justifies the hope of an early
+adjustment of the remaining claims upon that Government.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the convention between the
+United States and Texas for marking the boundary between them have,
+according to the last report received from our commissioner, surveyed and
+established the whole extent of the boundary north along the western bank
+of the Sabine River from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico to the
+thirty-second degree of north latitude. The commission adjourned on the
+16th of June last, to reassemble on the 1st of November for the purpose of
+establishing accurately the intersection of the thirty-second degree of
+latitude with the western bank of the Sabine and the meridian line thence
+to Red River. It is presumed that the work will be concluded in the present
+season.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The present sound condition of their finances and the success with which
+embarrassments in regard to them, at times apparently insurmountable, have
+been overcome are matters upon which the people and Government of the
+United States may well congratulate themselves. An overflowing Treasury,
+however it may be regarded as an evidence of public prosperity, is seldom
+conducive to the permanent welfare of any people, and experience has
+demonstrated its incompatibility with the salutary action of political
+institutions like those of the United States. Our safest reliance for
+financial efficiency and independence has, on the contrary, been found to
+consist in ample resources unencumbered with debt, and in this respect the
+Federal Government occupies a singularly fortunate and truly enviable
+position.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I entered upon the discharge of my official duties in March, 1837, the
+act for the distribution of the surplus revenue was in a course of rapid
+execution. Nearly $28,000,000 of the public moneys were, in pursuance of
+its provisions, deposited with the States in the months of January, April,
+and July of that year. In May there occurred a general suspension of specie
+payments by the banks, including, with very few exceptions, those in which
+the public moneys were deposited and upon whose fidelity the Government had
+unfortunately made itself dependent for the revenues which had been
+collected from the people and were indispensable to the public service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This suspension and the excesses in banking and commerce out of which it
+arose, and which were greatly aggravated by its occurrence, made to a great
+extent unavailable the principal part of the public money then on hand,
+suspended the collection of many millions accruing on merchants' bonds, and
+greatly reduced the revenue arising from customs and the public lands.
+These effects have continued to operate in various degrees to the present
+period, and in addition to the decrease in the revenue thus produced two
+and a half millions of duties have been relinquished by two biennial
+reductions under the act of 1833, and probably as much more upon the
+importation of iron for railroads by special legislation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whilst such has been our condition for the last four years in relation to
+revenue, we have during the same period been subjected to an unavoidable
+continuance of large extraordinary expenses necessarily growing out of past
+transactions, and which could not be immediately arrested without great
+prejudice to the public interest. Of these, the charge upon the Treasurer
+in consequence of the Cherokee treaty alone, without adverting to others
+arising out of Indian treaties, has already exceeded $5,000,000; that for
+the prosecution of measures for the removal of the Seminole Indians, which
+were found in progress, has been nearly fourteen millions, and the public
+buildings have required the unusual sum of nearly three millions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It affords me, however, great pleasure to be able to say that from the
+commencement of this period to the present day every demand upon the
+Government, at home or abroad, has been promptly met. This has been done
+not only without creating a permanent debt or a resort to additional
+taxation in any form, but in the midst of a steadily progressive reduction
+of existing burdens upon the people, leaving still a considerable balance
+of available funds which will remain in the Treasury at the end of the
+year. The small amount of Treasury notes, not exceeding $4,500,000, still
+outstanding, and less by twenty-three millions than the United States have
+in deposit with the States, is composed of such only as are not yet due or
+have not been presented for payment. They may be redeemed out of the
+accruing revenue if the expenditures do not exceed the amount within which
+they may, it is thought, be kept without prejudice to the public interest,
+and the revenue shall prove to be as large as may justly be anticipated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among the reflections arising from the contemplation of these
+circumstances, one, not the least gratifying, is the consciousness that the
+Government had the resolution and the ability to adhere in every emergency
+to the sacred obligations of law, to execute all its contracts according to
+the requirements of the Constitution, and thus to present when most needed
+a rallying point by which the business of the whole country might be
+brought back to a safe and unvarying standard--a result vitally important
+as well to the interests as to the morals of the people. There can surely
+now be no difference of opinion in regard to the incalculable evils that
+would have arisen if the Government at that critical moment had suffered
+itself to be deterred from upholding the only true standard of value,
+either by the pressure of adverse circumstances or the violence of
+unmerited denunciation. The manner in which the people sustained the
+performance of this duty was highly honorable to their fortitude and
+patriotism. It can not fail to stimulate their agents to adhere under all
+circumstances to the line of duty and to satisfy them of the safety with
+which a course really right and demanded by a financial crisis may in a
+community like ours be pursued, however apparently severe its immediate
+operation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The policy of the Federal Government in extinguishing as rapidly as
+possible the national debt, and subsequently in resisting every temptation
+to create a new one, deserves to be regarded in the same favorable light.
+Among the many objections to a national debt, the certain tendency of
+public securities to concentrate ultimately in the coffers of foreign
+stockholders is one which is every day gathering strength. Already have the
+resources of many of the States and the future industry of their citizens
+been indefinitely mortgaged to the subjects of European Governments to the
+amount of twelve millions annually to pay the constantly accruing interest
+on borrowed money--a sum exceeding half the ordinary revenues of the whole
+United States. The pretext which this relation affords to foreigners to
+scrutinize the management of our domestic affairs, if not actually to
+intermeddle with them, presents a subject for earnest attention, not to say
+of serious alarm. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with the exception
+of an obligation entered into in behalf of the District of Columbia, which
+must soon be discharged, is wholly exempt from any such embarrassment. It
+is also, as is believed, the only Government which, having fully and
+faithfully paid all its creditors, has also relieved itself entirely from
+debt. To maintain a distinction so desirable and so honorable to our
+national character should be an object of earnest solicitude. Never should
+a free people, if it be possible to avoid it, expose themselves to the
+necessity of having to treat of the peace, the honor, or the safety of the
+Republic with the governments of foreign creditors, who, however well
+disposed they may be to cultivate with us in general friendly relations,
+are nevertheless by the law of their own condition made hostile to the
+success and permanency of political institutions like ours. Most
+humiliating may be the embarrassments consequent upon such a condition.
+Another objection, scarcely less formidable, to the commencement of a new
+debt is its inevitable tendency to increase in magnitude and to foster
+national extravagance. He has been an unprofitable observer of events who
+needs at this day to be admonished of the difficulties which a government
+habitually dependent on loans to sustain its ordinary expenditures has to
+encounter in resisting the influences constantly exerted in favor of
+additional loans; by capitalists, who enrich themselves by government
+securities for amounts much exceeding the money they actually advance--a
+prolific source of individual aggrandizement in all borrowing countries; by
+stockholders, who seek their gains in the rise and fall of public stocks;
+and by the selfish importunities of applicants for appropriations for works
+avowedly for the accommodation of the public, but the real objects of which
+are too frequently the advancement of private interests. The known
+necessity which so many of the States will be under to impose taxes for the
+payment of the interest on their debts furnishes an additional and very
+cogent reason why the Federal Governments should refrain from creating a
+national debt, by which the people would be exposed to double taxation for
+a similar object. We possess within ourselves ample resources for every
+emergency, and we may be quite sure that our citizens in no future exigency
+will be unwilling to supply the Government with all the means asked for the
+defense of the country. In time of peace there can, at all events, be no
+justification for the creation of a permanent debt by the Federal
+Government. Its limited range of constitutional duties may certainly under
+such circumstances be performed without such a resort. It has, it is seen,
+been avoided during four years of greater fiscal difficulties than have
+existed in a similar period since the adoption of the Constitution, and one
+also remarkable for the occurrence of extraordinary causes of
+expenditures.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But to accomplish so desirable an object two things are indispensable:
+First, that the action of the Federal Government be kept within the
+boundaries prescribed by its founders, and, secondly, that all
+appropriations for objects admitted to be constitutional, and the
+expenditure of them also, be subjected to a standard of rigid but
+well-considered and practical economy. The first depends chiefly on the
+people themselves--the opinions they form of the true construction of the
+Constitution and the confidence they repose in the political sentiments of
+those they select as their representatives in the Federal Legislature; the
+second rests upon the fidelity with which their more immediate
+representatives and other public functionaries discharge the trusts
+committed to them. The duty of economizing the expenses of the public
+service is admitted on all hands; yet there are few subjects upon which
+there exists a wider difference of opinion than is constantly manifested in
+regard to the fidelity with which that duty is discharged. Neither
+diversity of sentiment nor even mutual recriminations upon a point in
+respect to which the public mind is so justly sensitive can well be
+entirely avoided, and least so at periods of great political excitement. An
+intelligent people, however, seldom fail to arrive in the end at correct
+conclusions in such a matter. Practical economy in the management of public
+affairs can have no adverse influence to contend with more powerful than a
+large surplus revenue, and the unusually large appropriations for 1837 may
+without doubt, independently of the extraordinary requisitions for the
+public service growing out of the state of our Indian relations, be in no
+inconsiderable degree traced to this source. The sudden and rapid
+distribution of the large surplus then in the Treasury and the equally
+sudden and unprecedentedly severe revulsion in the commerce and business of
+the country, pointing with unerring certainty to a great and protracted
+reduction of the revenue, strengthened the propriety of the earliest
+practicable reduction of the public expenditures.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But to change a system operating upon so large a surface and applicable to
+such numerous and diversified interests and objects was more than the work
+of a day. The attention of every department of the Government was
+immediately and in good faith directed to that end, and has been so
+continued to the present moment. The estimates and appropriations for the
+year 1838 (the first over which I had any control) were somewhat
+diminished. The expenditures of 1839 were reduced $6,000,000. Those of
+1840, exclusive of disbursements for public debt and trust claims, will
+probably not exceed twenty-two and a half millions, being between two and
+three millions less than those of the preceding year and nine or ten
+millions less than those of 1837. Nor has it been found necessary in order
+to produce this result to resort to the power conferred by Congress of
+postponing certain classes of the public works, except by deferring
+expenditures for a short period upon a limited portion of them, and which
+postponement terminated some time since--at the moment the Treasury
+Department by further receipts from the indebted banks became fully assured
+of its ability to meet them without prejudice to the public service in
+other respects. Causes are in operation which will, it is believed, justify
+a still further reduction without injury to any important national
+interest. The expenses of sustaining the troops employed in Florida have
+been gradually and greatly reduced through the persevering efforts of the
+War Department, and a reasonable hope may be entertained that the necessity
+for military operations in that quarter will soon cease. The removal of the
+Indians from within our settled borders is nearly completed. The pension
+list, one of the heaviest charges upon the Treasury, is rapidly diminishing
+by death. The most costly of our public buildings are either finished or
+nearly so, and we may, I think, safely promise ourselves a continued
+exemption from border difficulties.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $ 1,500,000. This sum, with the expected receipts from all
+sources during the next year, will, it is believed, be sufficient to enable
+the Government to meet every engagement and have a suitable balance, in the
+Treasury at the end of the year, if the remedial measures connected with
+the customs and the public lands heretofore recommended are adopted and the
+new appropriations by Congress shall not carry the expenditures beyond the
+official estimates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The new system established by Congress for the safe-keeping of the public
+money, prescribing the kind of currency to be received for the public
+revenue and providing additional guards and securities against losses, has
+now been several mouths in operation. Although it might be premature upon
+an experience of such limited duration to form a definite opinion in regard
+to the extent of its influences in correcting many evils under which the
+Federal Government and the country have hitherto suffered, especially those
+that have grown out of banking expansions, a depreciated currency, and
+official defalcations, yet it is but right to say that nothing has occurred
+in the practical operation of the system to weaken in the slightest degree,
+but much to strengthen, the confident anticipations of its friends. The
+grounds of these have been heretofore so fully explained as to require no
+recapitulation. In respect to the facility and convenience it affords in
+conducting the public service, and the ability of the Government to
+discharge through its agency every duty attendant on the collection,
+transfer, and disbursement of the public money with promptitude and
+success, I can say with confidence that the apprehensions of those who felt
+it to be their duty to oppose its adoption have proved to be unfounded. On
+the contrary, this branch of the fiscal affairs of the Government has been,
+and it is believed may always be, thus carried on with every desirable
+facility and security. A few changes and improvements in the details of the
+system, without affecting any principles involved in it, will be submitted
+to you by the Secretary of the Treasury, and will, I am sure, receive at
+your hands that attention to which they may on examination be found to be
+entitled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have deemed this brief summary of our fiscal affairs necessary to the due
+performance of a duty specially enjoined upon me by the Constitution. It
+will serve also to illustrate more fully the principles by which I have
+been guided in reference to two contested points in our public policy which
+were earliest in their development and have been more important in their
+consequences than any that have arisen under our complicated and difficult,
+yet admirable, system of government. I allude to a national debt and a
+national bank. It was in these that the political contests by which the
+country has been agitated ever since the adoption of the Constitution in a
+great measure originated, and there is too much reason to apprehend that
+the conflicting interests and opposing principles thus marshaled will
+continue as heretofore to produce similar if not aggravated consequences.
+Coming into office the declared enemy of both, I have earnestly endeavored
+to prevent a resort to either.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The consideration that a large public debt affords an apology, and produces
+in some degree a necessity also, for resorting to a system and extent of
+taxation which is not only oppressive throughout, but is likewise so apt to
+lead in the end to the commission of that most odious of all offenses
+against the principles of republican government, the prostitution of
+political power, conferred for the general benefit, to the aggrandizement
+of particular classes and the gratification of individual cupidity, is
+alone sufficient, independently of the weighty objections which have
+already been urged, to render its creation and existence the sources of
+bitter and unappeasable discord. If we add to this its inevitable tendency
+to produce and foster extravagant expenditures of the public moneys, by
+which a necessity is created for new loans and new burdens on the people,
+and, finally, refer to the examples of every government which has existed
+for proof, how seldom it is that the system, when once adopted and
+implanted in the policy of a country, has failed to expand itself until
+public credit was exhausted and the people were no longer able to endure
+its increasing weight, it seems impossible to resist the conclusion that no
+benefits resulting from its career, no extent of conquest, no accession of
+wealth to particular classes, nor any nor all its combined advantages, can
+counterbalance its ultimate but certain results--a splendid government and
+an impoverished people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If a national bank was, as is undeniable, repudiated by the framers of the
+Constitution as incompatible with the rights of the States and the
+liberties of the people; if from the beginning it has been regarded by
+large portions of our citizens as coming in direct collision with that
+great and vital amendment of the Constitution which declares that all
+powers not conferred by that instrument on the General Government are
+reserved to the States and to the people; if it has been viewed by them as
+the first great step in the march of latitudinous construction, which
+unchecked would render that sacred instrument of as little value as an
+unwritten constitution, dependent, as it would alone be, for its meaning on
+the interested interpretation of a dominant party, and affording no
+security to the rights of the minority--if such is undeniably the case,
+what rational grounds could have been conceived for anticipating aught but
+determined opposition to such an institution at the present day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Could a different result have been expected when the consequences which
+have flowed from its creation, and particularly from its struggles to
+perpetuate its existence, had confirmed in so striking a manner the
+apprehensions of its earliest opponents; when it had been so clearly
+demonstrated that a concentrated money power, wielding so vast a capital
+and combining such incalculable means of influence, may in those peculiar
+conjunctures to which this Government is unavoidably exposed prove an
+overmatch for the political power of the people themselves; when the true
+character of its capacity to regulate according to its will and its
+interests and the interests of its favorites the value and production of
+the labor and property of every man in this extended country had been so
+fully and fearfully developed; when it was notorious that all classes of
+this great community had, by means of the power and influence it thus
+possesses, been infected to madness with a spirit of heedless speculation;
+when it had been seen that, secure in the support of the combination of
+influences by which it was surrounded, it could violate its charter and set
+the laws at defiance with impunity; and when, too, it had become most
+apparent that to believe that such an accumulation of powers can ever be
+granted without the certainty of being abused was to indulge in a fatal
+delusion?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences
+I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of
+confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as
+are clearly within the constitutional authority of the Federal Government;
+of excluding from its expenses those improvident and unauthorized grants of
+public money for works of internal improvement which were so wisely
+arrested by the constitutional interposition of my predecessor, and which,
+if they had not been so checked, would long before this time have involved
+the finances of the General Government in embarrassments far greater than
+those which are now experienced by any of the States; of limiting all our
+expenditures to that simple, unostentatious, and economical administration
+of public affairs which is alone consistent with the character of our
+institutions; of collecting annually from the customs, and the sales of
+public lands a revenue fully adequate to defray all the expenses thus
+incurred; but under no pretense whatsoever to impose taxes upon the people
+to a greater amount than was actually necessary to the public service
+conducted upon the principles I have stated.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In lieu of a national bank or a dependence upon banks of any description
+for the management of our fiscal affairs, I recommended the adoption of the
+system which is now in successful operation. That system affords every
+requisite facility for the transaction of the pecuniary concerns of the
+Government; will, it is confidently anticipated, produce in other respects
+many of the benefits which have been from time to time expected from the
+creation of a national bank, but which have never been realized; avoid the
+manifold evils inseparable from such an institution; diminish to a greater
+extent than could be accomplished by any other measure of reform the
+patronage of the Federal Government--a wise policy in all governments, but
+more especially so in one like ours, which works well only in proportion as
+it is made to rely for its support upon the unbiased and unadulterated
+opinions of its constituents; do away forever all dependence on corporate
+bodies either in the raising, collecting, safekeeping, or disbursing the
+public revenues, and place the Government equally above the temptation of
+fostering a dangerous and unconstitutional institution at home or the
+necessity of adapting its policy to the views and interests of a still more
+formidable money power abroad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is by adopting and carrying out these principles under circumstances the
+most arduous and discouraging that the attempt has been made, thus far
+successfully, to demonstrate to the people of the United States that a
+national bank at all times, and a national debt except it be incurred at a
+period when the honor and safety of the nation demand the temporary
+sacrifice of a policy which should only be abandoned in such exigencies,
+are not merely unnecessary, but in direct and deadly hostility to the
+principles of their Government and to their own permanent welfare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The progress made in the development of these positions appears in the
+preceding sketch of the past history and present state of the financial
+concerns of the Federal Government. The facts there stated fully authorize
+the assertion that all the purposes for which this Government was
+instituted have been accomplished during four years of greater pecuniary
+embarrassment than were ever before experienced in time of peace, and in
+the face of opposition as formidable as any that was ever before arrayed
+against the policy of an Administration; that this has been done when the
+ordinary revenues of the Government were generally decreasing as well from
+the operation of the laws as the condition of the country, without the
+creation of a permanent public debt or incurring any liability other than
+such as the ordinary resources of the Government will speedily discharge,
+and without the agency of a national bank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If this view of the proceedings of the Government for the period it
+embraces be warranted by the facts as they are known to exist; if the Army
+and Navy have been sustained to the full extent authorized by law, and
+which Congress deemed sufficient for the defense of the country and the
+protection of its rights and its honor; if its civil and diplomatic service
+has been equally sustained; if ample provision has been made for the
+administration of justice and the execution of the laws; if the claims upon
+public gratitude in behalf of the soldiers of the Revolution have been
+promptly met and faithfully discharged; if there have been no failures in
+defraying the very large expenditures growing out of that long-continued
+and salutary policy of peacefully removing the Indians to regions of
+comparative safety and prosperity; if the public faith has at all times and
+everywhere been most scrupulously maintained by a prompt discharge of the
+numerous, extended, and diversified claims on the Treasury--if all these
+great and permanent objects, with many others that might be stated, have
+for a series of years, marked by peculiar obstacles and difficulties, been
+successfully accomplished without a resort to a permanent debt or the aid
+of a national bank, have we not a right to expect that a policy the object
+of which has been to sustain the public service independently of either of
+these fruitful sources of discord will receive the final sanction of a
+people whose unbiased and fairly elicited judgment upon public affairs is
+never ultimately wrong?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That embarrassments in the pecuniary concerns of individuals of unexampled
+extent and duration have recently existed in this as in other commercial
+nations is undoubtedly true. To suppose it necessary now to trace these
+reverses to their sources would be a reflection on the intelligence of my
+fellow-citizens. Whatever may have been the obscurity in which the subject
+was involved during the earlier stages of the revulsion, there can not now
+be many by whom the whole question is not fully understood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Not deeming it within the constitutional powers of the General Government
+to repair private losses sustained by reverses in business having no
+connection with the public service, either by direct appropriations from
+the Treasury or by special legislation designed to secure exclusive
+privileges and immunities to individuals or classes in preference to or at
+the expense of the great majority necessarily debarred from any
+participation in them, no attempt to do so has been either made,
+recommended, or encouraged by the present Executive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is believed, however, that the great purposes for the attainment of
+which the Federal Government was instituted have not been lost sight of.
+Intrusted only with certain limited powers, cautiously enumerated,
+distinctly specified, and defined with a precision and clearness which
+would seem to defy misconstruction, it has been my constant aim to confine
+myself within the limits so clearly marked out and so carefully guarded.
+Having always been of opinion that the best preservative of the union of
+the States is to be found in a total abstinence from the exercise of all
+doubtful powers on the part of the Federal Government rather than in
+attempts to assume them by a loose construction of the Constitution or an
+ingenious perversion of its words, I have endeavored to avoid recommending
+any measure which I had reason to apprehend would, in the opinion even of a
+considerable minority of my fellow-citizens, be regarded as trenching on
+the rights of the States or the provisions of the hallowed instrument of
+our Union. Viewing the aggregate powers of the Federal Government as a
+voluntary concession of the States, it seemed to me that such only should
+be exercised as were at the time intended to be given.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have been strengthened, too, in the propriety of this course by the
+conviction that all efforts to go beyond this tend only to produce
+dissatisfaction and distrust, to excite jealousies, and to provoke
+resistance. Instead of adding strength to the Federal Government, even when
+successful they must ever prove a source of incurable weakness by
+alienating a portion of those whose adhesion is indispensable to the great
+aggregate of united strength and whose voluntary attachment is in my
+estimation far more essential to the efficiency of a government strong in
+the best of all possible strength--the confidence and attachment of all
+those who make up its constituent elements.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus believing, it has been my purpose to secure to the whole people and to
+every member of the Confederacy, by general, salutary, and equal laws
+alone, the benefit of those republican institutions which it was the end
+and aim of the Constitution to establish, and the impartial influence of
+which is in my judgment indispensable to their preservation. I can not
+bring myself to believe that the lasting happiness of the people, the
+prosperity of the States, or the permanency of their Union can be
+maintained by giving preference or priority to any class of citizens in the
+distribution of benefits or privileges, or by the adoption of measures
+which enrich one portion of the Union at the expense of another; nor can I
+see in the interference of the Federal Government with the local
+legislation and reserved rights of the States a remedy for present or a
+security against future dangers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first, and assuredly not the least, important step toward relieving the
+country from the condition into which it had been plunged by excesses in
+trade, banking, and credits of all kinds was to place the business
+transactions of the Government itself on a solid basis, giving and
+receiving in all cases value for value, and neither countenancing nor
+encouraging in others that delusive system of credits from which it has
+been found so difficult to escape, and which has left nothing behind it but
+the wrecks that mark its fatal career.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That the financial affairs of the Government are now and have been during
+the whole period of these wide-spreading difficulties conducted with a
+strict and invariable regard to this great fundamental principle, and that
+by the assumption and maintenance of the stand thus taken on the very
+threshold of the approaching crisis more than by any other cause or causes
+whatever the community at large has been shielded from the incalculable
+evils of a general and indefinite suspension of specie payments, and a
+consequent annihilation for the whole period it might have lasted of a just
+and invariable standard of value, will, it is believed, at this period
+scarcely be questioned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A steady adherence on the part of the Government to the policy which has
+produced such salutary results, aided by judicious State legislation and,
+what is not less .important, by the industry, enterprise, perseverance, and
+economy of the American people, can not fail to raise the whole country at
+an early period to a state of solid and enduring prosperity, not subject to
+be again overthrown by the suspension of banks or the explosion of a
+bloated credit system. It is for the people and their representatives to
+decide whether or not the permanent welfare of the country (which all good
+citizens equally desire, however widely they may differ as to the means of
+its accomplishment) shall be in this way secured, or whether the management
+of the pecuniary concerns of the Government, and by consequence to a great
+extent those of individuals also, shall be carried back to a condition of
+things which fostered those contractions and expansions of the currency and
+those reckless abuses of credit from the baleful effects of which the
+country has so deeply suffered--a return that can promise in the end no
+better results than to reproduce the embarrassments the Government has
+experienced, and to remove from the shoulders of the present to those of
+fresh victims the bitter fruits of that spirit of speculative enterprise to
+which our countrymen are so liable and upon which the lessons of experience
+are so unavailing. The choice is an important one, and I sincerely hope
+that it may be wisely made.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A report from the Secretary of War, presenting a detailed view of the
+affairs of that Department, accompanies this communication.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The desultory duties connected with the removal of the Indians, in which
+the Army has been constantly engaged on the northern and western frontiers
+and in Florida, have rendered it impracticable to carry into full effect
+the plan recommended by the Secretary for improving its discipline. In
+every instance where the regiments have been concentrated they have made
+great progress, and the best results may be anticipated from a continuance
+of this system. During the last season a part of the troops have been
+employed in removing Indians from the interior to the territory assigned
+them in the West--a duty which they have performed efficiently and with
+praiseworthy humanity--and that portion of them which has been stationed in
+Florida continued active operations there throughout the heats of summer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The policy of the United States in regard to the Indians, of which a
+succinct account is given in my message of 1838, and of the wisdom and
+expediency of which I am fully satisfied, has been continued in active
+operation throughout the whole period of my Administration. Since the
+spring of 1837 more than 40,000 Indians have been removed to their new
+homes west of the Mississippi, and I am happy to add that all accounts
+concur in representing the result of this measure as eminently beneficial
+to that people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The emigration of the Seminoles alone has been attended with serious
+difficulty and occasioned bloodshed, hostilities having been commenced by
+the Indians in Florida under the apprehension that they would be compelled
+by force to comply with their treaty stipulations. The execution of the
+treaty of Paynes Landing, signed in 1832, but not ratified until 1834, was
+postponed at the solicitation of the Indians until 1836, when they again
+renewed their agreement to remove peaceably to their new homes in the West.
+In the face of this solemn and renewed compact they broke their faith and
+commenced hostilities by the massacre of Major Dade's command, the murder
+of their agent, General Thompson, and other acts of cruel treachery. When
+this alarming and unexpected intelligence reached the seat of Government,
+every effort appears to have been made to reenforce General Clinch, who
+commanded the troops then in Florida. General Eustis was dispatched with
+reenforcements from Charleston, troops were called out from Alabama,
+Tennessee, and Georgia, and General Scott was sent to take the command,
+with ample powers and ample means. At the first alarm General Gaines
+organized a force at New Orleans, and without waiting for orders landed in
+Florida, where he delivered over the troops he had brought with him to
+General Scott.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Governor Call was subsequently appointed to conduct a summer campaign, and
+at the close of it was replaced by General Jesup. These events and changes
+took place under the Administration of my predecessor. Notwithstanding the
+exertions of the experienced officers who had command there for eighteen
+months, on entering upon the administration of the Government I found the
+Territory of Florida a prey to Indian atrocities. A strenuous effort was
+immediately made to bring those hostilities to a close, and the army under
+General Jesup was reenforced until it amounted to 10,000 men, and furnished
+with abundant supplies of every description. In this campaign a great
+number of the enemy were captured and destroyed, but the character of the
+contest only was changed. The Indians, having been defeated in every
+engagement, dispersed in small bands throughout the country and became an
+enterprising, formidable, and ruthless banditti. General Taylor, who
+succeeded General Jesup, used his best exertions to subdue them, and was
+seconded in his efforts by the officers under his command; but he too
+failed to protect the Territory from their depredations. By an act of
+signal and cruel treachery they broke the truce made with them by General
+MacGrab, who was sent from Washington for the purpose of carrying into
+effect the expressed wishes of Congress, and have continued their
+devastations ever since. General Armistead, who was in Florida when General
+Taylor left the army by permission, assumed the command, and after active
+summer operations was met by propositions for peace, and from the fortunate
+coincidence of the arrival in Florida at the same period of a delegation
+from the Seminoles who are happily settled west of the Mississippi and are
+now anxious to persuade their countrymen to join them there hopes were for
+some time entertained that the Indians might be induced to leave the
+Territory without further difficulty. These hopes have proved fallacious
+and hostilities have been renewed throughout the whole of the Territory.
+That this contest has endured so long is to be attributed to causes beyond
+the control of the Government. Experienced generals have had the command of
+the troops, officers and soldiers have alike distinguished themselves for
+their activity, patience, and enduring courage, the army has been
+constantly furnished with supplies of every description, and we must look
+for the causes which have so long procrastinated the issue of the contest
+in the vast extent of the theater of hostilities, the almost insurmountable
+obstacles presented by the nature of the country, the climate, and the wily
+character of the savages.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sites for marine hospitals on the rivers and lakes which I was
+authorized to select and cause to be purchased have all been designated,
+but the appropriation not proving sufficient, conditional arrangements only
+have been made for their acquisition. It is for Congress to decide whether
+these Conditional purchases shall be sanctioned and the humane intentions
+of the law carried into full effect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Navy, as will appear from the accompanying report of the Secretary, has
+been usefully and honorably employed in the protection of our commerce and
+citizens in the Mediterranean, the Pacific, on the coast of Brazil, and in
+the Gulf of Mexico. A small squadron, consisting of the frigate
+Constellation and the sloop of war Boston, under Commodore Kearney, is now
+on its way to the China and Indian seas for the purpose of attending to our
+interests in that quarter, and Commander Aulick, in the sloop of war
+Yorktown, has been instructed to visit the Sandwich and Society islands,
+the coasts of New Zealand and Japan, together with other ports and islands
+frequented by our whale ships, for the purpose of giving them countenance
+and protection should they be required. Other smaller vessels have been and
+still are employed in prosecuting the surveys of the coast of the United
+States directed by various acts of Congress, and those which have been
+completed will shortly be laid before you.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The exploring expedition at the latest date was preparing to leave the Bay
+of Islands, New Zealand, in further prosecution of objects which have thus
+far been successfully accomplished. The discovery of a new continent, which
+was first seen in latitude 66° 2' south, longitude 154° 27' east,
+and afterwards in latitude 66° 31' south, longitude 153° 40' east,
+by Lieutenants Wilkes and Hudson, for an extent of 1,800 miles, but on
+which they were prevented from landing by vast bodies of ice which
+encompassed it, is one of the honorable results of the enterprise.
+Lieutenant Wilkes bears testimony to the zeal and good conduct of his
+officers and men, and it is but justice to that officer to state that he
+appears to have performed the duties assigned him with an ardor, ability,
+and perseverance which give every assurance of an honorable issue to the
+undertaking.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The report of the Postmaster-General herewith transmitted will exhibit the
+service of that Department the past year and its present condition. The
+transportation has been maintained during the year to the full extent
+authorized by the existing laws; some improvements have been effected which
+the public interest seemed urgently to demand, but not involving any
+material additional expenditure; the contractors have generally performed
+their engagements with fidelity; the postmasters, with few exceptions, have
+rendered their accounts and paid their quarterly balances with promptitude,
+and the whole service of the Department has maintained the efficiency for
+which it has for several years been distinguished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The acts of Congress establishing new mail routes and requiring more
+expensive services on others and the increasing wants of the country have
+for three years past carried the expenditures something beyond the accruing
+revenues, the excess having been met until the past year by the surplus
+which had previously accumulated. That surplus having been exhausted and
+the anticipated increase in the revenue not having been realized owing to
+the depression in the commercial business of the country, the finances of
+the Department exhibit a small deficiency at the close of the last fiscal
+year. Its resources, however, are ample, and the reduced rates of
+compensation for the transportation service which may be expected on the
+future lettings from the general reduction of prices, with the increase of
+revenue that may reasonably be anticipated from the revival of commercial
+activity, must soon place the finances of the Department in a prosperous
+condition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Considering the unfavorable circumstances which have existed during the
+past year, it is a gratifying result that the revenue has not declined as
+compared with the preceding year, but, on the contrary, exhibits a small
+increase, the circumstances referred to having had no other effect than to
+check the expected income.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It will be seen that the Postmaster-General suggests certain improvements
+in the establishment designed to reduce the weight of the mails, cheapen
+the transportation, insure greater regularity in the service, and secure a
+considerable reduction in the rates of letter postage--an object highly
+desirable. The subject is one of general interest to the community, and is
+respectfully recommended to your consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The suppression of the African slave trade has received the continued
+attention of the Government. The brig Dolphin and schooner Grampus have
+been employed during the last season on the coast of Africa for the purpose
+of preventing such portions of that trade as were said to be prosecuted
+under the American flag. After cruising off those parts of the coast most
+usually resorted to by slavers until the commencement of the rainy season,
+these vessels returned to the United States for supplies, and have since
+been dispatched on a similar service.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From the reports of the commanding officers it appears that the trade is
+now principally carried on under Portuguese colors, and they express the
+opinion that the apprehension of their presence on the slave coast has in a
+great degree arrested the prostitution of the American flag to this inhuman
+purpose. It is hoped that by continuing to maintain this force in that
+quarter and by the exertions of the officers in command much will be done
+to put a stop to whatever portion of this traffic may have been carried on
+under the American flag and to prevent its use in a trade which, while it
+violates the laws, is equally an outrage on the rights of others and the
+feelings of humanity. The efforts of the several Governments who are
+anxiously seeking to suppress this traffic must, however, be directed
+against the facilities afforded by what are now recognized as legitimate
+commercial pursuits before that object can be fully accomplished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Supplies of provisions, water casks, merchandise, and articles connected
+with the prosecution of the slave trade are, it is understood, freely
+carried by vessels of different nations to the slave factories, and the
+effects of the factors are transported openly from one slave station to
+another without interruption or punishment by either of the nations to
+which they belong engaged in the commerce of that region. I submit to your
+judgments whether this Government, having been the first to prohibit by
+adequate penalties the slave trade, the first to declare it piracy, should
+not be the first also to forbid to its citizens all trade with the slave
+factories on the coast of Africa, giving an example to all nations in this
+respect which if fairly followed can not fail to produce the most effective
+results in breaking up those dens of iniquity.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+M. VAN BUREN
+</p>
+
+<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses of Martin
+van Buren, by Martin van Buren
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses
+by Martin van Buren
+(#8 in our series of US Presidential State of the Union Addresses)
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+Title: State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren
+
+Author: Martin van Buren
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5017]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002]
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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY MARTIN VAN BUREN ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by James Linden.
+
+The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
+
+Dates of addresses by Martin van Buren in this eBook:
+  December 5, 1837
+  December 3, 1838
+  December 2, 1839
+  December 5, 1840
+
+
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 5, 1837
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+We have reason to renew the expression of our devout gratitude to the Giver
+of All Good for His benign protection. Our country presents on every side
+the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has
+gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous
+and powerful confederacy. We are blessed with domestic tranquillity and all
+the elements of national prosperity. The pestilence which, invading for a
+time some flourishing portions of the Union, interrupted the general
+prevalence of unusual health has happily been limited in extent and
+arrested in its fatal career. The industry and prudence of our citizens are
+gradually relieving them from the pecuniary embarrassments under which
+portions of them have labored; judicious legislation and the natural and
+boundless resources of the country have afforded wise end timely aid to
+private enterprise, and the activity always characteristic of our people
+has already in a great degree resumed its usual and profitable channels.
+
+The condition of our foreign relations has not materially changed since the
+last annual message of my predecessor. We remain at peace with all nations,
+and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights
+and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so
+consonant to our institutions. We have faithfully sustained the foreign
+policy with which the United States, under the guidance of their first
+President, took their stand in the family of nations--that of regulating
+their intercourse with other powers by the approved principles of private
+life; asking and according equal rights and equal privileges; rendering and
+demanding justice in all cases; advancing their own and discussing the
+pretensions of others with candor, directness, and sincerity; appealing at
+all times to reason, but never yielding to force nor seeking to acquire
+anything for themselves by its exercise.
+
+A rigid adherence to this policy has left this Government with scarcely a
+claim upon its justice for injuries arising from acts committed by its
+authority. The most imposing and perplexing of those of the United States
+upon foreign governments for aggressions upon our citizens were disposed of
+by my predecessor. Independently of the benefits conferred upon our
+citizens by restoring to the mercantile community so many millions of which
+they had been wrongfully divested, a great service was also rendered to his
+country by the satisfactory adjustment of so many ancient and irritating
+subjects of contention; and it reflects no ordinary credit on his
+successful administration of public affairs that this great object was
+accomplished without compromising on any occasion either the honor or the
+peace of the nation.
+
+With European powers no new subjects of difficulty have arisen, and those
+which were under discussion, although not terminated, do not present a more
+unfavorable aspect for the future preservation of that good understanding
+which it has ever been our desire to cultivate.
+
+Of pending questions the most important is that which exists with the
+Government of Great Britain in respect to our northeastern boundary. It is
+with unfeigned regret that the people of the United States must look back
+upon the abortive efforts made by the Executive, for a period of more than
+half a century, to determine what no nation should suffer long to remain in
+dispute--the true line which divides its possessions from those of other
+powers. The nature of the settlements on the borders of the United States
+and of the neighboring territory was for a season such that this, perhaps,
+was not indispensable to a faithful performance of the duties of the
+Federal Government. Time has, however, changed this state of things, and
+has brought about a condition of affairs in which the true interests of
+both countries imperatively require that this question should be put at
+rest. It is not to be disguised that, with full confidence, often
+expressed, in the desire of the British Government to terminate it, we are
+apparently as far from its adjustment as we were at the time of signing the
+treaty of peace in 1783. The sole result of long-pending negotiations and a
+perplexing arbitration appears to be a conviction on its part that a
+conventional line must be adopted, from the impossibility of ascertaining
+the true one according to the description contained in that treaty. Without
+coinciding in this opinion, which is not thought to be well rounded, my
+predecessor gave the strongest proof of the earnest desire of the United
+States to terminate satisfactorily this dispute by proposing the
+substitution of a conventional line if the consent of the States interested
+in the question could be obtained. To this proposition no answer has as yet
+been received. The attention of the British Government has, however, been
+urgently invited to the subject, and its reply can not, I am confident, be
+much longer delayed. The general relations between Great Britain and the
+United States are of the most friendly character, and I am well satisfied
+of the sincere disposition of that Government to maintain them upon their
+present footing. This disposition has also, I am persuaded, become more
+general with the people of England than at any previous period. It is
+scarcely necessary to say to you how cordially it is reciprocated by the
+Government and people of the United States. The conviction, which must be
+common to all, of the injurious consequences that result from keeping open
+this irritating question, and the certainty that its final settlement can
+not be much longer deferred, will, I trust, lead to an early and
+satisfactory adjustment. At your last session I laid before you the recent
+communications between the two Governments and between this Government and
+that of the State of Maine, in whose solicitude concerning a subject in
+which she has so deep an interest every portion of the Union participates.
+
+The feelings produced by a temporary interruption of those harmonious
+relations between France and the United States which are due as well to the
+recollections of former times as to a correct appreciation of existing
+interests have been happily succeeded by a cordial disposition on both
+sides to cultivate an active friendship in their future intercourse. The
+opinion, undoubtedly correct, and steadily entertained by us, that the
+commercial relations at present existing between the two countries are
+susceptible of great and reciprocally beneficial improvements is obviously
+gaining ground in France, and I am assured of the disposition of that
+Government to favor the accomplishment of such an object. This disposition
+shall be met in a proper spirit on our part. The few and comparatively
+unimportant questions that remain to be adjusted between us can, I have no
+doubt, be settled with entire satisfaction and without difficulty.
+
+Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be
+mutually cherished. Our minister recently accredited to that Court has been
+received with a frankness and cordiality and with evidences of respect for
+his country which leave us no room to doubt the preservation in future of
+those amicable and liberal relations which have so long and so
+uninterruptedly existed between the two countries. On the few subjects
+under discussion between us an early and just decision is confidently
+anticipated.
+
+A correspondence has been opened with the Government of Austria for the
+establishment of diplomatic relations, in conformity with the wishes of
+Congress as indicated by an appropriation act of the session of 1837, and
+arrangements made for the purpose, which will be duly carried into effect.
+
+With Austria and Prussia and with the States of the German Empire (now
+composing with the latter the Commercial League) our political relations
+are of the most friendly character, whilst our commercial intercourse is
+gradually extending, with benefit to all who are engaged in it.
+
+Civil war yet rages in Spain, producing intense suffering to its own
+people, and to other nations inconvenience and regret. Our citizens who
+have claims upon that country will be prejudiced for a time by the
+condition of its treasury, the inevitable consequence of long-continued and
+exhausting internal wars. The last installment of the interest of the debt
+due under the convention with the Queen of Spain has not been paid and
+similar failures may be expected to happen until a portion of the resources
+of her Kingdom can be devoted to the extinguishment of its foreign debt.
+
+Having received satisfactory evidence that discriminating tonnage duties
+were charged upon the vessels of the United States in the ports of
+Portugal, a proclamation was issued on the 11th day of October last, in
+compliance with the act of May 25, 1832, declaring that fact, and the
+duties on foreign tonnage which were levied upon Portuguese vessels in the
+United States previously to the passage of that act are accordingly
+revived.
+
+The act of July 4, 1836, suspending the discriminating duties upon the
+produce of Portugal imported into this country in Portuguese vessels, was
+passed, upon the application of that Government through its representative
+here, under the belief that no similar discrimination existed in Portugal
+to the prejudice of the United States. I regret to state that such duties
+are now exacted in that country upon the cargoes of American vessels, and
+as the act referred to vests no discretion in the Executive, it is for
+Congress to determine upon the expediency of further legislation on the
+subject. Against these discriminations affecting the vessels of this
+country and their cargoes seasonable remonstrance was made, and notice was
+given to the Portuguese Government that unless they should be discontinued
+the adoption of countervailing measures on the part of the United States
+would become necessary; but the reply of that Government, received at the
+Department of State through our charge d'affaires at Lisbon in the month of
+September last, afforded no ground to hope for the abandonment of a system
+so little in harmony with the treatment shown to the vessels of Portugal
+and their cargoes in the ports of this country and so contrary to the
+expectations we had a right to entertain.
+
+With Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and Belgium a friendly intercourse
+has been uninterruptedly maintained.
+
+With the Government of the Ottoman Porte and its dependencies on the coast
+of the Mediterranean peace and good will are carefully cultivated, and have
+been fostered by such good offices as the relative distance and the
+condition of those countries would permit.
+
+Our commerce with Greece is carried on under the laws of the two
+Governments, reciprocally beneficial to the navigating interests of both;
+and I have reason to look forward to the adoption of other measures which
+will be more extensively and permanently advantageous.
+
+Copies of the treaties concluded with the Governments of Siam and Muscat
+are transmitted for the information of Congress, the ratifications having
+been received and the treaties made public since the close of the last
+annual session. Already have we reason to congratulate ourselves on the
+prospect of considerable commercial benefit; and we have, besides, received
+from the Sultan of Muscat prompt evidence of his desire to cultivate the
+most friendly feelings, by liberal acts toward one of our vessels, bestowed
+in a manner so striking as to require on our part a grateful
+acknowledgment.
+
+Our commerce with the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico still labors under
+heavy restrictions, the continuance of which is a subject of regret. The
+only effect of an adherence to them will be to benefit the navigation of
+other countries at the expense of both the United States and Spain.
+
+The independent nations of this continent have ever since they emerged from
+the colonial state experienced severe trials in their progress to the
+permanent establishment of liberal political institutions. Their unsettled
+condition not only interrupts their own advances to prosperity, but has
+often seriously injured the other powers of the world. The claims of our
+citizens upon Peru, Chili, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, the Governments
+formed out of the Republics of Colombia and Mexico, are still pending,
+although many of them have been presented for examination more than twenty
+years. New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador have recently formed a
+convention for the purpose of ascertaining and adjusting claims upon the
+Republic of Colombia, from which it is earnestly hoped our citizens will
+ere long receive full compensation for the injuries inflicted upon them and
+for the delay in affording it.
+
+An advantageous treaty of commerce has been concluded by the United States
+with the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, which wants only the ratification of
+that Government. The progress of a subsequent negotiation for the
+settlement of claims upon Peru has been unfavorably affected by the war
+between that power and Chili and the Argentine Republic, and the same event
+is also likely to produce delays in the settlement of out demands on those
+powers.
+
+The aggravating circumstances connected with our claims upon Mexico and a
+variety of events touching the honor and integrity of our Government led my
+predecessor to make at the second session of the last Congress a special
+recommendation of the course to be pursued to obtain a speedy and final
+satisfaction of the injuries complained of by this Government and by our
+citizens. He recommended a final demand of redress, with a contingent
+authority to the Executive to make reprisals if that demand should be made
+in vain. From the proceedings of Congress on that recommendation it
+appeared that the opinion of both branches of the Legislature coincided
+with that of the Executive, that any mode of redress known to the law of
+nations might justifiably be used. It was obvious, too, that Congress
+believed with the President that another demand should be made, in order to
+give undeniable and satisfactory proof of our desire to avoid extremities
+with a neighboring power, but that there was an indisposition to vest a
+discretionary authority in the Executive to take redress should it
+unfortunately be either denied or unreasonably delayed by the Mexican
+Government.
+
+So soon as the necessary documents were prepared, after entering upon the
+duties of my office, a special messenger was sent to Mexico to make a final
+demand of redress, with the documents required by the provisions of our
+treaty. The demand was made on the 20th of July last. The reply, which
+bears date the 29th of the same month, contains assurances of a desire on
+the part of that Government to give a prompt and explicit answer respecting
+each of the complaints, but that the examination of them would necessarily
+be deliberate; that in this examination it would be guided by the
+principles of public law and the obligation of treaties; that nothing
+should be left undone that might lead to the most speedy and equitable
+adjustment of our demands, and that its determination in respect to each
+case should be communicated through the Mexican minister here.
+
+Since that time an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary has
+been accredited to this Government by that of the Mexican Republic. He
+brought with him assurances of a sincere desire that the pending
+differences between the two Governments should be terminated in a manner
+satisfactory to both. He was received with reciprocal assurances, and a
+hope was entertained that his mission would lead to a speedy, satisfactory,
+and final adjustment of all existing subjects of complaint. A sincere
+believer in the wisdom of the pacific policy by which the United States
+have always been governed in their intercourse with foreign nations, it was
+my particular desire, from the proximity of the Mexican Republic and
+well-known occurrences on our frontier, to be instrumental in obviating all
+existing difficulties with that Government and in restoring to the
+intercourse between the two Republics that liberal and friendly character
+by which they should always be distinguished. I regret, therefore, the more
+deeply to have found in the recent communications of that Government so
+little reason to hope that any future efforts of mine for the
+accomplishment of those desirable objects would be successful.
+
+Although the larger number--and many of them aggravated cases of personal
+wrongs--have been now for years before the Mexican Government, and some of
+the causes of national complaint, and those of the most offensive
+character, admitted of immediate, simple, and satisfactory replies, it is
+only within a few days past that any specific communication in answer to
+our last demand, made five months ago, has been received from the Mexican
+minister. By the report of the Secretary of State herewith presented and
+the accompanying documents it will be seen that for not one of our public
+complaints has satisfaction been given or offered, that but one of the
+cases of personal wrong has been favorably considered, and that but four
+cases of both descriptions out of all those formally presented and
+earnestly pressed have as yet been decided upon by the Mexican Government.
+
+Not perceiving in what manner any of the powers given to the Executive
+alone could be further usefully employed in bringing this unfortunate
+controversy to a satisfactory termination, the subject was by my
+predecessor referred to Congress as one calling for its interposition. In
+accordance with the clearly understood wishes of the Legislature, another
+and formal demand for satisfaction has been made upon the Mexican
+Government, with what success the documents now communicated will show. On
+a careful and deliberate examination of their contents, and considering the
+spirit manifested by the Mexican Government, it has become my painful duty
+to return the subject as it now stands to Congress, to whom it belongs to
+decide upon the time, the mode, and the measure of redress. Whatever may be
+your decision, it shall be faithfully executed, confident that it will be
+characterized by that moderation and justice which will, I trust, under all
+circumstances govern the councils of our country.
+
+The balance in the Treasury on the 1st January, 1837, was $45,968,523. The
+receipts during the present year from all sources, including the amount of
+Treasury notes issued, are estimated at $23,499,981, constituting an
+aggregate of $69,468,504. Of this amount about $35,281,361 will have been
+expended at the end of the year on appropriations made by Congress, and the
+residue, amounting to $34,187,143, will be the nominal balance in the
+Treasury on the 1st of January next; but of that sum only $1,085,498 is
+considered as immediately available for and applicable to public purposes.
+Those portions of it which will be for some time unavailable consist
+chiefly of sums deposited with the States and due from the former deposit
+banks. The details upon this subject will be found in the annual report of
+the Secretary of the Treasury. The amount of Treasury notes which it will
+be necessary to issue during the year on account of those funds being
+unavailable will, it is supposed, not exceed four and a half millions. It
+seemed proper, in the condition of the country, to have the estimates on
+all subjects made as low as practicable without prejudice to any great
+public measures. The Departments were therefore desired to prepare their
+estimates accordingly, and I am happy to find that they have been able to
+graduate them on so economical a scale. In the great and often unexpected
+fluctuations to which the revenue is subjected it is not possible to
+compute the receipts beforehand with great certainty, but should they not
+differ essentially from present anticipations, and should the
+appropriations not much exceed the estimates, no difficulty seems likely to
+happen in defraying the current expenses with promptitude and fidelity.
+
+Notwithstanding the great embarrassments which have recently occurred in
+commercial affairs, and the liberal indulgence which in consequence of
+these embarrassments has been extended to both the merchants and the banks,
+it is gratifying to be able to anticipate that the Treasury notes which
+have been issued during the present year will be redeemed and that the
+resources of the Treasury, without any resort to loans or increased taxes,
+will prove ample for defraying all charges imposed on it during 1838.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will afford you a more minute
+exposition of all matters connected with the administration of the finances
+during the current year--a period which for the amount of public moneys
+disbursed and deposited with the States, as well as the financial
+difficulties encountered and overcome, has few parallels in our history.
+
+Your attention was at the last session invited to the necessity of
+additional legislative provisions in respect to the collection,
+safe-keeping, and transfer of the public money. No law having been then
+matured, and not understanding the proceedings of Congress as intended to
+be final, it becomes my duty again to bring the subject to your notice.
+
+On that occasion three modes of performing this branch of the public
+service were presented for consideration. These were, the creation of a
+national bank; the revival, with modifications, of the deposit system
+established by the act of the 23d of June, 1836, permitting the use of the
+public moneys by the banks; and the discontinuance of the use of such
+institutions for the purposes referred to, with suitable provisions for
+their accomplishment through the agency of public officers. Considering the
+opinions of both Houses of Congress on the first two propositions as
+expressed in the negative, in which I entirely concur, it is unnecessary
+for me again in to recur to them. In respect to the last, you have had an
+opportunity since your adjournment not only to test still further the
+expediency of the measure by the continued practical operation of such
+parts of it as are now in force, but also to discover what should ever be
+sought for and regarded with the utmost deference--the opinions and wishes
+of the people.
+
+The national will is the supreme law of the Republic, and on all subjects
+within the limits of his constitutional powers should be faithfully obeyed
+by the public servant. Since the measure in question was submitted to your
+consideration most of you have enjoyed the advantage of personal
+communication with your constituents. For one State only has an election
+been held for the Federal Government; but the early day at which it took
+place deprived the measure under consideration of much of the support it
+might otherwise have derived from the result. Local elections for State
+officers have, however, been held in several of the States, at which the
+expediency of the plan proposed by the Executive has been. more or less
+discussed. You will, I am confident, yield to their results the respect due
+to every expression of the public voice. Desiring, however, to arrive at
+truth and a just view of the subject in all its bearings, you will at the
+same time remember that questions of far deeper and more immediate local
+interest than the fiscal plans of the National Treasury were involved in
+those elections. Above all, we can not overlook the striking fact that
+there were at the time in those States more than one hundred and sixty
+millions of bank capital, of which large portions were subject to actual
+forfeiture, other large portions upheld only by special and limited
+legislative indulgences, and most of it, if not all, to a greater or less
+extent dependent for a continuance of its corporate existence upon the will
+of the State legislatures to be then chosen. Apprised of this circumstance,
+you will judge whether it is not most probable that the peculiar condition
+of that vast interest in these respects, the extent to which it has been
+spread through all the ramifications of society, its direct connection with
+the then pending elections, and the feelings it was calculated to infuse
+into the canvass have exercised a far greater influence over the result
+than any which could possibly have been produced by a conflict of opinion
+in respect to a question in the administration of the General Government
+more remote and far less important in its bearings upon that interest.
+
+I have found no reason to change my own opinion as to the expediency of
+adopting the system proposed, being perfectly satisfied that there will be
+neither stability nor safety either in the fiscal affairs of the Government
+or in the pecuniary transactions of individuals and corporations so long as
+a connection exists between them which, like the past, offers such strong
+inducements to make them the subjects of political agitation. Indeed, I am
+more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased
+exercise of political opinion--the only sure foundation and safeguard of
+republican government--would be exposed by any further increase of the
+already overgrown influence of corporate authorities. I can not, therefore,
+consistently with my views of duty, advise a renewal of a connection which
+circumstances have dissolved.
+
+The discontinuance of the use of State banks for fiscal purposes ought not
+to be regarded as a measure of hostility toward those institutions. Banks
+properly established and conducted are highly useful to the business of the
+country, and will doubtless continue to exist in the States so long as they
+conform to their laws and are found to be safe and beneficial. How they
+should be created, what privileges they should enjoy, under what
+responsibilities they should act, and to what restrictions they should be
+subject are questions which, as I observed on a previous occasion, belong
+to the States to decide. Upon their rights or the exercise of them the
+General Government can have no motive to encroach. Its duty toward them is
+well performed when it refrains from legislating for their special benefit,
+because such legislation would violate the spirit of the Constitution and
+be unjust to other interests; when it takes no steps to impair their
+usefulness, but so manages its own affairs as to make it the interest of
+those institutions to strengthen and improve their condition for the
+security and welfare of the community at large. They have no right to
+insist on a connection with the Federal Government, nor on the use of the
+public money for their own benefit. The object of the measure under
+consideration is to avoid for the future a compulsory connection of this
+kind. It proposes to place the General Government, in regard to the
+essential points of the collection, safe-keeping, and transfer of the
+public money, in a situation which shall relieve it from all dependence on
+the will of irresponsible individuals or corporations; to withdraw those
+moneys from the uses of private trade and confide them to agents
+constitutionally selected and controlled by law; to abstain from improper
+interference with the industry of the people and withhold inducements to
+improvident dealings on the part of individuals; to give stability to the
+concerns of the Treasury; to preserve the measures of the Government from
+the unavoidable reproaches that flow from such a connection, and the banks
+themselves from the injurious effects of a supposed participation in the
+political conflicts of the day, from which they will otherwise find it
+difficult to escape.
+
+These are my views upon this important subject, formed after careful
+reflection and with no desire but to arrive at what is most likely to
+promote the public interest. They are now, as they were before, submitted
+with unfeigned deference for the opinions of others. It was hardly to be
+hoped that changes so important on a subject so interesting could be made
+without producing a serious diversity of opinion; but so long as those
+conflicting views are kept above the influence of individual or local
+interests, so long as they pursue only the general good and are discussed
+with moderation and candor, such diversity is a benefit, not an injury. If
+a majority of Congress see the public welfare in a different light, and
+more especially if they should be satisfied that the measure proposed would
+not be acceptable to the people, I shall look to their wisdom to substitute
+such as may be more conducive to the one and more satisfactory to the
+other. In any event, they may confidently rely on my hearty cooperation to
+the fullest extent to which my views of the Constitution and my sense of
+duty will permit.
+
+It is obviously important to this branch of the public service and to the
+business and quiet of the country that the whole subject should in some way
+be settled and regulated by law, and, if possible, at your present session.
+Besides the plans above referred to, I am not aware that any one has been
+suggested except that of keeping the public money in the State banks in
+special deposit. This plan is to some extent in accordance with the
+practice of the Government and with the present arrangements of the
+Treasury Department, which, except, perhaps, during the operation of the
+late deposit act, has always been allowed, even during the existence of a
+national bank, to make a temporary use of the State banks in particular
+places for the safe-keeping of portions of the revenue. This discretionary
+power might be continued if Congress deem it desirable, whatever general
+system be adopted. So long as the connection is voluntary we need, perhaps,
+anticipate few of those difficulties and little of that dependence on the
+banks which must attend every such connection when compulsory in its nature
+and when so arranged as to make the banks a fixed part of the machinery of
+government. It is undoubtedly in the power of Congress so to regulate and
+guard it as to prevent the public money from being applied to the use or
+intermingled with the affairs of individuals. Thus arranged, although it
+would not give to the Government that entire control over its own funds
+which I desire to secure to it by the plan I have proposed, it would, it
+must be admitted, in a great degree accomplish one of the objects which has
+recommended that plan to my judgment--the separation of the fiscal concerns
+of the Government from those of individuals or corporations.
+
+With these observations I recommend the whole matter to your dispassionate
+reflection, confidently hoping that some conclusion may be reached by your
+deliberations which on the one hand shall give safety and stability to the
+fiscal operations of the Government, and be consistent, on the other, with
+the genius of our institutions and with the interests and wishes of the
+great mass of our constituents.
+
+It was my hope that nothing would occur to make necessary on this occasion
+any allusion to the late national bank. There are circumstances, however,
+connected with the present state of its affairs that bear so directly on
+the character of the Government and the welfare of the citizen that I
+should not feel myself excused in neglecting to notice them. The charter
+which terminated its banking privileges on the 4th of March, 1836,
+continued its corporate power two years more for the sole purpose of
+closing its affairs, with authority "to use the corporate name, style, and
+capacity for the purpose of suits for a final settlement and liquidation of
+the affairs and acts of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition
+of their estate--real, personal, and mixed--but for no other purpose or in
+any other manner whatsoever." Just before the banking privileges ceased,
+its effects were transferred by the bank to a new State institution, then
+recently incorporated, in trust, for the discharge of its debts and the
+settlement of its affairs. With this trustee, by authority of Congress, an
+adjustment was subsequently made of the large interest which the Government
+had in the stock of the institution. The manner in which a trust
+unexpectedly created upon the act granting the charter, and involving such
+great public interests, has been executed would under any circumstances be
+a fit subject of inquiry; but much more does it deserve your attention when
+it embraces the redemption of obligations to which the authority and credit
+of the United States have given value. The two years allowed are now nearly
+at an end. It is well understood that the trustee has not redeemed and
+canceled the outstanding notes of the bank, but has reissued and is
+actually reissuing, since the 3d of March, 1836, the notes which have been
+received by it to a vast amount. According to its own official statement,
+so late as the 1st of October last, nineteen months after- the banking
+privileges given by the charter had expired, it had under its control
+uncanceled notes of the late Bank of the United States to the amount of
+$27,561,866, of which $6,175,861 were in actual circulation, $ 1,468,627 at
+State bank agencies, and $3,002,390 in transitu, thus showing that upward
+of ten millions and a half of the notes of the old bank were then still
+kept outstanding.
+
+The impropriety of this procedure is obvious, it being the duty of the
+trustee to cancel and not to put forth the notes of an institution whose
+concerns it had undertaken to wind up. If the trustee has a right to
+reissue these notes now, I can see no reason why it may not continue to do
+so after the expiration of the two years. As no one could have anticipated
+a course so extraordinary, the prohibitory clause of the charter above
+quoted was not accompanied by any penalty or other special provision for
+enforcing it, nor have we any general law for the prevention of similar
+acts in future.
+
+But it is not in this view of the subject alone that your interposition is
+required. The United States in settling with the trustee for their stock
+have withdrawn their funds from their former direct liability to the
+creditors of the old bank, yet notes of the institution continue to be sent
+forth in its name, and apparently upon the authority of the United States.
+The transactions connected with the employment of the bills of the old bank
+are of vast extent, and should they result unfortunately the interests of
+individuals may be deeply compromised. Without undertaking to decide how
+far or in what form, if any, the trustee could be made liable for notes
+which contain no obligation on its part, or the old bank for such as are
+put in circulation after the expiration of its charter and without its
+authority, or the Government for indemnity in case of loss, the question
+still presses itself upon your consideration whether it is consistent with
+duty and good faith on the part of the Government to witness this
+proceeding without a single effort to arrest it.
+
+The report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which will be
+laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury, will show how the affairs
+of that office have been conducted for the past year. The disposition of
+the public lands is one of the most important trusts confided to Congress.
+The practicability of retaining the title and control of such extensive
+domains in the General Government, and at the same time admitting the
+Territories embracing them into the Federal Union as coequals with the
+original States, was seriously doubted by many of our wisest statesmen. All
+feared that they would become a source of discord, and many carried their
+apprehensions so far as to see in them the seeds of a future dissolution of
+the Confederacy. But happily our experience has already been sufficient to
+quiet in a great degree all such apprehensions. The position at one time
+assumed, that the admission of new States into the Union on the same
+footing with the original States was incompatible with a right of soil in
+the United States and operated as a surrender thereof, notwithstanding the
+terms of the compacts by which their admission was designed to be
+regulated, has been wisely abandoned. Whether in the new or the old States,
+all now agree that the right of soil to the public lands remains in the
+Federal Government, and that these lands constitute a common property, to
+be disposed of for the common benefit of all the States, old and new.
+Acquiescence in this just principle by the people of the new States has
+naturally promoted a disposition to adopt the most liberal policy in the
+sale of the public lands. A policy which should be limited to the mere
+object of selling the lands for the greatest possible sum of money, without
+regard to higher considerations, finds but few advocates. On the contrary,
+it is generally conceded that whilst the mode of disposition adopted by the
+Government should always be a prudent one, yet its leading object ought to
+be the early settlement and cultivation of the lands sold, and that it
+should discountenance, if it can not prevent, the accumulation of large
+tracts in the same hands, which must necessarily retard the growth of the
+new States or entail upon them a dependent tenantry and its attendant
+evils.
+
+A question embracing such important interests and so well calculated to
+enlist the feelings of the people in every quarter of the Union has very
+naturally given rise to numerous plans for the improvement of the existing
+system. The distinctive features of the policy that has hitherto prevailed
+are to dispose of the public lands at moderate prices, thus enabling a
+greater number to enter into competition for their purchase and
+accomplishing a double object--of promoting their rapid settlement by the
+purchasers and at the same time increasing the receipts of the Treasury; to
+sell for cash, thereby preventing the disturbing influence of a large mass
+of private citizens indebted to the Government which they have a voice in
+controlling; to bring them into market no faster than good lands are
+supposed to be wanted for improvement, thereby preventing the accumulation
+of large tracts in few hands; and to apply the proceeds of the sales to the
+general purposes of the Government, thus diminishing the amount to be
+raised from the people of the States by taxation and giving each State its
+portion of the benefits to be derived from this common fund in a manner the
+most quiet, and at the same time, perhaps, the most equitable, that can be
+devised. These provisions, with occasional enactments in behalf of special
+interests deemed entitled to the favor of the Government, have in their
+execution produced results as beneficial upon the whole as could reasonably
+be expected in a matter so vast, so complicated, and so exciting. Upward of
+70,000,000, acres have been sold, the greater part of which is believed to
+have been purchased for actual settlement. The population of the new States
+and Territories created out of the public domain increased between 1800 and
+1830 from less than 60,000 to upward of 2,300,000 souls, constituting at
+the latter period about one-fifth of the whole people of the United States.
+The increase since can not be accurately known, but the whole may now be
+safely estimated at over three and a half millions of souls, composing nine
+States, the representatives of which constitute above one-third of the
+Senate and over one-sixth of the House of Representatives of the United
+States.
+
+Thus has been formed a body of free and independent landholders with a
+rapidity unequaled in the history of mankind; and this great result has
+been produced without leaving anything for future adjustment between the
+Government and its citizens. The system under which so much has been
+accomplished can not be intrinsically bad, and with occasional
+modifications to correct abuses and adapt it to changes of circumstances
+may, I think, be safely trusted for the future. There is in the management
+of such extensive interests much virtue in stability; and although great
+and obvious improvements should not be declined, changes should never be
+made without the fullest examination and the clearest demonstration of
+their practical utility. In the history of the past we have an assurance
+that this safe rule of action will not be departed from in relation to the
+public lands; nor is it believed that any necessity exists for interfering
+with the fundamental principles of the system, or that the public mind,
+even in the new States, is desirous of any radical alterations. On the
+contrary, the general disposition appears to be to make such modifications
+and additions only as will the more effectually carry out the original
+policy of filling our new States and Territories with an industrious and
+independent population.
+
+The modification most perseveringly pressed upon Congress, which has
+occupied so much of its time for years past, and will probably do so for a
+long time to come, if not sooner satisfactorily adjusted, is a reduction in
+the cost of such portions of the public lands as are ascertained to be
+unsalable at the rate now established by law, and a graduation according to
+their relative value of the prices at which they may hereafter be sold. It
+is worthy of consideration whether justice may not be done to every
+interest in this matter, and a vexed question set at rest, perhaps forever,
+by a reasonable compromise of conflicting opinions. Hitherto, after being
+offered at public sale, lands have been disposed of at one uniform price,
+whatever difference there might be in their intrinsic value. The leading
+considerations urged in favor of the measure referred to are that in almost
+all the land districts, and particularly in those in which the lands have
+been long surveyed and exposed to sale, there are still remaining numerous
+and large tracts of every gradation of value, from the Government price
+downward; that these lands will not be purchased at the Government price so
+long as better can be conveniently obtained for the same amount; that there
+are large tracts which even the improvements of the adjacent lands will
+never raise to that price, and that the present uniform price, combined
+with their irregular value, operates to prevent a desirable compactness of
+settlements in the new States and to retard the full development of that
+wise policy on which our land system is founded, to the injury not only of
+the several States where the lands lie, but of the United States as a
+whole.
+
+The remedy proposed has been a reduction of the prices according to the
+length of time the lands have been in market, without reference to any
+other circumstances. The certainty that the efflux of time would not always
+in such cases, and perhaps not even generally, furnish a true criterion of
+value, and the probability that persons residing in the vicinity, as the
+period for the reduction of prices approached, would postpone purchases
+they would otherwise make, for the purpose of availing themselves of the
+lower price, with other considerations of a similar character, have
+hitherto been successfully urged to defeat the graduation upon time.
+
+May not all reasonable desires upon this subject be satisfied without
+encountering any of these objections? All will concede the abstract
+principle that the price of the public lands should be proportioned to
+their relative value, so far as can be accomplished without departing from
+the rule heretofore observed requiring fixed prices in cases of private
+entries. The difficulty of the subject seems to lie in the mode of
+ascertaining what that value is. Would not the safest plan be that which
+has been adopted by many of the States as the basis of taxation--an actual
+valuation of lands and classification of them into different rates? Would
+it not be practicable and expedient to cause the relative value of the
+public lands in the old districts which have been for a certain length of
+time in market to be appraised and classed into two or more rates below the
+present minimum price by the officers now employed in this branch of the
+public service or in any other mode deemed preferable, and to make those
+prices permanent if upon the coming in of the report they shall prove
+satisfactory to Congress? Could not all the objects of graduation be
+accomplished in this way, and the objections which have hitherto been urged
+against it avoided? It would seem to me that such a step, with a
+restriction of the sales to limited quantities and for actual improvement,
+would be free from all just exception.
+
+By the full exposition of the value of the lands thus furnished and
+extensively promulgated persons living at a distance would be informed of
+their true condition and enabled to enter into competition with those
+residing in the vicinity; the means of acquiring an independent home would
+be brought within the reach of many who are unable to purchase at present
+prices; the population of the new States would be made more compact, and
+large tracts would be sold which would otherwise remain on hand. Not only
+would the land be brought within the means of a larger number of
+purchasers, but many persons possessed of greater means would be content to
+settle on a larger quantity of the poorer lands rather than emigrate
+farther west in pursuit of a smaller quantity of better lands. Such a
+measure would also seem to be more consistent with the policy of the
+existing laws--that of converting the public domain into cultivated farms
+owned by their occupants. That policy is not best promoted by sending
+emigration up the almost interminable streams of the West to occupy in
+groups the best spots of land, leaving immense wastes behind them and
+enlarging the frontier beyond the means of the Government to afford it
+adequate protection, but in encouraging it to occupy with reasonable
+denseness the territory over which it advances, and find its best defense
+in the compact front which it presents to the Indian tribes. Many of you
+will bring to the consideration of the subject the advantages of local
+knowledge and greater experience, and all will be desirous of making an
+early and final disposition of every disturbing question in regard to this
+important interest. If these suggestions shall in any degree contribute to
+the accomplishment of so important a result, it will afford me sincere
+satisfaction.
+
+In some sections of the country most of the public lands have been sold,
+and the registers and receivers have very little to do. It is a subject
+worthy of inquiry whether in many cases two or more districts may not be
+consolidated and the number of persons employed in this business
+considerably reduced. Indeed, the time will come when it will be the true
+policy of the General Government, as to some of the States, to transfer to
+them for a reasonable equivalent all the refuse and unsold lands and to
+withdraw the machinery of the Federal land offices altogether. All who take
+a comprehensive view of our federal system and believe that one of its
+greatest excellencies consists in interfering as little as possible with
+the internal concerns of the States look forward with great interest to
+this result.
+
+A modification of the existing laws in respect to the prices of the public
+lands might also have a favorable influence on the legislation of Congress
+in relation to another branch of the subject. Many who have not the ability
+to buy at present prices settle on those lands with the hope of acquiring
+from their cultivation the means of purchasing under preemption laws from
+time to time passed by Congress. For this encroachment on the rights of the
+United States they excuse themselves under the plea of their own
+necessities; the fact that they dispossess nobody and only enter upon the
+waste domain: that they give additional value to the public lands in their
+vicinity, and their intention ultimately to pay the Government price. So
+much weight has from time to time been attached to these considerations
+that Congress have passed laws giving actual settlers on the public lands a
+right of preemption to the tracts occupied by them at the minimum price.
+These laws have in all instances been retrospective in their operation, but
+in a few years after their passage crowds of new settlers have been found
+on the public lands for similar reasons and under like expectations, who
+have been indulged with the same privilege. This course of legislation
+tends to impair public respect for the laws of the country. Either the laws
+to prevent intrusion upon the public lands should be executed, or, if that
+should be impracticable or inexpedient, they should be modified or
+repealed. If the public lands are to be considered as open to be occupied
+by any, they should by law be thrown open to all. That which is intended in
+all instances to be legalized should at once be made legal, that those who
+are disposed to conform to the laws may enjoy at least equal privileges
+with those who are not. But it is not believed to be the disposition of
+Congress to open the public lands to occupancy without regular entry and
+payment of the Government price, as such a course must tend to worse evils
+than the credit system, which it was found necessary to abolish.
+
+It would seem, therefore, to be the part of wisdom and sound policy to
+remove as far as practicable the causes which produce intrusions upon the
+public lands, and then take efficient steps to prevent them in future.
+Would any single measure be so effective in removing all plausible grounds
+for these intrusions as the graduation of price already suggested? A short
+period of industry and economy in any part of our country would enable the
+poorest citizen to accumulate the means to buy him a home at the lower
+prices, and leave him without apology for settling on lands not his own. If
+he did not under such circumstances, he would enlist no sympathy in his
+favor, and the laws would be readily executed without doing violence to
+public opinion.
+
+A large portion of our citizens have seated themselves on the public lands
+without authority since the passage of the last preemption law, and now ask
+the enactment of another to enable them to retain the lands occupied upon
+payment of the minimum Government price. They ask that which has been
+repeatedly granted before. If the future may be judged of by the past,
+little harm can be done to the interests of the Treasury by yielding to
+their request. Upon a critical examination it is found that the lands sold
+at the public sales since the introduction of cash payments, in 1820, have
+produced on an average the net revenue of only 6 cents an acre more than
+the minimum Government price. There is no reason to suppose that future
+sales will be more productive. The Government, therefore, has no adequate
+pecuniary interest to induce it to drive these people from the lands they
+occupy for the purpose of selling them to others.
+
+Entertaining these views, I recommend the passage of a preemption law for
+their benefit in connection with the preparatory steps toward the
+graduation of the price of the public lands, and further and more effectual
+provisions to prevent intrusions hereafter. Indulgence to those who have
+settled on these lands with expectations that past legislation would be
+made a rule for the future, and at the same time removing the most
+plausible ground on which intrusions are excused and adopting more
+efficient means to prevent them hereafter, appears to me the most judicious
+disposition which can be made of this difficult subject. The limitations
+and restrictions to guard against abuses in the execution of a preemption
+law will necessarily attract the careful attention of Congress, but under
+no circumstances is it considered expedient to authorize floating claims in
+any shape. They have been heretofore, and doubtless would be hereafter,
+most prolific sources of fraud and oppression, and instead of operating to
+confer the favor of the Government on industrious settlers are often used
+only to minister to a spirit of cupidity at the expense of the most
+meritorious of that class.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will bring to your view the
+state of the Army and all the various subjects confided to the
+superintendence of that officer.
+
+The principal part of the Army has been concentrated in Florida, with a
+view and in the expectation of bringing the war in that Territory to a
+speedy close. The necessity of stripping the posts on the maritime and
+inland frontiers of their entire garrisons for the purpose of assembling in
+the field an army of less than 4,000 men would seem to indicate the
+necessity of increasing our regular forces; and the superior efficiency, as
+well as greatly diminished expense of that description of troops, recommend
+this measure as one of economy as well as of expediency. I refer to the
+report for the reasons which have induced the Secretary of War to urge the
+reorganization and enlargement of the staff of the Army, and of the
+Ordnance Corps, in which I fully concur.
+
+It is not, however, compatible with the interests of the people to maintain
+in time of peace a regular force adequate to the defense of our extensive
+frontiers. In periods of danger and alarm we must rely principally upon a
+well-organized militia, and some general arrangement that will render this
+description of force more efficient has long been a subject of anxious
+solicitude. It was recommended to the First Congress by General Washington,
+and has been since frequently brought to your notice, and recently its
+importance strongly urged by my immediate predecessor. The provision in the
+Constitution that renders it necessary to adopt a uniform system of
+organization for the militia throughout the United States presents an
+insurmountable obstacle to an efficient arrangement by the classification
+heretofore proposed, and I invite your attention to the plan which will be
+submitted by the Secretary of War, for the organization of volunteer corps
+and the instruction of militia officers, as more simple and practicable, if
+not equally advantageous, as a general arrangement of the whole militia of
+the United States.
+
+A moderate increase of the corps both of military and topographical
+engineers has been more than once recommended by my predecessor, and my
+conviction of the propriety, not to say necessity, of the measure, in order
+to enable them to perform the various and important duties imposed upon
+them, induces me to repeat the recommendation.
+
+The Military Academy continues to answer all the purposes of its
+establishment, and not only furnishes well-educated officers to the Army,
+but serves to diffuse throughout the mass of our citizens individuals
+possessed of military knowledge and the scientific attainments of civil and
+military engineering. At present the cadet is bound, with consent of his
+parents or guardians, to remain in service five years from the period of
+his enlistment, unless sooner discharged, thus exacting only one year's
+service in the Army after his education is completed. This does not appear
+to me sufficient. Government ought to command for a longer period the
+services of those who are educated at the public expense, and I recommend
+that the time of enlistment be extended to seven years, and the terms of
+the engagement strictly enforced.
+
+The creation of a national foundry for cannon, to be common to the service
+of the Army and Navy of the United States, has been heretofore recommended,
+and appears to be required in order to place our ordnance on an equal
+footing with that of other countries and to enable that branch of the
+service to control the prices of those articles and graduate the supplies
+to the wants of the Government, as well as to regulate their quality and
+insure their uniformity. The same reasons induce me to recommend the
+erection of a manufactory of gunpowder, to be under the direction of the
+Ordnance Office. The establishment of a manufactory of small arms west of
+the Alleghany Mountains, upon the plan proposed by the Secretary of War,
+will contribute to extend throughout that country the improvements which
+exist in establishments of a similar description in the Atlantic States,
+and tend to a much more economical distribution of the armament required in
+the western portion of our Union.
+
+The system of removing the Indians west of the Mississippi, commenced by
+Mr. Jefferson in 1804, has been steadily persevered in by every succeeding
+President, and may be considered the settled policy of the country.
+Unconnected at first with any well-defined system for their improvement,
+the inducements held out to the Indians were confined to the greater
+abundance of game to be found in the West; but when the beneficial effects
+of their removal were made apparent a more philanthropic and enlightened
+policy was adopted in purchasing their lands east of the Mississippi.
+Liberal prices were given and provisions inserted in all the treaties with
+them for the application of the funds they received in exchange to such
+purposes as were best calculated to promote their present welfare and
+advance their future civilization. These measures have been attended thus
+far with the happiest results.
+
+It will be seen by referring to the report of the Commissioner of Indian
+Affairs that the most sanguine expectations of the friends and promoters of
+this system have been realized. The Choctaws, Cherokees, and other tribes
+that first emigrated beyond the Mississippi have for the most part
+abandoned the hunter state and become cultivators of the soil. The
+improvement in their condition has been rapid, and it is believed that they
+are now fitted to enjoy the advantages of a simple form of government,
+which has been submitted to them and received their sanction; and I can not
+too strongly urge this subject upon the attention of Congress.
+
+Stipulations have been made with all the Indian tribes to remove them
+beyond the Mississippi, except with the bands of the Wyandots, the Six
+Nations in New York, the Menomonees, Munsees, and Stockbridges in
+Wisconsin, and Miamies in Indiana. With all but the Menomonees it is
+expected that arrangements for their emigration will be completed the
+present year. The resistance which has been opposed to their removal by
+some of the tribes even after treaties had been made with them to that
+effect has arisen from various causes, operating differently on each of
+them. In most instances they have been instigated to resistance by persons
+to whom the trade with them and the acquisition of their annuities were
+important, and in some by the personal influence of interested chiefs.
+These obstacles must be overcome, for the Government can not relinquish the
+execution of this policy without sacrificing important interests and
+abandoning the tribes remaining east of the Mississippi to certain
+destruction.
+
+The decrease in numbers of the tribes within the limits of the States and
+Territories has been most rapid. If they be removed, they can be protected
+from those associations and evil practices which exert so pernicious and
+destructive an influence over their destinies. They can be induced to labor
+and to acquire property, and its acquisition will inspire them with a
+feeling of independence. Their minds can be cultivated, and they can be
+taught the value of salutary and uniform laws and be made sensible of the
+blessings of free government and capable of enjoying its advantages. In the
+possession of property, knowledge, and a good government, free to give what
+direction they please to their labor, and sharers in the legislation by
+which their persons and the profits of their industry are to be protected
+and secured, they will have an ever-present conviction ot the importance of
+union and peace among themselves and of the preservation of amicable
+relations with us. The interests of the United States would also be greatly
+promoted by freeing the relations between the General and State Governments
+from what has proved a most embarrassing incumbrance by a satisfactory
+adjustment of conflicting titles to lands caused by the occupation of the
+Indians, and by causing the resources of the whole country to be developed
+by the power of the State and General Governments and improved by the
+enterprise of a white population.
+
+Intimately connected with this subject is the obligation of the Government
+to fulfill its treaty stipulations and to protect the Indians thus
+assembled "at their new residences from all interruptions and disturbances
+from any other tribes or nations of Indians or from any other person or
+persons whatsoever," and the equally solemn obligation to guard from Indian
+hostility its own border settlements, stretching along a line of more than
+1,000 miles. To enable the Government to redeem this pledge to the Indians
+and to afford adequate protection to its own citizens will require the
+continual presence of a considerable regular force on the frontiers and the
+establishment of a chain of permanent posts. Examinations of the country
+are now making, with a view to decide on the most suitable points for the
+erection of fortresses and other works of defense, the results of which
+will be presented to you by the Secretary of War at an early day, together
+with a plan for the effectual protection of the friendly Indians and the
+permanent defense of the frontier States.
+
+By the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith communicated it appears
+that unremitted exertions have been made at the different navy-yards to
+carry into effect all authorized measures for the extension and employment
+of our naval force. The launching and preparation of the ship of the line
+Pennsylvania and the complete repairs of the ships of the line Ohio,
+Delaware, and Columbus may be noticed as forming a respectable addition to
+this important arm of our national defense. Our commerce and navigation
+have received increased aid and protection during the present year. Our
+squadrons in the Pacific and on the Brazilian station have been much
+increased, and that in the Mediterranean, although small, is adequate to
+the present wants of our commerce in that sea. Additions have been made to
+our squadron on the West India station, where the large force under
+Commodore Dallas has been most actively and efficiently employed in
+protecting our commerce, in preventing the importation of slaves, and in
+cooperating with the officers of the Army in carrying on the war in
+Florida.
+
+The satisfactory condition of our naval force abroad leaves at our disposal
+the means of conveniently providing for a home squadron for the protection
+of commerce upon our extensive coast. The amount of appropriations required
+for such a squadron will be found in the general estimates for the naval
+service for the year 1838.
+
+The naval officers engaged upon our coast survey have rendered important
+service to our navigation. The discovery of a new channel into the harbor
+of New York, through which our largest ships may pass without danger, must
+afford important commercial advantages to that harbor and add greatly to
+its value as a naval station. The accurate survey of Georges Shoals, off
+the coast of Massachusetts, lately completed, will render comparatively
+safe a navigation hitherto considered dangerous.
+
+Considerable additions have been made to the number of captains,
+commanders, lieutenants, surgeons, and assistant surgeons in the Navy.
+These additions were rendered necessary by the increased number of vessels
+put in commission to answer the exigencies of our growing commerce.
+
+Your attention is respectfully invited to the various suggestions of the
+Secretary for the improvement of the naval service.
+
+The report of the Postmaster-General exhibits the progress and condition of
+the mail service. The operations of the Post-Office Department constitute
+one of the most active elements of our national prosperity, and it is
+gratifying to observe with what vigor they are conducted. The mail routes
+of the United States cover an extent of about 142,877 miles, having been
+increased about 37,103 miles within the last two years. The annual mail
+transportation on these routes is about 36,228,962 miles, having been
+increased about 10,359,476 miles within the same period. The number of
+post-offices has also been increased from 10,770 to 12,099, very few of
+which receive the mails less than once a week, and a large portion of them
+daily. Contractors and postmasters in general are represented as attending
+to their duties with most commendable zeal and fidelity. The revenue of the
+Department within the year ending on the 30th of June last was
+$4,137,056.59, and its liabilities accruing within the same time were
+$3,380,847.75. The increase of revenue over that of the preceding year was
+$708,166.41.
+
+For many interesting details I refer you to the report of the
+Postmaster-General, with the accompanying papers, Your particular attention
+is invited to the necessity of providing a more safe and convenient
+building for the accommodation of that Department.
+
+I lay before Congress copies of reports submitted in pursuance of a call
+made by me upon the heads of Departments for such suggestions as their
+experience might enable them to make as to what further legislative
+provisions may be advantageously adopted to secure the faithful application
+of public moneys to the objects for which they are appropriated, to prevent
+their misapplication or embezzlement by those intrusted with the
+expenditure of them, and generally to increase the security of the
+Government against losses in their disbursement. It is needless to dilate
+on the importance of providing such new safeguards as are within the power
+of legislation to promote these ends, and I have little to add to the
+recommendations submitted in the accompanying papers.
+
+By law the terms of service of our most important collecting and disbursing
+officers in the civil departments are limited to four years, and when
+reappointed their bonds are required to be renewed. The safety of the
+public is much increased by this feature of the law, and there can be no
+doubt that its application to all officers intrusted with the collection or
+disbursement of the public money, whatever may be the tenure of their
+offices, would be equally beneficial. I therefore recommend, in addition to
+such of the suggestions presented by the heads of Departments as you may
+think useful, a general provision that all officers of the Army or Navy, or
+in the civil departments, intrusted with the receipt or payment of public
+money, and whose term of service is either unlimited or for a longer time
+than four years, be required to give new bonds, with good and sufficient
+sureties, at the expiration of every such period.
+
+A change in the period of terminating the fiscal year, from the 1st of
+October to the 1st of April, has been frequently recommended, and appears
+to be desirable.
+
+The distressing casualties in steamboats which have so frequently happened
+during the year seem to evince the necessity of attempting to prevent them
+by means of severe provisions connected with their customhouse papers. This
+subject was submitted to the attention of Congress by the Secretary of the
+Treasury in his last annual report, and will be again noticed at the
+present session, with additional details. It will doubtless receive that
+early and careful consideration which its pressing importance appears to
+require.
+
+Your attention has heretofore been frequently called to the affairs of the
+District of Columbia, and I should not again ask it did not their entire
+dependence on Congress give them a constant claim upon. its notice.
+Separated by the Constitution from the rest of the Union, limited in
+extent, and aided by no legislature of its own, it would seem to be a spot
+where a wise and uniform system of local government might have been easily
+adopted. This District has, however, unfortunately been left to linger
+behind the rest of the Union. Its codes, civil and criminal, are not only
+very defective, but full of obsolete or inconvenient provisions. Being
+formed of portions of two States, discrepancies in the laws prevail in
+different parts of the territory, small as it is; and although it was
+selected as the seat of the General Government, the site of its public
+edifices, the depository of its archives, and the residence of officers
+intrusted with large amounts of public property and the management of
+public business, yet it has never been subjected to or received that
+special and comprehensive legislation which these circumstances peculiarly
+demand. I am well aware of the various subjects of greater magnitude and
+immediate interest that press themselves on the consideration of Congress,
+but I believe there is not one that appeals more directly to its justice
+than a liberal and even generous attention to the interests of the District
+of Columbia and a thorough and careful revision of its local government. M.
+VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 3, 1838
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+I congratulate you on the favorable circumstances in the condition of our
+country under which you reassemble for the performance of your official
+duties. Though the anticipations of an abundant harvest have not everywhere
+been realized, yet on the whole the labors of the husbandman are rewarded
+with a bountiful return; industry prospers in its various channels of
+business and enterprise; general health again prevails through our vast
+diversity of climate; nothing threatens from abroad the continuance of
+external peace; nor has anything at home impaired the strength of those
+fraternal and domestic ties which constitute the only guaranty to the
+success and permanency of our happy Union, and which, formed in the hour of
+peril, have hitherto been honorably sustained through every vicissitude in
+our national affairs. These blessings, which evince the care and
+beneficence of Providence, call for our devout and fervent gratitude.
+
+We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by the
+same munificent hand, and more exclusively our own.
+
+The present year closes the first half century of our Federal institutions,
+and our system, differing from all others in the acknowledged practical and
+unlimited operation which it has for so long a period given to the
+sovereignty of the people, has now been fully tested by experience.
+
+The Constitution devised by our forefathers as the framework and bond of
+that system, then untried, has become a settled form of government; not
+only preserving and protecting the great principles upon which it was
+rounded, but wonderfully promoting individual happiness and private
+interests. Though subject to change and entire revocation whenever deemed
+inadequate to all these purposes, yet such is the wisdom of its
+construction and so stable has been the public sentiment that it remains
+unaltered except in matters of detail comparatively unimportant. It has
+proved amply sufficient for the various emergencies incident to our
+condition as a nation. A formidable foreign war; agitating collisions
+between domestic, and in some respects rival, sovereignties; temptations to
+interfere in the intestine commotions of neighboring countries; the
+dangerous influences that arise in periods of excessive prosperity, and the
+antirepublican tendencies of associated wealth--these, with other trials
+not less formidable, have all been encountered, and thus far successfully
+resisted.
+
+It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantages of a
+government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular
+will, and our experience has shown that it is as beneficent in practice as
+it is just in theory. Each successive change made in our local institutions
+has contributed to extend the right of suffrage, has increased the direct
+influence of the mass of the community, given greater freedom to individual
+exertion, and restricted more and more the powers of Government; yet the
+intelligence, prudence, and patriotism of the people have kept pace with
+this augmented responsibility. In no country has education been so widely
+diffused. Domestic peace has nowhere so largely reigned. The close bonds of
+social intercourse have in no instance prevailed with such harmony over a
+space so vast. All forms of religion have united for the first time to
+diffuse charity and piety, because for the first time in the history of
+nations all have been totally untrammeled and absolutely free. The deepest
+recesses of the wilderness have been penetrated; yet instead of the
+rudeness in the social condition consequent upon such adventures elsewhere,
+numerous communities have sprung up, already unrivaled in prosperity,
+general intelligence, internal tranquillity, and the wisdom of their
+political institutions. Internal improvement, the fruit of individual
+enterprise, fostered by the protection of the States, has added new links
+to the Confederation and fresh rewards to provident industry. Doubtful
+questions of domestic policy have been quietly settled by mutual
+forbearance, and agriculture, commerce, and manufactures minister to each
+other. Taxation and public debt, the burdens which bear so heavily upon all
+other countries, have pressed with comparative lightness upon us. Without
+one entangling alliance, our friendship is prized by every nation, and the
+rights of our citizens are everywhere respected, because they are known to
+be guarded by a united, sensitive, and watchful people.
+
+To this practical operation of our institutions, so evident and successful,
+we owe that increased attachment to them which is among the most cheering
+exhibitions of popular sentiment and will prove their best security in time
+to come against foreign or domestic assault.
+
+This review of the results of our institutions for half a century, without
+exciting a spirit of vain exultation, should serve to impress upon us the
+great principles from which they have sprung--constant and direct
+supervision by the people over every public measure. strict forbearance on
+the part of the Government from exercising any doubtful or disputed powers,
+and a cautious abstinence from all interference with concerns which
+properly belong and are best left to State regulations and individual
+enterprise.
+
+Full information of the state of our foreign affairs having been recently
+on different occasions submitted to Congress, I deem it necessary now to
+bring to your notice only such events as have subsequently occurred or are
+of such importance as to require particular attention.
+
+The most amicable dispositions continue to be exhibited by all the nations
+with whom the Government and citizens of the United States have an habitual
+intercourse. At the date of my last annual message Mexico was the only
+nation which could not be included in so gratifying a reference to our
+foreign relations.
+
+I am happy to be now able to inform you that an advance has been made
+toward the adjustment of our differences with that Republic and the
+restoration of the customary good feeling between the two nations. This
+important change has been effected by conciliatory negotiations that have
+resulted in the conclusion of a treaty between the two Governments, which,
+when ratified, will refer to the arbitrament of a friendly power all the
+subjects of controversy between us growing out of injuries to individuals.
+There is at present also reason to believe that an equitable settlement of
+all disputed points will be attained without further difficulty or
+unnecessary delay, and thus authorize the free resumption of diplomatic
+intercourse with our sister Republic.
+
+With respect to the northeastern boundary of the United States, no official
+correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain has passed
+since that communicated to Congress toward the close of their last session.
+The offer to negotiate a convention for the appointment of a joint
+commission of survey and exploration I am, however, assured will be met by
+Her Majesty's Government in a conciliatory and friendly spirit, and
+instructions to enable the British minister here to conclude such an
+arrangement will be transmitted to him without needless delay. It is hoped
+and expected that these instructions will be of a liberal character, and
+that this negotiation, if successful, will prove to be an important step
+toward the satisfactory and final adjustment of the controversy.
+
+I had hoped that the respect for the laws and regard for the peace and
+honor of their own country which have ever characterized the citizens of
+the United States would have prevented any portion of them from using any
+means to promote insurrection in the territory of a power with which we are
+at peace, and with which the United States are desirous of maintaining the
+most friendly relations. I regret deeply, however, to be obliged to inform
+you that this has not been the case. Information has been given to me,
+derived from official and other sources, that many citizens of the United
+States have associated together to make hostile incursions from our
+territory into Canada and to aid and abet insurrection there, in violation
+of the obligations and laws of the United States and in open disregard of
+their own duties as citizens. This information has been in part confirmed
+by a hostile invasion actually made by citizens of the United States, in
+conjunction with Canadians and others, and accompanied by a forcible
+seizure of the property of our citizens and an application thereof to the
+prosecution of military operations against the authorities and people of
+Canada.
+
+The results of these criminal assaults upon the peace and order of a
+neighboring country have been, as was to be expected, fatally destructive
+to the misguided or deluded persons engaged in them and highly injurious to
+those in whose behalf they are professed to have been undertaken. The
+authorities in Canada, from intelligence received of such intended
+movements among our citizens, have felt themselves obliged to take
+precautionary measures against them; have actually embodied the militia and
+assumed an attitude to repel the invasion to which they believed the
+colonies were exposed from the United States. A state of feeling on both
+sides of the frontier has thus been produced which called for prompt and
+vigorous interference. If an insurrection existed in Canada, the amicable
+dispositions of the United States toward Great Britain, as well as their
+duty to themselves, would lead them to maintain a strict neutrality and to
+restrain their citizens from all violations of the laws which have been
+passed for its enforcement. But this Government recognizes a still higher
+obligation to repress all attempts on the part of its citizens to disturb
+the peace of a country where order prevails or has been reestablished.
+Depredations by our citizens upon nations at peace with the United States,
+or combinations for committing them, have at all times been regarded by the
+American Government and people with the greatest abhorrence. Military
+incursions by our citizens into countries so situated, and the commission
+of acts of violence on the members thereof, in order to effect a change in
+their government, or under any pretext whatever, have from the commencement
+of our Government been held equally criminal on the part of those engaged
+in them, and as much deserving of punishment as would be the disturbance of
+the public peace by the perpetration of similar acts within our own
+territory.
+
+By no country or persons have these invaluable principles of international
+law--principles the strict observance of which is so indispensable to the
+preservation of social order in the world--been more earnestly cherished or
+sacredly respected than by those great and good men who first declared and
+finally established the independence of our own country. They promulgated
+and maintained them at an early and critical period in our history; they
+were subsequently embodied in legislative enactments of a highly penal
+character, the faithful enforcement of which has hitherto been, and will, I
+trust, always continue to be, regarded as a duty inseparably associated
+with the maintenance of our national honor. That the people of the United
+States should feel an interest in the spread of political institutions as
+free as they regard their own to be is natural, nor can a sincere
+solicitude for the success of all those who are at any time in good faith
+struggling for their acquisition be imputed to our citizens as a crime.
+With the entire freedom of opinion and an undisguised expression thereof on
+their part the Government has neither the right nor, I trust, the
+disposition to interfere. But whether the interest or the honor of the
+United States requires that they should be made a party to any such
+struggle, and by inevitable consequence to the war which is waged in its
+support, is a question which by our Constitution is wisely left to Congress
+alone to decide. It is by the laws already made criminal in our citizens to
+embarrass or anticipate that decision by unauthorized military operations
+on their part. Offenses of this character, in addition to their criminality
+as violations of the laws of our country, have a direct tendency to draw
+down upon our own citizens at large the multiplied evils of a foreign war
+and expose to injurious imputations the good faith and honor of the
+country. As such they deserve to be put down with promptitude and decision.
+I can not be mistaken, I am confident, in counting on the cordial and
+general concurrence of our fellow-citizens in this sentiment. A copy of the
+proclamation which I have felt it my duty to issue is herewith
+communicated. I can not but hope that the good sense and patriotism, the
+regard for the honor and reputation of their country, the respect for the
+laws which they have themselves enacted for their own government, and the
+love of order for which the mass of our people have been so long and so
+justly distinguished will deter the comparatively few who are engaged in
+them from a further prosecution of such desperate enterprises. In the
+meantime the existing laws have been and will continue to be faithfully
+executed, and every effort will be made to carry them out in their full
+extent. Whether they are sufficient or not to meet the actual state of
+things on the Canadian frontier it is for Congress to decide.
+
+It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the
+Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the
+convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial
+Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that "hereafter there
+shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under the
+authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest coast of
+America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54&deg; 40' of
+north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be none formed by
+Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same
+parallel;" and by the fourth article, "that during a term of ten years,
+counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both
+powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may
+reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas,
+gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned in the preceding
+article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the
+country." The reasons assigned for declining to renew the provisions of
+this article are, briefly, that the only use made by our citizens of the
+privileges it secures to them has been to supply the Indians with
+spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that this traffic has been
+excluded from the Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the
+United States are injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest
+coast and calculated to produce complaints between the two Governments, His
+Imperial Majesty thinks it for the interest of both countries not to accede
+to the proposition made by the American Government for the renewal of the
+article last referred to.
+
+The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds upon which
+we contend that the citizens of the United States have, independent of the
+provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to trade with the natives
+upon the coast in question at unoccupied places, liable, however, it is
+admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the creation of Russian
+establishments at such points. This right is denied by the Russian
+Government, which asserts that by the operation of the treaty of 1824 each
+party agreed to waive the general right to land on the vacant coasts on the
+respective sides of the degree of latitude referred to, and accepted in
+lieu thereof the mutual privileges mentioned in the fourth article. The
+capital and tonnage employed by our citizens in their trade with the
+northwest coast of America will, perhaps, on adverting to the official
+statements of the commerce and navigation of the United States for the last
+few years, be deemed too inconsiderable in amount to attract much
+attention; yet the subject may in other respects deserve the careful
+consideration of Congress.
+
+I regret to state that the blockade of the principal ports on the eastern
+coast of Mexico, which, in consequence of differences between that Republic
+and France, was instituted in May last, unfortunately still continues,
+enforced by a competent French naval armament, and is necessarily
+embarrassing to our own trade in the Gulf, in common with that of other
+nations. Every disposition, however, is believed to exist on the part of
+the French Government to render this measure as little onerous as
+practicable to the interests of the citizens of the United States and to
+those of neutral commerce, and it is to be hoped that an early settlement
+of the difficulties between France and Mexico will soon reestablish the
+harmonious relations formerly subsisting between them and again open the
+ports of that Republic to the vessels of all friendly nations.
+
+A convention for marking that part of the boundary between the United
+States and the Republic of Texas which extends from the mouth of the Sabine
+to the Red River was concluded and signed at this city on the 25th of April
+last. It has since been ratified by both Governments, and seasonable
+measures will be taken to carry it into effect on the part of the United
+States.
+
+The application of that Republic for admission into this Union, made in
+August, 1837, and which was declined for reasons already made known to you,
+has been formally withdrawn, as will appear from the accompanying copy of
+the note of the minister plenipotentiary of Texas, which was presented to
+the Secretary of State on the occasion of the exchange of the ratifications
+of the convention above mentioned.
+
+Copies of the convention with Texas, of a commercial treaty concluded with
+the King of Greece, and of a similar treaty with the Peru-Bolivian
+Confederation, the ratifications of which have been recently exchanged,
+accompany this message, for the information of Congress and for such
+legislative enactments as may be found necessary or expedient in relation
+to either of them.
+
+To watch over and foster the interests of a gradually increasing and widely
+extended commerce, to guard the rights of American citizens whom business
+or pleasure or other motives may tempt into distant climes, and at the same
+time to cultivate those sentiments of mutual respect and good will which
+experience has proved so beneficial in international intercourse, the
+Government of the United States has deemed it expedient from time to time
+to establish diplomatic connections with-different foreign states, by the
+appointment of representatives. to reside within their respective
+territories. I am gratified to be enabled to announce to you that since the
+close of your last session these relations have been opened under the
+happiest auspices with Austria and the Two Sicilies, that new nominations
+have been made in the respective missions of Russia, Brazil, Belgium, and
+Sweden and Norway in this country, and that a minister extraordinary has
+been received, accredited to this Government, from the Argentine
+Confederation.
+
+An exposition of the fiscal affairs of the Government and of their
+condition for the past year will be made to you by the Secretary of the
+Treasury.
+
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $2,765,342. The receipts of the year from customs and lands
+will probably amount to $20,615,598. These usual sources of revenue have
+been increased by an issue of Treasury notes, of which less than
+$8,000,000, including interest and principal, will be outstanding at the
+end of the year, and by the sale of one of the bonds of the Bank of the
+United States for $2,254,871. The aggregate of means from these and other
+sources, with the balance on hand on the 1st of January last, has been
+applied to the payment of appropriations by Congress. The whole expenditure
+for the year on their account, including the redemption of more than eight
+millions of Treasury notes, constitutes an aggregate of about $40,000,000,
+and will still leave in the Treasury the balance before stated.
+
+Nearly $8,000,000 of Treasury notes are to be paid during the coming year
+in addition to the ordinary appropriations for the support of Government.
+For both these purposes the resources of the Treasury will undoubtedly be
+sufficient if the charges upon it are not increased beyond the annual
+estimates. No excess, however, is likely to exist. Nor can the postponed
+installment of the surplus revenue be deposited with the States nor any
+considerable appropriations beyond the estimates be made without causing a
+deficiency in the Treasury. The great caution, advisable at all times, of
+limiting appropriations to the wants of the public service is rendered
+necessary at present by the prospective and rapid reduction of the tariff,
+while the vigilant jealousy evidently excited among the people by the
+occurrences of the last few years assures us that they expect from their
+representatives, and will sustain them in the exercise of, the most rigid
+economy. Much can be effected by postponing appropriations not immediately
+required for the ordinary public service or for any pressing emergency, and
+much by reducing the expenditures where the entire and immediate
+accomplishment of the objects in view is not indispensable.
+
+When we call to mind the recent and extreme embarrassments produced by
+excessive issues of bank paper, aggravated by the unforeseen withdrawal of
+much foreign capital and the inevitable derangement arising from the
+distribution of the surplus revenue among the States as required by
+Congress, and consider the heavy expenses incurred by the removal of Indian
+tribes, by the military operations in Florida, and on account of the
+unusually large appropriations made at the last two annual sessions of
+Congress for other objects, we have striking evidence in the present
+efficient state of our finances of the abundant resources of the country to
+fulfill all its obligations. Nor is it less gratifying to find that the
+general business of the community, deeply affected as it has been, is
+reviving with additional vigor, chastened by the lessons of the past and
+animated by the hopes of the future. By the curtailment of paper issues, by
+curbing the sanguine and adventurous spirit of speculation, and by the
+honorable application of all available means to the fulfillment of
+obligations, confidence has been restored both at home and abroad, and ease
+and facility secured to all the operations of trade.
+
+The agency of the Government in producing these results has been as
+efficient as its powers and means permitted. By withholding from the States
+the deposit of the fourth installment, and leaving several millions at long
+credits with the banks, principally in one section of the country, and more
+immediately beneficial to it, and at the same time aiding the banks and
+commercial communities in other sections by postponing the payment of bonds
+for duties to the amount of between four and five millions of dollars; by
+an issue of Treasury notes as a means to enable the Government to meet the
+consequences of their indulgences, but affording at the same time
+facilities for remittance and exchange; and by steadily declining to employ
+as general depositories of the public revenues, or receive the notes of,
+all banks which refused to redeem them with specie--by these measures,
+aided by the favorable action of some of the banks and by the support and
+cooperation of a large portion of the community, we have witnessed an early
+resumption of specie payments in our great commercial capital, promptly
+followed in almost every part of the United States. This result has been
+alike salutary to the true interests of agriculture, commerce, and
+manufactures; to public morals, respect for the laws, and that confidence
+between man and man which is so essential in all our social relations.
+
+The contrast between the suspension of 1814 and that of 1837 is most
+striking. The short duration of the latter, the prompt restoration of
+business, the evident benefits resulting from an adherence by the
+Government to the constitutional standard of value instead of sanctioning
+the suspension by the receipt of irredeemable paper, and the advantages
+derived from the large amount of specie introduced into the country
+previous to 1837 afford a valuable illustration of the true policy of the
+Government in such a crisis. Nor can the comparison fail to remove the
+impression that a national bank is necessary in such emergencies. Not only
+were specie payments resumed without its aid, but exchanges have also been
+more rapidly restored than when it existed, thereby showing that private
+capital, enterprise, and prudence are fully adequate to these ends. On all
+these points experience seems to have confirmed the views heretofore
+submitted to Congress. We have been saved the mortification of seeing the
+distresses of the community for the third time seized on to fasten upon the
+country so dangerous an institution, and we may also hope that the business
+of individuals will hereafter be relieved from the injurious effects of a
+continued agitation of that disturbing subject. The limited influence of a
+national bank in averting derangement in the exchanges of the country or in
+compelling the resumption of specie payments is now not less apparent than
+its tendency to increase inordinate speculation by sudden expansions and
+contractions; its disposition to create panic and embarrassment for the
+promotion of its own designs; its interference with politics, and its far
+greater power for evil than for good, either in regard to the local
+institutions or the operations of Government itself. What was in these
+respects but apprehension or opinion when a national bank was first
+established now stands confirmed by humiliating experience. The scenes
+through which we have passed conclusively prove how little our commerce,
+agriculture, manufactures, or finances require such an institution, and
+what dangers are attendant on its power--a power, I trust, never to be
+conferred by the American people upon their Government, and still less upon
+individuals not responsible to them for its unavoidable abuses.
+
+My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for the
+safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion in regard
+to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those objects have
+been already submitted to you. These have been strengthened by recent
+events, and in the full conviction that time and experience must still
+further demonstrate their propriety I feel it my duty, with respectful
+deference to the conflicting views of others, again to invite your
+attention to them.
+
+With the exception of limited sums deposited in the few banks still
+employed under the act of 1836, the amounts received for duties, and, with
+very inconsiderable exceptions, those accruing from lands also, have since
+the general suspension of specie payments by the deposit banks been kept
+and disbursed by the Treasurer under his general legal powers, subject to
+the superintendence of the Secretary of the Treasury. The propriety of
+defining more specifically and of regulating by law the exercise of this
+wide scope of Executive discretion has been already submitted to Congress.
+
+A change in the office of collector at one of our principal ports has
+brought to light a defalcation of the gravest character, the particulars of
+which will be laid before you in a special report from the Secretary of the
+Treasury. By his report and the accompanying documents it will be seen that
+the weekly returns of the defaulting officer apparently exhibited
+throughout a faithful administration of the affairs intrusted to his
+management. It, however, now appears that he commenced abstracting the
+public moneys shortly after his appointment and continued to do so,
+progressively increasing the amount, for the term of more than seven years,
+embracing a portion of the period during which the public moneys were
+deposited in the Bank of the United States, the whole of that of the State
+bank deposit system, and concluding only on his retirement from office,
+after that system had substantially failed in consequence of the suspension
+of specie payments.
+
+The way in which this defalcation was so long concealed and the steps taken
+to indemnify the United States, as far as practicable, against loss will
+also be presented to you. The ease is one which imperatively claims the
+attention of Congress and furnishes the strongest motive for the
+establishment of a more severe and secure system for the safe-keeping -and
+disbursement of the public moneys than any that has heretofore existed.
+
+It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to that
+of other countries the application of public money by an officer of
+Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with severe
+and ignominious punishment. This is already in effect the law in respect to
+the Mint, and has been productive of the most salutary results. Whatever
+system is adopted, such an enactment would be wise as an independent
+measure, since much of the public moneys must in their collection and
+ultimate disbursement pass twice through the hands of public officers, in
+whatever manner they are intermediately kept. The Government, it must be
+admitted, has been from its commencement comparatively fortunate in this
+respect. But the appointing power can not always be well advised in its
+selections, and the experience of every country has shown that public
+officers are not at all times proof against temptation. It is a duty,
+therefore, which the Government owes, as well to the interests committed to
+its care as to the officers themselves, to provide every guard against
+transgressions of this character that is consistent with reason and
+humanity. Congress can not be too jealous of the conduct of those who are
+intrusted with the public money, and I shall at all times be disposed to
+encourage a watchful discharge of this duty.
+
+If a more direct cooperation on the part of Congress in the supervision of
+the conduct of the officers intrusted with the custody and application of
+the public money is deemed desirable, it will give me pleasure to assist in
+the establishment of any judicious and constitutional plan by which that
+object may be accomplished. You will in your wisdom determine upon the
+propriety of adopting such a plan and upon the measures necessary to its
+effectual execution. When the late Bank of the United States was
+incorporated and made the depository of the public moneys, a right was
+reserved to Congress to inspect at its pleasure, by a committee of that
+body, the books and the proceedings of the bank. In one of the States,
+whose banking institutions are supposed to rank amongst the first in point
+of stability, they are subjected to constant examination by commissioners
+appointed for that purpose, and much of the success of its banking system
+is attributed to this watchful supervision.
+
+The same course has also, in view of its beneficial operation, been adopted
+by an adjoining State, favorably known for the care it has always bestowed
+upon whatever relates to its financial concerns. I submit to your
+consideration whether a committee of Congress might not be profitably
+employed in inspecting, at such intervals as might be deemed proper, the
+affairs and accounts of officers intrusted with the custody of the public
+moneys. The frequent performance of this duty might be made obligatory on
+the committee in respect to those officers who have large sums in their
+possession, and left discretionary in respect to others. They might report
+to the Executive such defalcations as were found to exist, with a view to a
+prompt removal from office unless the default was satisfactorily accounted
+for, and report also to Congress, at the commencement of each session, the
+result of their examinations and proceedings. It does appear to me that
+with a subjection of this class of public officers to the general
+supervision of the Executive, to examinations by a committee of Congress at
+periods of which they should have no previous notice, and to prosecution
+and punishment as for felony for every breach of trust, the safe-keeping of
+the public moneys might under the system proposed be placed on a surer
+foundation than it has ever occupied since the establishment of the
+Government.
+
+The Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you additional information
+containing new details on this interesting subject. To these I ask your
+early attention. That it should have given rise to great diversity of
+opinion can not be a subject of surprise. After the collection and custody
+of the public moneys had been for so many years connected with and made
+subsidiary to the advancement of private interests, a return to the simple
+self-denying ordinances of the Constitution could not but be difficult. But
+time and free discussion, eliciting the sentiments of the people, and aided
+by that conciliatory spirit which has ever characterized their course on
+great emergencies, were relied upon for a satisfactory settlement of the
+question. Already has this anticipation, on one important point at
+least--the impropriety of diverting public money to private purposes--been
+fully realized. There is no reason to suppose that legislation upon that
+branch of the subject would now be embarrassed by a difference of opinion,
+or fail to receive the cordial support of a large majority of our
+constituents.
+
+The connection which formerly existed between the Government and banks was
+in reality injurious to both, as well as to the general interests of the
+community at large. It aggravated the disasters of trade and the
+derangements of commercial intercourse, and administered new excitements
+and additional means to wild and reckless speculations, the disappointment
+of which threw the country into convulsions of panic, and all but produced
+violence and bloodshed. The imprudent expansion of bank credits, which was
+the natural result of the command of the revenues of the State, furnished
+the resources for unbounded license in every species of adventure, seduced
+industry from its regular and salutary occupations by the hope of abundance
+without labor, and deranged the social state by tempting all trades and
+professions into the vortex of speculation on remote contingencies.
+
+The same wide-spreading influence impeded also the resources of the
+Government, curtailed its useful operations, embarrassed the fulfillment of
+its obligations, and seriously interfered with the execution of the laws.
+Large appropriations and oppressive taxes are the natural consequences of
+such a connection, since they increase the profits of those who are allowed
+to use the public funds, and make it their interest that money should be
+accumulated and expenditures multiplied. It is thus that a concentrated
+money power is tempted to become an active agent in political affairs; and
+all past experience has shown on which side that influence will be arrayed.
+We deceive ourselves if we suppose that, it will ever be found asserting
+and supporting the rights of the community at large in opposition to the
+claims of the few.
+
+In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion
+and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals
+will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. Nor is it the
+nature of combinations for the acquisition of legislative influence to
+confine their interference to the single object for which they were
+originally formed. The temptation to extend it to other matters is, on the
+contrary, not unfrequently too strong to be resisted. The rightful
+influence in the direction of public affairs of the mass of the people is
+therefore in no slight danger of being sensibly and injuriously affected by
+giving to a comparatively small but very efficient class a direct and
+exclusive personal interest in so important a portion of the legislation of
+Congress as that which relates to the custody of the public moneys. If laws
+acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be
+confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the
+legislatures of the States. When not thus restricted they lead to
+combinations of powerful associations, foster an influence necessarily
+selfish, and turn the fair course of legislation to sinister ends rather
+than to objects that advance public liberty and promote the general good.
+
+The whole subject now rests with you, and I can not but express a hope that
+some definite measure will be adopted at the present session.
+
+It will not, I am sure, be deemed out of place for me here to remark that
+the declaration of my views in opposition to the policy of employing banks
+as depositories of the Government funds can not justly be construed as
+indicative of hostility, official or personal, to those institutions; or to
+repeat in this form and in connection with this subject opinions which I
+have uniformly entertained and on all proper occasions expressed. Though
+always opposed to their creation in the form of exclusive privileges, and,
+as a State magistrate, aiming by appropriate legislation to secure the
+community against the consequences of their occasional mismanagement, I
+have yet ever wished to see them protected in the exercise of rights
+conferred by law, and have never doubted their utility when properly
+managed in promoting the interests of trade, and through that channel the
+other interests of the community. To the General Government they present
+themselves merely as State institutions, having no necessary connection
+with its legislation or its administration. Like other State
+establishments, they may be used or not in conducting the affairs of the
+Government, as public policy and the general interests of the Union may
+seem to require. The only safe or proper principle upon which their
+intercourse with the Government can be regulated is that which regulates
+their intercourse with the private citizen--the conferring of mutual
+benefits. When the Government can accomplish a financial operation better
+with the aid of the banks than without it, it should be at liberty to seek
+that aid as it would the services of a private banker or other capitalist
+or agent, giving the preference to those who will serve it on the best
+terms. Nor can there ever exist an interest in the officers of the General
+Government, as such, inducing them to embarrass or annoy the State banks
+any more than to incur the hostility of any other class of State
+institutions or of private citizens. It is not in the nature of things that
+hostility to these institutions can spring from this source, or any
+opposition to their course of business, except when they themselves depart
+from the objects of their creation and attempt to usurp powers not
+conferred upon them or to subvert the standard of value established by the
+Constitution. While opposition to their regular operations can not exist in
+this quarter, resistance to any attempt to make the Government dependent
+upon them for the successful administration of public affairs is a matter
+of duty, as I trust it ever will be of inclination, no matter from what
+motive or consideration the attempt may originate.
+
+It is no more than just to the banks to say that in the late emergency most
+of them firmly resisted the strongest temptations to extend their paper
+issues when apparently sustained in a suspension of specie payments by
+public opinion, even though in some cases invited by legislative
+enactments. To this honorable course, aided by the resistance of the
+General Government, acting in obedience to the Constitution and laws of the
+United States, to the introduction of an irredeemable paper medium, may be
+attributed in a great degree the speedy restoration of our currency to a
+sound state and the business of the country to its wonted prosperity.
+
+The banks have but to continue in the same safe course and be content in
+their appropriate sphere to avoid all interference from the General
+Government and to derive from it all the protection and benefits which it
+bestows on other State establishments, on the people of the States, and on
+the States themselves. In this, their true position, they can not but
+secure the confidence and good will of the people and the Government, which
+they can only lose when, leaping from their legitimate sphere, they attempt
+to control the legislation of the country and pervert the operations of the
+Government to their own purposes.
+
+Our experience under the act, passed at the last session, to grant
+preemption rights to settlers on the public lands has as yet been too
+limited to enable us to pronounce with safety upon the efficacy of its
+provisions to carry out the wise and liberal policy of the Government in
+that respect. There is, however, the best reason to anticipate favorable
+results from its operation. The recommendations formerly submitted to you
+in respect to a graduation of the price of the public lands remain to be
+finally acted upon. Having found no reason to change the views then
+expressed, your attention to them is again respectfully requested.
+
+Every proper exertion has been made and will be continued to carry out the
+wishes of Congress in relation to the tobacco trade, as indicated in the
+several resolutions of the House of Representatives and the legislation of
+the two branches. A favorable impression has, I trust, been made in the
+different foreign countries to which particular attention has been
+directed; and although we can not hope for an early change in their policy,
+as in many of them a convenient and large revenue is derived from
+monopolies in the fabrication and sale of this article, yet, as these
+monopolies are really injurious to the people where they are established,
+and the revenue derived from them may be less injuriously and with equal
+facility obtained from another and a liberal system of administration, we
+can not doubt that our efforts will be eventually crowned with, success if
+persisted in with temperate firmness and sustained by prudent legislation.
+
+In recommending to Congress the adoption of the necessary provisions at
+this session for taking the next census or enumeration of the inhabitants
+of the United States, the suggestion presents itself whether the scope of
+the measure might not be usefully extended by causing it to embrace
+authentic statistical returns of the great interests specially intrusted to
+or necessarily affected by the legislation of Congress.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War presents a satisfactory
+account of the state of the Army and of the several branches of the public
+service confided to the superintendence of that officer.
+
+The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United
+States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been
+extensively and usefully employed during the past season.
+
+I would again call to your notice the subjects connected with and essential
+to the military defenses of the country which were submitted to you at the
+last session, but which were not acted upon, as is supposed, for want of
+time. The most important of them is the organization of the militia on the
+maritime and inland frontiers. This measure is deemed important, as it is
+believed that it will furnish an effective volunteer force in aid of the
+Regular Army, and may form the basis of a general system of organization
+for the entire militia of the United States. The erection of a national
+foundry and gunpowder manufactory, and one for making small arms, the
+latter to be situated at some point west of the Allegany Mountains, all
+appear to be of sufficient importance to be again urged upon your
+attention.
+
+The plan proposed by the Secretary of War for the distribution of the
+forces of the United States in time of peace is well calculated to promote
+regularity and economy in the fiscal administration of the service, to
+preserve the discipline of the troops, and to render them available for the
+maintenance of the peace and tranquillity of the Country. With this view,
+likewise, I recommend the adoption of the plan presented by that officer
+for the defense of the western frontier. The preservation of the lives and
+property of our fellow-citizens who are settled upon that border country,
+as well as the existence of the Indian population, which might be tempted
+by our want of preparation to rush on their own destruction and attack the
+white settlements, all seem to require that this subject should be acted
+upon without delay, and the War Department authorized to place that country
+in a state of complete defense against any assault from the numerous and
+warlike tribes which are congregated on that border.
+
+It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire
+removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the
+Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session, with
+a view to the long-standing controversy with them, have had the happiest
+effects. By an agreement concluded with them by the commanding general in
+that country, who has performed the duties assigned to him on the occasion
+with commendable energy and humanity, their removal has been principally
+under the conduct of their own chiefs, and they have emigrated without any
+apparent reluctance.
+
+The successful accomplishment of this important object, the removal also of
+the entire Creek Nation with the exception of a small number of fugitives
+amongst the Seminoles in Florida, the progress already made toward a speedy
+completion of the removal of the Chickasaws, the Choctaws, the
+Pottawatamies, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas, with the extensive purchases
+of Indian lands during the present year, have rendered the speedy and
+successful result of the long-established policy of the Government upon the
+subject of Indian affairs entirely certain. The occasion is therefore
+deemed a proper one to place this policy in such a point of view as will
+exonerate the Government of the United States from the undeserved reproach
+which has been cast upon it through several successive Administrations.
+That a mixed occupancy of the same territory by the white and red man is
+incompatible with the safety or happiness of either is a position in
+respect to which there has long since ceased to be room for a difference of
+opinion. Reason and experience have alike demonstrated its
+impracticability. The bitter fruits of every attempt heretofore to overcome
+the barriers interposed by nature have only been destruction, both physical
+and moral, to the Indian, dangerous conflicts of authority between the
+Federal and State Governments, and detriment to the individual prosperity
+of the citizen as well as to the general improvement of the country. The
+remedial policy, the principles of which were settled more than thirty
+years ago under the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, consists in an
+extinction, for a fair consideration, of the title to all the lands still
+occupied by the Indians within the States and Territories of the United
+States; their removal to a country west of the Mississippi much more
+extensive and better adapted to their condition than that on which they
+then resided; the guarantee to them by the United States of their exclusive
+possession of that country forever, exempt from all intrusions by white
+men, with ample provisions for their security against external violence and
+internal dissensions, and the extension to them of suitable facilities for
+their advancement in civilization. This has not been the policy of
+particular Administrations only, but of each in succession since the first
+attempt to carry it out under that of Mr. Monroe. All have labored for its
+accomplishment, only with different degrees of success. The manner of its
+execution has, it is true, from time to time given rise to conflicts of
+opinion and unjust imputations; but in respect to the wisdom and necessity
+of the policy itself there has not from the beginning existed a doubt in
+the mind of any calm, judicious, disinterested friend of the Indian race
+accustomed to reflection and enlightened by experience.
+
+Occupying the double character of contractor on its own account and
+guardian for the parties contracted with, it was hardly to be expected that
+the dealings of the Federal Government with the Indian tribes would escape
+misrepresentation. That there occurred ill the early settlement of this
+country, as in all others where the civilized race has succeeded to the
+possessions of the savage, instances of oppression and fraud on the part of
+the former there is too much reason to believe. No such offenses can,
+however, be justly charged upon this Government since it became free to
+pursue its own course. Its dealings with the Indian tribes have been just
+.and friendly throughout; its efforts for their civilization constant, and
+directed by the best feelings of humanity; its watchfulness in protecting
+them from individual frauds unremitting; its forbearance under the keenest
+provocations, the deepest injuries, and the most flagrant outrages may
+challenge at least a comparison with any nation, ancient or modern, in
+similar circumstances; and if in future times a powerful, civilized, and
+happy nation of Indians shall be found to exist within the limits of this
+northern continent it will be owing to the consummation of that policy
+which has been so unjustly assailed. Only a very brief reference to facts
+in confirmation of this assertion can in this form be given, and you are
+therefore necessarily referred to the report of the Secretary of War for
+further details. To the Cherokees, whose case has perhaps excited the
+greatest share of attention and sympathy, the United States have granted in
+fee, with a perpetual guaranty of exclusive and peaceable possession,
+13,554,135 acres of land on the west side of the Mississippi, eligibly
+situated, in a healthy climate, and in all respects better suited to their
+condition than the country they have left, in exchange for only 9,492, 160
+acres on the east side of the same river. The United States have in
+addition stipulated to pay them $5,600,000 for their interest in and
+improvements on the lands thus relinquished, and $1,160,000 for subsistence
+and other beneficial purposes, thereby putting it in their power to become
+one of the most wealthy and independent separate communities of the same
+extent in the world.
+
+By the treaties made and ratified with the Miamies, the Chippewas, the
+Sioux, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Winnebagoes during the last year the
+Indian title to 18,458,000 acres has been extinguished. These purchases
+have been much more extensive than those of any previous year, and have,
+with other Indian expenses, borne very heavily upon the Treasury. They
+leave, however, but a small quantity of unbought Indian lands within the
+States and Territories, and the Legislature and Executive were equally
+sensible of the propriety of a final and more speedy extinction of Indian
+titles within those limits. The treaties, which were with a single
+exception made in pursuance of previous appropriations for defraying the
+expenses, have subsequently been ratified by the Senate, and received the
+sanction of Congress by the appropriations necessary to carry them into
+effect. Of the terms upon which these important negotiations were concluded
+I can speak from direct knowledge, and I feel no difficulty in affirming
+that the interest of the Indians in the extensive territory embraced by
+them is to be paid for at its fair value, and that no more favorable terms
+have been granted to the United States than would have been reasonably
+expected in a negotiation with civilized men fully capable of appreciating
+and protecting their own rights. For the Indian title to 116,349,897 acres
+acquired since the 4th of March, 1829, the United States have paid
+$72,560,056 in permanent annuities, lands, reservations for Indians,
+expenses of removal and subsistence, merchandise, mechanical and
+agricultural establishments and implements. When the heavy expenses
+incurred by the United States and the circumstance that so large a portion
+of the entire territory will be forever unsalable are considered, and this
+price is compared with that for which the United States sell their own
+lands, no one can doubt that justice has been done to the Indians in these
+purchases also. Certain it is that the transactions of the Federal
+Government with the Indians have been uniformly characterized by a sincere
+and paramount desire to promote their welfare; and it must be a source of
+the highest gratification to every friend to justice and humanity to learn
+that not withstanding the obstructions from time to time thrown in its way
+and the difficulties which have arisen from the peculiar and impracticable
+nature of the Indian character, the wise, humane, and undeviating policy of
+the Government in this the most difficult of all our relations, foreign or
+domestic, has at length been justified to the world in its near approach to
+a happy and certain consummation.
+
+The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them in
+the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early
+civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and
+turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. All those who have been
+established for any length of time in that fertile region maintain
+themselves by their own industry. There are among them traders of no
+inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent, but
+the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon the
+produce of their farms. The recent emigrants, although they have in some
+instances removed reluctantly, have readily acquiesced in their unavoidable
+destiny. They have found at once a recompense for past sufferings and an
+incentive to industrious habits in the abundance and comforts around them.
+There is reason to believe that all these tribes are friendly in their
+feelings toward the United States; and it is to be hoped that the
+acquisition of individual wealth, the pursuits of agriculture, and habits
+of industry will gradually subdue their warlike propensities and incline
+them to maintain peace among themselves. To effect this desirable object
+the attention of Congress is solicited to the measures recommended by the
+Secretary of War for their future government and protection, as well from
+each other as from the hostility of the warlike tribes around them and the
+intrusions of the whites. The policy of the Government has given them a
+permanent home and guaranteed to them its peaceful and undisturbed
+possession. It only remains to give them a government and laws which will
+encourage industry and secure to them the rewards of their exertions. The
+importance of some form of government can not be too much insisted upon.
+The earliest effects will be to diminish the causes and occasions for
+hostilities among the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of
+laws to which they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the
+securities of property and the motives for self-improvement. Intimately
+connected with this subject is the establishment of the military defenses
+recommended by the Secretary of War, which have been already referred to.
+Without them the Government will be powerless to redeem its pledge of
+protection to the emigrating Indians against the numerous warlike tribes
+that surround them and to provide for the safety of the frontier settlers
+of the bordering States.
+
+The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to the
+successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the homes
+assigned them west of the Mississippi. Four hundred of this tribe emigrated
+in 1836 and 1,500 in 1837 and 1838, leaving in the country, it is supposed,
+about 2,000 Indians. The continued treacherous conduct of these people; the
+savage and unprovoked murders they have lately committed, butchering whole
+families of the settlers of the Territory without distinction of age or
+sex, and making their way into the very center and heart of the country, so
+that no part of it is free from their ravages; their frequent attacks on
+the light-houses along that dangerous coast, and the barbarity with which
+they have murdered the passengers and crews of such vessels as have been
+wrecked upon the reefs and keys which border the Gulf, leave the Government
+no alternative but to continue the military operations against them until
+they are totally expelled from Florida. There are other motives which would
+urge the Government to pursue this course toward the Seminoles. The United
+States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the
+Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like
+performance of their obligations. To relax from this salutary rule because
+the Seminoles have maintained themselves so long in the territory they had
+relinquished, and in defiance of their frequent and solemn engagements
+still continue to wage a ruthless war against the United States, would not
+only evince a want of constancy on our part, but be of evil example in our
+intercourse with other tribes. Experience has shown that but little is to
+be gained by the march of armies through a country so intersected with
+inaccessible swamps and marshes, and which, from the fatal character of the
+climate, must be abandoned at the end of the winter. I recommend,
+therefore, to your attention the plan submitted by the Secretary of War in
+the accompanying report, for the permanent occupation of the portion of the
+Territory freed from the Indians and the more efficient protection of the
+people of Florida from their inhuman warfare.
+
+From the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith transmitted it will
+appear that a large portion of the disposable naval force is either
+actively employed or in a state of preparation for the purposes of
+experience and discipline and the protection. of our commerce. So effectual
+has been this protection that so far as the information of Government
+extends not a single outrage has been attempted on a vessel carrying the
+flag of the United States within the present year, in any quarter, however
+distant or exposed.
+
+The exploring expedition sailed from Norfolk on the 19th of August last,
+and information has been received of its safe arrival at the island of
+Madeira. The best spirit animates the officers and crews, and there is
+every reason to anticipate from its efforts results beneficial to commerce
+and honorable to the nation.
+
+It will also be seen that no reduction of the force now in commission is
+contemplated. The unsettled state of a portion of South America renders it
+indispensable that our commerce should receive protection in that quarter;
+the vast and increasing interests embarked in the trade of the Indian and
+China seas, in the whale fisheries of the Pacific Ocean, and in the Gulf of
+Mexico require equal attention to their safety, and a small squadron may be
+employed to great advantage on our Atlantic coast in meeting sudden demands
+for the reenforcement of other stations, in aiding merchant vessels in
+distress, in affording active service to an additional number of officers,
+and in visiting the different ports of the United States, an accurate
+knowledge of which is obviously of the highest importance.
+
+The attention of Congress is respectfully called to that portion of the
+report recommending an increase in the number of smaller vessels, and to
+other suggestions contained in that document. The rapid increase and wide
+expansion of our commerce, which is every day seeking new avenues of
+profitable adventure; the absolute necessity of a naval force for its
+protection precisely in the degree of its extension; a due regard to the
+national rights and honor; the recollection of its former exploits, and the
+anticipation of its future triumphs whenever opportunity presents itself,
+which we may rightfully indulge from the experience of the past--all seem
+to point to the Navy as a most efficient arm of our national defense and a
+proper object of legislative encouragement.
+
+The progress and condition of the Post-Office Department will be seen by
+reference to the report of the Postmaster-General. The extent of post-roads
+covered by mail contracts is stated to be 134,818 miles, and the annual
+transportation upon them 34,580,202 miles. The number of post-offices in
+the United States is 12,553, and rapidly increasing. The gross revenue for
+the year ending on the 30th day of June last was $4,262,145; the accruing
+expenditures, $4,680,068; excess of expenditures, $417,923. This has been
+made up out of the surplus previously on hand. The cash on hand on the 1st
+instant was $314,068. The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1838, was
+$161,540 more than that for the year ending June 30, 1837. The expenditures
+of the Department had been graduated upon the anticipation of a largely
+increased revenue. A moderate curtailment of mail service consequently
+became necessary, and has been effected, to shield the Department against
+the danger of embarrassment. Its revenue is now improving, and it will soon
+resume its onward course in the march of improvement.
+
+Your particular attention is requested to so much of the
+Postmaster-Generals report as relates to the transportation of the mails
+upon railroads. The laws on that subject do not seem adequate to secure
+that service, now become almost essential to the public interests, and at
+the same time protect the Department from combinations and unreasonable
+demands.
+
+Nor can I too earnestly request your attention to the necessity of
+providing a more secure building for this Department. The danger of
+destruction to which its important books and papers are continually
+exposed, as well from the highly combustible character of the building
+occupied as from that of others in the vicinity, calls loudly for prompt
+action.
+
+Your attention is again earnestly invited to the suggestions and
+recommendations submitted at the last session in respect to the District of
+Columbia.
+
+I feel it my duty also to bring to your notice certain proceedings at law
+which have recently been prosecuted in this District in the name of the
+United States, on the relation of Messrs. Stockton & Stokes, of the State
+of Maryland, against the Postmaster-General, and which have resulted in the
+payment of money out of the National Treasury, for the first time since the
+establishment of the Government, by judicial compulsion exercised by the
+common-law writ of mandamus issued by the circuit court of this District.
+
+The facts of the case and the grounds of the proceedings will be found
+fully stated in the report of the decision, and any additional information
+which you may desire will be supplied by the proper Department. No
+interference in the particular case is contemplated. The money has been
+paid, the claims of the prosecutors have been satisfied, and the whole
+subject, so far as they are concerned, is finally disposed of; but it is on
+the supposition that the case may be regarded as an authoritative
+exposition of the law as it now stands that I have thought it necessary to
+present it to your consideration.
+
+The object of the application to the circuit court was to compel the
+Postmaster-General to carry into effect an award made by the Solicitor of
+the Treasury, under a special act of Congress for the settlement of certain
+claims of the relators on the Post-Office Department, which award the
+Postmaster-General declined to execute in full until he should receive
+further legislative direction on the subject. If the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General by that law was to be regarded as one of an official
+nature, belonging to his office as a branch of the executive, then it is
+obvious that the constitutional competency of the judiciary to direct and
+control him in its discharge was necessarily drawn in question; and if the
+duty so imposed on the Postmaster-General was to be considered as merely
+ministerial, and not executive, it yet remained to be shown that the
+circuit court of this District had authority to interfere by mandamus, such
+a power having never before been asserted or claimed by that court. With a
+view to the settlement of these important questions, the judgment of the
+circuit court was carried by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the
+United States. In the opinion of that tribunal the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General was not an official executive duty, but one of a merely
+ministerial nature. The grave constitutional questions which had been
+discussed were therefore excluded from the decision of the case, the court,
+indeed, expressly admitting that with powers and duties properly belonging
+to the executive no other department can inter-fere by the writ of
+mandamus; and the question therefore resolved itself into this: Has
+Congress conferred upon the circuit court of this District the power to
+issue such a writ to an officer of the General Government commanding him to
+perform a ministerial act? A majority of the court have decided that it
+has, but have rounded their decision upon a process of reasoning which in
+my judgment renders further legislative provision indispensable to the
+public interests and the equal administration of justice.
+
+It has long since been decided by the Supreme Court that neither that
+tribunal nor the circuit courts of the United States, held within the
+respective States, possess the power in question; but it is now held that
+this power, denied to both of these high tribunals (to the former by the
+Constitution and to the latter by Congress), has been by its legislation
+vested in the circuit court of this District. No such direct grant of power
+to the circuit court of this District is claimed, but it has been held to
+result by necessary implication from several sections of the law
+establishing the court. One of these sections declares that the laws of
+Maryland, as they existed at the time of the cession, should be in force in
+that part of the District ceded by that State, and by this provision the
+common law in civil and criminal cases, as it prevailed in Maryland in
+1801, was established in that part of the District.
+
+In England the court of king's bench--because the Sovereign, who, according
+to the theory of the constitution, is the fountain of justice originally
+sat there in person, and is still deemed to be present in construction of
+law--alone possesses the high power of issuing the writ of mandamus, not
+only to inferior jurisdictions and corporations, but also to magistrates
+and others, commanding them in the King' s name to do what their duty
+requires in cases where there is a vested right and no other specific
+remedy. It has been held in the case referred to that as the Supreme Court
+of the United States is by the Constitution rendered incompetent to
+exercise this power, and as the circuit court of this District is a court
+of general jurisdiction in cases at common law, and the highest court of
+original jurisdiction in the District, the right to issue the writ of
+mandamus is incident to its common-law powers. Another ground relied upon
+to maintain the power in question is that it was included by fair
+construction in the powers granted to the circuit courts of the United
+States by the act "to provide for the more convenient organization of the
+courts of the United States," passed 13th February, 1801; that the act
+establishing the circuit court of this District, passed the 27th day of
+February, 1801, conferred upon that court and the judges thereof the same
+powers as were by law vested in the circuit courts of the United States and
+in the judges of the said courts; that the repeal of the first-mentioned
+act, which took place in the next year, did not divest the circuit court of
+this District of the authority in dispute, but left it still clothed with
+the powers over the subject which, it is conceded, were taken away from the
+circuit courts of the United States by the repeal of the act of 13th
+February, 1801.
+
+Admitting that the adoption of the laws of Maryland for a portion of this
+District confers on the circuit court thereof, in that portion, the
+transcendent extrajudicial prerogative powers of the court of king's bench
+in England, or that either of the acts of Congress by necessary implication
+authorizes the former court to issue a writ of mandamus to an officer of
+the United States to compel him to perform a ministerial duty, the
+consequences are in one respect the same. The result in either case is that
+the officers of the United States stationed in different parts of the
+United States are, in respect to the performance of their official duties,
+subject to different laws and a different supervision--those in the States
+to one rule, and those in the District of Columbia to another and a very
+different one. In the District their official conduct is subject to a
+judicial control from which in the States they are exempt.
+
+Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the expediency of vesting
+such a power in the judiciary in a system of government constituted like
+that of the United States, all must agree that these disparaging
+discrepancies in the law and in the administration of justice ought not to
+he permitted to continue; and as Congress alone can provide the remedy, the
+subject is unavoidably presented to your consideration. M. VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 2, 1839
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+I regret that I can not on this occasion congratulate you that the past
+year has been one of unalloyed prosperity. The ravages of fire and disease
+have painfully afflicted otherwise flourishing portions of our country, and
+serious embarrassments yet derange the trade of many of our cities. But
+notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, that general prosperity which
+has been heretofore so bountifully bestowed upon us by the Author of All
+Good still continues to call for our warmest gratitude. Especially have we
+reason to rejoice in the exuberant harvests which have lavishly recompensed
+well-directed industry and given to it that sure reward which is vainly
+sought in visionary speculations. I cannot, indeed, view without peculiar
+satisfaction the evidences afforded by the past season of the benefits that
+spring from the steady devotion of the husbandman to his honorable pursuit.
+No means of individual comfort is more certain and no source of national
+prosperity is so sure. Nothing can compensate a people for a dependence
+upon others for the bread they eat, and that cheerful abundance on which
+the happiness of everyone so much depends is to be looked for nowhere with
+such sure reliance as in the industry of the agriculturist and the bounties
+of the earth.
+
+With foreign countries our relations exhibit the same favorable aspect
+which was presented in my last annual message, and afford continued proof
+of the wisdom of the pacific, just, and forbearing policy adopted by the
+first Administration of the Federal Government and pursued by its
+successors. The extraordinary powers vested in me by an act of Congress for
+the defense of the country in an emergency, considered so far probable as
+to require that the Executive should possess ample means to meet it, have
+not been exerted. They have therefore been attended with no other result
+than to increase, by the confidence thus reposed in me, my obligations to
+maintain with religious exactness the cardinal principles that govern our
+intercourse with other nations. Happily, in our pending questions with
+Great Britain, out of which this unusual grant of authority arose, nothing
+has occurred to require its exertion, and as it is about to return to the
+Legislature I trust that no future necessity may call for its exercise by
+them or its delegation to another Department of the Government.
+
+For the settlement of our northeastern boundary the proposition promised by
+Great Britain for a commission of exploration and survey has been received,
+and a counter project, including also a provision for the certain and final
+adjustment of the limits in dispute, is now before the British Government
+for its consideration. A just regard to the delicate state of this question
+and a proper respect for the natural impatience of the State of Maine, not
+less than a conviction that the negotiation has been already protracted
+longer than is prudent on the part of either Government, have led me to
+believe that the present favorable moment should on no account be suffered
+to pass without putting the question forever at rest. I feel confident that
+the Government of Her Britannic Majesty will take the same view of this
+subject, as I am persuaded it is governed by desires equally strong and
+sincere for the amicable termination of the controversy.
+
+To the intrinsic difficulties of questions of boundary lines, especially
+those described in regions unoccupied and but partially known, is to be
+added in our country the embarrassment necessarily arising out of our
+Constitution by which the General Government is made the organ of
+negotiating and deciding upon the particular interests of the States on
+whose frontiers these lines are to be traced. To avoid another controversy
+in which a State government might rightfully claim to have her wishes
+consulted previously to the conclusion of conventional arrangements
+concerning her rights of jurisdiction or territory, I have thought it
+necessary to call the attention of the Government of Great Britain to
+another portion of our conterminous dominion of which the division still
+remains to be adjusted I refer to the line from the entrance of Lake
+Superior to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods,
+stipulations for the settlement of which are to be found in the seventh
+article of the treaty of Ghent. The commissioners appointed under that
+article by the two Governments having differed in their opinions, made
+separate reports, according to its stipulations, upon the points of
+disagreement, and these differences are now to be submitted to the
+arbitration of some friendly sovereign or state. The disputed points should
+be settled and the line designated before the Territorial government of
+which it is one of the boundaries takes its place in the Union as a State,
+and I rely upon the cordial cooperation of the British Government to effect
+that object.
+
+There is every reason to believe that disturbances like those which lately
+agitated the neighboring British Provinces will not again prove the sources
+of border contentions or interpose obstacles to the continuance of that
+good understanding which it is the mutual interest of Great Britain and the
+United States to preserve and maintain.
+
+Within the Provinces themselves tranquillity is restored, and on our
+frontier that misguided sympathy in favor of what was presumed to be a
+general effort in behalf of popular rights, and which in some instances
+misled a few of our more inexperienced citizens, has subsided into a
+rational conviction strongly opposed to all intermeddling with the internal
+affairs of our neighbors. The people of the United States feel, as it is
+hoped they always will, a warm solicitude for the success of all who are
+sincerely endeavoring to improve the political condition of mankind. This
+generous feeling they cherish toward the most distant nations, and it was
+natural, therefore, that it should be awakened with more than common warmth
+in behalf of their immediate neighbors; but it does not belong to their
+character as a community to seek the gratification of those feelings in
+acts which violate their duty as citizens, endanger the peace of their
+country, and tend to bring upon it the stain of a violated faith toward
+foreign nations. If, zealous to confer benefits on others, they appear for
+a moment to lose sight of the permanent obligations imposed upon them as
+citizens, they are seldom long misled. From all the information I receive,
+confirmed to some extent by personal observation, I am satisfied that no
+one can now hope to engage in such enterprises without encountering public
+indignation, in addition to the severest penalties of the law.
+
+Recent information also leads me to hope that the emigrants from Her
+Majesty's Provinces who have sought refuge within our boundaries are
+disposed to become peaceable residents and to abstain from all attempts to
+endanger the peace of that country which has afforded them an asylum. On a
+review of the occurrences on both sides of the line it is satisfactory to
+reflect that in almost every complaint against our country the offense may
+be traced to emigrants from the Provinces who have sought refuge here. In
+the few instances in which they were aided by citizens of the United States
+the acts of these misguided men were not only in direct contravention of
+the laws and well-known wishes of their own Government, but met with the
+decided disapprobation of the people of the United States.
+
+I regret to state the appearance of a different spirit among Her Majesty's
+subjects in the Canadas. The sentiments of hostility to our people and
+institutions which have been so frequently expressed there, and the
+disregard of our rights which has been manifested on some occasions, have,
+I am sorry to say, been applauded and encouraged by the people, and even by
+some of the subordinate local authorities, of the Provinces. The chief
+officers in Canada, fortunately, have not entertained the same feeling, and
+have probably prevented excesses that must have been fatal to the peace of
+the two countries.
+
+I look forward anxiously to a period when all the transactions which have
+grown out of this condition of our affairs, and which have been made the
+subjects of complaint and remonstrance by the two Governments,
+respectively, shall be fully examined, and the proper satisfaction given
+where it is due from either side.
+
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our intercourse with
+Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Naples, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, or
+Sweden. The internal state of Spain has sensibly improved, and a
+well-grounded hope exists that the return of peace will restore to the
+people of that country their former prosperity and enable the Government to
+fulfill all its obligations at home and abroad. The Government of Portugal,
+I have the satisfaction to state, has paid in full the eleventh and last
+installment due to our citizens for the claims embraced in the settlement
+made with it on the 3d of March, 1837.
+
+I lay before you treaties of commerce negotiated with the Kings of Sardinia
+and of the Netherlands, the ratifications of which have been exchanged
+since the adjournment of Congress. The liberal principles of these treaties
+will recommend them to your approbation. That with Sardinia is the first
+treaty of commerce formed by that Kingdom, and it will, I trust, answer the
+expectations of the present Sovereign by aiding the development of the
+resources of his country and stimulating the enterprise of his people. That
+with the Netherlands happily terminates a long-existing subject of dispute
+and removes from our future commercial intercourse all apprehension of
+embarrassment. The King of the Netherlands has also, in further
+illustration of his character for justice and of his desire to remove every
+cause of dissatisfaction, made compensation for an American vessel captured
+in 1800 by a French privateer, and carried into Curacoa, where the proceeds
+were appropriated to the use of the colony, then, and for a short time
+after, under the dominion of Holland.
+
+The death of the late Sultan has produced no alteration in our relations
+with Turkey. Our newly appointed minister resident has reached
+Constantinople, and I have received assurances from the present ruler that
+the obligations of our treaty and those of friendship will be fulfilled by
+himself in the same spirit that actuated his illustrious father.
+
+I regret to be obliged to inform you that no convention for the settlement
+of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico has yet been ratified by the
+Government of that country. The first convention formed for that purpose
+was not presented by the President of Mexico for the approbation of its
+Congress, from a belief that the King of Prussia, the arbitrator in case of
+disagreement in the joint commission to be appointed by the United States
+and Mexico, would not consent to take upon himself that friendly office.
+Although not entirely satisfied with the course pursued by Mexico, I felt
+no hesitation in receiving in the most conciliatory spirit the explanation
+offered, and also cheerfully consented to a new convention, in order to
+arrange the payments proposed to be made to our citizens in a manner which,
+while equally just to them, was deemed less onerous and inconvenient to the
+Mexican Government. Relying confidently upon the intentions of that
+Government, Mr. Ellis was directed to repair to Mexico, and diplomatic
+intercourse has been resumed between the two countries. The new convention
+has, he informs us, been recently submitted by the President of that
+Republic to its Congress under circumstances which promise a speedy
+ratification, a result which I can not allow myself to doubt.
+
+Instructions have been given to the commissioner of the United States under
+our convention with Texas for the demarcation of the line which separates
+us from that Republic. The commissioners of both Governments met in New
+Orleans in August last. The joint commission was organized, and adjourned
+to convene at the same place on the 12th of October. It is presumed to be
+now in the performance of its duties.
+
+The new Government of Texas has shown its desire to cultivate friendly
+relations with us by a prompt reparation for injuries complained of in the
+cases of two vessels of the United States.
+
+With Central America a convention has been concluded for the renewal of its
+former treaty with the United States. This was not ratified before the
+departure of our late charge d'affaires from that country, and the copy of
+it brought by him was not received before the adjournment of the Senate at
+the last session. In the meanwhile, the period limited for the exchange of
+ratifications having expired, I deemed it expedient, in consequence of the
+death of the charge d'affaires, to send a special agent to Central America
+to close the affairs of our mission there and to arrange with the
+Government an extension of the time for the exchange of ratifications.
+
+The commission created by the States which formerly composed the Republic
+of Colombia for adjusting the claims against that Government has by a very
+unexpected construction of the treaty under which it acts decided that no
+provision was made for those claims of citizens of the United States which
+arose from captures by Colombian privateers and were adjudged against the
+claimants in the judicial tribunals. This decision will compel the United
+States to apply to the several Governments formerly united for redress.
+With all these--New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador--a perfectly good
+understanding exists. Our treaty with Venezuela is faithfully carried into
+execution, and that country, in the enjoyment of tranquillity, is gradually
+advancing in prosperity under the guidance of its present distinguished
+President, General Paez. With Ecuador a liberal commercial convention has
+lately been concluded, which will be transmitted to the Senate at an early
+day.
+
+With the great American Empire of Brazil our relations continue unchanged,
+as does our friendly intercourse with the other Governments of South
+America--the Argentine Republic and the Republics of Uruguay, Chili, Peru,
+and Bolivia. The dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation may
+occasion some temporary inconvenience to our citizens in that quarter, but
+the obligations on the new Governments which have arisen out of that
+Confederation to observe its treaty stipulations will no doubt be soon
+understood, and it is presumed that no indisposition will exist to fulfill
+those which it contracted with the United States.
+
+The financial operations of the Government during the present year have, I
+am happy to say, been very successful. The difficulties under which the
+Treasury Department has labored, from known defects in the existing laws
+relative to the safe-keeping of the public moneys, aggravated by the
+suspension of specie payments by several of the banks holding public
+deposits or indebted to public officers for notes received in payment of
+public dues, have been surmounted to a very gratifying extent. The large
+current expenditures have been punctually met, and the faith of the
+Government in all its pecuniary concerns has been scrupulously maintained.
+
+The nineteen millions of Treasury notes authorized by the act of Congress
+of 1837, and the modifications thereof with a view to the indulgence of
+merchants on their duty bonds and of the deposit banks in the payment of
+public moneys held by them, have been so punctually redeemed as to leave
+less than the original ten millions outstanding at any one time, and the
+whole amount unredeemed now falls short of three millions. Of these the
+chief portion is not due till next year, and the whole would have been
+already extinguished could the Treasury have realized the payments due to
+it from the banks. If those due from them during the next year shall be
+punctually made, and if Congress shall keep the appropriations within the
+estimates, there is every reason to believe that all the outstanding
+Treasury notes can be redeemed and the ordinary expenses defrayed without
+imposing on the people any additional burden, either of loans or increased
+taxes.
+
+To avoid this and to keep the expenditures within reasonable bounds is a
+duty second only in importance to the preservation of our national
+character and the protection of our citizens in their civil and political
+rights. The creation in time of peace of a debt likely to become permanent
+is an evil for which there is no equivalent. The rapidity with which many
+of the States are apparently approaching to this condition admonishes us of
+our own duties in a manner too impressive to be disregarded. One, not the
+least important, is to keep the Federal Government always in a condition to
+discharge with ease and vigor its highest functions should their exercise
+be required by any sudden conjuncture of public affairs--a condition to
+which we are always exposed and which may occur when it is least expected.
+To this end it is indispensable that its finances should be untrammeled and
+its resources as far as practicable unencumbered. No circumstance could
+present greater obstacles to the accomplishment of these vitally important
+objects than the creation of an onerous national debt. Our own experience
+and also that of other nations have demonstrated the unavoidable and
+fearful rapidity with which a public debt is increased when the Government
+has once surrendered itself to the ruinous practice of supplying its
+supposed necessities by new loans. The struggle, therefore, on our part to
+be successful must be made at the threshold. To make our efforts effective,
+severe economy is necessary. This is the surest provision for the national
+welfare, and it is at the same time the best preservative of the principles
+on which our institutions rest. Simplicity and economy in the affairs of
+state have never failed to chasten and invigorate republican principles,
+while these have been as surely subverted by national prodigality, under
+whatever specious pretexts it may have been introduced or fostered.
+
+These considerations can not be lost upon a people who have never been
+inattentive to the effect of their policy upon the institutions they have
+created for themselves, but at the present moment their force is augmented
+by the necessity which a decreasing revenue must impose. The check lately
+given to importations of articles subject to duties, the derangements in
+the operations of internal trade, and especially the reduction gradually
+taking place in our tariff of duties, all tend materially to lessen our
+receipts; indeed, it is probable that the diminution resulting from the
+last cause alone will not fall short of $5,000,000 in the year 1842, as the
+final reduction of all duties to 20 per cent then takes effect. The whole
+revenue then accruing from the customs and from the sales of public lands,
+if not more, will undoubtedly be wanted to defray the necessary expenses of
+the Government under the most prudent administration of its affairs. These
+are circumstances that impose the necessity of rigid economy and require
+its prompt and constant exercise. With the Legislature rest the power and
+duty of so adjusting the public expenditure as to promote this end. By the
+provisions of the Constitution it is only in consequence of appropriations
+made by law that money can be drawn from the Treasury. No instance has
+occurred since the establishment of the Government in which the Executive,
+though a component part of the legislative power, has interposed an
+objection to an appropriation bill on the sole ground of its extravagance.
+His duty in this respect has been considered fulfilled by requesting such
+appropriations only as the public service may be reasonably expected to
+require. In the present earnest direction of the public mind toward this
+subject both the Executive and the Legislature have evidence of the strict
+responsibility to which they will be held; and while I am conscious of my
+own anxious efforts to perform with fidelity this portion of my public
+functions, it is a satisfaction to me to be able to count on a cordial
+cooperation from you.
+
+At the time I entered upon my present duties our ordinary disbursements,
+without including those on account of the public debt, the Post-Office, and
+the trust funds in charge of the Government, had been largely increased by
+appropriations for the removal of the Indians, for repelling Indian
+hostilities, and for other less urgent expenses which grew out of an
+overflowing Treasury. Independent of the redemption of the public debt and
+trusts, the gross expenditures of seventeen and eighteen millions in 1834
+and 1835 had by these causes swelled to twenty-nine millions in 1836, and
+the appropriations for 1837, made previously to the 4th of March, caused
+the expenditure to rise to the very large amount of thirty-three millions.
+We were enabled during the year 1838, notwithstanding the continuance of
+our Indian embarrassments, somewhat to reduce this amount, and that for the
+present year (1839) will not in all probability exceed twenty-six millions,
+or six millions less than it was last year. With a determination, so far as
+depends on me, to continue this reduction, I have directed the estimates
+for 1840 to be subjected to the severest scrutiny and to be limited to the
+absolute requirements of the public service. They will be found less than
+the expenditures of 1839 by over $5,000,000.
+
+The precautionary measures which will be recommended by the Secretary of
+the Treasury to protect faithfully the public credit under the fluctuations
+and contingencies to which our receipts and expenditures are exposed, and
+especially in a commercial crisis like the present, are commended to your
+early attention.
+
+On a former occasion your attention was invited to various considerations
+in support of a preemption law in behalf of the settlers on the public
+lands, and also of a law graduating the prices for such lands as had long
+been in the market unsold in consequence of their inferior quality. The
+execution of the act which was passed on the first subject has been
+attended with the happiest consequences in quieting titles and securing
+improvements to the industrious, and it has also to a very gratifying
+extent been exempt from the frauds which were practiced under previous
+preemption laws. It has at the same time, as was anticipated, contributed
+liberally during the present year to the receipts of the Treasury.
+
+The passage of a graduation law, with the guards before recommended, would
+also, I am persuaded, add considerably to the revenue for several years,
+and prove in other respects just and beneficial. Your early consideration
+of the subject is therefore once more earnestly requested.
+
+The present condition of the defenses of our principal seaports and
+navy-yards, as represented by the accompanying report of the Secretary of
+War, calls for the early and serious attention of Congress; and, as
+connecting itself intimately with this subject, I can not recommend too
+strongly to your consideration the plan submitted by that officer for the
+organization of the militia of the United States.
+
+In conformity with the expressed wishes of Congress, an attempt was made in
+the spring to terminate the Florida war by negotiation. It is to be
+regretted that these humane intentions should have been frustrated and that
+the effort to bring these unhappy difficulties to a satisfactory conclusion
+should have failed; but after entering into solemn engagements with the
+commanding general, the Indians, without any provocation, recommenced their
+acts of treachery and murder. The renewal of hostilities in that Territory
+renders it necessary that I should recommend to your favorable
+consideration the plan which will be submitted to you by the Secretary of
+War, in order to enable that Department to conduct them to a successful
+issue.
+
+Having had an opportunity of personally inspecting a portion of the troops
+during the last summer, it gives me pleasure to bear testimony to the
+success of the effort to improve their discipline by keeping them together
+in as large bodies as the nature of our service will permit. I recommend,
+therefore, that commodious and permanent barracks be constructed at the
+several posts designated by the Secretary of War. Notwithstanding the high
+state of their discipline and excellent police, the evils resulting to the
+service from the deficiency of company officers were very apparent, and I
+recommend that the staff officers be permanently separated from the line.
+
+The Navy has been usefully and honorably employed in protecting the rights
+and property of our citizens wherever the condition of affairs seemed to
+require its presence. With the exception of one instance, where an outrage,
+accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of the United States while
+engaged in a lawful commerce, nothing is known to have occurred to impede
+or molest the enterprise of our citizens on that element, where it is so
+signally displayed. On learning this daring act of piracy, Commodore Reed
+proceeded immediately to the spot, and receiving no satisfaction, either in
+the surrender of the murderers or the restoration of the plundered
+property, inflicted severe and merited chastisement on the barbarians.
+
+It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Navy respecting the
+disposition of our ships of war that it has been deemed necessary to
+station a competent force on the coast of Africa to prevent a fraudulent
+use of our flag by foreigners.
+
+Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing laws which
+relate to the sale and transfer of American vessels while abroad are
+extremely defective. Advantage has been taken of these defects to give to
+vessels wholly belonging to foreigners and navigating the ocean an apparent
+American ownership. This character has been so well simulated as to afford
+them comparative security in prosecuting the slave trade--a traffic
+emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded with abhorrence by our
+citizens, and of which the effectual suppression is nowhere more sincerely
+desired than in the United States. These circumstances make it proper to
+recommend to your early attention a careful revision of these laws, so that
+without impeding the freedom and facilities of our navigation or impairing
+an important branch of our industry connected with it the integrity and
+honor of our flag may be carefully preserved. Information derived from our
+consul at Havana showing the necessity of this was communicated to a
+committee of the Senate near the close of the last session, but too late,
+as it appeared, to be acted upon. It will be brought to your notice by the
+proper Department, with additional communications from other sources.
+
+The latest accounts from the exploring expedition represent it as
+proceeding successfully in its objects and promising results no less useful
+to trade and navigation than to science.
+
+The extent of post-roads covered by mail service on the 1st of July last
+was about 133,999 miles and the rate of annual transportation upon them
+34,496,878 miles. The number of post-offices on that day was 12,780 and on
+the 30th ultimo 13,028.
+
+The revenue of the Post-Office Department for the year ending with the 30th
+of June last was $4,476,638, exhibiting an increase over the preceding year
+of $241,560. The engagements and liabilities of the Department for the same
+period are $4,624,117.
+
+The excess of liabilities over the revenue for the last two years has been
+met out of the surplus which had previously accumulated. The cash on hand
+on the 30th ultimo was about $206,701.95 and the current income of the
+Department varies very little from the rate of current expenditures. Most
+of the service suspended last year has been restored, and most of the new
+routes established by the act of 7th July, 1838, have been set in
+operation, at an annual cost of $136,963. Notwithstanding the pecuniary
+difficulties of the country, the revenue of the Department appears to be
+increasing, and unless it shall be seriously checked by the recent
+suspension of payment by so many of the banks it will be able not only to
+maintain the present mail service, but in a short time to extend it. It is
+gratifying to witness the promptitude and fidelity with which the agents of
+this Department in general perform their public duties.
+
+Some difficulties have arisen in relation to contracts for the
+transportation of the mails by railroad and steamboat companies. It appears
+that the maximum of compensation provided by Congress for the
+transportation of the mails upon railroads is not sufficient to induce some
+of the companies to convey them at such hours as are required for the
+accommodation of the public. It is one of the most important duties of the
+General Government to provide and maintain for the use of the people of the
+States the best practicable mail establishment. To arrive at that end it is
+indispensable that the Post-Office Department shall be enabled to control
+the hours at which the mails shall be carried over railroads, as it now
+does over all other roads. Should serious inconveniences arise from the
+inadequacy of the compensation now provided by law, or from unreasonable
+demands by any of the railroad companies, the subject is of such general
+importance as to require the prompt attention of Congress.
+
+In relation to steamboat lines, the most efficient remedy is obvious and
+has been suggested by the Postmaster-General. The War and Navy Departments
+already employ steamboats in their service; and although it is by no means
+desirable that the Government should undertake the transportation of
+passengers or freight as a business, there can be no reasonable objection
+to running boats, temporarily, whenever it may be necessary to put down
+attempts at extortion, to be discontinued as soon as reasonable contracts
+can be obtained.
+
+The suggestions of the Postmaster-General relative to the inadequacy of the
+legal allowance to witnesses in cases of prosecutions for mail depredations
+merit your serious consideration. The safety of the mails requires that
+such prosecutions shall be efficient, and justice to the citizen whose time
+is required to be given to the public demands not only that his expenses
+shall be paid, but that he shall receive a reasonable compensation.
+
+The reports from the War, Navy, and Post-Office Departments will accompany
+this communication, and one from the Treasury Department will be presented
+to Congress in a few days.
+
+For various details in respect to the matters in charge of these
+Departments I would refer you to those important documents, satisfied that
+you will find in them many valuable suggestions which will be found well
+deserving the attention of the Legislature.
+
+From a report made in December of last year by the Secretary of State to
+the Senate, showing the trial docket of each of the circuit courts and the
+number of miles each judge has to travel in the performance of his duties,
+a great inequality appears in the amount of labor assigned to each judge.
+The number of terms to be held in each of the courts composing the ninth
+circuit, the distances between the places at which they sit and from thence
+to the seat of Government, are represented to be such as to render it
+impossible for the judge of that circuit to perform in a manner
+corresponding with the public exigencies his term and circuit duties. A
+revision, therefore, of the present arrangement of the circuit seems to be
+called for and is recommended to your notice.
+
+I think it proper to call your attention to the power assumed by
+Territorial legislatures to authorize the issue of bonds by corporate
+companies on the guaranty of the Territory. Congress passed a law in 1836
+providing that no act of a Territorial legislature incorporating banks
+should have the force of law until approved by Congress, but acts of a very
+exceptionable character previously passed by the legislature of Florida
+were suffered to remain in force, by virtue of which bonds may be issued to
+a very large amount by those institutions upon the faith of the Territory.
+A resolution, intending to be a joint one, passed the Senate at the same
+session, expressing the sense of Congress that the laws in question ought
+not to be permitted to remain in force unless amended in many material
+respects; but it failed in the House of Representatives for want of time,
+and the desired amendments have not been made. The interests involved are
+of great importance, and the subject deserves your early and careful
+attention.
+
+The continued agitation of the question relative to the best mode of
+keeping and disbursing the public money still injuriously affects the
+business of the country. The suspension of specie payments in 1837 rendered
+the use of deposit banks as prescribed by the act of 1836 a source rather
+of embarrassment than aid, and of necessity placed the custody of most of
+the public money afterwards collected in charge of the public officers. The
+new securities for its safety which this required were a principal cause of
+my convening an extra session of Congress, but in consequence of a
+disagreement between the two Houses neither then nor at any subsequent
+period has there been any legislation on the subject. The effort made at
+the last session to obtain the authority of Congress to punish the use of
+public money for private purposes as a crime a measure attended under other
+governments with signal advantage--was also unsuccessful, from diversities
+of opinion in that body, notwithstanding the anxiety doubtless felt by it
+to afford every practicable security. The result of this is still to leave
+the custody of the public money without those safeguards which have been
+for several years earnestly desired by the Executive, and as the remedy is
+only to be found in the action of the Legislature it imposes on me the duty
+of again submitting to you the propriety of passing a law providing for the
+safe-keeping of the public moneys, and especially to ask that its use for
+private purposes by any officers intrusted with it may be declared to be a
+felony, punishable with penalties proportioned to the magnitude of the
+offense.
+
+These circumstances, added to known defects in the existing laws and
+unusual derangement in the general operations of trade, have during the
+last three years much increased the difficulties attendant on the
+collection, keeping, and disbursement of the revenue, and called forth
+corresponding exertions from those having them in charge. Happily these
+have been successful beyond expectation. Vast sums have been collected and
+disbursed by the several Departments with unexpected cheapness and ease,
+transfers have been readily made to every part of the Union, however
+distant, and defalcations have been far less than might have been
+anticipated from the absence of adequate legal restraints. Since the
+officers of the Treasury and Post-Office Departments were charged with the
+custody of most of the public moneys received by them there have been
+collected $66,000,000, and, excluding the case of the late collector at New
+York, the aggregate amount of losses sustained in the collection can not,
+it is believed, exceed $60,000. The defalcation of the late collector at
+that city, of the extent and circumstances of which Congress have been
+fully informed, ran through all the modes of keeping the public money that
+have been hitherto in use, and was distinguished by an aggravated disregard
+of duty that broke through the restraints of every system, and can not,
+therefore, be usefully referred to as a test of the comparative safety of
+either. Additional information will also be furnished by the report of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to a call made upon that officer by the
+House of Representatives at the last session requiring detailed information
+on the subject of defaults by public officers or agents under each
+Administration from 1789 to 1837. This document will be submitted to you in
+a few days. The general results (independent of the Post-Office, which is
+kept separately and will be stated by itself), so far as they bear upon
+this subject, are that the losses which have been and are likely to be
+sustained by any class of agents have been the greatest by banks,
+including, as required in the resolution, their depreciated paper received
+for public dues; that the next largest have been by disbursing officers,
+and the least by collectors and receivers. If the losses on duty bonds are
+included, they alone will be threefold those by both collectors and
+receivers. Our whole experience, therefore, furnishes the strongest
+evidence that the desired legislation of Congress is alone wanting to
+insure in those operations the highest degree of security and facility.
+Such also appears to have been the experience of other nations. From the
+results of inquiries made by the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the
+practice among them I am enabled to state that in twenty-two out of
+twenty-seven foreign governments from which undoubted information has been
+obtained the public moneys are kept in charge of public officers. This
+concurrence of opinion in favor of that system is perhaps as great as
+exists on any question of internal administration.
+
+In the modes of business and official restraints on disbursing officers no
+legal change was produced by the suspension of specie payments. The report
+last referred to will be found to contain also much useful information in
+relation to this subject.
+
+I have heretofore assigned to Congress my reasons for believing that the
+establishment of an independent National Treasury, as contemplated by the
+Constitution, is necessary to the safe action of the Federal Government.
+The suspension of specie payments in 1837 by the banks having the custody
+of the public money showed in so alarming a degree our dependence on those
+institutions for the performance of duties required by law that I then
+recommended the entire dissolution of that connection. This recommendation
+has been subjected, as I desired it should be, to severe scrutiny and
+animated discussion, and I allow myself to believe that notwithstanding the
+natural diversities of opinion which may be anticipated on all subjects
+involving such important considerations, it has secured in its favor as
+general a concurrence of public sentiment as could be expected on one of
+such magnitude.
+
+Recent events have also continued to develop new objections to such a
+connection. Seldom is any bank, under the existing system and practice,
+able to meet on demand all its liabilities for deposits and notes in
+circulation. It maintains specie payments and transacts a profitable
+business only by the confidence of the public in its solvency, and whenever
+this is destroyed the demands of its depositors and note holders, pressed
+more rapidly than it can make collections from its debtors, force it to
+stop payment. This loss of confidence, with its consequences, occurred in
+1837, and afforded the apology of the banks for their suspension. The
+public then acquiesced in the validity of the excuse, and while the State
+legislatures did not exact from them their forfeited charters, Congress, in
+accordance with the recommendation of the Executive, allowed them time to
+pay over the public money they held, although compelled to issue Treasury
+notes to supply the deficiency thus created.
+
+It now appears that there are other motives than a want of public
+confidence under which the banks seek to justify themselves in a refusal to
+meet their obligations. Scarcely were the country and Government relieved
+in a degree from the difficulties occasioned by the general suspension of
+1837 when a partial one, occurring within thirty months of the former,
+produced new and serious embarrassments, though it had no palliation in
+such circumstances as were alleged in justification of that which had
+previously taken place. There was nothing in the condition of the country
+to endanger a well-managed banking institution; commerce was deranged by no
+foreign war; every branch of manufacturing industry was crowned with rich
+rewards, and the more than usual abundance of our harvests, after supplying
+our domestic wants, had left our granaries and storehouses filled with a
+surplus for exportation. It is in the midst of this that an irredeemable
+and depreciated paper currency is entailed upon the people by a large
+portion of the banks. They are not driven to it by the exhibition of a loss
+of public confidence or of a sudden pressure from their depositors or note
+holders, but they excuse themselves by alleging that the current of
+business and exchange with foreign countries, which draws the precious
+metals from their vaults, would require in order to meet it a larger
+curtailment of their loans to a comparatively small portion of the
+community than it will be convenient for them to bear or perhaps safe for
+the banks to exact. The plea has ceased to be one of necessity. Convenience
+and policy are now deemed sufficient to warrant these institutions in
+disregarding their solemn obligations. Such conduct is not merely an injury
+to individual creditors, but it is a wrong to the whole community, from
+whose liberality they hold most valuable privileges, whose rights they
+violate, whose business they derange, and the value of whose property they
+render unstable and insecure. It must be evident that this new ground for
+bank suspensions, in reference to which their action is not only
+disconnected with, but wholly independent of, that of the public, gives a
+character to their suspensions more alarming than any which they exhibited
+before, and greatly increases the impropriety of relying on the banks in
+the transactions of the Government.
+
+A large and highly respectable portion of our banking institutions are, it
+affords me unfeigned pleasure to state, exempted from all blame on account
+of this second delinquency. They have, to their great credit, not only
+continued to meet their engagements, but have even repudiated the grounds
+of suspension now resorted to. It is only by such a course that the
+confidence and good will of the community can be preserved, and in the
+sequel the best interests of the institutions themselves promoted
+
+New dangers to the banks are also daily disclosed from the extension of
+that system of extravagant credit of which they are the pillars. Formerly
+our foreign commerce was principally rounded on an exchange of commodities,
+including the precious metals, and leaving in its transactions but little
+foreign debt. Such is not now the case. Aided by the facilities afforded by
+the banks, mere credit has become too commonly the basis of trade. Many of
+the banks themselves, not content with largely stimulating this system
+among others, have usurped the business, while they impair the stability,
+of the mercantile community; they have become borrowers instead of lenders;
+they establish their agencies abroad; they deal largely in stocks and
+merchandise; they encourage the issue of State securities until the foreign
+market is glutted with them; and, unsatisfied with the legitimate use of
+their own capital and the exercise of their lawful privileges, they raise
+by large loans additional means for every variety of speculation. The
+disasters attendant on this deviation from the former course of business in
+this country are now shared alike by banks and individuals to an extent of
+which there is perhaps no previous example in the annals of our country. So
+long as a willingness of the foreign lender and a sufficient export of our
+productions to meet any necessary partial payments leave the flow of credit
+undisturbed all appears to be prosperous, but as soon as it is checked by
+any hesitation abroad or by an inability to make payment there in our
+productions the evils of the system are disclosed. The paper currency,
+which might serve for domestic purposes, is useless to pay the debt due in
+Europe. Gold and silver are therefore drawn in exchange for their notes
+from the banks. To keep up their supply of coin these institutions are
+obliged to call upon their own debtors, who pay them principally in their
+own notes, which are as unavailable to them as they are to the merchants to
+meet the foreign demand. The calls of the banks, therefore, in such
+emergencies of necessity exceed that demand, and produce a corresponding
+curtailment of their accommodations and of the currency at the very moment
+when the state of trade renders it most inconvenient to be borne. The
+intensity of this pressure on the community is in proportion to the
+previous liberality of credit and consequent expansion of the currency.
+Forced sales of property are made at the time when the means of purchasing
+are most reduced, and the worst calamities to individuals are only at last
+arrested by an open violation of their obligations by the banks--a refusal
+to pay specie for their notes and an imposition upon the community of a
+fluctuating and depreciated currency.
+
+These consequences are inherent in the present system. They are not
+influenced by the banks being large or small, created by National or State
+Governments. They are the results of the irresistible laws of trade or
+credit. In the recent events, which have so strikingly illustrated the
+certain effects of these laws, we have seen the bank of the largest capital
+in the Union, established under a national charter, and lately
+strengthened, as we were authoritatively informed, by exchanging that for a
+State charter with new and unusual privileges--in a condition, too, as it
+was said, of entire soundness and great prosperity--not merely unable to
+resist these effects, but the first to yield to them.
+
+Nor is it to be overlooked that there exists a chain of necessary
+dependence among these institutions which obliges them to a great extent to
+follow the course of others, notwithstanding its injustice to their own
+immediate creditors or injury to the particular community in which they are
+placed. This dependence of a bank, which is in proportion to the extent of
+its debts for circulation and deposits, is not merely on others in its own
+vicinity, but on all those which connect it with the center of trade.
+Distant banks may fail without seriously affecting those in our principal
+commercial cities, but the failure of the latter is felt at the extremities
+of the Union. The suspension at New York in 1837 was everywhere, with very
+few exceptions, followed as soon as it was known. That recently at
+Philadelphia immediately affected the banks of the South and West in a
+similar manner. This dependence of our whole banking system on the
+institutions in a few large cities is not found in the laws of their
+organization, but in those of trade and exchange. The banks at that center,
+to which currency flows and where it is required in payments for
+merchandise, hold the power of controlling those in regions whence it
+comes, while the latter possess no means of restraining them; so that the
+value of individual property and the prosperity of trade through the whole
+interior of the country are made to depend on the good or bad management of
+the banking institutions in the great seats of trade on the seaboard.
+
+But this chain of dependence does not stop here. It does not terminate at
+Philadelphia or New York. It reaches across the ocean and ends in London,
+the center of the credit system. The same laws of trade which give to the
+banks in our principal cities power over the whole banking system of the
+United States subject the former, in their turn, to the money power in
+Great Britain. It is not denied that the suspension of the New York banks
+in 1837, which was followed in quick succession throughout the Union, was
+produced by an application of that power, and it is now alleged, in
+extenuation of the present condition of so large a portion of our banks,
+that their embarrassments have arisen from the same cause.
+
+From this influence they can not now entirely escape, for it has its origin
+in the credit currencies of the two countries; it is strengthened by the
+current of trade and exchange which centers in London, and is rendered
+almost irresistible by the large debts contracted there by our merchants,
+our banks, and our States. It is thus that an introduction of a new bank
+into the most distant of our villages places the business of that village
+within the influence of the money power in England; it is thus that every
+new debt which we contract in that country seriously affects our own
+currency and extends over the pursuits of our citizens its powerful
+influence. We can not escape from this by making new banks, great or small,
+State or national. The same chains which bind those now existing to the
+center of this system of paper credit must equally fetter every similar
+institution we create. It is only by the extent to which this system has
+been pushed of late that we have been made fully aware of its irresistible
+tendency to subject our own banks and currency to a vast controlling power
+in a foreign lad, and it adds a new argument to those which illustrate
+their precarious situation.. Endangered in the first place by their own
+mismanagement and again by the conduct of every institution which connects
+them with the center of trade in our own country, they are yet subjected
+beyond all this to the effect of whatever measures policy, necessity, or
+caprice may induce those who control the credits of England to resort to. I
+mean not to comment upon these measures, present or past, and much less to
+discourage the prosecution of fair commercial dealing between the two
+countries, based on reciprocal benefits; but it having now been made
+manifest that the power of inflicting these and similar injuries is by the
+resistless law of a credit currency and credit trade equally capable of
+extending their consequences through all the ramifications of our banking
+system, and by that means indirectly obtaining, particularly when our banks
+are used as depositories of the public moneys, a dangerous political
+influence in the United States, I have deemed it my duty to bring the
+subject to your notice and ask for it your serious consideration.
+
+Is an argument required beyond the exposition of these facts to show the
+impropriety of using our banking institutions as depositories of the public
+money? Can we venture not only to encounter the risk of their individual
+and mutual mismanagement, but at the same time to place our foreign and
+domestic policy entirely under the control of a foreign moneyed interest?
+To do so is to impair the independence of our Government, as the present
+credit system has already impaired the independence of our banks; it is to
+submit all its important operations, whether of peace or war, to be
+controlled or thwarted, at first by our own banks and then by a power
+abroad greater than themselves. I can not bring myself to depict the
+humiliation to which this Government and people might be sooner or later
+reduced if the means for defending their rights are to be made dependent
+upon those who may have the most powerful of motives to impair them.
+
+Nor is it only in reference to the effect of this state of things on the
+independence of our Government or of our banks that the subject presents
+itself for consideration; it is to be viewed also in its relations to the
+general trade of our country. The time is not long passed when a deficiency
+of foreign crops was thought to afford a profitable market for the surplus
+of our industry, but now we await with feverish anxiety the news of the
+English harvest, not so much from motives of commendable sympathy, but
+fearful lest its anticipated failure should narrow the field of credit
+there. Does not this speak volumes to the patriot? Can a system be
+beneficent, wise, or just which creates greater anxiety for interests
+dependent on foreign credit than for the general prosperity of our own
+country and the profitable exportation of the surplus produce of our
+labor?
+
+The circumstances to which I have thus adverted appear to me to afford
+weighty reasons, developed by late events, to be added to those which I
+have on former occasions offered when submitting to your better knowledge
+and discernment the propriety of separating the custody of the public money
+from banking institutions. Nor has anything occurred to lessen, in my
+opinion, the force of what has been heretofore urged. The only ground on
+which that custody can be desired by the banks is the profitable use which
+they may make of the money. Such use would be regarded in individuals as a
+breach of trust or a crime of great magnitude, and yet it may be reasonably
+doubted whether, first and last, it is not attended with more mischievous
+consequences when permitted to the former than to the latter. The practice
+of permitting the public money to be used by its keepers, as here, is
+believed to be peculiar to this country and to exist scarcely anywhere
+else. To procure it here improper influences are appealed to, unwise
+connections are established between the Government and vast numbers of
+powerful State institutions, other motives than the public good are brought
+to bear both on the executive and legislative departments, and selfish
+combinations leading to special legislation are formed. It is made the
+interest of banking institutions and their stockholders throughout the
+Union to use their exertions for the increase of taxation and the
+accumulation of a surplus revenue, and while an excuse is afforded the
+means are furnished for those excessive issues which lead to extravagant
+trading and speculation and are the forerunners of a vast debt abroad and a
+suspension of the banks at home.
+
+Impressed, therefore, as I am with the propriety of the funds of the
+Government being withdrawn from the private use of either banks or
+individuals, and the public money kept by duly appointed public agents, and
+believing as I do that such also is the judgment which discussion,
+reflection, and experience have produced on the public mind, I leave the
+subject with you. It is, at all events, essential to the interests of the
+community and the business of the Government that a decision should be
+made.
+
+Most of the arguments that dissuade us from employing banks in the custody
+and disbursement of the public money apply with equal force to the receipt
+of their notes for public dues. The difference is only in form. In one
+instance the Government is a creditor for its deposits, and in the other
+for the notes it holds. They afford the same opportunity for using the
+public moneys, and equally lead to all the evils attendant upon it, since a
+bank can as safely extend its discounts on a deposit of its notes in the
+hands of a public officer as on one made in its own vaults. On the other
+hand, it would give to the Government no greater security, for in case of
+failure the claim of the note holder would be no better than that of a
+depositor.
+
+I am aware that the danger of inconvenience to the public and unreasonable
+pressure upon sound banks have been urged as objections to requiring the
+payment of the revenue in gold and silver. These objections have been
+greatly exaggerated. From the best estimates we may safely fix the amount
+of specie in the country at $85,000,000, and the portion of that which
+would be employed at any one time in the receipts and disbursements of the
+Government, even if the proposed change were made at once, would not, it is
+now, after fuller investigation, believed exceed four or five millions. If
+the change were gradual, several years would elapse before that sum would
+be required, with annual opportunities in the meantime to alter the law
+should experience prove it to be oppressive or inconvenient. The portions
+of the community on whose business the change would immediately operate are
+comparatively small, nor is it believed that its effect would be in the
+least unjust or injurious to them.
+
+In the payment of duties, which constitute by far the greater portion of
+the revenue, a very large proportion is derived from foreign commission
+houses and agents of foreign manufacturers, who sell the goods consigned to
+them generally at auction, and after paying the duties out of the avails
+remit the rest abroad in specie or its equivalent. That the amount of
+duties should in such cases be also retained in specie can hardly be made a
+matter of complaint. Our own importing merchants, by whom the residue of
+the duties is paid, are not only peculiarly interested in maintaining a
+sound currency, which the measure in question will especially promote, but
+are from the nature of their dealings best able to know when specie will be
+needed and to procure it with the least difficulty or sacrifice. Residing,
+too, almost universally in places where the revenue is received and where
+the drafts used by the Government for its disbursements must concentrate,
+they have every opportunity to obtain and use them in place of specie
+should it be for their interest or convenience. Of the number of these
+drafts and the facilities they may afford, as well as of the rapidity with
+which the public funds are drawn and disbursed, an idea may be formed from
+the fact that of nearly $20,000,000 paid to collectors and receivers during
+the present year the average amount in their hands at any one time has not
+exceeded a million and a half, and of the fifteen millions received by the
+collector of New York alone during the present year the average amount held
+by him subject to draft during each week has been less than half a
+million.
+
+The ease and safety of the operations of the Treasury in keeping the public
+money are promoted by the application of its own drafts to the public dues.
+The objection arising from having them too long outstanding might be
+obviated and they yet made to afford to merchants and banks holding them an
+equivalent for specie, and in that way greatly lessen the amount actually
+required. Still less inconvenience will attend the requirement of specie in
+purchases of public lands. Such purchases, except when made on speculation,
+are in general but single transactions, rarely repeated by the same person;
+and it is a fact that for the last year and a half, during which the notes
+of sound banks have been received, more than a moiety of these payments has
+been voluntarily made in specie, being a larger proportion than would have
+been required in three years under the graduation proposed.
+
+It is, moreover, a principle than which none is better settled by
+experience that the supply of the precious metals will always be found
+adequate to the uses for which they are required. They abound in countries
+where no other currency is allowed. In our own States, where small notes
+are excluded, gold and silver supply their place. When driven to their
+hiding places by bank suspensions, a little firmness in the community soon
+restores them in a sufficient quantity for ordinary purposes. Postage and
+other public dues have been collected in coin without serious inconvenience
+even in States where a depreciated paper currency has existed for years,
+and this, with the aid of Treasury notes for a part of the time, was done
+without interruption during the suspension of 1837. At the present moment
+the receipts and disbursements of the Government are made in legal currency
+in the largest portion of the Union. No one suggests a departure from this
+rule, and if it can now be successfully carried out it will be surely
+attended with even less difficulty when bank notes are again redeemed in
+specie.
+
+Indeed, I can not think that a serious objection would anywhere be raised
+to the receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public transactions
+were it not from an apprehension that a surplus in the Treasury might
+withdraw a large portion of it from circulation and lock it up unprofitably
+in the public vaults. It would not, in my opinion, be difficult to prevent
+such an inconvenience from occurring; but the authentic statements which I
+have already submitted to you in regard to the actual amount in the public
+Treasury at any one time during the period embraced in them and the little
+probability of a different state of the Treasury for at least some years to
+come seem to render it unnecessary to dwell upon it. Congress, moreover, as
+I have before observed, will in every year have an opportunity to guard
+against it should the occurrence of any circumstances lead us to apprehend
+injury from this source. Viewing the subject in all its aspects, I can not
+believe that any period will be more auspicious than the present for the
+adoption of all measures necessary to maintain the sanctity of our own
+engagements and to aid in securing to the community that abundant supply of
+the precious metals which adds so much to their prosperity and gives such
+increased stability to all their dealings.
+
+In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably always
+exist, but this serves only to render it the more incumbent on us,,
+notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our
+respective stations to mitigate the evils they produce; to take from them
+as rapidly as the obligations of public faith and a careful consideration
+of the immediate interests of the community will permit the unjust
+character of monopolies; to check, so far as may be practicable, by prudent
+legislation those temptations of interest and those opportunities for their
+dangerous indulgence which beset them on every side, and to confine them
+strictly to the performance of their paramount duty--that of aiding the
+operations of commerce rather than consulting their own exclusive
+advantage. These and other salutary reforms may, it is believed, be
+accomplished without the violation of any of the great principles of the
+social compact, the observance of which is indispensable to its existence,
+or interfering in any way with the useful and profitable employment of real
+capital.
+
+Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving to
+commercial intercourse all necessary facilities without inflating or
+depreciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus accomplishing
+their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their
+protection and encouragement in the good will of the community. Among a
+people so just as ours the same results could not fail to attend a similar
+course. The direct supervision of the banks belongs, from the nature of our
+Government, to the States who authorize them. It is to their legislatures
+that the people must mainly look for action on that subject. But as the
+conduct of the Federal Government in the management of its revenue has also
+a powerful, though less immediate, influence upon them, it becomes our duty
+to see that a proper direction is given to it. While the keeping of the
+public revenue in a separate and independent treasury and of collecting it
+in gold and silver will have a salutary influence on the system of paper
+credit with which all banks are connected, and thus aid those that are
+sound and well managed, it will at the same time sensibly check such as are
+otherwise by at once withholding the means of extravagance afforded by the
+public funds and restraining them from excessive issues of notes which they
+would be constantly called upon to redeem.
+
+I am aware it has been urged that this control may be best attained and
+exerted by means of a national bank. The constitutional objections which I
+am well known to entertain would prevent me in any event from proposing or
+assenting to that remedy; but in addition to this, I can not after past
+experience bring myself to think that it can any longer be extensively
+regarded as effective for such a purpose. The history of the late national
+bank, through all its mutations, shows that it was not so. On the contrary,
+it may, after a careful consideration of the subject, be, I think, safely
+stated that at every period of banking excess it took the lead; that in
+1817 and 1818, in 1823, in 1831, and in 1834 its vast expansions, followed
+by distressing contractions, led to those of the State institutions. It
+swelled and maddened the tides of the banking system, but seldom allayed or
+safely directed them. At a few periods only was a salutary control
+exercised, but an eager desire, on the contrary, exhibited for profit in
+the first place; and if afterwards its measures were severe toward other
+institutions, it was because its own safety compelled it to adopt them. It
+did not differ from them in principle or in form; its measures emanated
+from the same spirit of gain; it felt the same temptation to overissues; it
+suffered from and was totally unable to avert those inevitable laws of
+trade by which it was. itself affected equally with them; and at least on
+one occasion, at an early day, it was saved only by extraordinary exertions
+from the same fate that attended the weakest institution it professed to
+supervise. In 1837 it failed equally with others in redeeming its notes
+(though the two years allowed by its charter for that purpose had not
+expired), a large amount of which remains to the present time outstanding.
+It is true that, having so vast a capital and strengthened by the use of
+all the revenues of the Government, it possessed more power; but while it
+was itself by that circumstance freed from the control which all banks
+require, its paramount object and inducement were left the same--to make
+the most for its stockholders, not to regulate the currency of the country.
+Nor has it, as far as we are advised, been found to be greatly otherwise
+elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of England has not
+prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to
+keep off a suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter
+of a century. And why should we expect it to be otherwise? A national
+institution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the
+State banks, is yet constituted upon the same principles, is conducted by
+men equally exposed to temptation, and is liable to the same disasters,
+with the additional disadvantage that its magnitude occasions an extent of
+confusion and distress which the mismanagement of smaller institutions
+could not produce. It can scarcely be doubted that the recent suspension of
+the United State Bank of Pennsylvania, of which the effects are felt not in
+that State alone, but over half the Union, had its origin in a course of
+business commenced while it was a national institution, and there is no
+good reason for supposing that the same consequences would not have
+followed had it still derived its powers from the General Government. It is
+in vain, when the influences and impulses are the same, to look for a
+difference in conduct or results. By such creations we do, therefore, but
+increase the mass of paper credit and paper currency, without checking
+their attendant evils and fluctuations. The extent of power and the
+efficiency of organization which we give, so far from being beneficial, are
+in practice positively injurious. They strengthen the chain of dependence
+throughout the Union, subject all parts more certainly to common disaster,
+and bind every bank more effectually in the first instance to those of our
+commercial cities, and in the end to a foreign power. In a word, I can not
+but believe that, with the full understanding of the operations of our
+banking system which experience has produced, public sentiment is not less
+opposed to the creation of a national bank for purposes connected with
+currency and commerce than for those connected with the fiscal operations
+of the Government.
+
+Yet the commerce and currency of the country are suffering evils from the
+operations of the State banks which can not and ought not to be overlooked.
+By their means we have been flooded with a depreciated paper, which it was
+evidently the design of the framers of the Constitution to prevent when
+they required Congress to "Coin money and regulate the value of foreign
+coins," and when they forbade the States "to coin money, emit bills of
+credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts," or
+"pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts." If they did not guard
+more explicitly against the present state of things, it was because they
+could not have anticipated that the few banks then existing were to swell
+to an extent which would expel to so great a degree the gold and silver for
+which they had provided from the channels of circulation, and fill them
+with a currency that defeats the objects they had in view. The remedy for
+this must chiefly rest with the States from whose legislation it has
+sprung. No good that might accrue in a particular case front the exercise
+of powers not obviously conferred on the General Government would authorize
+its interference or justify a course that might in the slightest degree
+increase at the expense of the States the power of the Federal authorities;
+nor do I doubt that the States will apply the remedy. Within the last few
+years events have appealed to them too strongly to be disregarded. They
+have seen that the Constitution, though theoretically adhered to, is
+subverted in practice; that while on the statute books there is no legal
+tender but gold and silver, no law impairing the obligations of contracts,
+yet that in point of fact the privileges conferred on banking corporations
+have made their notes the currency of the country; that the obligations
+imposed by these notes are violated under the impulses of interest or
+convenience, and that the number and power of the persons connected with
+these corporations or placed under their influence give them a fearful
+weight when their interest is in opposition to the spirit of the
+Constitution and laws. To the people it is immaterial whether these results
+are produced by open violations of the latter or by the workings of a
+system of which the result is the same. An inflexible execution even of the
+existing statutes of most of the States would redress many evils now
+endured, would effectually show the banks the dangers of mismanagement
+which impunity encourages them to repeat, and would teach all corporations
+the useful lesson that they are the subjects of the law and the servants of
+the people. What is still wanting to effect these objects must be sought in
+additional legislation, or, if that be inadequate, in such further
+constitutional grants or restrictions as may bring us back into the path
+from which we have so widely wandered.
+
+In the meantime it is the duty of the General Government to cooperate with
+the States by a wise exercise of its constitutional powers and the
+enforcement of its existing laws. The extent to which it may do so by
+further enactments I have already adverted to, and the wisdom of Congress
+may yet enlarge them. But above all, it is incumbent upon us to hold erect
+the principles of morality and law, constantly executing our own contracts
+in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, and thus serving as
+a rallying point by which our whole country may be brought back to that
+safe and honored standard.
+
+Our people will not long be insensible to the extent of the burdens
+entailed upon them by the false system that has been operating on their
+sanguine, energetic, and industrious character, nor to the means necessary
+to extricate themselves from these embarrassments. The weight which presses
+upon a large portion of the people and the States is an enormous debt,
+foreign and domestic. The foreign debt of our States, corporations, and men
+of business can scarcely be less than $200,000,000, requiring more than
+$10,000,000 a year to pay the interest. This sum has to be paid out of the
+exports of the country, and must of necessity cut off imports to that
+extent or plunge the country more deeply in debt from year to year. It is
+easy to see that the increase of this foreign debt must augment the annual
+demand on the exports to pay the interest, and to the same extent diminish
+the imports, and in proportion to the enlargement of the foreign debt and
+the consequent increase of interest must be the decrease of the import
+trade. In lieu of the comforts which it now brings us we might have our.
+gigantic banking institutions and splendid, but in many instances
+profitless, railroads and canals absorbing to a great extent in interest
+upon the capital borrowed to construct them the surplus fruits of national
+industry for years to come, and securing to posterity no adequate return
+for the comforts which the labors of their hands might otherwise have
+secured. It is not by the increase of this debt that relief is to be
+sought, but in its diminution. Upon this point there is, I am happy to say,
+hope before us; not so much in the return of confidence abroad, which will
+enable the States to borrow more money, as in a change of public feeling at
+home, which prompts our people to pause in their career and think of the
+means by which debts are to be paid before they are contracted. If we would
+escape embarrassment, public and private, we must cease to run in debt
+except for objects of necessity or such as will yield a certain return. Let
+the faith of the States, corporations, and individuals already pledged be
+kept with the most punctilious regard. It is due to our national character
+as well as to justice that this should on the part of each be a fixed
+principle of conduct. But it behooves us all to be more chary in pledging
+it hereafter. By ceasing to run in debt and applying the surplus of our
+crops and incomes to the discharge of existing obligations, buying less and
+selling more, and managing all affairs, public and private, with strict
+economy and frugality, we shall see our country soon recover from a
+temporary depression, arising not from natural and permanent causes, but
+from those I have enumerated, and advance with renewed vigor in her career
+of prosperity.
+
+Fortunately for us at this moment, when the balance of trade is greatly
+against us and the difficulty of meeting it enhanced by the disturbed state
+of our money affairs, the bounties of Providence have come to relieve us
+from the consequences of past errors. A faithful application of the immense
+results of the labors of the last season will afford partial relief for the
+present, and perseverance in the same course will in due season accomplish
+the rest. We have had full experience in times past of the extraordinary
+results which can in this respect be brought about in a short period by the
+united and well-directed efforts of a community like ours. Our surplus
+profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the wonderful
+advantages which Providence has bestowed upon our country in its climate,
+its various productions, indispensable to other nations, will in due time
+afford abundant means to perfect the most useful of those objects for which
+the States have been plunging themselves of late in embarrassment and debt,
+without imposing on ourselves or our children such fearful burdens.
+
+But let it be indelibly engraved on our minds that relief is not to be
+found in expedients. Indebtedness can not be lessened by borrowing more
+money. or by changing the form of the debt. The balance of trade is not to
+be turned in our favor by creating new demands upon us abroad. Our currency
+can not be improved by the creation of new banks or more issues from those
+which now exist. Although these devices sometimes appear to give temporary
+relief, they almost invariably aggravate the evil in the end. It is only by
+retrenchment and reform--by curtailing public and private expenditures, by
+paying our debts, and by reforming our banking system--that we are to
+expect effectual relief, security for the future, and an enduring
+prosperity. In shaping the institutions and policy of the General
+Government so as to promote as far as it can with its limited powers these
+important ends, you may rely on my most cordial cooperation.
+
+That there should have been in the progress of recent events doubts in many
+quarters and in some a heated opposition to every change can not surprise
+us. Doubts are properly attendant on all reform, and it is peculiarly in
+the nature of such abuses as we are now encountering to seek to perpetuate
+their power by means of the influence they have been permitted to acquire.
+It is their result, if not their object, to gain for the few an ascendency
+over the many by securing to them a monopoly of the currency, the medium
+through which most of the wants of mankind are supplied; to produce
+throughout society a chain of dependence which leads all classes to look to
+privileged associations for the means of speculation and extravagance; to
+nourish, in preference to the manly virtues that give dignity to human
+nature, a craving desire for luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which
+renders those who seek them dependent on those who supply them; to
+substitute for republican simplicity and economical habits a sickly
+appetite for effeminate indulgence and an imitation of that reckless
+extravagance which impoverished and enslaved the industrious people of
+foreign lands, and at last to fix upon us, instead of those equal political
+rights the acquisition of which was alike the object and supposed reward of
+our Revolutionary struggle, a system of exclusive privileges conferred by
+partial legislation. To remove the influences which had thus gradually
+grown up among us, to deprive them of their deceptive advantages, to test
+them by the light of wisdom and truth, to oppose the force which they
+concentrate in their sup-port--all this was necessarily the work of time,
+even among a people so enlightened and pure as that of the United States.
+In most other countries, perhaps, it could only be accomplished through
+that series of revolutionary movements which are too often found necessary
+to effect any great and radical reform; but it is the crowning merit of our
+institutions that they create and nourish in the vast majority of our
+people a disposition and a power peaceably to remedy abuses which have
+elsewhere caused the effusion of rivers of blood and the sacrifice of
+thousands of the human race. The result thus far is most honorable to the
+self-denial, the intelligence, and the patriotism of our citizens; it
+justifies the confident hope that they will carry through the reform which
+has been so well begun, and that they will go still further than they have
+yet gone in illustrating the important truth that a people as free and
+enlightened as ours will, whenever it becomes necessary, show themselves to
+be indeed capable of self-government by voluntarily adopting appropriate
+remedies for every abuse, and submitting to temporary sacrifices, however
+great, to insure their permanent welfare.
+
+My own exertions for the furtherance of these desirable objects have been
+bestowed throughout my official career with a zeal that is nourished by
+ardent wishes for the welfare of my country, and by an unlimited reliance
+on the wisdom that marks its ultimate decision on all great and
+controverted questions. Impressed with the solemn obligations imposed upon
+me by the Constitution, desirous also of laying before my fellow-citizens,
+with whose confidence and support I have been so highly honored, such
+measures as appear to me conducive to their prosperity, and anxious to
+submit to their fullest consideration the grounds upon which my opinions
+are formed, I have on this as on preceding occasions freely offered my
+views on those points of domestic policy that seem at the present time most
+prominently to require the action of the Government. I know that they will
+receive from Congress that full and able consideration which the importance
+of the subjects merits, and I can repeat the assurance heretofore made that
+I shall cheerfully and readily cooperate with you in every measure that
+will tend to promote the welfare of the Union. M. VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 5, 1840
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having graciously
+continued to our beloved country through the vicissitudes of another year
+the invaluable blessings of health, plenty, and peace. Seldom has this
+favored land been so generally exempted from the ravages of disease or the
+labor of the husbandman more amply rewarded, and never before have our
+relations with other countries been placed on a more favorable basis than
+that which they so happily occupy at this critical conjuncture in the
+affairs of the world. A rigid and persevering abstinence from all
+interference with the domestic and political relations of other States,
+alike due to the genius and distinctive character of our Government and to
+the principles by which it is directed; a faithful observance in the
+management of our foreign relations of the practice of speaking plainly,
+dealing justly, and requiring truth and justice in return as the best
+conservatives of the peace of nations; a strict impartiality in our
+manifestations of friendship in the commercial privileges we concede and
+those we require from others--these, accompanied by a disposition as prompt
+to maintain in every emergency our own rights as we are from principle
+averse to the invasion of those of others, have given to our country and
+Government a standing in the great family of nations of which we have just
+cause to be proud and the advantages of which are experienced by our
+citizens throughout every portion of the earth to which their enterprising
+and adventurous spirit may carry them. Few, if any, remain insensible to
+the value of our friendship or ignorant of the terms on which it can be
+acquired and by which it can alone be preserved.
+
+A series of questions of long standing, difficult in their adjustment and
+important in their consequences, in which the rights of our citizens and
+the honor of the country were deeply involved, have in the course of a few
+years (the most of them during the successful Administration of my
+immediate predecessor) been brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and the
+most important of those remaining are, I am happy to believe, in a fair way
+of being speedily and satisfactorily adjusted.
+
+With all the powers of the world our relations are those of honorable
+peace. Since your adjournment nothing serious has occurred to interrupt or
+threaten this desirable harmony. If clouds have lowered above the other
+hemisphere, they have not cast their portentous shadows upon our happy
+shores. Bound by no entangling alliances, yet linked by a common nature and
+interest with the other nations of mankind, our aspirations are for the
+preservation of peace, in whose solid and civilizing triumphs all may
+participate with a generous emulation. Yet it behooves us to be prepared
+for any event and to be always ready to maintain those just and enlightened
+principles of national intercourse for which this Government has ever
+contended. In the shock of contending empires it is only by assuming a
+resolute bearing and clothing themselves with defensive armor that neutral
+nations can maintain their independent rights.
+
+The excitement which grew out of the territorial controversy between the
+United States and Great Britain having in a great measure subsided, it is
+hoped that a favorable period is approaching for its final settlement. Both
+Governments must now be convinced of the dangers with which the question is
+fraught, and it must be their desire, as it is their interest, that this
+perpetual cause of irritation should be removed as speedily as practicable.
+In my last annual message you were informed that the proposition for a
+commission of exploration and survey promised by Great Britain had been
+received, and that a counter project, including also a provision for the
+certain and final adjustment of the limits in dispute, was then before the
+British Government for its consideration. The answer of that Government,
+accompanied by additional propositions of its own, was received through its
+minister here since your separation. These were promptly considered, such
+as were deemed correct in principle and consistent with a due regard to the
+just rights of the United States and of the State of Maine concurred in,
+and the reasons for dissenting from the residue, with an additional
+suggestion on our part, communicated by the Secretary of State to Mr. Fox.
+That minister, not feeling himself sufficiently instructed upon some of the
+points raised in the discussion, felt it to be his duty to refer the matter
+to his own Government for its further decision. Having now been for some
+time under its advisement, a speedy answer may be confidently expected.
+From the character of the points still in difference and the undoubted
+disposition of both parties to bring the matter to an early conclusion, I
+look with entire confidence to a prompt and satisfactory termination of the
+negotiation. Three commissioners were appointed shortly after the
+adjournment of Congress under the act of the last session providing for the
+exploration and survey of the line which separates the States of Maine and
+New Hampshire from the British Provinces. They have been actively employed
+until their progress was interrupted by the inclemency of the season, and
+will resume their labors as soon as practicable in the ensuing year.
+
+It is understood that their respective examinations will throw new light
+upon the subject in controversy and serve to remove any erroneous
+impressions which may have been made elsewhere prejudicial to the rights of
+the United States. It was, among other reasons, with a view of preventing
+the embarrassments which in our peculiar system of government impede and
+complicate negotiations involving the territorial rights of a State that I
+thought it my duty, as you have been informed on a previous occasion, to
+propose to the British Government, through its minister at Washington, that
+early steps should be taken to adjust the points of difference on the line
+of boundary from the entrance of Lake Superior to the most northwestern
+point of the Lake of the Woods by the arbitration of a friendly power in
+conformity with the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent. No answer has
+yet been returned by the British Government to this proposition.
+
+With Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the remaining powers of Europe I
+am happy to inform you our relations continue to be of the most friendly
+character. With Belgium a treaty of commerce and navigation, based upon
+liberal principles of reciprocity and equality, was concluded in March
+last, and, having been ratified by the Belgian Government, will be duly
+laid before the Senate. It is a subject of congratulation that it provides
+for the satisfactory adjustment of a long-standing question of controversy,
+thus removing the only obstacle which could obstruct the friendly and
+mutually advantageous intercourse between the two nations. A messenger has
+been dispatched with the Hanoverian treaty to Berlin, where, according to
+stipulation, the ratifications are to be exchanged. I am happy to announce
+to you that after many delays and difficulties a treaty of commerce and
+navigation between the United States and Portugal was concluded and signed
+at Lisbon on the 26th of August last by the plenipotentiaries of the two
+Governments. Its stipulations are founded upon those principles of mutual
+liberality and advantage which the United States have always sought to make
+the basis of their intercourse with foreign powers, and it is hoped they
+will tend to foster and strengthen the commercial intercourse of the two
+countries.
+
+Under the appropriation of the last session of Congress an agent has been
+sent to Germany for the purpose of promoting the interests of our tobacco
+trade.
+
+The commissioners appointed under the convention for the adjustment of
+claims of citizens of the United States upon Mexico having met and
+organized at Washington in August last, the papers in the possession of the
+Government relating to those claims were communicated to the board. The
+claims not embraced by that convention are now the subject of negotiation
+between the two Governments through the medium of our minister at Mexico.
+
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our relations with the
+different Governments of South America. I regret, however, to be obliged to
+inform you that the claims of our citizens upon the late Republic of
+Colombia have not yet been satisfied by the separate Governments into which
+it has been resolved.
+
+The charge' d'affaires of Brazil having expressed the intention of his
+Government not to prolong the treaty of 1828, it will cease to be
+obligatory upon either party on the 12th day of December, 1841, when the
+extensive commercial intercourse between the United States and that vast
+Empire will no longer be regulated by express stipulations.
+
+It affords me pleasure to communicate to you that the Government of Chili
+has entered into an agreement to indemnify the claimants in the case of the
+Macectonian for American property seized in 1819, and to add that
+information has also been received which justifies the hope of an early
+adjustment of the remaining claims upon that Government.
+
+The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the convention between the
+United States and Texas for marking the boundary between them have,
+according to the last report received from our commissioner, surveyed and
+established the whole extent of the boundary north along the western bank
+of the Sabine River from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico to the
+thirty-second degree of north latitude. The commission adjourned on the
+16th of June last, to reassemble on the 1st of November for the purpose of
+establishing accurately the intersection of the thirty-second degree of
+latitude with the western bank of the Sabine and the meridian line thence
+to Red River. It is presumed that the work will be concluded in the present
+season.
+
+The present sound condition of their finances and the success with which
+embarrassments in regard to them, at times apparently insurmountable, have
+been overcome are matters upon which the people and Government of the
+United States may well congratulate themselves. An overflowing Treasury,
+however it may be regarded as an evidence of public prosperity, is seldom
+conducive to the permanent welfare of any people, and experience has
+demonstrated its incompatibility with the salutary action of political
+institutions like those of the United States. Our safest reliance for
+financial efficiency and independence has, on the contrary, been found to
+consist in ample resources unencumbered with debt, and in this respect the
+Federal Government occupies a singularly fortunate and truly enviable
+position.
+
+When I entered upon the discharge of my official duties in March, 1837, the
+act for the distribution of the surplus revenue was in a course of rapid
+execution. Nearly $28,000,000 of the public moneys were, in pursuance of
+its provisions, deposited with the States in the months of January, April,
+and July of that year. In May there occurred a general suspension of specie
+payments by the banks, including, with very few exceptions, those in which
+the public moneys were deposited and upon whose fidelity the Government had
+unfortunately made itself dependent for the revenues which had been
+collected from the people and were indispensable to the public service.
+
+This suspension and the excesses in banking and commerce out of which it
+arose, and which were greatly aggravated by its occurrence, made to a great
+extent unavailable the principal part of the public money then on hand,
+suspended the collection of many millions accruing on merchants' bonds, and
+greatly reduced the revenue arising from customs and the public lands.
+These effects have continued to operate in various degrees to the present
+period, and in addition to the decrease in the revenue thus produced two
+and a half millions of duties have been relinquished by two biennial
+reductions under the act of 1833, and probably as much more upon the
+importation of iron for railroads by special legislation.
+
+Whilst such has been our condition for the last four years in relation to
+revenue, we have during the same period been subjected to an unavoidable
+continuance of large extraordinary expenses necessarily growing out of past
+transactions, and which could not be immediately arrested without great
+prejudice to the public interest. Of these, the charge upon the Treasurer
+in consequence of the Cherokee treaty alone, without adverting to others
+arising out of Indian treaties, has already exceeded $5,000,000; that for
+the prosecution of measures for the removal of the Seminole Indians, which
+were found in progress, has been nearly fourteen millions, and the public
+buildings have required the unusual sum of nearly three millions.
+
+It affords me, however, great pleasure to be able to say that from the
+commencement of this period to the present day every demand upon the
+Government, at home or abroad, has been promptly met. This has been done
+not only without creating a permanent debt or a resort to additional
+taxation in any form, but in the midst of a steadily progressive reduction
+of existing burdens upon the people, leaving still a considerable balance
+of available funds which will remain in the Treasury at the end of the
+year. The small amount of Treasury notes, not exceeding $4,500,000, still
+outstanding, and less by twenty-three millions than the United States have
+in deposit with the States, is composed of such only as are not yet due or
+have not been presented for payment. They may be redeemed out of the
+accruing revenue if the expenditures do not exceed the amount within which
+they may, it is thought, be kept without prejudice to the public interest,
+and the revenue shall prove to be as large as may justly be anticipated.
+
+Among the reflections arising from the contemplation of these
+circumstances, one, not the least gratifying, is the consciousness that the
+Government had the resolution and the ability to adhere in every emergency
+to the sacred obligations of law, to execute all its contracts according to
+the requirements of the Constitution, and thus to present when most needed
+a rallying point by which the business of the whole country might be
+brought back to a safe and unvarying standard--a result vitally important
+as well to the interests as to the morals of the people. There can surely
+now be no difference of opinion in regard to the incalculable evils that
+would have arisen if the Government at that critical moment had suffered
+itself to be deterred from upholding the only true standard of value,
+either by the pressure of adverse circumstances or the violence of
+unmerited denunciation. The manner in which the people sustained the
+performance of this duty was highly honorable to their fortitude and
+patriotism. It can not fail to stimulate their agents to adhere under all
+circumstances to the line of duty and to satisfy them of the safety with
+which a course really right and demanded by a financial crisis may in a
+community like ours be pursued, however apparently severe its immediate
+operation.
+
+The policy of the Federal Government in extinguishing as rapidly as
+possible the national debt, and subsequently in resisting every temptation
+to create a new one, deserves to be regarded in the same favorable light.
+Among the many objections to a national debt, the certain tendency of
+public securities to concentrate ultimately in the coffers of foreign
+stockholders is one which is every day gathering strength. Already have the
+resources of many of the States and the future industry of their citizens
+been indefinitely mortgaged to the subjects of European Governments to the
+amount of twelve millions annually to pay the constantly accruing interest
+on borrowed money--a sum exceeding half the ordinary revenues of the whole
+United States. The pretext which this relation affords to foreigners to
+scrutinize the management of our domestic affairs, if not actually to
+intermeddle with them, presents a subject for earnest attention, not to say
+of serious alarm. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with the exception
+of an obligation entered into in behalf of the District of Columbia, which
+must soon be discharged, is wholly exempt from any such embarrassment. It
+is also, as is believed, the only Government which, having fully and
+faithfully paid all its creditors, has also relieved itself entirely from
+debt. To maintain a distinction so desirable and so honorable to our
+national character should be an object of earnest solicitude. Never should
+a free people, if it be possible to avoid it, expose themselves to the
+necessity of having to treat of the peace, the honor, or the safety of the
+Republic with the governments of foreign creditors, who, however well
+disposed they may be to cultivate with us in general friendly relations,
+are nevertheless by the law of their own condition made hostile to the
+success and permanency of political institutions like ours. Most
+humiliating may be the embarrassments consequent upon such a condition.
+Another objection, scarcely less formidable, to the commencement of a new
+debt is its inevitable tendency to increase in magnitude and to foster
+national extravagance. He has been an unprofitable observer of events who
+needs at this day to be admonished of the difficulties which a government
+habitually dependent on loans to sustain its ordinary expenditures has to
+encounter in resisting the influences constantly exerted in favor of
+additional loans; by capitalists, who enrich themselves by government
+securities for amounts much exceeding the money they actually advance--a
+prolific source of individual aggrandizement in all borrowing countries; by
+stockholders, who seek their gains in the rise and fall of public stocks;
+and by the selfish importunities of applicants for appropriations for works
+avowedly for the accommodation of the public, but the real objects of which
+are too frequently the advancement of private interests. The known
+necessity which so many of the States will be under to impose taxes for the
+payment of the interest on their debts furnishes an additional and very
+cogent reason why the Federal Governments should refrain from creating a
+national debt, by which the people would be exposed to double taxation for
+a similar object. We possess within ourselves ample resources for every
+emergency, and we may be quite sure that our citizens in no future exigency
+will be unwilling to supply the Government with all the means asked for the
+defense of the country. In time of peace there can, at all events, be no
+justification for the creation of a permanent debt by the Federal
+Government. Its limited range of constitutional duties may certainly under
+such circumstances be performed without such a resort. It has, it is seen,
+been avoided during four years of greater fiscal difficulties than have
+existed in a similar period since the adoption of the Constitution, and one
+also remarkable for the occurrence of extraordinary causes of
+expenditures.
+
+But to accomplish so desirable an object two things are indispensable:
+First, that the action of the Federal Government be kept within the
+boundaries prescribed by its founders, and, secondly, that all
+appropriations for objects admitted to be constitutional, and the
+expenditure of them also, be subjected to a standard of rigid but
+well-considered and practical economy. The first depends chiefly on the
+people themselves--the opinions they form of the true construction of the
+Constitution and the confidence they repose in the political sentiments of
+those they select as their representatives in the Federal Legislature; the
+second rests upon the fidelity with which their more immediate
+representatives and other public functionaries discharge the trusts
+committed to them. The duty of economizing the expenses of the public
+service is admitted on all hands; yet there are few subjects upon which
+there exists a wider difference of opinion than is constantly manifested in
+regard to the fidelity with which that duty is discharged. Neither
+diversity of sentiment nor even mutual recriminations upon a point in
+respect to which the public mind is so justly sensitive can well be
+entirely avoided, and least so at periods of great political excitement. An
+intelligent people, however, seldom fail to arrive in the end at correct
+conclusions in such a matter. Practical economy in the management of public
+affairs can have no adverse influence to contend with more powerful than a
+large surplus revenue, and the unusually large appropriations for 1837 may
+without doubt, independently of the extraordinary requisitions for the
+public service growing out of the state of our Indian relations, be in no
+inconsiderable degree traced to this source. The sudden and rapid
+distribution of the large surplus then in the Treasury and the equally
+sudden and unprecedentedly severe revulsion in the commerce and business of
+the country, pointing with unerring certainty to a great and protracted
+reduction of the revenue, strengthened the propriety of the earliest
+practicable reduction of the public expenditures.
+
+But to change a system operating upon so large a surface and applicable to
+such numerous and diversified interests and objects was more than the work
+of a day. The attention of every department of the Government was
+immediately and in good faith directed to that end, and has been so
+continued to the present moment. The estimates and appropriations for the
+year 1838 (the first. over which I had any control) were somewhat
+diminished. The expenditures of 1839 were reduced $6,000,000. Those of
+1840, exclusive of disbursements for public debt and trust claims, will
+probably not exceed twenty-two and a half millions, being between two and
+three millions less than those of the preceding year and nine or ten
+millions less than those of 1837. Nor has it been found necessary in order
+to produce this result to resort to the power conferred by Congress of
+postponing certain classes of the public works, except by deferring
+expenditures for a short period upon a limited portion of them, and which
+postponement terminated some time since--at the moment the Treasury
+Department by further receipts from the indebted banks became fully assured
+of its ability to meet them without prejudice to the public service in
+other respects. Causes are in operation which will, it is believed, justify
+a still further reduction without injury to any important national
+interest. The expenses of sustaining the troops employed in Florida have
+been gradually and greatly reduced through the persevering efforts of the
+War Department, and a reasonable hope may be entertained that the necessity
+for military operations in that quarter will soon cease. The removal of the
+Indians from within our settled borders is nearly completed. The pension
+list, one of the heaviest charges upon the Treasury, is rapidly diminishing
+by death. The most costly of our public buildings are either finished or
+nearly so, and we may, I think, safely promise ourselves a continued
+exemption from border difficulties.
+
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $ 1,500,000. This sum, with the expected receipts from all
+sources during the next year, will, it is believed, be sufficient to enable
+the Government to meet every engagement and have a suitable balance, in the
+Treasury at the end of the year, if the remedial measures connected with
+the customs and the public lands heretofore recommended are adopted and the
+new appropriations by Congress shall not carry the expenditures beyond the
+official estimates.
+
+The new system established by Congress for the safe-keeping of the public
+money, prescribing the kind of currency to be received for the public
+revenue and providing additional guards and securities against losses, has
+now been several mouths in operation. Although it might be premature upon
+an experience of such limited duration to form a definite opinion in regard
+to the extent of its influences in correcting many evils under which the
+Federal Government and the country have hitherto suffered, especially those
+that have grown out of banking expansions, a depreciated currency, and
+official defalcations, yet it is but right to say that nothing has occurred
+in the practical operation of the system to weaken in the slightest degree,
+but much to strengthen, the confident anticipations of its friends. The
+grounds of these have been heretofore so fully explained as to require no
+recapitulation. In respect to the facility and convenience it affords in
+conducting the public service, and the ability of the Government to
+discharge through its agency every duty attendant on the collection,
+transfer, and disbursement of the public money with promptitude and
+success, I can say with confidence tha the apprehensions of those who felt
+it to be their duty to oppose its adoption have proved to be unfounded. On
+the contrary, this branch of the fiscal affairs of the Government has been,
+and it is believed may always be, thus carried on with every desirable
+facility and security. A few changes and improvements in the details of the
+system, without affecting any principles involved in it, will be submitted
+to you by the Secretary of the Treasury, and will, I am sure, receive at
+your hands that attention to which they may on examination be found to be
+entitled.
+
+I have deemed this brief summary of our fiscal affairs necessary to the due
+performance of a duty specially enjoined upon me by the Constitution. It
+will serve also to illustrate more fully the principles by which I have
+been guided in reference to two contested points in our public policy which
+were earliest in their development and have been more important in their
+consequences than any that have arisen under our complicated and difficult,
+yet admirable, system of government. I allude to a national debt and a
+national bank. It was in these that the political contests by which the
+country has been agitated ever since the adoption of the Constitution in a
+great measure originated, and there is too much reason to apprehend that
+the conflicting interests and opposing principles thus marshaled will
+continue as heretofore to produce similar if not aggravated consequences.
+Coming into office the declared enemy of both, I have earnestly endeavored
+to prevent a resort to either.
+
+The consideration that a large public debt affords an apology, and produces
+in some degree a necessity also, for resorting to a system and extent of
+taxation which is not only oppressive throughout, but is likewise so apt to
+lead in the end to the commission of that most odious of all offenses
+against the principles of republican government, the prostitution of
+political power, conferred for the general benefit, to the aggrandizement
+of particular classes and the gratification of individual cupidity, is
+alone sufficient, independently of the weighty objections which have
+already been urged, to render its creation and existence the sources of
+bitter and unappeasable discord. If we add to this its inevitable tendency
+to produce and foster extravagant expenditures of the public moneys, by
+which a necessity is created for new loans and new burdens on the people,
+and, finally, refer to the examples of every government which has existed
+for proof, how seldom it is that the system, when once adopted and
+implanted in the policy of a country, has failed to expand itself until
+public credit was exhausted and the people were no longer able to endure
+its increasing weight, it seems impossible to resist the conclusion that no
+benefits resulting from its career, no extent of conquest, no accession of
+wealth to particular classes, nor any nor all its combined advantages, can
+counterbalance its ultimate but certain results--a splendid government and
+an impoverished people.
+
+If a national bank was, as is undeniable, repudiated by the framers of the
+Constitution as incompatible with the rights of the States and the
+liberties of the people; if from the beginning it has been regarded by
+large portions of our citizens as coming in direct collision with that
+great and vital amendment of the Constitution which declares that all
+powers not conferred by that instrument on the General Government are
+reserved to the States and to the people; if it has been viewed by them as
+the first great step in the march of latitudinous construction, which
+unchecked would render that sacred instrument of as little value as an
+unwritten constitution, dependent, as it would alone be, for its meaning on
+the interested interpretation of a dominant party, and affording no
+security to the rights of the minority--if such is undeniably the case,
+what rational grounds could have been conceived for anticipating aught but
+determined opposition to such an institution at the present day.
+
+Could a different result have been expected when the consequences which
+have flowed from its creation, and particularly from its struggles to
+perpetuate its existence, had confirmed in so striking a manner the
+apprehensions of its earliest opponents; when it had been so clearly
+demonstrated that a concentrated money power, wielding so vast a capital
+and combining such incalculable means of influence, may in those peculiar
+conjunctures to which this Government is unavoidably exposed prove an
+overmatch for the political power of the people themselves; when the true
+character of its capacity to regulate according to its will and its
+interests and the interests of its favorites the value and production of
+the labor and property of every man in this extended country had been so
+fully and fearfully developed; when it was notorious that all classes of
+this great community had, by means of the power and influence it thus
+possesses, been infected to madness with a spirit of heedless speculation;
+when it had been seen that, secure in the support of the combination of
+influences by which it was surrounded, it could violate its charter and set
+the laws at defiance with impunity; and when, too, it had become most
+apparent that to believe that such an accumulation of powers can ever be
+granted without the certainty of being abused was to indulge in a fatal
+delusion?
+
+To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences
+I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of
+confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as
+are clearly within the constitutional authority of the Federal Government;
+of excluding from its expenses those improvident and unauthorized grants of
+public money for works of internal improvement which were so wisely
+arrested by the constitutional interposition of my predecessor, and which,
+if they had not been so checked, would long before this time have involved
+the finances of the General Government in embarrassments far greater than
+those which are now experienced by any of the States; of limiting all our
+expenditures to that simple, unostentatious, and economical administration
+of public affairs which is alone consistent with the character of our
+institutions; of collecting annually from the customs, and the sales of
+public lands a revenue fully adequate to defray all the expenses thus
+incurred; but under no pretense whatsoever to impose taxes upon the people
+to a greater amount than was actually necessary to the public service
+conducted upon the principles I have stated.
+
+In lieu of a national bank or a dependence upon banks of any description
+for the management of our fiscal affairs, I recommended the adoption of the
+system which is now in successful operation. That system affords every
+requisite facility for the transaction of the pecuniary concerns of the
+Government; will, it is confidently anticipated, produce in other respects
+many of the benefits which have been from time to time expected from the
+creation of a national bank, but which have never been realized; avoid the
+manifold evils inseparable from such an institution; diminish to a greater
+extent than could be accomplished by any other measure of reform the
+patronage of the Federal Government--a wise policy in all governments, but
+more especially so in one like ours, which works well only in proportion as
+it is made to rely for its support upon the unbiased and unadulterated
+opinions of its constituents; do away forever all dependence on corporate
+bodies either in the raising, collecting, safekeeping, or disbursing the
+public revenues, and place the Government equally above the temptation of
+fostering a dangerous and unconstitutional institution at home or the
+necessity of adapting its policy to the views and interests of a still more
+formidable money power abroad.
+
+It is by adopting and carrying out these principles under circumstances the
+most arduous and discouraging that the attempt has been made, thus far
+successfully, to demonstrate to the people of the United States that a
+national bank at all times, and a national debt except it be incurred at a
+period when the honor and safety of the nation demand the temporary
+sacrifice of a policy which should only be abandoned in such exigencies,
+are not merely unnecessary, but in direct and deadly hostility to the
+principles of their Government and to their own permanent welfare.
+
+The progress made in the development of these positions appears in the
+preceding sketch of the past history and present state of the financial
+concerns of the Federal Government. The facts there stated fully authorize
+the assertion that all the purposes for which this Government was
+instituted have been accomplished during four years of greater pecuniary
+embarrassment than were ever before experienced in time of peace, and in
+the face of opposition as formidable as any that was ever before arrayed
+against the policy of an Administration; that this has been done when the
+ordinary revenues of the Government were generally decreasing as well from
+the operation of the laws as the condition of the country, without the
+creation of a permanent public debt or incurring any liability other than
+such as the ordinary resources of the Government will speedily discharge,
+and without the agency of a national bank.
+
+If this view of the proceedings of the Government for the period it
+embraces be warranted by the facts as they are known to exist; if the Army
+and Navy have been sustained to the full extent authorized by law, and
+which Congress deemed sufficient for the defense of the country and the
+protection of its rights and its honor; if its civil and diplomatic service
+has been equally sustained; if ample provision has been made for the
+administration of justice and the execution of the laws; if the claims upon
+public gratitude in behalf of the soldiers of the Revolution have been
+promptly met and faithfully discharged; if there have been no failures in
+defraying the very large expenditures growing out of that long-continued
+and salutary policy of peacefully removing the Indians to regions of
+comparative safety and prosperity; if the public faith has at all times and
+everywhere been most scrupulously maintained by a prompt discharge of the
+numerous, extended, and diversified claims on the Treasury--if all these
+great and permanent objects, with many others that might be stated, have
+for a series of years, marked by peculiar obstacles and difficulties, been
+successfully accomplished without a resort to a permanent debt or the aid
+of a national bank, have we not a right to expect that a policy the object
+of which has been to sustain the public service independently of either of
+these fruitful sources of discord will receive the final sanction of a
+people whose unbiased and fairly elicited judgment upon public affairs is
+never ultimately wrong?
+
+That embarrassments in the pecuniary concerns of individuals of unexampled
+extent and duration have recently existed in this as in other commercial
+nations is undoubtedly true. To suppose it necessary now to trace these
+reverses to their sources would be a reflection on the intelligence of my
+fellow-citizens. Whatever may have been the obscurity in which the subject
+was involved during the earlier stages of the revulsion, there can not now
+be many by whom the whole question is not fully understood.
+
+Not deeming it within the constitutional powers of the General Government
+to repair private losses sustained by reverses in business having no
+connection with the public service, either by direct appropriations from
+the Treasury or by special legislation designed to secure exclusive
+privileges and immunities to individuals or classes in preference to or at
+the expense of the great majority necessarily debarred from any
+participation in them, no attempt to do so has been either made,
+recommended, or encouraged by the present Executive.
+
+It is believed, however, that the great purposes for the attainment of
+which the Federal Government was instituted have not been lost sight of.
+Intrusted only with certain limited powers, cautiously enumerated,
+distinctly specified, and defined with a precision and clearness which
+would seem to defy misconstruction, it has been my constant aim to confine
+myself within the limits so clearly marked out and so carefully guarded.
+Having always been of opinion that the best preservative of the union of
+the States is to be found in a total abstinence from the exercise of all
+doubtful powers on the part of the Federal Government rather than in
+attempts to assume them by a loose construction of the Constitution or an
+ingenious perversion of its words, I have endeavored to avoid recommending
+any measure which I had reason to apprehend would, in the opinion even of a
+considerable minority of my fellow-citizens, be regarded as trenching on
+the rights of the States or the provisions of the hallowed instrument of
+our Union. Viewing the aggregate powers of the Federal Government as a
+voluntary concession of the States, it seemed to me that such only should
+be exercised as were at the time intended to be given.
+
+I have been strengthened, too, in the propriety of this course by the
+conviction that all efforts to go beyond this tend only to produce
+dissatisfaction and distrust, to excite jealousies, and to provoke
+resistance. Instead of adding strength to the Federal Government, even when
+successful they must ever prove a source of incurable weakness by
+alienating a portion of those whose adhesion is indispensable to the great
+aggregate of united strength and whose voluntary attachment is in my
+estimation far more essential to the efficiency of a government strong in
+the best of all possible strength--the confidence and attachment of all
+those who make up its constituent elements.
+
+Thus believing, it has been my purpose to secure to the whole people and to
+every member of the Confederacy, by general, salutary, and equal laws
+alone, the benefit of those republican institutions which it was the end
+and aim of the Constitution to establish, and the impartial influence of
+which is in my judgment indispensable to their preservation. I can not
+bring myself to believe that the lasting happiness of the people, the
+prosperity of the States, or the permanency of their Union can be
+maintained by giving preference or priority to any class of citizens in the
+distribution of benefits or privileges, or by the adoption of measures
+which enrich one portion of the Union at the expense of another; nor can I
+see in the interference of the Federal Government with the local
+legislation and reserved rights of the States a remedy for present or a
+security against future dangers.
+
+The first, and assuredly not the least, important step toward relieving the
+country from the condition into which it had been plunged by excesses in
+trade, banking, and credits of all kinds was to place the business
+transactions of the Government itself on a solid basis, giving and
+receiving in all cases value for value, and neither countenancing nor
+encouraging in others that delusive system of credits from which it has
+been found so difficult to escape, and which has left nothing behind it but
+the wrecks that mark its fatal career.
+
+That the financial affairs of the Government are now and have been during
+the whole period of these wide-spreading difficulties conducted with a
+strict and invariable regard to this great fundamental principle, and that
+by the assumption and maintenance of the stand thus taken on the very
+threshold of the approaching crisis more than by any other cause or causes
+whatever the community at large has been shielded from the incalculable
+evils of a general and indefinite suspension of specie payments, and a
+consequent annihilation for the whole period it might have lasted of a just
+and invariable standard of value, will, it is believed, at this period
+scarcely be questioned.
+
+A steady adherence on the part of the Government to the policy which has
+produced such salutary results, aided by judicious State legislation and,
+what is not less .important, by the industry, enterprise, perseverance, and
+economy of the American people, can not fail to raise the whole country at
+an early period to a state of solid and enduring prosperity, not subject to
+be again overthrown by the suspension of banks or the explosion of a
+bloated credit system. It is for the people and their representatives to
+decide whether or not the permanent welfare of the country (which all good
+citizens equally desire, however widely they may differ as to the means of
+its accomplishment) shall be in this way secured, or whether the management
+of the pecuniary concerns of the Government, and by consequence to a great
+extent those of individuals also, shall be carried back to a condition of
+things which fostered those contractions and expansions of the currency and
+those reckless abuses of credit from the baleful effects of which the
+country has so deeply suffered--a return that can promise in the end no
+better results than to reproduce the embarrassments the Government has
+experienced, and to remove from the shoulders of the present to those of
+fresh victims the bitter fruits of that spirit of speculative enterprise to
+which our countrymen are so liable and upon which the lessons of experience
+are so unavailing. The choice is an important one, and I sincerely hope
+that it may be wisely made.
+
+A report from the Secretary of War, presenting a detailed view of the
+affairs of that Department, accompanies this communication.
+
+The desultory duties connected with the removal of the Indians, in which
+the Army has been constantly engaged on the northern and western frontiers
+and in Florida, have rendered it impracticable to carry into full effect
+the plan recommended by the Secretary for improving its discipline. In
+every instance where the regiments have been concentrated they have made
+great progress, and the best results may be anticipated from a continuance
+of this system. During the last season a part of the troops have been
+employed in removing Indians from the interior to the territory assigned
+them in the West--a duty which they have performed efficiently and with
+praiseworthy humanity--and that portion of them which has been stationed in
+Florida continued active operations there throughout the heats of summer.
+
+The policy of the United States in regard to the Indians, of which a
+succinct account is given in my message of 1838, and of the wisdom and
+expediency of which I am fully satisfied, has been continued in active
+operation throughout the whole period of my Administration. Since the
+spring of 1837 more than 40,000 Indians have been removed to their new
+homes west of the Mississippi, and I am happy to add that all accounts
+concur in representing the result of this measure as eminently beneficial
+to that people.
+
+The emigration of the Seminoles alone has been attended with serious
+difficulty and occasioned bloodshed, hostilities having been commenced by
+the Indians in Florida under the apprehension that they would be compelled
+by force to comply with their treaty stipulations. The execution of the
+treaty of Paynes Landing, signed in 1832, but not ratified until 1834, was
+postponed at the solicitation of the Indians until 1836, when they again
+renewed their agreement to remove peaceably to their new homes in the West.
+In the face of this solemn and renewed compact they broke their faith and
+commenced hostilities by the massacre of Major Dade's command, the murder
+of their agent, General Thompson, and other acts of cruel treachery. When
+this alarming and unexpected intelligence reached the seat of Government,
+every effort appears to have been made to reenforce General Clinch, who
+commanded the troops then in Florida. General Eustis was dispatched with
+reenforcements from Charleston, troops were called out from Alabama,
+Tennessee, and Georgia, and General Scott was sent to take the command,
+with ample powers and ample means. At the first alarm General Gaines
+organized a force at New Orleans, and without waiting for orders landed in
+Florida, where he delivered over the troops he had brought with him to
+General Scott.
+
+Governor Call was subsequently appointed to conduct a summer campaign, and
+at the close of it was replaced by General Jesup. These events and changes
+took place under the Administration of my predecessor. Notwithstanding the
+exertions of the experienced officers who had command there for eighteen
+months, on entering upon the administration of the Government I found the
+Territory of Florida a prey to Indian atrocities. A strenuous effort was
+immediately made to bring those hostilities to a close, and the army under
+General Jesup was reenforced until it amounted to 10,000 men, and furnished
+with abundant supplies of every description. In this campaign a great
+number of the enemy were captured and destroyed, but the character of the
+contest only was changed. The Indians, having been defeated in every
+engagement, dispersed in small bands throughout the country and became an
+enterprising, formidable, and ruthless banditti. General Taylor, who
+succeeded General Jesup, used his best exertions to subdue them, and was
+seconded in his efforts by the officers under his command; but he too
+failed to protect the Territory from their depredations. By an act of
+signal and cruel treachery they broke the truce made with them by General
+MacGrab, who was sent from Washington for the purpose of carrying into
+effect the expressed wishes of Congress, and have continued their
+devastations ever since. General Armistead, who was in Florida when General
+Taylor left the army by permission, assumed the command, and after active
+summer operations was met by propositions for peace, and from the fortunate
+coincidence of the arrival in Florida at the same period of a delegation
+from the Seminoles who are happily settled west of the Mississippi and are
+now anxious to persuade their countrymen to join them there hopes were for
+some time entertained that the Indians might be induced to leave the
+Territory without further difficulty. These hopes have proved fallacious
+and hostilities have been renewed throughout the whole of the Territory.
+That this contest has endured so long is to be attributed to causes beyond
+the control of the Government. Experienced generals have had the command of
+the troops, officers and soldiers have alike distinguished themselves for
+their activity, patience, and enduring courage, the army has been
+constantly furnished with supplies of every description, and we must look
+for the causes which have so long procrastinated the issue of the contest
+in the vast extent of the theater of hostilities, the almost insurmountable
+obstacles presented by the nature of the country, the climate, and the wily
+character of the savages.
+
+The sites for marine hospitals on the rivers and lakes which I was
+authorized to select and cause to be purchased have all been designated,
+but the appropriation not proving sufficient, conditional arrangements only
+have been made for their acquisition. It is for Congress to decide whether
+these Conditional purchases shall be sanctioned and the humane intentions
+of the law carried into full effect.
+
+The Navy, as will appear from the accompanying report of the Secretary, has
+been usefully and honorably employed in the protection of our commerce and
+citizens in the Mediterranean, the Pacific, on the coast of Brazil, and in
+the Gulf of Mexico. A small squadron, consisting of the frigate
+Constellation and the sloop of war Boston, under Commodore Kearney, is now
+on its way to the China and Indian seas for the purpose of attending to our
+interests in that quarter, and Commander Aulick, in the sloop of war
+Yorktown, has been instructed to visit the Sandwich and Society islands,
+the coasts of New Zealand and Japan, together with other ports and islands
+frequented by our whale ships, for the purpose of giving them countenance
+and protection should they be required. Other smaller vessels have been and
+still are employed in prosecuting the surveys of the coast of the United
+States directed by various acts of Congress, and those which have been
+completed will shortly be laid before you.
+
+The exploring expedition at the latest date was preparing to leave the Bay
+of Islands, New Zealand, in further prosecution of objects which have thus
+far been successfully accomplished. The discovery of a new continent, which
+was first seen in latitude 66&deg; 2' south, longitude 154&deg; 27' east,
+and afterwards in latitude 66&deg; 31' south, longitude 153&deg; 40' east,
+by Lieutenants Wilkes and Hudson, for an extent of 1,800 miles, but on
+which they were prevented from landing by vast bodies of ice which
+encompassed it, is one of the honorable results of the enterprise.
+Lieutenant Wilkes bears testimony to the zeal and good conduct of his
+officers and men, and it is but justice to that officer to state that he
+appears to have performed the duties assigned him with an ardor, ability,
+and perseverance which give every assurance of an honorable issue to the
+undertaking.
+
+The report of the Postmaster-General herewith transmitted will exhibit the
+service of that Department the past year and its present condition. The
+transportation has been maintained during the year to the full extent
+authorized by the existing laws; some improvements have been effected which
+the public interest seemed urgently to demand, but not involving any
+material additional expenditure; the contractors have generally performed
+their engagements with fidelity; the postmasters, with few exceptions, have
+rendered their accounts and paid their quarterly balances with promptitude,
+and the whole service of the Department has maintained the efficiency for
+which it has for several years been distinguished.
+
+The acts of Congress establishing new mail routes and requiring more
+expensive services on others and the increasing wants of the country have
+for three years past carried the expenditures something beyond the accruing
+revenues, the excess having been met until the past year by the surplus
+which had previously accumulated. That surplus having been exhausted and
+the anticipated increase in the revenue not having been realized owing to
+the depression in the commercial business of the country, the finances of
+the Department exhibit a small deficiency at the close of the last fiscal
+year. Its resources, however, are ample, and the reduced rates of
+compensation for the transportation service which may be expected on the
+future lettings from the general reduction of prices, with the increase of
+revenue that may reasonably be anticipated from the revival of commercial
+activity, must soon place the finances of the Department in a prosperous
+condition.
+
+Considering the unfavorable circumstances which have existed during the
+past year, it is a gratifying result that the revenue has not declined as
+compared with the preceding year, but, on the contrary, exhibits a small
+increase, the circumstances referred to having had no other effect than to
+check the expected income.
+
+It will be seen that the Postmaster-General suggests certain improvements
+in the establishment designed to reduce the weight of the mails, cheapen
+the transportation, insure greater regularity in the service, and secure a
+considerable reduction in the rates of letter postage--an object highly
+desirable. The subject is one of general interest to the community, and is
+respectfully recommended to your consideration.
+
+The suppression of the African slave trade has received the continued
+attention of the Government. The brig Dolphin and schooner Grampus have
+been employed during the last season on the coast of Africa for the purpose
+of preventing such portions of that trade as were said to be prosecuted
+under the American flag. After cruising off those parts of the coast most
+usually resorted to by slavers until the commencement of the rainy season,
+these vessels returned to the United States for supplies, and have since
+been dispatched on a similar service.
+
+From the reports of the commanding officers it appears that the trade is
+now principally carried on under Portuguese colors, and they express the
+opinion that the apprehension of their presence on the slave coast has in a
+great degree arrested the prostitution of the American flag to this inhuman
+purpose. It is hoped that by continuing to maintain this force in that
+quarter and by the exertions of the officers in command much will be done
+to put a stop to whatever portion of this traffic may have been carried on
+under the American flag and to prevent its use in a trade which, while it
+violates the laws, is equally an outrage on the rights of others and the
+feelings of humanity. The efforts of the several Governments who are
+anxiously seeking to suppress this traffic must, however, be directed
+against the facilities afforded by what are now recognized as legitimate
+commercial pursuits before that object can be fully accomplished.
+
+Supplies of provisions, water casks, merchandise, and articles connected
+with the prosecution of the slave trade are, it is understood, freely
+carried by vessels of different nations to the slave factories, and the
+effects of the factors are transported openly from one slave station to
+another without interruption or punishment by either of the nations to
+which they belong engaged in the commerce of that region. I submit to your
+judgments whether this Government, having been the first to prohibit by
+adequate penalties the slave trade, the first to declare it piracy, should
+not be the first also to forbid to its citizens all trade with the slave
+factories on the coast of Africa, giving an example to all nations in this
+respect which if fairly followed can not fail to produce the most effective
+results in breaking up those dens of iniquity. M. VAN BUREN
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY MARTIN VAN BUREN ***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of State of the Union Addresses
+by Martin van Buren
+(#8 in our series of US Presidential State of the Union Addresses)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
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+Title: State of the Union Addresses of Martin van Buren
+
+Author: Martin van Buren
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5017]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002]
+[Date last updated: December 16, 2004]
+
+Edition: 11
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY MARTIN VAN BUREN ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by James Linden.
+
+The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
+
+Dates of addresses by Martin van Buren in this eBook:
+  December 5, 1837
+  December 3, 1838
+  December 2, 1839
+  December 5, 1840
+
+
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 5, 1837
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+We have reason to renew the expression of our devout gratitude to the Giver
+of All Good for His benign protection. Our country presents on every side
+the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has
+gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous
+and powerful confederacy. We are blessed with domestic tranquillity and all
+the elements of national prosperity. The pestilence which, invading for a
+time some flourishing portions of the Union, interrupted the general
+prevalence of unusual health has happily been limited in extent and
+arrested in its fatal career. The industry and prudence of our citizens are
+gradually relieving them from the pecuniary embarrassments under which
+portions of them have labored; judicious legislation and the natural and
+boundless resources of the country have afforded wise end timely aid to
+private enterprise, and the activity always characteristic of our people
+has already in a great degree resumed its usual and profitable channels.
+
+The condition of our foreign relations has not materially changed since the
+last annual message of my predecessor. We remain at peace with all nations,
+and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights
+and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so
+consonant to our institutions. We have faithfully sustained the foreign
+policy with which the United States, under the guidance of their first
+President, took their stand in the family of nations--that of regulating
+their intercourse with other powers by the approved principles of private
+life; asking and according equal rights and equal privileges; rendering and
+demanding justice in all cases; advancing their own and discussing the
+pretensions of others with candor, directness, and sincerity; appealing at
+all times to reason, but never yielding to force nor seeking to acquire
+anything for themselves by its exercise.
+
+A rigid adherence to this policy has left this Government with scarcely a
+claim upon its justice for injuries arising from acts committed by its
+authority. The most imposing and perplexing of those of the United States
+upon foreign governments for aggressions upon our citizens were disposed of
+by my predecessor. Independently of the benefits conferred upon our
+citizens by restoring to the mercantile community so many millions of which
+they had been wrongfully divested, a great service was also rendered to his
+country by the satisfactory adjustment of so many ancient and irritating
+subjects of contention; and it reflects no ordinary credit on his
+successful administration of public affairs that this great object was
+accomplished without compromising on any occasion either the honor or the
+peace of the nation.
+
+With European powers no new subjects of difficulty have arisen, and those
+which were under discussion, although not terminated, do not present a more
+unfavorable aspect for the future preservation of that good understanding
+which it has ever been our desire to cultivate.
+
+Of pending questions the most important is that which exists with the
+Government of Great Britain in respect to our northeastern boundary. It is
+with unfeigned regret that the people of the United States must look back
+upon the abortive efforts made by the Executive, for a period of more than
+half a century, to determine what no nation should suffer long to remain in
+dispute--the true line which divides its possessions from those of other
+powers. The nature of the settlements on the borders of the United States
+and of the neighboring territory was for a season such that this, perhaps,
+was not indispensable to a faithful performance of the duties of the
+Federal Government. Time has, however, changed this state of things, and
+has brought about a condition of affairs in which the true interests of
+both countries imperatively require that this question should be put at
+rest. It is not to be disguised that, with full confidence, often
+expressed, in the desire of the British Government to terminate it, we are
+apparently as far from its adjustment as we were at the time of signing the
+treaty of peace in 1783. The sole result of long-pending negotiations and a
+perplexing arbitration appears to be a conviction on its part that a
+conventional line must be adopted, from the impossibility of ascertaining
+the true one according to the description contained in that treaty. Without
+coinciding in this opinion, which is not thought to be well rounded, my
+predecessor gave the strongest proof of the earnest desire of the United
+States to terminate satisfactorily this dispute by proposing the
+substitution of a conventional line if the consent of the States interested
+in the question could be obtained. To this proposition no answer has as yet
+been received. The attention of the British Government has, however, been
+urgently invited to the subject, and its reply can not, I am confident, be
+much longer delayed. The general relations between Great Britain and the
+United States are of the most friendly character, and I am well satisfied
+of the sincere disposition of that Government to maintain them upon their
+present footing. This disposition has also, I am persuaded, become more
+general with the people of England than at any previous period. It is
+scarcely necessary to say to you how cordially it is reciprocated by the
+Government and people of the United States. The conviction, which must be
+common to all, of the injurious consequences that result from keeping open
+this irritating question, and the certainty that its final settlement can
+not be much longer deferred, will, I trust, lead to an early and
+satisfactory adjustment. At your last session I laid before you the recent
+communications between the two Governments and between this Government and
+that of the State of Maine, in whose solicitude concerning a subject in
+which she has so deep an interest every portion of the Union participates.
+
+The feelings produced by a temporary interruption of those harmonious
+relations between France and the United States which are due as well to the
+recollections of former times as to a correct appreciation of existing
+interests have been happily succeeded by a cordial disposition on both
+sides to cultivate an active friendship in their future intercourse. The
+opinion, undoubtedly correct, and steadily entertained by us, that the
+commercial relations at present existing between the two countries are
+susceptible of great and reciprocally beneficial improvements is obviously
+gaining ground in France, and I am assured of the disposition of that
+Government to favor the accomplishment of such an object. This disposition
+shall be met in a proper spirit on our part. The few and comparatively
+unimportant questions that remain to be adjusted between us can, I have no
+doubt, be settled with entire satisfaction and without difficulty.
+
+Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be
+mutually cherished. Our minister recently accredited to that Court has been
+received with a frankness and cordiality and with evidences of respect for
+his country which leave us no room to doubt the preservation in future of
+those amicable and liberal relations which have so long and so
+uninterruptedly existed between the two countries. On the few subjects
+under discussion between us an early and just decision is confidently
+anticipated.
+
+A correspondence has been opened with the Government of Austria for the
+establishment of diplomatic relations, in conformity with the wishes of
+Congress as indicated by an appropriation act of the session of 1837, and
+arrangements made for the purpose, which will be duly carried into effect.
+
+With Austria and Prussia and with the States of the German Empire (now
+composing with the latter the Commercial League) our political relations
+are of the most friendly character, whilst our commercial intercourse is
+gradually extending, with benefit to all who are engaged in it.
+
+Civil war yet rages in Spain, producing intense suffering to its own
+people, and to other nations inconvenience and regret. Our citizens who
+have claims upon that country will be prejudiced for a time by the
+condition of its treasury, the inevitable consequence of long-continued and
+exhausting internal wars. The last installment of the interest of the debt
+due under the convention with the Queen of Spain has not been paid and
+similar failures may be expected to happen until a portion of the resources
+of her Kingdom can be devoted to the extinguishment of its foreign debt.
+
+Having received satisfactory evidence that discriminating tonnage duties
+were charged upon the vessels of the United States in the ports of
+Portugal, a proclamation was issued on the 11th day of October last, in
+compliance with the act of May 25, 1832, declaring that fact, and the
+duties on foreign tonnage which were levied upon Portuguese vessels in the
+United States previously to the passage of that act are accordingly
+revived.
+
+The act of July 4, 1836, suspending the discriminating duties upon the
+produce of Portugal imported into this country in Portuguese vessels, was
+passed, upon the application of that Government through its representative
+here, under the belief that no similar discrimination existed in Portugal
+to the prejudice of the United States. I regret to state that such duties
+are now exacted in that country upon the cargoes of American vessels, and
+as the act referred to vests no discretion in the Executive, it is for
+Congress to determine upon the expediency of further legislation on the
+subject. Against these discriminations affecting the vessels of this
+country and their cargoes seasonable remonstrance was made, and notice was
+given to the Portuguese Government that unless they should be discontinued
+the adoption of countervailing measures on the part of the United States
+would become necessary; but the reply of that Government, received at the
+Department of State through our charge d'affaires at Lisbon in the month of
+September last, afforded no ground to hope for the abandonment of a system
+so little in harmony with the treatment shown to the vessels of Portugal
+and their cargoes in the ports of this country and so contrary to the
+expectations we had a right to entertain.
+
+With Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and Belgium a friendly intercourse
+has been uninterruptedly maintained.
+
+With the Government of the Ottoman Porte and its dependencies on the coast
+of the Mediterranean peace and good will are carefully cultivated, and have
+been fostered by such good offices as the relative distance and the
+condition of those countries would permit.
+
+Our commerce with Greece is carried on under the laws of the two
+Governments, reciprocally beneficial to the navigating interests of both;
+and I have reason to look forward to the adoption of other measures which
+will be more extensively and permanently advantageous.
+
+Copies of the treaties concluded with the Governments of Siam and Muscat
+are transmitted for the information of Congress, the ratifications having
+been received and the treaties made public since the close of the last
+annual session. Already have we reason to congratulate ourselves on the
+prospect of considerable commercial benefit; and we have, besides, received
+from the Sultan of Muscat prompt evidence of his desire to cultivate the
+most friendly feelings, by liberal acts toward one of our vessels, bestowed
+in a manner so striking as to require on our part a grateful
+acknowledgment.
+
+Our commerce with the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico still labors under
+heavy restrictions, the continuance of which is a subject of regret. The
+only effect of an adherence to them will be to benefit the navigation of
+other countries at the expense of both the United States and Spain.
+
+The independent nations of this continent have ever since they emerged from
+the colonial state experienced severe trials in their progress to the
+permanent establishment of liberal political institutions. Their unsettled
+condition not only interrupts their own advances to prosperity, but has
+often seriously injured the other powers of the world. The claims of our
+citizens upon Peru, Chili, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, the Governments
+formed out of the Republics of Colombia and Mexico, are still pending,
+although many of them have been presented for examination more than twenty
+years. New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador have recently formed a
+convention for the purpose of ascertaining and adjusting claims upon the
+Republic of Colombia, from which it is earnestly hoped our citizens will
+ere long receive full compensation for the injuries inflicted upon them and
+for the delay in affording it.
+
+An advantageous treaty of commerce has been concluded by the United States
+with the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, which wants only the ratification of
+that Government. The progress of a subsequent negotiation for the
+settlement of claims upon Peru has been unfavorably affected by the war
+between that power and Chili and the Argentine Republic, and the same event
+is also likely to produce delays in the settlement of out demands on those
+powers.
+
+The aggravating circumstances connected with our claims upon Mexico and a
+variety of events touching the honor and integrity of our Government led my
+predecessor to make at the second session of the last Congress a special
+recommendation of the course to be pursued to obtain a speedy and final
+satisfaction of the injuries complained of by this Government and by our
+citizens. He recommended a final demand of redress, with a contingent
+authority to the Executive to make reprisals if that demand should be made
+in vain. From the proceedings of Congress on that recommendation it
+appeared that the opinion of both branches of the Legislature coincided
+with that of the Executive, that any mode of redress known to the law of
+nations might justifiably be used. It was obvious, too, that Congress
+believed with the President that another demand should be made, in order to
+give undeniable and satisfactory proof of our desire to avoid extremities
+with a neighboring power, but that there was an indisposition to vest a
+discretionary authority in the Executive to take redress should it
+unfortunately be either denied or unreasonably delayed by the Mexican
+Government.
+
+So soon as the necessary documents were prepared, after entering upon the
+duties of my office, a special messenger was sent to Mexico to make a final
+demand of redress, with the documents required by the provisions of our
+treaty. The demand was made on the 20th of July last. The reply, which
+bears date the 29th of the same month, contains assurances of a desire on
+the part of that Government to give a prompt and explicit answer respecting
+each of the complaints, but that the examination of them would necessarily
+be deliberate; that in this examination it would be guided by the
+principles of public law and the obligation of treaties; that nothing
+should be left undone that might lead to the most speedy and equitable
+adjustment of our demands, and that its determination in respect to each
+case should be communicated through the Mexican minister here.
+
+Since that time an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary has
+been accredited to this Government by that of the Mexican Republic. He
+brought with him assurances of a sincere desire that the pending
+differences between the two Governments should be terminated in a manner
+satisfactory to both. He was received with reciprocal assurances, and a
+hope was entertained that his mission would lead to a speedy, satisfactory,
+and final adjustment of all existing subjects of complaint. A sincere
+believer in the wisdom of the pacific policy by which the United States
+have always been governed in their intercourse with foreign nations, it was
+my particular desire, from the proximity of the Mexican Republic and
+well-known occurrences on our frontier, to be instrumental in obviating all
+existing difficulties with that Government and in restoring to the
+intercourse between the two Republics that liberal and friendly character
+by which they should always be distinguished. I regret, therefore, the more
+deeply to have found in the recent communications of that Government so
+little reason to hope that any future efforts of mine for the
+accomplishment of those desirable objects would be successful.
+
+Although the larger number--and many of them aggravated cases of personal
+wrongs--have been now for years before the Mexican Government, and some of
+the causes of national complaint, and those of the most offensive
+character, admitted of immediate, simple, and satisfactory replies, it is
+only within a few days past that any specific communication in answer to
+our last demand, made five months ago, has been received from the Mexican
+minister. By the report of the Secretary of State herewith presented and
+the accompanying documents it will be seen that for not one of our public
+complaints has satisfaction been given or offered, that but one of the
+cases of personal wrong has been favorably considered, and that but four
+cases of both descriptions out of all those formally presented and
+earnestly pressed have as yet been decided upon by the Mexican Government.
+
+Not perceiving in what manner any of the powers given to the Executive
+alone could be further usefully employed in bringing this unfortunate
+controversy to a satisfactory termination, the subject was by my
+predecessor referred to Congress as one calling for its interposition. In
+accordance with the clearly understood wishes of the Legislature, another
+and formal demand for satisfaction has been made upon the Mexican
+Government, with what success the documents now communicated will show. On
+a careful and deliberate examination of their contents, and considering the
+spirit manifested by the Mexican Government, it has become my painful duty
+to return the subject as it now stands to Congress, to whom it belongs to
+decide upon the time, the mode, and the measure of redress. Whatever may be
+your decision, it shall be faithfully executed, confident that it will be
+characterized by that moderation and justice which will, I trust, under all
+circumstances govern the councils of our country.
+
+The balance in the Treasury on the 1st January, 1837, was $45,968,523. The
+receipts during the present year from all sources, including the amount of
+Treasury notes issued, are estimated at $23,499,981, constituting an
+aggregate of $69,468,504. Of this amount about $35,281,361 will have been
+expended at the end of the year on appropriations made by Congress, and the
+residue, amounting to $34,187,143, will be the nominal balance in the
+Treasury on the 1st of January next; but of that sum only $1,085,498 is
+considered as immediately available for and applicable to public purposes.
+Those portions of it which will be for some time unavailable consist
+chiefly of sums deposited with the States and due from the former deposit
+banks. The details upon this subject will be found in the annual report of
+the Secretary of the Treasury. The amount of Treasury notes which it will
+be necessary to issue during the year on account of those funds being
+unavailable will, it is supposed, not exceed four and a half millions. It
+seemed proper, in the condition of the country, to have the estimates on
+all subjects made as low as practicable without prejudice to any great
+public measures. The Departments were therefore desired to prepare their
+estimates accordingly, and I am happy to find that they have been able to
+graduate them on so economical a scale. In the great and often unexpected
+fluctuations to which the revenue is subjected it is not possible to
+compute the receipts beforehand with great certainty, but should they not
+differ essentially from present anticipations, and should the
+appropriations not much exceed the estimates, no difficulty seems likely to
+happen in defraying the current expenses with promptitude and fidelity.
+
+Notwithstanding the great embarrassments which have recently occurred in
+commercial affairs, and the liberal indulgence which in consequence of
+these embarrassments has been extended to both the merchants and the banks,
+it is gratifying to be able to anticipate that the Treasury notes which
+have been issued during the present year will be redeemed and that the
+resources of the Treasury, without any resort to loans or increased taxes,
+will prove ample for defraying all charges imposed on it during 1838.
+
+The report of the Secretary of the Treasury will afford you a more minute
+exposition of all matters connected with the administration of the finances
+during the current year--a period which for the amount of public moneys
+disbursed and deposited with the States, as well as the financial
+difficulties encountered and overcome, has few parallels in our history.
+
+Your attention was at the last session invited to the necessity of
+additional legislative provisions in respect to the collection,
+safe-keeping, and transfer of the public money. No law having been then
+matured, and not understanding the proceedings of Congress as intended to
+be final, it becomes my duty again to bring the subject to your notice.
+
+On that occasion three modes of performing this branch of the public
+service were presented for consideration. These were, the creation of a
+national bank; the revival, with modifications, of the deposit system
+established by the act of the 23d of June, 1836, permitting the use of the
+public moneys by the banks; and the discontinuance of the use of such
+institutions for the purposes referred to, with suitable provisions for
+their accomplishment through the agency of public officers. Considering the
+opinions of both Houses of Congress on the first two propositions as
+expressed in the negative, in which I entirely concur, it is unnecessary
+for me again in to recur to them. In respect to the last, you have had an
+opportunity since your adjournment not only to test still further the
+expediency of the measure by the continued practical operation of such
+parts of it as are now in force, but also to discover what should ever be
+sought for and regarded with the utmost deference--the opinions and wishes
+of the people.
+
+The national will is the supreme law of the Republic, and on all subjects
+within the limits of his constitutional powers should be faithfully obeyed
+by the public servant. Since the measure in question was submitted to your
+consideration most of you have enjoyed the advantage of personal
+communication with your constituents. For one State only has an election
+been held for the Federal Government; but the early day at which it took
+place deprived the measure under consideration of much of the support it
+might otherwise have derived from the result. Local elections for State
+officers have, however, been held in several of the States, at which the
+expediency of the plan proposed by the Executive has been more or less
+discussed. You will, I am confident, yield to their results the respect due
+to every expression of the public voice. Desiring, however, to arrive at
+truth and a just view of the subject in all its bearings, you will at the
+same time remember that questions of far deeper and more immediate local
+interest than the fiscal plans of the National Treasury were involved in
+those elections. Above all, we can not overlook the striking fact that
+there were at the time in those States more than one hundred and sixty
+millions of bank capital, of which large portions were subject to actual
+forfeiture, other large portions upheld only by special and limited
+legislative indulgences, and most of it, if not all, to a greater or less
+extent dependent for a continuance of its corporate existence upon the will
+of the State legislatures to be then chosen. Apprised of this circumstance,
+you will judge whether it is not most probable that the peculiar condition
+of that vast interest in these respects, the extent to which it has been
+spread through all the ramifications of society, its direct connection with
+the then pending elections, and the feelings it was calculated to infuse
+into the canvass have exercised a far greater influence over the result
+than any which could possibly have been produced by a conflict of opinion
+in respect to a question in the administration of the General Government
+more remote and far less important in its bearings upon that interest.
+
+I have found no reason to change my own opinion as to the expediency of
+adopting the system proposed, being perfectly satisfied that there will be
+neither stability nor safety either in the fiscal affairs of the Government
+or in the pecuniary transactions of individuals and corporations so long as
+a connection exists between them which, like the past, offers such strong
+inducements to make them the subjects of political agitation. Indeed, I am
+more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased
+exercise of political opinion--the only sure foundation and safeguard of
+republican government--would be exposed by any further increase of the
+already overgrown influence of corporate authorities. I can not, therefore,
+consistently with my views of duty, advise a renewal of a connection which
+circumstances have dissolved.
+
+The discontinuance of the use of State banks for fiscal purposes ought not
+to be regarded as a measure of hostility toward those institutions. Banks
+properly established and conducted are highly useful to the business of the
+country, and will doubtless continue to exist in the States so long as they
+conform to their laws and are found to be safe and beneficial. How they
+should be created, what privileges they should enjoy, under what
+responsibilities they should act, and to what restrictions they should be
+subject are questions which, as I observed on a previous occasion, belong
+to the States to decide. Upon their rights or the exercise of them the
+General Government can have no motive to encroach. Its duty toward them is
+well performed when it refrains from legislating for their special benefit,
+because such legislation would violate the spirit of the Constitution and
+be unjust to other interests; when it takes no steps to impair their
+usefulness, but so manages its own affairs as to make it the interest of
+those institutions to strengthen and improve their condition for the
+security and welfare of the community at large. They have no right to
+insist on a connection with the Federal Government, nor on the use of the
+public money for their own benefit. The object of the measure under
+consideration is to avoid for the future a compulsory connection of this
+kind. It proposes to place the General Government, in regard to the
+essential points of the collection, safe-keeping, and transfer of the
+public money, in a situation which shall relieve it from all dependence on
+the will of irresponsible individuals or corporations; to withdraw those
+moneys from the uses of private trade and confide them to agents
+constitutionally selected and controlled by law; to abstain from improper
+interference with the industry of the people and withhold inducements to
+improvident dealings on the part of individuals; to give stability to the
+concerns of the Treasury; to preserve the measures of the Government from
+the unavoidable reproaches that flow from such a connection, and the banks
+themselves from the injurious effects of a supposed participation in the
+political conflicts of the day, from which they will otherwise find it
+difficult to escape.
+
+These are my views upon this important subject, formed after careful
+reflection and with no desire but to arrive at what is most likely to
+promote the public interest. They are now, as they were before, submitted
+with unfeigned deference for the opinions of others. It was hardly to be
+hoped that changes so important on a subject so interesting could be made
+without producing a serious diversity of opinion; but so long as those
+conflicting views are kept above the influence of individual or local
+interests, so long as they pursue only the general good and are discussed
+with moderation and candor, such diversity is a benefit, not an injury. If
+a majority of Congress see the public welfare in a different light, and
+more especially if they should be satisfied that the measure proposed would
+not be acceptable to the people, I shall look to their wisdom to substitute
+such as may be more conducive to the one and more satisfactory to the
+other. In any event, they may confidently rely on my hearty cooperation to
+the fullest extent to which my views of the Constitution and my sense of
+duty will permit.
+
+It is obviously important to this branch of the public service and to the
+business and quiet of the country that the whole subject should in some way
+be settled and regulated by law, and, if possible, at your present session.
+Besides the plans above referred to, I am not aware that any one has been
+suggested except that of keeping the public money in the State banks in
+special deposit. This plan is to some extent in accordance with the
+practice of the Government and with the present arrangements of the
+Treasury Department, which, except, perhaps, during the operation of the
+late deposit act, has always been allowed, even during the existence of a
+national bank, to make a temporary use of the State banks in particular
+places for the safe-keeping of portions of the revenue. This discretionary
+power might be continued if Congress deem it desirable, whatever general
+system be adopted. So long as the connection is voluntary we need, perhaps,
+anticipate few of those difficulties and little of that dependence on the
+banks which must attend every such connection when compulsory in its nature
+and when so arranged as to make the banks a fixed part of the machinery of
+government. It is undoubtedly in the power of Congress so to regulate and
+guard it as to prevent the public money from being applied to the use or
+intermingled with the affairs of individuals. Thus arranged, although it
+would not give to the Government that entire control over its own funds
+which I desire to secure to it by the plan I have proposed, it would, it
+must be admitted, in a great degree accomplish one of the objects which has
+recommended that plan to my judgment--the separation of the fiscal concerns
+of the Government from those of individuals or corporations.
+
+With these observations I recommend the whole matter to your dispassionate
+reflection, confidently hoping that some conclusion may be reached by your
+deliberations which on the one hand shall give safety and stability to the
+fiscal operations of the Government, and be consistent, on the other, with
+the genius of our institutions and with the interests and wishes of the
+great mass of our constituents.
+
+It was my hope that nothing would occur to make necessary on this occasion
+any allusion to the late national bank. There are circumstances, however,
+connected with the present state of its affairs that bear so directly on
+the character of the Government and the welfare of the citizen that I
+should not feel myself excused in neglecting to notice them. The charter
+which terminated its banking privileges on the 4th of March, 1836,
+continued its corporate power two years more for the sole purpose of
+closing its affairs, with authority "to use the corporate name, style, and
+capacity for the purpose of suits for a final settlement and liquidation of
+the affairs and acts of the corporation, and for the sale and disposition
+of their estate--real, personal, and mixed--but for no other purpose or in
+any other manner whatsoever." Just before the banking privileges ceased,
+its effects were transferred by the bank to a new State institution, then
+recently incorporated, in trust, for the discharge of its debts and the
+settlement of its affairs. With this trustee, by authority of Congress, an
+adjustment was subsequently made of the large interest which the Government
+had in the stock of the institution. The manner in which a trust
+unexpectedly created upon the act granting the charter, and involving such
+great public interests, has been executed would under any circumstances be
+a fit subject of inquiry; but much more does it deserve your attention when
+it embraces the redemption of obligations to which the authority and credit
+of the United States have given value. The two years allowed are now nearly
+at an end. It is well understood that the trustee has not redeemed and
+canceled the outstanding notes of the bank, but has reissued and is
+actually reissuing, since the 3d of March, 1836, the notes which have been
+received by it to a vast amount. According to its own official statement,
+so late as the 1st of October last, nineteen months after the banking
+privileges given by the charter had expired, it had under its control
+uncanceled notes of the late Bank of the United States to the amount of
+$27,561,866, of which $6,175,861 were in actual circulation, $ 1,468,627 at
+State bank agencies, and $3,002,390 in transitu, thus showing that upward
+of ten millions and a half of the notes of the old bank were then still
+kept outstanding.
+
+The impropriety of this procedure is obvious, it being the duty of the
+trustee to cancel and not to put forth the notes of an institution whose
+concerns it had undertaken to wind up. If the trustee has a right to
+reissue these notes now, I can see no reason why it may not continue to do
+so after the expiration of the two years. As no one could have anticipated
+a course so extraordinary, the prohibitory clause of the charter above
+quoted was not accompanied by any penalty or other special provision for
+enforcing it, nor have we any general law for the prevention of similar
+acts in future.
+
+But it is not in this view of the subject alone that your interposition is
+required. The United States in settling with the trustee for their stock
+have withdrawn their funds from their former direct liability to the
+creditors of the old bank, yet notes of the institution continue to be sent
+forth in its name, and apparently upon the authority of the United States.
+The transactions connected with the employment of the bills of the old bank
+are of vast extent, and should they result unfortunately the interests of
+individuals may be deeply compromised. Without undertaking to decide how
+far or in what form, if any, the trustee could be made liable for notes
+which contain no obligation on its part, or the old bank for such as are
+put in circulation after the expiration of its charter and without its
+authority, or the Government for indemnity in case of loss, the question
+still presses itself upon your consideration whether it is consistent with
+duty and good faith on the part of the Government to witness this
+proceeding without a single effort to arrest it.
+
+The report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, which will be
+laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury, will show how the affairs
+of that office have been conducted for the past year. The disposition of
+the public lands is one of the most important trusts confided to Congress.
+The practicability of retaining the title and control of such extensive
+domains in the General Government, and at the same time admitting the
+Territories embracing them into the Federal Union as coequals with the
+original States, was seriously doubted by many of our wisest statesmen. All
+feared that they would become a source of discord, and many carried their
+apprehensions so far as to see in them the seeds of a future dissolution of
+the Confederacy. But happily our experience has already been sufficient to
+quiet in a great degree all such apprehensions. The position at one time
+assumed, that the admission of new States into the Union on the same
+footing with the original States was incompatible with a right of soil in
+the United States and operated as a surrender thereof, notwithstanding the
+terms of the compacts by which their admission was designed to be
+regulated, has been wisely abandoned. Whether in the new or the old States,
+all now agree that the right of soil to the public lands remains in the
+Federal Government, and that these lands constitute a common property, to
+be disposed of for the common benefit of all the States, old and new.
+Acquiescence in this just principle by the people of the new States has
+naturally promoted a disposition to adopt the most liberal policy in the
+sale of the public lands. A policy which should be limited to the mere
+object of selling the lands for the greatest possible sum of money, without
+regard to higher considerations, finds but few advocates. On the contrary,
+it is generally conceded that whilst the mode of disposition adopted by the
+Government should always be a prudent one, yet its leading object ought to
+be the early settlement and cultivation of the lands sold, and that it
+should discountenance, if it can not prevent, the accumulation of large
+tracts in the same hands, which must necessarily retard the growth of the
+new States or entail upon them a dependent tenantry and its attendant
+evils.
+
+A question embracing such important interests and so well calculated to
+enlist the feelings of the people in every quarter of the Union has very
+naturally given rise to numerous plans for the improvement of the existing
+system. The distinctive features of the policy that has hitherto prevailed
+are to dispose of the public lands at moderate prices, thus enabling a
+greater number to enter into competition for their purchase and
+accomplishing a double object--of promoting their rapid settlement by the
+purchasers and at the same time increasing the receipts of the Treasury; to
+sell for cash, thereby preventing the disturbing influence of a large mass
+of private citizens indebted to the Government which they have a voice in
+controlling; to bring them into market no faster than good lands are
+supposed to be wanted for improvement, thereby preventing the accumulation
+of large tracts in few hands; and to apply the proceeds of the sales to the
+general purposes of the Government, thus diminishing the amount to be
+raised from the people of the States by taxation and giving each State its
+portion of the benefits to be derived from this common fund in a manner the
+most quiet, and at the same time, perhaps, the most equitable, that can be
+devised. These provisions, with occasional enactments in behalf of special
+interests deemed entitled to the favor of the Government, have in their
+execution produced results as beneficial upon the whole as could reasonably
+be expected in a matter so vast, so complicated, and so exciting. Upward of
+70,000,000, acres have been sold, the greater part of which is believed to
+have been purchased for actual settlement. The population of the new States
+and Territories created out of the public domain increased between 1800 and
+1830 from less than 60,000 to upward of 2,300,000 souls, constituting at
+the latter period about one-fifth of the whole people of the United States.
+The increase since can not be accurately known, but the whole may now be
+safely estimated at over three and a half millions of souls, composing nine
+States, the representatives of which constitute above one-third of the
+Senate and over one-sixth of the House of Representatives of the United
+States.
+
+Thus has been formed a body of free and independent landholders with a
+rapidity unequaled in the history of mankind; and this great result has
+been produced without leaving anything for future adjustment between the
+Government and its citizens. The system under which so much has been
+accomplished can not be intrinsically bad, and with occasional
+modifications to correct abuses and adapt it to changes of circumstances
+may, I think, be safely trusted for the future. There is in the management
+of such extensive interests much virtue in stability; and although great
+and obvious improvements should not be declined, changes should never be
+made without the fullest examination and the clearest demonstration of
+their practical utility. In the history of the past we have an assurance
+that this safe rule of action will not be departed from in relation to the
+public lands; nor is it believed that any necessity exists for interfering
+with the fundamental principles of the system, or that the public mind,
+even in the new States, is desirous of any radical alterations. On the
+contrary, the general disposition appears to be to make such modifications
+and additions only as will the more effectually carry out the original
+policy of filling our new States and Territories with an industrious and
+independent population.
+
+The modification most perseveringly pressed upon Congress, which has
+occupied so much of its time for years past, and will probably do so for a
+long time to come, if not sooner satisfactorily adjusted, is a reduction in
+the cost of such portions of the public lands as are ascertained to be
+unsalable at the rate now established by law, and a graduation according to
+their relative value of the prices at which they may hereafter be sold. It
+is worthy of consideration whether justice may not be done to every
+interest in this matter, and a vexed question set at rest, perhaps forever,
+by a reasonable compromise of conflicting opinions. Hitherto, after being
+offered at public sale, lands have been disposed of at one uniform price,
+whatever difference there might be in their intrinsic value. The leading
+considerations urged in favor of the measure referred to are that in almost
+all the land districts, and particularly in those in which the lands have
+been long surveyed and exposed to sale, there are still remaining numerous
+and large tracts of every gradation of value, from the Government price
+downward; that these lands will not be purchased at the Government price so
+long as better can be conveniently obtained for the same amount; that there
+are large tracts which even the improvements of the adjacent lands will
+never raise to that price, and that the present uniform price, combined
+with their irregular value, operates to prevent a desirable compactness of
+settlements in the new States and to retard the full development of that
+wise policy on which our land system is founded, to the injury not only of
+the several States where the lands lie, but of the United States as a
+whole.
+
+The remedy proposed has been a reduction of the prices according to the
+length of time the lands have been in market, without reference to any
+other circumstances. The certainty that the efflux of time would not always
+in such cases, and perhaps not even generally, furnish a true criterion of
+value, and the probability that persons residing in the vicinity, as the
+period for the reduction of prices approached, would postpone purchases
+they would otherwise make, for the purpose of availing themselves of the
+lower price, with other considerations of a similar character, have
+hitherto been successfully urged to defeat the graduation upon time.
+
+May not all reasonable desires upon this subject be satisfied without
+encountering any of these objections? All will concede the abstract
+principle that the price of the public lands should be proportioned to
+their relative value, so far as can be accomplished without departing from
+the rule heretofore observed requiring fixed prices in cases of private
+entries. The difficulty of the subject seems to lie in the mode of
+ascertaining what that value is. Would not the safest plan be that which
+has been adopted by many of the States as the basis of taxation--an actual
+valuation of lands and classification of them into different rates? Would
+it not be practicable and expedient to cause the relative value of the
+public lands in the old districts which have been for a certain length of
+time in market to be appraised and classed into two or more rates below the
+present minimum price by the officers now employed in this branch of the
+public service or in any other mode deemed preferable, and to make those
+prices permanent if upon the coming in of the report they shall prove
+satisfactory to Congress? Could not all the objects of graduation be
+accomplished in this way, and the objections which have hitherto been urged
+against it avoided? It would seem to me that such a step, with a
+restriction of the sales to limited quantities and for actual improvement,
+would be free from all just exception.
+
+By the full exposition of the value of the lands thus furnished and
+extensively promulgated persons living at a distance would be informed of
+their true condition and enabled to enter into competition with those
+residing in the vicinity; the means of acquiring an independent home would
+be brought within the reach of many who are unable to purchase at present
+prices; the population of the new States would be made more compact, and
+large tracts would be sold which would otherwise remain on hand. Not only
+would the land be brought within the means of a larger number of
+purchasers, but many persons possessed of greater means would be content to
+settle on a larger quantity of the poorer lands rather than emigrate
+farther west in pursuit of a smaller quantity of better lands. Such a
+measure would also seem to be more consistent with the policy of the
+existing laws--that of converting the public domain into cultivated farms
+owned by their occupants. That policy is not best promoted by sending
+emigration up the almost interminable streams of the West to occupy in
+groups the best spots of land, leaving immense wastes behind them and
+enlarging the frontier beyond the means of the Government to afford it
+adequate protection, but in encouraging it to occupy with reasonable
+denseness the territory over which it advances, and find its best defense
+in the compact front which it presents to the Indian tribes. Many of you
+will bring to the consideration of the subject the advantages of local
+knowledge and greater experience, and all will be desirous of making an
+early and final disposition of every disturbing question in regard to this
+important interest. If these suggestions shall in any degree contribute to
+the accomplishment of so important a result, it will afford me sincere
+satisfaction.
+
+In some sections of the country most of the public lands have been sold,
+and the registers and receivers have very little to do. It is a subject
+worthy of inquiry whether in many cases two or more districts may not be
+consolidated and the number of persons employed in this business
+considerably reduced. Indeed, the time will come when it will be the true
+policy of the General Government, as to some of the States, to transfer to
+them for a reasonable equivalent all the refuse and unsold lands and to
+withdraw the machinery of the Federal land offices altogether. All who take
+a comprehensive view of our federal system and believe that one of its
+greatest excellencies consists in interfering as little as possible with
+the internal concerns of the States look forward with great interest to
+this result.
+
+A modification of the existing laws in respect to the prices of the public
+lands might also have a favorable influence on the legislation of Congress
+in relation to another branch of the subject. Many who have not the ability
+to buy at present prices settle on those lands with the hope of acquiring
+from their cultivation the means of purchasing under preemption laws from
+time to time passed by Congress. For this encroachment on the rights of the
+United States they excuse themselves under the plea of their own
+necessities; the fact that they dispossess nobody and only enter upon the
+waste domain: that they give additional value to the public lands in their
+vicinity, and their intention ultimately to pay the Government price. So
+much weight has from time to time been attached to these considerations
+that Congress have passed laws giving actual settlers on the public lands a
+right of preemption to the tracts occupied by them at the minimum price.
+These laws have in all instances been retrospective in their operation, but
+in a few years after their passage crowds of new settlers have been found
+on the public lands for similar reasons and under like expectations, who
+have been indulged with the same privilege. This course of legislation
+tends to impair public respect for the laws of the country. Either the laws
+to prevent intrusion upon the public lands should be executed, or, if that
+should be impracticable or inexpedient, they should be modified or
+repealed. If the public lands are to be considered as open to be occupied
+by any, they should by law be thrown open to all. That which is intended in
+all instances to be legalized should at once be made legal, that those who
+are disposed to conform to the laws may enjoy at least equal privileges
+with those who are not. But it is not believed to be the disposition of
+Congress to open the public lands to occupancy without regular entry and
+payment of the Government price, as such a course must tend to worse evils
+than the credit system, which it was found necessary to abolish.
+
+It would seem, therefore, to be the part of wisdom and sound policy to
+remove as far as practicable the causes which produce intrusions upon the
+public lands, and then take efficient steps to prevent them in future.
+Would any single measure be so effective in removing all plausible grounds
+for these intrusions as the graduation of price already suggested? A short
+period of industry and economy in any part of our country would enable the
+poorest citizen to accumulate the means to buy him a home at the lower
+prices, and leave him without apology for settling on lands not his own. If
+he did not under such circumstances, he would enlist no sympathy in his
+favor, and the laws would be readily executed without doing violence to
+public opinion.
+
+A large portion of our citizens have seated themselves on the public lands
+without authority since the passage of the last preemption law, and now ask
+the enactment of another to enable them to retain the lands occupied upon
+payment of the minimum Government price. They ask that which has been
+repeatedly granted before. If the future may be judged of by the past,
+little harm can be done to the interests of the Treasury by yielding to
+their request. Upon a critical examination it is found that the lands sold
+at the public sales since the introduction of cash payments, in 1820, have
+produced on an average the net revenue of only 6 cents an acre more than
+the minimum Government price. There is no reason to suppose that future
+sales will be more productive. The Government, therefore, has no adequate
+pecuniary interest to induce it to drive these people from the lands they
+occupy for the purpose of selling them to others.
+
+Entertaining these views, I recommend the passage of a preemption law for
+their benefit in connection with the preparatory steps toward the
+graduation of the price of the public lands, and further and more effectual
+provisions to prevent intrusions hereafter. Indulgence to those who have
+settled on these lands with expectations that past legislation would be
+made a rule for the future, and at the same time removing the most
+plausible ground on which intrusions are excused and adopting more
+efficient means to prevent them hereafter, appears to me the most judicious
+disposition which can be made of this difficult subject. The limitations
+and restrictions to guard against abuses in the execution of a preemption
+law will necessarily attract the careful attention of Congress, but under
+no circumstances is it considered expedient to authorize floating claims in
+any shape. They have been heretofore, and doubtless would be hereafter,
+most prolific sources of fraud and oppression, and instead of operating to
+confer the favor of the Government on industrious settlers are often used
+only to minister to a spirit of cupidity at the expense of the most
+meritorious of that class.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will bring to your view the
+state of the Army and all the various subjects confided to the
+superintendence of that officer.
+
+The principal part of the Army has been concentrated in Florida, with a
+view and in the expectation of bringing the war in that Territory to a
+speedy close. The necessity of stripping the posts on the maritime and
+inland frontiers of their entire garrisons for the purpose of assembling in
+the field an army of less than 4,000 men would seem to indicate the
+necessity of increasing our regular forces; and the superior efficiency, as
+well as greatly diminished expense of that description of troops, recommend
+this measure as one of economy as well as of expediency. I refer to the
+report for the reasons which have induced the Secretary of War to urge the
+reorganization and enlargement of the staff of the Army, and of the
+Ordnance Corps, in which I fully concur.
+
+It is not, however, compatible with the interests of the people to maintain
+in time of peace a regular force adequate to the defense of our extensive
+frontiers. In periods of danger and alarm we must rely principally upon a
+well-organized militia, and some general arrangement that will render this
+description of force more efficient has long been a subject of anxious
+solicitude. It was recommended to the First Congress by General Washington,
+and has been since frequently brought to your notice, and recently its
+importance strongly urged by my immediate predecessor. The provision in the
+Constitution that renders it necessary to adopt a uniform system of
+organization for the militia throughout the United States presents an
+insurmountable obstacle to an efficient arrangement by the classification
+heretofore proposed, and I invite your attention to the plan which will be
+submitted by the Secretary of War, for the organization of volunteer corps
+and the instruction of militia officers, as more simple and practicable, if
+not equally advantageous, as a general arrangement of the whole militia of
+the United States.
+
+A moderate increase of the corps both of military and topographical
+engineers has been more than once recommended by my predecessor, and my
+conviction of the propriety, not to say necessity, of the measure, in order
+to enable them to perform the various and important duties imposed upon
+them, induces me to repeat the recommendation.
+
+The Military Academy continues to answer all the purposes of its
+establishment, and not only furnishes well-educated officers to the Army,
+but serves to diffuse throughout the mass of our citizens individuals
+possessed of military knowledge and the scientific attainments of civil and
+military engineering. At present the cadet is bound, with consent of his
+parents or guardians, to remain in service five years from the period of
+his enlistment, unless sooner discharged, thus exacting only one year's
+service in the Army after his education is completed. This does not appear
+to me sufficient. Government ought to command for a longer period the
+services of those who are educated at the public expense, and I recommend
+that the time of enlistment be extended to seven years, and the terms of
+the engagement strictly enforced.
+
+The creation of a national foundry for cannon, to be common to the service
+of the Army and Navy of the United States, has been heretofore recommended,
+and appears to be required in order to place our ordnance on an equal
+footing with that of other countries and to enable that branch of the
+service to control the prices of those articles and graduate the supplies
+to the wants of the Government, as well as to regulate their quality and
+insure their uniformity. The same reasons induce me to recommend the
+erection of a manufactory of gunpowder, to be under the direction of the
+Ordnance Office. The establishment of a manufactory of small arms west of
+the Alleghany Mountains, upon the plan proposed by the Secretary of War,
+will contribute to extend throughout that country the improvements which
+exist in establishments of a similar description in the Atlantic States,
+and tend to a much more economical distribution of the armament required in
+the western portion of our Union.
+
+The system of removing the Indians west of the Mississippi, commenced by
+Mr. Jefferson in 1804, has been steadily persevered in by every succeeding
+President, and may be considered the settled policy of the country.
+Unconnected at first with any well-defined system for their improvement,
+the inducements held out to the Indians were confined to the greater
+abundance of game to be found in the West; but when the beneficial effects
+of their removal were made apparent a more philanthropic and enlightened
+policy was adopted in purchasing their lands east of the Mississippi.
+Liberal prices were given and provisions inserted in all the treaties with
+them for the application of the funds they received in exchange to such
+purposes as were best calculated to promote their present welfare and
+advance their future civilization. These measures have been attended thus
+far with the happiest results.
+
+It will be seen by referring to the report of the Commissioner of Indian
+Affairs that the most sanguine expectations of the friends and promoters of
+this system have been realized. The Choctaws, Cherokees, and other tribes
+that first emigrated beyond the Mississippi have for the most part
+abandoned the hunter state and become cultivators of the soil. The
+improvement in their condition has been rapid, and it is believed that they
+are now fitted to enjoy the advantages of a simple form of government,
+which has been submitted to them and received their sanction; and I can not
+too strongly urge this subject upon the attention of Congress.
+
+Stipulations have been made with all the Indian tribes to remove them
+beyond the Mississippi, except with the bands of the Wyandots, the Six
+Nations in New York, the Menomonees, Munsees, and Stockbridges in
+Wisconsin, and Miamies in Indiana. With all but the Menomonees it is
+expected that arrangements for their emigration will be completed the
+present year. The resistance which has been opposed to their removal by
+some of the tribes even after treaties had been made with them to that
+effect has arisen from various causes, operating differently on each of
+them. In most instances they have been instigated to resistance by persons
+to whom the trade with them and the acquisition of their annuities were
+important, and in some by the personal influence of interested chiefs.
+These obstacles must be overcome, for the Government can not relinquish the
+execution of this policy without sacrificing important interests and
+abandoning the tribes remaining east of the Mississippi to certain
+destruction.
+
+The decrease in numbers of the tribes within the limits of the States and
+Territories has been most rapid. If they be removed, they can be protected
+from those associations and evil practices which exert so pernicious and
+destructive an influence over their destinies. They can be induced to labor
+and to acquire property, and its acquisition will inspire them with a
+feeling of independence. Their minds can be cultivated, and they can be
+taught the value of salutary and uniform laws and be made sensible of the
+blessings of free government and capable of enjoying its advantages. In the
+possession of property, knowledge, and a good government, free to give what
+direction they please to their labor, and sharers in the legislation by
+which their persons and the profits of their industry are to be protected
+and secured, they will have an ever-present conviction of the importance of
+union and peace among themselves and of the preservation of amicable
+relations with us. The interests of the United States would also be greatly
+promoted by freeing the relations between the General and State Governments
+from what has proved a most embarrassing incumbrance by a satisfactory
+adjustment of conflicting titles to lands caused by the occupation of the
+Indians, and by causing the resources of the whole country to be developed
+by the power of the State and General Governments and improved by the
+enterprise of a white population.
+
+Intimately connected with this subject is the obligation of the Government
+to fulfill its treaty stipulations and to protect the Indians thus
+assembled "at their new residences from all interruptions and disturbances
+from any other tribes or nations of Indians or from any other person or
+persons whatsoever," and the equally solemn obligation to guard from Indian
+hostility its own border settlements, stretching along a line of more than
+1,000 miles. To enable the Government to redeem this pledge to the Indians
+and to afford adequate protection to its own citizens will require the
+continual presence of a considerable regular force on the frontiers and the
+establishment of a chain of permanent posts. Examinations of the country
+are now making, with a view to decide on the most suitable points for the
+erection of fortresses and other works of defense, the results of which
+will be presented to you by the Secretary of War at an early day, together
+with a plan for the effectual protection of the friendly Indians and the
+permanent defense of the frontier States.
+
+By the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith communicated it appears
+that unremitted exertions have been made at the different navy-yards to
+carry into effect all authorized measures for the extension and employment
+of our naval force. The launching and preparation of the ship of the line
+Pennsylvania and the complete repairs of the ships of the line Ohio,
+Delaware, and Columbus may be noticed as forming a respectable addition to
+this important arm of our national defense. Our commerce and navigation
+have received increased aid and protection during the present year. Our
+squadrons in the Pacific and on the Brazilian station have been much
+increased, and that in the Mediterranean, although small, is adequate to
+the present wants of our commerce in that sea. Additions have been made to
+our squadron on the West India station, where the large force under
+Commodore Dallas has been most actively and efficiently employed in
+protecting our commerce, in preventing the importation of slaves, and in
+cooperating with the officers of the Army in carrying on the war in
+Florida.
+
+The satisfactory condition of our naval force abroad leaves at our disposal
+the means of conveniently providing for a home squadron for the protection
+of commerce upon our extensive coast. The amount of appropriations required
+for such a squadron will be found in the general estimates for the naval
+service for the year 1838.
+
+The naval officers engaged upon our coast survey have rendered important
+service to our navigation. The discovery of a new channel into the harbor
+of New York, through which our largest ships may pass without danger, must
+afford important commercial advantages to that harbor and add greatly to
+its value as a naval station. The accurate survey of Georges Shoals, off
+the coast of Massachusetts, lately completed, will render comparatively
+safe a navigation hitherto considered dangerous.
+
+Considerable additions have been made to the number of captains,
+commanders, lieutenants, surgeons, and assistant surgeons in the Navy.
+These additions were rendered necessary by the increased number of vessels
+put in commission to answer the exigencies of our growing commerce.
+
+Your attention is respectfully invited to the various suggestions of the
+Secretary for the improvement of the naval service.
+
+The report of the Postmaster-General exhibits the progress and condition of
+the mail service. The operations of the Post-Office Department constitute
+one of the most active elements of our national prosperity, and it is
+gratifying to observe with what vigor they are conducted. The mail routes
+of the United States cover an extent of about 142,877 miles, having been
+increased about 37,103 miles within the last two years. The annual mail
+transportation on these routes is about 36,228,962 miles, having been
+increased about 10,359,476 miles within the same period. The number of
+post-offices has also been increased from 10,770 to 12,099, very few of
+which receive the mails less than once a week, and a large portion of them
+daily. Contractors and postmasters in general are represented as attending
+to their duties with most commendable zeal and fidelity. The revenue of the
+Department within the year ending on the 30th of June last was
+$4,137,056.59, and its liabilities accruing within the same time were
+$3,380,847.75. The increase of revenue over that of the preceding year was
+$708,166.41.
+
+For many interesting details I refer you to the report of the
+Postmaster-General, with the accompanying papers, Your particular attention
+is invited to the necessity of providing a more safe and convenient
+building for the accommodation of that Department.
+
+I lay before Congress copies of reports submitted in pursuance of a call
+made by me upon the heads of Departments for such suggestions as their
+experience might enable them to make as to what further legislative
+provisions may be advantageously adopted to secure the faithful application
+of public moneys to the objects for which they are appropriated, to prevent
+their misapplication or embezzlement by those intrusted with the
+expenditure of them, and generally to increase the security of the
+Government against losses in their disbursement. It is needless to dilate
+on the importance of providing such new safeguards as are within the power
+of legislation to promote these ends, and I have little to add to the
+recommendations submitted in the accompanying papers.
+
+By law the terms of service of our most important collecting and disbursing
+officers in the civil departments are limited to four years, and when
+reappointed their bonds are required to be renewed. The safety of the
+public is much increased by this feature of the law, and there can be no
+doubt that its application to all officers intrusted with the collection or
+disbursement of the public money, whatever may be the tenure of their
+offices, would be equally beneficial. I therefore recommend, in addition to
+such of the suggestions presented by the heads of Departments as you may
+think useful, a general provision that all officers of the Army or Navy, or
+in the civil departments, intrusted with the receipt or payment of public
+money, and whose term of service is either unlimited or for a longer time
+than four years, be required to give new bonds, with good and sufficient
+sureties, at the expiration of every such period.
+
+A change in the period of terminating the fiscal year, from the 1st of
+October to the 1st of April, has been frequently recommended, and appears
+to be desirable.
+
+The distressing casualties in steamboats which have so frequently happened
+during the year seem to evince the necessity of attempting to prevent them
+by means of severe provisions connected with their customhouse papers. This
+subject was submitted to the attention of Congress by the Secretary of the
+Treasury in his last annual report, and will be again noticed at the
+present session, with additional details. It will doubtless receive that
+early and careful consideration which its pressing importance appears to
+require.
+
+Your attention has heretofore been frequently called to the affairs of the
+District of Columbia, and I should not again ask it did not their entire
+dependence on Congress give them a constant claim upon its notice.
+Separated by the Constitution from the rest of the Union, limited in
+extent, and aided by no legislature of its own, it would seem to be a spot
+where a wise and uniform system of local government might have been easily
+adopted. This District has, however, unfortunately been left to linger
+behind the rest of the Union. Its codes, civil and criminal, are not only
+very defective, but full of obsolete or inconvenient provisions. Being
+formed of portions of two States, discrepancies in the laws prevail in
+different parts of the territory, small as it is; and although it was
+selected as the seat of the General Government, the site of its public
+edifices, the depository of its archives, and the residence of officers
+intrusted with large amounts of public property and the management of
+public business, yet it has never been subjected to or received that
+special and comprehensive legislation which these circumstances peculiarly
+demand. I am well aware of the various subjects of greater magnitude and
+immediate interest that press themselves on the consideration of Congress,
+but I believe there is not one that appeals more directly to its justice
+than a liberal and even generous attention to the interests of the District
+of Columbia and a thorough and careful revision of its local government. M.
+VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 3, 1838
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+I congratulate you on the favorable circumstances in the condition of our
+country under which you reassemble for the performance of your official
+duties. Though the anticipations of an abundant harvest have not everywhere
+been realized, yet on the whole the labors of the husbandman are rewarded
+with a bountiful return; industry prospers in its various channels of
+business and enterprise; general health again prevails through our vast
+diversity of climate; nothing threatens from abroad the continuance of
+external peace; nor has anything at home impaired the strength of those
+fraternal and domestic ties which constitute the only guaranty to the
+success and permanency of our happy Union, and which, formed in the hour of
+peril, have hitherto been honorably sustained through every vicissitude in
+our national affairs. These blessings, which evince the care and
+beneficence of Providence, call for our devout and fervent gratitude.
+
+We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by the
+same munificent hand, and more exclusively our own.
+
+The present year closes the first half century of our Federal institutions,
+and our system, differing from all others in the acknowledged practical and
+unlimited operation which it has for so long a period given to the
+sovereignty of the people, has now been fully tested by experience.
+
+The Constitution devised by our forefathers as the framework and bond of
+that system, then untried, has become a settled form of government; not
+only preserving and protecting the great principles upon which it was
+rounded, but wonderfully promoting individual happiness and private
+interests. Though subject to change and entire revocation whenever deemed
+inadequate to all these purposes, yet such is the wisdom of its
+construction and so stable has been the public sentiment that it remains
+unaltered except in matters of detail comparatively unimportant. It has
+proved amply sufficient for the various emergencies incident to our
+condition as a nation. A formidable foreign war; agitating collisions
+between domestic, and in some respects rival, sovereignties; temptations to
+interfere in the intestine commotions of neighboring countries; the
+dangerous influences that arise in periods of excessive prosperity, and the
+antirepublican tendencies of associated wealth--these, with other trials
+not less formidable, have all been encountered, and thus far successfully
+resisted.
+
+It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantages of a
+government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular
+will, and our experience has shown that it is as beneficent in practice as
+it is just in theory. Each successive change made in our local institutions
+has contributed to extend the right of suffrage, has increased the direct
+influence of the mass of the community, given greater freedom to individual
+exertion, and restricted more and more the powers of Government; yet the
+intelligence, prudence, and patriotism of the people have kept pace with
+this augmented responsibility. In no country has education been so widely
+diffused. Domestic peace has nowhere so largely reigned. The close bonds of
+social intercourse have in no instance prevailed with such harmony over a
+space so vast. All forms of religion have united for the first time to
+diffuse charity and piety, because for the first time in the history of
+nations all have been totally untrammeled and absolutely free. The deepest
+recesses of the wilderness have been penetrated; yet instead of the
+rudeness in the social condition consequent upon such adventures elsewhere,
+numerous communities have sprung up, already unrivaled in prosperity,
+general intelligence, internal tranquillity, and the wisdom of their
+political institutions. Internal improvement, the fruit of individual
+enterprise, fostered by the protection of the States, has added new links
+to the Confederation and fresh rewards to provident industry. Doubtful
+questions of domestic policy have been quietly settled by mutual
+forbearance, and agriculture, commerce, and manufactures minister to each
+other. Taxation and public debt, the burdens which bear so heavily upon all
+other countries, have pressed with comparative lightness upon us. Without
+one entangling alliance, our friendship is prized by every nation, and the
+rights of our citizens are everywhere respected, because they are known to
+be guarded by a united, sensitive, and watchful people.
+
+To this practical operation of our institutions, so evident and successful,
+we owe that increased attachment to them which is among the most cheering
+exhibitions of popular sentiment and will prove their best security in time
+to come against foreign or domestic assault.
+
+This review of the results of our institutions for half a century, without
+exciting a spirit of vain exultation, should serve to impress upon us the
+great principles from which they have sprung--constant and direct
+supervision by the people over every public measure, strict forbearance on
+the part of the Government from exercising any doubtful or disputed powers,
+and a cautious abstinence from all interference with concerns which
+properly belong and are best left to State regulations and individual
+enterprise.
+
+Full information of the state of our foreign affairs having been recently
+on different occasions submitted to Congress, I deem it necessary now to
+bring to your notice only such events as have subsequently occurred or are
+of such importance as to require particular attention.
+
+The most amicable dispositions continue to be exhibited by all the nations
+with whom the Government and citizens of the United States have an habitual
+intercourse. At the date of my last annual message Mexico was the only
+nation which could not be included in so gratifying a reference to our
+foreign relations.
+
+I am happy to be now able to inform you that an advance has been made
+toward the adjustment of our differences with that Republic and the
+restoration of the customary good feeling between the two nations. This
+important change has been effected by conciliatory negotiations that have
+resulted in the conclusion of a treaty between the two Governments, which,
+when ratified, will refer to the arbitrament of a friendly power all the
+subjects of controversy between us growing out of injuries to individuals.
+There is at present also reason to believe that an equitable settlement of
+all disputed points will be attained without further difficulty or
+unnecessary delay, and thus authorize the free resumption of diplomatic
+intercourse with our sister Republic.
+
+With respect to the northeastern boundary of the United States, no official
+correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain has passed
+since that communicated to Congress toward the close of their last session.
+The offer to negotiate a convention for the appointment of a joint
+commission of survey and exploration I am, however, assured will be met by
+Her Majesty's Government in a conciliatory and friendly spirit, and
+instructions to enable the British minister here to conclude such an
+arrangement will be transmitted to him without needless delay. It is hoped
+and expected that these instructions will be of a liberal character, and
+that this negotiation, if successful, will prove to be an important step
+toward the satisfactory and final adjustment of the controversy.
+
+I had hoped that the respect for the laws and regard for the peace and
+honor of their own country which have ever characterized the citizens of
+the United States would have prevented any portion of them from using any
+means to promote insurrection in the territory of a power with which we are
+at peace, and with which the United States are desirous of maintaining the
+most friendly relations. I regret deeply, however, to be obliged to inform
+you that this has not been the case. Information has been given to me,
+derived from official and other sources, that many citizens of the United
+States have associated together to make hostile incursions from our
+territory into Canada and to aid and abet insurrection there, in violation
+of the obligations and laws of the United States and in open disregard of
+their own duties as citizens. This information has been in part confirmed
+by a hostile invasion actually made by citizens of the United States, in
+conjunction with Canadians and others, and accompanied by a forcible
+seizure of the property of our citizens and an application thereof to the
+prosecution of military operations against the authorities and people of
+Canada.
+
+The results of these criminal assaults upon the peace and order of a
+neighboring country have been, as was to be expected, fatally destructive
+to the misguided or deluded persons engaged in them and highly injurious to
+those in whose behalf they are professed to have been undertaken. The
+authorities in Canada, from intelligence received of such intended
+movements among our citizens, have felt themselves obliged to take
+precautionary measures against them; have actually embodied the militia and
+assumed an attitude to repel the invasion to which they believed the
+colonies were exposed from the United States. A state of feeling on both
+sides of the frontier has thus been produced which called for prompt and
+vigorous interference. If an insurrection existed in Canada, the amicable
+dispositions of the United States toward Great Britain, as well as their
+duty to themselves, would lead them to maintain a strict neutrality and to
+restrain their citizens from all violations of the laws which have been
+passed for its enforcement. But this Government recognizes a still higher
+obligation to repress all attempts on the part of its citizens to disturb
+the peace of a country where order prevails or has been reestablished.
+Depredations by our citizens upon nations at peace with the United States,
+or combinations for committing them, have at all times been regarded by the
+American Government and people with the greatest abhorrence. Military
+incursions by our citizens into countries so situated, and the commission
+of acts of violence on the members thereof, in order to effect a change in
+their government, or under any pretext whatever, have from the commencement
+of our Government been held equally criminal on the part of those engaged
+in them, and as much deserving of punishment as would be the disturbance of
+the public peace by the perpetration of similar acts within our own
+territory.
+
+By no country or persons have these invaluable principles of international
+law--principles the strict observance of which is so indispensable to the
+preservation of social order in the world--been more earnestly cherished or
+sacredly respected than by those great and good men who first declared and
+finally established the independence of our own country. They promulgated
+and maintained them at an early and critical period in our history; they
+were subsequently embodied in legislative enactments of a highly penal
+character, the faithful enforcement of which has hitherto been, and will, I
+trust, always continue to be, regarded as a duty inseparably associated
+with the maintenance of our national honor. That the people of the United
+States should feel an interest in the spread of political institutions as
+free as they regard their own to be is natural, nor can a sincere
+solicitude for the success of all those who are at any time in good faith
+struggling for their acquisition be imputed to our citizens as a crime.
+With the entire freedom of opinion and an undisguised expression thereof on
+their part the Government has neither the right nor, I trust, the
+disposition to interfere. But whether the interest or the honor of the
+United States requires that they should be made a party to any such
+struggle, and by inevitable consequence to the war which is waged in its
+support, is a question which by our Constitution is wisely left to Congress
+alone to decide. It is by the laws already made criminal in our citizens to
+embarrass or anticipate that decision by unauthorized military operations
+on their part. Offenses of this character, in addition to their criminality
+as violations of the laws of our country, have a direct tendency to draw
+down upon our own citizens at large the multiplied evils of a foreign war
+and expose to injurious imputations the good faith and honor of the
+country. As such they deserve to be put down with promptitude and decision.
+I can not be mistaken, I am confident, in counting on the cordial and
+general concurrence of our fellow-citizens in this sentiment. A copy of the
+proclamation which I have felt it my duty to issue is herewith
+communicated. I can not but hope that the good sense and patriotism, the
+regard for the honor and reputation of their country, the respect for the
+laws which they have themselves enacted for their own government, and the
+love of order for which the mass of our people have been so long and so
+justly distinguished will deter the comparatively few who are engaged in
+them from a further prosecution of such desperate enterprises. In the
+meantime the existing laws have been and will continue to be faithfully
+executed, and every effort will be made to carry them out in their full
+extent. Whether they are sufficient or not to meet the actual state of
+things on the Canadian frontier it is for Congress to decide.
+
+It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the
+Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the
+convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial
+Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that "hereafter there
+shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under the
+authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest coast of
+America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54° 40' of
+north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be none formed by
+Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same
+parallel;" and by the fourth article, "that during a term of ten years,
+counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both
+powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may
+reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas,
+gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned in the preceding
+article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the
+country." The reasons assigned for declining to renew the provisions of
+this article are, briefly, that the only use made by our citizens of the
+privileges it secures to them has been to supply the Indians with
+spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that this traffic has been
+excluded from the Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the
+United States are injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest
+coast and calculated to produce complaints between the two Governments, His
+Imperial Majesty thinks it for the interest of both countries not to accede
+to the proposition made by the American Government for the renewal of the
+article last referred to.
+
+The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds upon which
+we contend that the citizens of the United States have, independent of the
+provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to trade with the natives
+upon the coast in question at unoccupied places, liable, however, it is
+admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the creation of Russian
+establishments at such points. This right is denied by the Russian
+Government, which asserts that by the operation of the treaty of 1824 each
+party agreed to waive the general right to land on the vacant coasts on the
+respective sides of the degree of latitude referred to, and accepted in
+lieu thereof the mutual privileges mentioned in the fourth article. The
+capital and tonnage employed by our citizens in their trade with the
+northwest coast of America will, perhaps, on adverting to the official
+statements of the commerce and navigation of the United States for the last
+few years, be deemed too inconsiderable in amount to attract much
+attention; yet the subject may in other respects deserve the careful
+consideration of Congress.
+
+I regret to state that the blockade of the principal ports on the eastern
+coast of Mexico, which, in consequence of differences between that Republic
+and France, was instituted in May last, unfortunately still continues,
+enforced by a competent French naval armament, and is necessarily
+embarrassing to our own trade in the Gulf, in common with that of other
+nations. Every disposition, however, is believed to exist on the part of
+the French Government to render this measure as little onerous as
+practicable to the interests of the citizens of the United States and to
+those of neutral commerce, and it is to be hoped that an early settlement
+of the difficulties between France and Mexico will soon reestablish the
+harmonious relations formerly subsisting between them and again open the
+ports of that Republic to the vessels of all friendly nations.
+
+A convention for marking that part of the boundary between the United
+States and the Republic of Texas which extends from the mouth of the Sabine
+to the Red River was concluded and signed at this city on the 25th of April
+last. It has since been ratified by both Governments, and seasonable
+measures will be taken to carry it into effect on the part of the United
+States.
+
+The application of that Republic for admission into this Union, made in
+August, 1837, and which was declined for reasons already made known to you,
+has been formally withdrawn, as will appear from the accompanying copy of
+the note of the minister plenipotentiary of Texas, which was presented to
+the Secretary of State on the occasion of the exchange of the ratifications
+of the convention above mentioned.
+
+Copies of the convention with Texas, of a commercial treaty concluded with
+the King of Greece, and of a similar treaty with the Peru-Bolivian
+Confederation, the ratifications of which have been recently exchanged,
+accompany this message, for the information of Congress and for such
+legislative enactments as may be found necessary or expedient in relation
+to either of them.
+
+To watch over and foster the interests of a gradually increasing and widely
+extended commerce, to guard the rights of American citizens whom business
+or pleasure or other motives may tempt into distant climes, and at the same
+time to cultivate those sentiments of mutual respect and good will which
+experience has proved so beneficial in international intercourse, the
+Government of the United States has deemed it expedient from time to time
+to establish diplomatic connections with different foreign states, by the
+appointment of representatives to reside within their respective
+territories. I am gratified to be enabled to announce to you that since the
+close of your last session these relations have been opened under the
+happiest auspices with Austria and the Two Sicilies, that new nominations
+have been made in the respective missions of Russia, Brazil, Belgium, and
+Sweden and Norway in this country, and that a minister extraordinary has
+been received, accredited to this Government, from the Argentine
+Confederation.
+
+An exposition of the fiscal affairs of the Government and of their
+condition for the past year will be made to you by the Secretary of the
+Treasury.
+
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $2,765,342. The receipts of the year from customs and lands
+will probably amount to $20,615,598. These usual sources of revenue have
+been increased by an issue of Treasury notes, of which less than
+$8,000,000, including interest and principal, will be outstanding at the
+end of the year, and by the sale of one of the bonds of the Bank of the
+United States for $2,254,871. The aggregate of means from these and other
+sources, with the balance on hand on the 1st of January last, has been
+applied to the payment of appropriations by Congress. The whole expenditure
+for the year on their account, including the redemption of more than eight
+millions of Treasury notes, constitutes an aggregate of about $40,000,000,
+and will still leave in the Treasury the balance before stated.
+
+Nearly $8,000,000 of Treasury notes are to be paid during the coming year
+in addition to the ordinary appropriations for the support of Government.
+For both these purposes the resources of the Treasury will undoubtedly be
+sufficient if the charges upon it are not increased beyond the annual
+estimates. No excess, however, is likely to exist. Nor can the postponed
+installment of the surplus revenue be deposited with the States nor any
+considerable appropriations beyond the estimates be made without causing a
+deficiency in the Treasury. The great caution, advisable at all times, of
+limiting appropriations to the wants of the public service is rendered
+necessary at present by the prospective and rapid reduction of the tariff,
+while the vigilant jealousy evidently excited among the people by the
+occurrences of the last few years assures us that they expect from their
+representatives, and will sustain them in the exercise of, the most rigid
+economy. Much can be effected by postponing appropriations not immediately
+required for the ordinary public service or for any pressing emergency, and
+much by reducing the expenditures where the entire and immediate
+accomplishment of the objects in view is not indispensable.
+
+When we call to mind the recent and extreme embarrassments produced by
+excessive issues of bank paper, aggravated by the unforeseen withdrawal of
+much foreign capital and the inevitable derangement arising from the
+distribution of the surplus revenue among the States as required by
+Congress, and consider the heavy expenses incurred by the removal of Indian
+tribes, by the military operations in Florida, and on account of the
+unusually large appropriations made at the last two annual sessions of
+Congress for other objects, we have striking evidence in the present
+efficient state of our finances of the abundant resources of the country to
+fulfill all its obligations. Nor is it less gratifying to find that the
+general business of the community, deeply affected as it has been, is
+reviving with additional vigor, chastened by the lessons of the past and
+animated by the hopes of the future. By the curtailment of paper issues, by
+curbing the sanguine and adventurous spirit of speculation, and by the
+honorable application of all available means to the fulfillment of
+obligations, confidence has been restored both at home and abroad, and ease
+and facility secured to all the operations of trade.
+
+The agency of the Government in producing these results has been as
+efficient as its powers and means permitted. By withholding from the States
+the deposit of the fourth installment, and leaving several millions at long
+credits with the banks, principally in one section of the country, and more
+immediately beneficial to it, and at the same time aiding the banks and
+commercial communities in other sections by postponing the payment of bonds
+for duties to the amount of between four and five millions of dollars; by
+an issue of Treasury notes as a means to enable the Government to meet the
+consequences of their indulgences, but affording at the same time
+facilities for remittance and exchange; and by steadily declining to employ
+as general depositories of the public revenues, or receive the notes of,
+all banks which refused to redeem them with specie--by these measures,
+aided by the favorable action of some of the banks and by the support and
+cooperation of a large portion of the community, we have witnessed an early
+resumption of specie payments in our great commercial capital, promptly
+followed in almost every part of the United States. This result has been
+alike salutary to the true interests of agriculture, commerce, and
+manufactures; to public morals, respect for the laws, and that confidence
+between man and man which is so essential in all our social relations.
+
+The contrast between the suspension of 1814 and that of 1837 is most
+striking. The short duration of the latter, the prompt restoration of
+business, the evident benefits resulting from an adherence by the
+Government to the constitutional standard of value instead of sanctioning
+the suspension by the receipt of irredeemable paper, and the advantages
+derived from the large amount of specie introduced into the country
+previous to 1837 afford a valuable illustration of the true policy of the
+Government in such a crisis. Nor can the comparison fail to remove the
+impression that a national bank is necessary in such emergencies. Not only
+were specie payments resumed without its aid, but exchanges have also been
+more rapidly restored than when it existed, thereby showing that private
+capital, enterprise, and prudence are fully adequate to these ends. On all
+these points experience seems to have confirmed the views heretofore
+submitted to Congress. We have been saved the mortification of seeing the
+distresses of the community for the third time seized on to fasten upon the
+country so dangerous an institution, and we may also hope that the business
+of individuals will hereafter be relieved from the injurious effects of a
+continued agitation of that disturbing subject. The limited influence of a
+national bank in averting derangement in the exchanges of the country or in
+compelling the resumption of specie payments is now not less apparent than
+its tendency to increase inordinate speculation by sudden expansions and
+contractions; its disposition to create panic and embarrassment for the
+promotion of its own designs; its interference with politics, and its far
+greater power for evil than for good, either in regard to the local
+institutions or the operations of Government itself. What was in these
+respects but apprehension or opinion when a national bank was first
+established now stands confirmed by humiliating experience. The scenes
+through which we have passed conclusively prove how little our commerce,
+agriculture, manufactures, or finances require such an institution, and
+what dangers are attendant on its power--a power, I trust, never to be
+conferred by the American people upon their Government, and still less upon
+individuals not responsible to them for its unavoidable abuses.
+
+My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for the
+safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion in regard
+to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those objects have
+been already submitted to you. These have been strengthened by recent
+events, and in the full conviction that time and experience must still
+further demonstrate their propriety I feel it my duty, with respectful
+deference to the conflicting views of others, again to invite your
+attention to them.
+
+With the exception of limited sums deposited in the few banks still
+employed under the act of 1836, the amounts received for duties, and, with
+very inconsiderable exceptions, those accruing from lands also, have since
+the general suspension of specie payments by the deposit banks been kept
+and disbursed by the Treasurer under his general legal powers, subject to
+the superintendence of the Secretary of the Treasury. The propriety of
+defining more specifically and of regulating by law the exercise of this
+wide scope of Executive discretion has been already submitted to Congress.
+
+A change in the office of collector at one of our principal ports has
+brought to light a defalcation of the gravest character, the particulars of
+which will be laid before you in a special report from the Secretary of the
+Treasury. By his report and the accompanying documents it will be seen that
+the weekly returns of the defaulting officer apparently exhibited
+throughout a faithful administration of the affairs intrusted to his
+management. It, however, now appears that he commenced abstracting the
+public moneys shortly after his appointment and continued to do so,
+progressively increasing the amount, for the term of more than seven years,
+embracing a portion of the period during which the public moneys were
+deposited in the Bank of the United States, the whole of that of the State
+bank deposit system, and concluding only on his retirement from office,
+after that system had substantially failed in consequence of the suspension
+of specie payments.
+
+The way in which this defalcation was so long concealed and the steps taken
+to indemnify the United States, as far as practicable, against loss will
+also be presented to you. The case is one which imperatively claims the
+attention of Congress and furnishes the strongest motive for the
+establishment of a more severe and secure system for the safe-keeping and
+disbursement of the public moneys than any that has heretofore existed.
+
+It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to that
+of other countries the application of public money by an officer of
+Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with severe
+and ignominious punishment. This is already in effect the law in respect to
+the Mint, and has been productive of the most salutary results. Whatever
+system is adopted, such an enactment would be wise as an independent
+measure, since much of the public moneys must in their collection and
+ultimate disbursement pass twice through the hands of public officers, in
+whatever manner they are intermediately kept. The Government, it must be
+admitted, has been from its commencement comparatively fortunate in this
+respect. But the appointing power can not always be well advised in its
+selections, and the experience of every country has shown that public
+officers are not at all times proof against temptation. It is a duty,
+therefore, which the Government owes, as well to the interests committed to
+its care as to the officers themselves, to provide every guard against
+transgressions of this character that is consistent with reason and
+humanity. Congress can not be too jealous of the conduct of those who are
+intrusted with the public money, and I shall at all times be disposed to
+encourage a watchful discharge of this duty.
+
+If a more direct cooperation on the part of Congress in the supervision of
+the conduct of the officers intrusted with the custody and application of
+the public money is deemed desirable, it will give me pleasure to assist in
+the establishment of any judicious and constitutional plan by which that
+object may be accomplished. You will in your wisdom determine upon the
+propriety of adopting such a plan and upon the measures necessary to its
+effectual execution. When the late Bank of the United States was
+incorporated and made the depository of the public moneys, a right was
+reserved to Congress to inspect at its pleasure, by a committee of that
+body, the books and the proceedings of the bank. In one of the States,
+whose banking institutions are supposed to rank amongst the first in point
+of stability, they are subjected to constant examination by commissioners
+appointed for that purpose, and much of the success of its banking system
+is attributed to this watchful supervision.
+
+The same course has also, in view of its beneficial operation, been adopted
+by an adjoining State, favorably known for the care it has always bestowed
+upon whatever relates to its financial concerns. I submit to your
+consideration whether a committee of Congress might not be profitably
+employed in inspecting, at such intervals as might be deemed proper, the
+affairs and accounts of officers intrusted with the custody of the public
+moneys. The frequent performance of this duty might be made obligatory on
+the committee in respect to those officers who have large sums in their
+possession, and left discretionary in respect to others. They might report
+to the Executive such defalcations as were found to exist, with a view to a
+prompt removal from office unless the default was satisfactorily accounted
+for, and report also to Congress, at the commencement of each session, the
+result of their examinations and proceedings. It does appear to me that
+with a subjection of this class of public officers to the general
+supervision of the Executive, to examinations by a committee of Congress at
+periods of which they should have no previous notice, and to prosecution
+and punishment as for felony for every breach of trust, the safe-keeping of
+the public moneys might under the system proposed be placed on a surer
+foundation than it has ever occupied since the establishment of the
+Government.
+
+The Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you additional information
+containing new details on this interesting subject. To these I ask your
+early attention. That it should have given rise to great diversity of
+opinion can not be a subject of surprise. After the collection and custody
+of the public moneys had been for so many years connected with and made
+subsidiary to the advancement of private interests, a return to the simple
+self-denying ordinances of the Constitution could not but be difficult. But
+time and free discussion, eliciting the sentiments of the people, and aided
+by that conciliatory spirit which has ever characterized their course on
+great emergencies, were relied upon for a satisfactory settlement of the
+question. Already has this anticipation, on one important point at
+least--the impropriety of diverting public money to private purposes--been
+fully realized. There is no reason to suppose that legislation upon that
+branch of the subject would now be embarrassed by a difference of opinion,
+or fail to receive the cordial support of a large majority of our
+constituents.
+
+The connection which formerly existed between the Government and banks was
+in reality injurious to both, as well as to the general interests of the
+community at large. It aggravated the disasters of trade and the
+derangements of commercial intercourse, and administered new excitements
+and additional means to wild and reckless speculations, the disappointment
+of which threw the country into convulsions of panic, and all but produced
+violence and bloodshed. The imprudent expansion of bank credits, which was
+the natural result of the command of the revenues of the State, furnished
+the resources for unbounded license in every species of adventure, seduced
+industry from its regular and salutary occupations by the hope of abundance
+without labor, and deranged the social state by tempting all trades and
+professions into the vortex of speculation on remote contingencies.
+
+The same wide-spreading influence impeded also the resources of the
+Government, curtailed its useful operations, embarrassed the fulfillment of
+its obligations, and seriously interfered with the execution of the laws.
+Large appropriations and oppressive taxes are the natural consequences of
+such a connection, since they increase the profits of those who are allowed
+to use the public funds, and make it their interest that money should be
+accumulated and expenditures multiplied. It is thus that a concentrated
+money power is tempted to become an active agent in political affairs; and
+all past experience has shown on which side that influence will be arrayed.
+We deceive ourselves if we suppose that, it will ever be found asserting
+and supporting the rights of the community at large in opposition to the
+claims of the few.
+
+In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion
+and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals
+will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. Nor is it the
+nature of combinations for the acquisition of legislative influence to
+confine their interference to the single object for which they were
+originally formed. The temptation to extend it to other matters is, on the
+contrary, not unfrequently too strong to be resisted. The rightful
+influence in the direction of public affairs of the mass of the people is
+therefore in no slight danger of being sensibly and injuriously affected by
+giving to a comparatively small but very efficient class a direct and
+exclusive personal interest in so important a portion of the legislation of
+Congress as that which relates to the custody of the public moneys. If laws
+acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be
+confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the
+legislatures of the States. When not thus restricted they lead to
+combinations of powerful associations, foster an influence necessarily
+selfish, and turn the fair course of legislation to sinister ends rather
+than to objects that advance public liberty and promote the general good.
+
+The whole subject now rests with you, and I can not but express a hope that
+some definite measure will be adopted at the present session.
+
+It will not, I am sure, be deemed out of place for me here to remark that
+the declaration of my views in opposition to the policy of employing banks
+as depositories of the Government funds can not justly be construed as
+indicative of hostility, official or personal, to those institutions; or to
+repeat in this form and in connection with this subject opinions which I
+have uniformly entertained and on all proper occasions expressed. Though
+always opposed to their creation in the form of exclusive privileges, and,
+as a State magistrate, aiming by appropriate legislation to secure the
+community against the consequences of their occasional mismanagement, I
+have yet ever wished to see them protected in the exercise of rights
+conferred by law, and have never doubted their utility when properly
+managed in promoting the interests of trade, and through that channel the
+other interests of the community. To the General Government they present
+themselves merely as State institutions, having no necessary connection
+with its legislation or its administration. Like other State
+establishments, they may be used or not in conducting the affairs of the
+Government, as public policy and the general interests of the Union may
+seem to require. The only safe or proper principle upon which their
+intercourse with the Government can be regulated is that which regulates
+their intercourse with the private citizen--the conferring of mutual
+benefits. When the Government can accomplish a financial operation better
+with the aid of the banks than without it, it should be at liberty to seek
+that aid as it would the services of a private banker or other capitalist
+or agent, giving the preference to those who will serve it on the best
+terms. Nor can there ever exist an interest in the officers of the General
+Government, as such, inducing them to embarrass or annoy the State banks
+any more than to incur the hostility of any other class of State
+institutions or of private citizens. It is not in the nature of things that
+hostility to these institutions can spring from this source, or any
+opposition to their course of business, except when they themselves depart
+from the objects of their creation and attempt to usurp powers not
+conferred upon them or to subvert the standard of value established by the
+Constitution. While opposition to their regular operations can not exist in
+this quarter, resistance to any attempt to make the Government dependent
+upon them for the successful administration of public affairs is a matter
+of duty, as I trust it ever will be of inclination, no matter from what
+motive or consideration the attempt may originate.
+
+It is no more than just to the banks to say that in the late emergency most
+of them firmly resisted the strongest temptations to extend their paper
+issues when apparently sustained in a suspension of specie payments by
+public opinion, even though in some cases invited by legislative
+enactments. To this honorable course, aided by the resistance of the
+General Government, acting in obedience to the Constitution and laws of the
+United States, to the introduction of an irredeemable paper medium, may be
+attributed in a great degree the speedy restoration of our currency to a
+sound state and the business of the country to its wonted prosperity.
+
+The banks have but to continue in the same safe course and be content in
+their appropriate sphere to avoid all interference from the General
+Government and to derive from it all the protection and benefits which it
+bestows on other State establishments, on the people of the States, and on
+the States themselves. In this, their true position, they can not but
+secure the confidence and good will of the people and the Government, which
+they can only lose when, leaping from their legitimate sphere, they attempt
+to control the legislation of the country and pervert the operations of the
+Government to their own purposes.
+
+Our experience under the act, passed at the last session, to grant
+preemption rights to settlers on the public lands has as yet been too
+limited to enable us to pronounce with safety upon the efficacy of its
+provisions to carry out the wise and liberal policy of the Government in
+that respect. There is, however, the best reason to anticipate favorable
+results from its operation. The recommendations formerly submitted to you
+in respect to a graduation of the price of the public lands remain to be
+finally acted upon. Having found no reason to change the views then
+expressed, your attention to them is again respectfully requested.
+
+Every proper exertion has been made and will be continued to carry out the
+wishes of Congress in relation to the tobacco trade, as indicated in the
+several resolutions of the House of Representatives and the legislation of
+the two branches. A favorable impression has, I trust, been made in the
+different foreign countries to which particular attention has been
+directed; and although we can not hope for an early change in their policy,
+as in many of them a convenient and large revenue is derived from
+monopolies in the fabrication and sale of this article, yet, as these
+monopolies are really injurious to the people where they are established,
+and the revenue derived from them may be less injuriously and with equal
+facility obtained from another and a liberal system of administration, we
+can not doubt that our efforts will be eventually crowned with, success if
+persisted in with temperate firmness and sustained by prudent legislation.
+
+In recommending to Congress the adoption of the necessary provisions at
+this session for taking the next census or enumeration of the inhabitants
+of the United States, the suggestion presents itself whether the scope of
+the measure might not be usefully extended by causing it to embrace
+authentic statistical returns of the great interests specially intrusted to
+or necessarily affected by the legislation of Congress.
+
+The accompanying report of the Secretary of War presents a satisfactory
+account of the state of the Army and of the several branches of the public
+service confided to the superintendence of that officer.
+
+The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United
+States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been
+extensively and usefully employed during the past season.
+
+I would again call to your notice the subjects connected with and essential
+to the military defenses of the country which were submitted to you at the
+last session, but which were not acted upon, as is supposed, for want of
+time. The most important of them is the organization of the militia on the
+maritime and inland frontiers. This measure is deemed important, as it is
+believed that it will furnish an effective volunteer force in aid of the
+Regular Army, and may form the basis of a general system of organization
+for the entire militia of the United States. The erection of a national
+foundry and gunpowder manufactory, and one for making small arms, the
+latter to be situated at some point west of the Allegany Mountains, all
+appear to be of sufficient importance to be again urged upon your
+attention.
+
+The plan proposed by the Secretary of War for the distribution of the
+forces of the United States in time of peace is well calculated to promote
+regularity and economy in the fiscal administration of the service, to
+preserve the discipline of the troops, and to render them available for the
+maintenance of the peace and tranquillity of the Country. With this view,
+likewise, I recommend the adoption of the plan presented by that officer
+for the defense of the western frontier. The preservation of the lives and
+property of our fellow-citizens who are settled upon that border country,
+as well as the existence of the Indian population, which might be tempted
+by our want of preparation to rush on their own destruction and attack the
+white settlements, all seem to require that this subject should be acted
+upon without delay, and the War Department authorized to place that country
+in a state of complete defense against any assault from the numerous and
+warlike tribes which are congregated on that border.
+
+It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire
+removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the
+Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session, with
+a view to the long-standing controversy with them, have had the happiest
+effects. By an agreement concluded with them by the commanding general in
+that country, who has performed the duties assigned to him on the occasion
+with commendable energy and humanity, their removal has been principally
+under the conduct of their own chiefs, and they have emigrated without any
+apparent reluctance.
+
+The successful accomplishment of this important object, the removal also of
+the entire Creek Nation with the exception of a small number of fugitives
+amongst the Seminoles in Florida, the progress already made toward a speedy
+completion of the removal of the Chickasaws, the Choctaws, the
+Pottawatamies, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas, with the extensive purchases
+of Indian lands during the present year, have rendered the speedy and
+successful result of the long-established policy of the Government upon the
+subject of Indian affairs entirely certain. The occasion is therefore
+deemed a proper one to place this policy in such a point of view as will
+exonerate the Government of the United States from the undeserved reproach
+which has been cast upon it through several successive Administrations.
+That a mixed occupancy of the same territory by the white and red man is
+incompatible with the safety or happiness of either is a position in
+respect to which there has long since ceased to be room for a difference of
+opinion. Reason and experience have alike demonstrated its
+impracticability. The bitter fruits of every attempt heretofore to overcome
+the barriers interposed by nature have only been destruction, both physical
+and moral, to the Indian, dangerous conflicts of authority between the
+Federal and State Governments, and detriment to the individual prosperity
+of the citizen as well as to the general improvement of the country. The
+remedial policy, the principles of which were settled more than thirty
+years ago under the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, consists in an
+extinction, for a fair consideration, of the title to all the lands still
+occupied by the Indians within the States and Territories of the United
+States; their removal to a country west of the Mississippi much more
+extensive and better adapted to their condition than that on which they
+then resided; the guarantee to them by the United States of their exclusive
+possession of that country forever, exempt from all intrusions by white
+men, with ample provisions for their security against external violence and
+internal dissensions, and the extension to them of suitable facilities for
+their advancement in civilization. This has not been the policy of
+particular Administrations only, but of each in succession since the first
+attempt to carry it out under that of Mr. Monroe. All have labored for its
+accomplishment, only with different degrees of success. The manner of its
+execution has, it is true, from time to time given rise to conflicts of
+opinion and unjust imputations; but in respect to the wisdom and necessity
+of the policy itself there has not from the beginning existed a doubt in
+the mind of any calm, judicious, disinterested friend of the Indian race
+accustomed to reflection and enlightened by experience.
+
+Occupying the double character of contractor on its own account and
+guardian for the parties contracted with, it was hardly to be expected that
+the dealings of the Federal Government with the Indian tribes would escape
+misrepresentation. That there occurred ill the early settlement of this
+country, as in all others where the civilized race has succeeded to the
+possessions of the savage, instances of oppression and fraud on the part of
+the former there is too much reason to believe. No such offenses can,
+however, be justly charged upon this Government since it became free to
+pursue its own course. Its dealings with the Indian tribes have been just
+and friendly throughout; its efforts for their civilization constant, and
+directed by the best feelings of humanity; its watchfulness in protecting
+them from individual frauds unremitting; its forbearance under the keenest
+provocations, the deepest injuries, and the most flagrant outrages may
+challenge at least a comparison with any nation, ancient or modern, in
+similar circumstances; and if in future times a powerful, civilized, and
+happy nation of Indians shall be found to exist within the limits of this
+northern continent it will be owing to the consummation of that policy
+which has been so unjustly assailed. Only a very brief reference to facts
+in confirmation of this assertion can in this form be given, and you are
+therefore necessarily referred to the report of the Secretary of War for
+further details. To the Cherokees, whose case has perhaps excited the
+greatest share of attention and sympathy, the United States have granted in
+fee, with a perpetual guaranty of exclusive and peaceable possession,
+13,554,135 acres of land on the west side of the Mississippi, eligibly
+situated, in a healthy climate, and in all respects better suited to their
+condition than the country they have left, in exchange for only 9,492, 160
+acres on the east side of the same river. The United States have in
+addition stipulated to pay them $5,600,000 for their interest in and
+improvements on the lands thus relinquished, and $1,160,000 for subsistence
+and other beneficial purposes, thereby putting it in their power to become
+one of the most wealthy and independent separate communities of the same
+extent in the world.
+
+By the treaties made and ratified with the Miamies, the Chippewas, the
+Sioux, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Winnebagoes during the last year the
+Indian title to 18,458,000 acres has been extinguished. These purchases
+have been much more extensive than those of any previous year, and have,
+with other Indian expenses, borne very heavily upon the Treasury. They
+leave, however, but a small quantity of unbought Indian lands within the
+States and Territories, and the Legislature and Executive were equally
+sensible of the propriety of a final and more speedy extinction of Indian
+titles within those limits. The treaties, which were with a single
+exception made in pursuance of previous appropriations for defraying the
+expenses, have subsequently been ratified by the Senate, and received the
+sanction of Congress by the appropriations necessary to carry them into
+effect. Of the terms upon which these important negotiations were concluded
+I can speak from direct knowledge, and I feel no difficulty in affirming
+that the interest of the Indians in the extensive territory embraced by
+them is to be paid for at its fair value, and that no more favorable terms
+have been granted to the United States than would have been reasonably
+expected in a negotiation with civilized men fully capable of appreciating
+and protecting their own rights. For the Indian title to 116,349,897 acres
+acquired since the 4th of March, 1829, the United States have paid
+$72,560,056 in permanent annuities, lands, reservations for Indians,
+expenses of removal and subsistence, merchandise, mechanical and
+agricultural establishments and implements. When the heavy expenses
+incurred by the United States and the circumstance that so large a portion
+of the entire territory will be forever unsalable are considered, and this
+price is compared with that for which the United States sell their own
+lands, no one can doubt that justice has been done to the Indians in these
+purchases also. Certain it is that the transactions of the Federal
+Government with the Indians have been uniformly characterized by a sincere
+and paramount desire to promote their welfare; and it must be a source of
+the highest gratification to every friend to justice and humanity to learn
+that not withstanding the obstructions from time to time thrown in its way
+and the difficulties which have arisen from the peculiar and impracticable
+nature of the Indian character, the wise, humane, and undeviating policy of
+the Government in this the most difficult of all our relations, foreign or
+domestic, has at length been justified to the world in its near approach to
+a happy and certain consummation.
+
+The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them in
+the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early
+civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and
+turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. All those who have been
+established for any length of time in that fertile region maintain
+themselves by their own industry. There are among them traders of no
+inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent, but
+the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon the
+produce of their farms. The recent emigrants, although they have in some
+instances removed reluctantly, have readily acquiesced in their unavoidable
+destiny. They have found at once a recompense for past sufferings and an
+incentive to industrious habits in the abundance and comforts around them.
+There is reason to believe that all these tribes are friendly in their
+feelings toward the United States; and it is to be hoped that the
+acquisition of individual wealth, the pursuits of agriculture, and habits
+of industry will gradually subdue their warlike propensities and incline
+them to maintain peace among themselves. To effect this desirable object
+the attention of Congress is solicited to the measures recommended by the
+Secretary of War for their future government and protection, as well from
+each other as from the hostility of the warlike tribes around them and the
+intrusions of the whites. The policy of the Government has given them a
+permanent home and guaranteed to them its peaceful and undisturbed
+possession. It only remains to give them a government and laws which will
+encourage industry and secure to them the rewards of their exertions. The
+importance of some form of government can not be too much insisted upon.
+The earliest effects will be to diminish the causes and occasions for
+hostilities among the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of
+laws to which they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the
+securities of property and the motives for self-improvement. Intimately
+connected with this subject is the establishment of the military defenses
+recommended by the Secretary of War, which have been already referred to.
+Without them the Government will be powerless to redeem its pledge of
+protection to the emigrating Indians against the numerous warlike tribes
+that surround them and to provide for the safety of the frontier settlers
+of the bordering States.
+
+The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to the
+successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the homes
+assigned them west of the Mississippi. Four hundred of this tribe emigrated
+in 1836 and 1,500 in 1837 and 1838, leaving in the country, it is supposed,
+about 2,000 Indians. The continued treacherous conduct of these people; the
+savage and unprovoked murders they have lately committed, butchering whole
+families of the settlers of the Territory without distinction of age or
+sex, and making their way into the very center and heart of the country, so
+that no part of it is free from their ravages; their frequent attacks on
+the light-houses along that dangerous coast, and the barbarity with which
+they have murdered the passengers and crews of such vessels as have been
+wrecked upon the reefs and keys which border the Gulf, leave the Government
+no alternative but to continue the military operations against them until
+they are totally expelled from Florida. There are other motives which would
+urge the Government to pursue this course toward the Seminoles. The United
+States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the
+Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like
+performance of their obligations. To relax from this salutary rule because
+the Seminoles have maintained themselves so long in the territory they had
+relinquished, and in defiance of their frequent and solemn engagements
+still continue to wage a ruthless war against the United States, would not
+only evince a want of constancy on our part, but be of evil example in our
+intercourse with other tribes. Experience has shown that but little is to
+be gained by the march of armies through a country so intersected with
+inaccessible swamps and marshes, and which, from the fatal character of the
+climate, must be abandoned at the end of the winter. I recommend,
+therefore, to your attention the plan submitted by the Secretary of War in
+the accompanying report, for the permanent occupation of the portion of the
+Territory freed from the Indians and the more efficient protection of the
+people of Florida from their inhuman warfare.
+
+From the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith transmitted it will
+appear that a large portion of the disposable naval force is either
+actively employed or in a state of preparation for the purposes of
+experience and discipline and the protection of our commerce. So effectual
+has been this protection that so far as the information of Government
+extends not a single outrage has been attempted on a vessel carrying the
+flag of the United States within the present year, in any quarter, however
+distant or exposed.
+
+The exploring expedition sailed from Norfolk on the 19th of August last,
+and information has been received of its safe arrival at the island of
+Madeira. The best spirit animates the officers and crews, and there is
+every reason to anticipate from its efforts results beneficial to commerce
+and honorable to the nation.
+
+It will also be seen that no reduction of the force now in commission is
+contemplated. The unsettled state of a portion of South America renders it
+indispensable that our commerce should receive protection in that quarter;
+the vast and increasing interests embarked in the trade of the Indian and
+China seas, in the whale fisheries of the Pacific Ocean, and in the Gulf of
+Mexico require equal attention to their safety, and a small squadron may be
+employed to great advantage on our Atlantic coast in meeting sudden demands
+for the reenforcement of other stations, in aiding merchant vessels in
+distress, in affording active service to an additional number of officers,
+and in visiting the different ports of the United States, an accurate
+knowledge of which is obviously of the highest importance.
+
+The attention of Congress is respectfully called to that portion of the
+report recommending an increase in the number of smaller vessels, and to
+other suggestions contained in that document. The rapid increase and wide
+expansion of our commerce, which is every day seeking new avenues of
+profitable adventure; the absolute necessity of a naval force for its
+protection precisely in the degree of its extension; a due regard to the
+national rights and honor; the recollection of its former exploits, and the
+anticipation of its future triumphs whenever opportunity presents itself,
+which we may rightfully indulge from the experience of the past--all seem
+to point to the Navy as a most efficient arm of our national defense and a
+proper object of legislative encouragement.
+
+The progress and condition of the Post-Office Department will be seen by
+reference to the report of the Postmaster-General. The extent of post-roads
+covered by mail contracts is stated to be 134,818 miles, and the annual
+transportation upon them 34,580,202 miles. The number of post-offices in
+the United States is 12,553, and rapidly increasing. The gross revenue for
+the year ending on the 30th day of June last was $4,262,145; the accruing
+expenditures, $4,680,068; excess of expenditures, $417,923. This has been
+made up out of the surplus previously on hand. The cash on hand on the 1st
+instant was $314,068. The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1838, was
+$161,540 more than that for the year ending June 30, 1837. The expenditures
+of the Department had been graduated upon the anticipation of a largely
+increased revenue. A moderate curtailment of mail service consequently
+became necessary, and has been effected, to shield the Department against
+the danger of embarrassment. Its revenue is now improving, and it will soon
+resume its onward course in the march of improvement.
+
+Your particular attention is requested to so much of the
+Postmaster-Generals report as relates to the transportation of the mails
+upon railroads. The laws on that subject do not seem adequate to secure
+that service, now become almost essential to the public interests, and at
+the same time protect the Department from combinations and unreasonable
+demands.
+
+Nor can I too earnestly request your attention to the necessity of
+providing a more secure building for this Department. The danger of
+destruction to which its important books and papers are continually
+exposed, as well from the highly combustible character of the building
+occupied as from that of others in the vicinity, calls loudly for prompt
+action.
+
+Your attention is again earnestly invited to the suggestions and
+recommendations submitted at the last session in respect to the District of
+Columbia.
+
+I feel it my duty also to bring to your notice certain proceedings at law
+which have recently been prosecuted in this District in the name of the
+United States, on the relation of Messrs. Stockton & Stokes, of the State
+of Maryland, against the Postmaster-General, and which have resulted in the
+payment of money out of the National Treasury, for the first time since the
+establishment of the Government, by judicial compulsion exercised by the
+common-law writ of mandamus issued by the circuit court of this District.
+
+The facts of the case and the grounds of the proceedings will be found
+fully stated in the report of the decision, and any additional information
+which you may desire will be supplied by the proper Department. No
+interference in the particular case is contemplated. The money has been
+paid, the claims of the prosecutors have been satisfied, and the whole
+subject, so far as they are concerned, is finally disposed of; but it is on
+the supposition that the case may be regarded as an authoritative
+exposition of the law as it now stands that I have thought it necessary to
+present it to your consideration.
+
+The object of the application to the circuit court was to compel the
+Postmaster-General to carry into effect an award made by the Solicitor of
+the Treasury, under a special act of Congress for the settlement of certain
+claims of the relators on the Post-Office Department, which award the
+Postmaster-General declined to execute in full until he should receive
+further legislative direction on the subject. If the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General by that law was to be regarded as one of an official
+nature, belonging to his office as a branch of the executive, then it is
+obvious that the constitutional competency of the judiciary to direct and
+control him in its discharge was necessarily drawn in question; and if the
+duty so imposed on the Postmaster-General was to be considered as merely
+ministerial, and not executive, it yet remained to be shown that the
+circuit court of this District had authority to interfere by mandamus, such
+a power having never before been asserted or claimed by that court. With a
+view to the settlement of these important questions, the judgment of the
+circuit court was carried by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the
+United States. In the opinion of that tribunal the duty imposed on the
+Postmaster-General was not an official executive duty, but one of a merely
+ministerial nature. The grave constitutional questions which had been
+discussed were therefore excluded from the decision of the case, the court,
+indeed, expressly admitting that with powers and duties properly belonging
+to the executive no other department can interfere by the writ of
+mandamus; and the question therefore resolved itself into this: Has
+Congress conferred upon the circuit court of this District the power to
+issue such a writ to an officer of the General Government commanding him to
+perform a ministerial act? A majority of the court have decided that it
+has, but have rounded their decision upon a process of reasoning which in
+my judgment renders further legislative provision indispensable to the
+public interests and the equal administration of justice.
+
+It has long since been decided by the Supreme Court that neither that
+tribunal nor the circuit courts of the United States, held within the
+respective States, possess the power in question; but it is now held that
+this power, denied to both of these high tribunals (to the former by the
+Constitution and to the latter by Congress), has been by its legislation
+vested in the circuit court of this District. No such direct grant of power
+to the circuit court of this District is claimed, but it has been held to
+result by necessary implication from several sections of the law
+establishing the court. One of these sections declares that the laws of
+Maryland, as they existed at the time of the cession, should be in force in
+that part of the District ceded by that State, and by this provision the
+common law in civil and criminal cases, as it prevailed in Maryland in
+1801, was established in that part of the District.
+
+In England the court of king's bench--because the Sovereign, who, according
+to the theory of the constitution, is the fountain of justice originally
+sat there in person, and is still deemed to be present in construction of
+law--alone possesses the high power of issuing the writ of mandamus, not
+only to inferior jurisdictions and corporations, but also to magistrates
+and others, commanding them in the King's name to do what their duty
+requires in cases where there is a vested right and no other specific
+remedy. It has been held in the case referred to that as the Supreme Court
+of the United States is by the Constitution rendered incompetent to
+exercise this power, and as the circuit court of this District is a court
+of general jurisdiction in cases at common law, and the highest court of
+original jurisdiction in the District, the right to issue the writ of
+mandamus is incident to its common-law powers. Another ground relied upon
+to maintain the power in question is that it was included by fair
+construction in the powers granted to the circuit courts of the United
+States by the act "to provide for the more convenient organization of the
+courts of the United States," passed 13th February, 1801; that the act
+establishing the circuit court of this District, passed the 27th day of
+February, 1801, conferred upon that court and the judges thereof the same
+powers as were by law vested in the circuit courts of the United States and
+in the judges of the said courts; that the repeal of the first-mentioned
+act, which took place in the next year, did not divest the circuit court of
+this District of the authority in dispute, but left it still clothed with
+the powers over the subject which, it is conceded, were taken away from the
+circuit courts of the United States by the repeal of the act of 13th
+February, 1801.
+
+Admitting that the adoption of the laws of Maryland for a portion of this
+District confers on the circuit court thereof, in that portion, the
+transcendent extrajudicial prerogative powers of the court of king's bench
+in England, or that either of the acts of Congress by necessary implication
+authorizes the former court to issue a writ of mandamus to an officer of
+the United States to compel him to perform a ministerial duty, the
+consequences are in one respect the same. The result in either case is that
+the officers of the United States stationed in different parts of the
+United States are, in respect to the performance of their official duties,
+subject to different laws and a different supervision--those in the States
+to one rule, and those in the District of Columbia to another and a very
+different one. In the District their official conduct is subject to a
+judicial control from which in the States they are exempt.
+
+Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the expediency of vesting
+such a power in the judiciary in a system of government constituted like
+that of the United States, all must agree that these disparaging
+discrepancies in the law and in the administration of justice ought not to
+he permitted to continue; and as Congress alone can provide the remedy, the
+subject is unavoidably presented to your consideration.
+
+M. VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 2, 1839
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+I regret that I can not on this occasion congratulate you that the past
+year has been one of unalloyed prosperity. The ravages of fire and disease
+have painfully afflicted otherwise flourishing portions of our country, and
+serious embarrassments yet derange the trade of many of our cities. But
+notwithstanding these adverse circumstances, that general prosperity which
+has been heretofore so bountifully bestowed upon us by the Author of All
+Good still continues to call for our warmest gratitude. Especially have we
+reason to rejoice in the exuberant harvests which have lavishly recompensed
+well-directed industry and given to it that sure reward which is vainly
+sought in visionary speculations. I cannot, indeed, view without peculiar
+satisfaction the evidences afforded by the past season of the benefits that
+spring from the steady devotion of the husbandman to his honorable pursuit.
+No means of individual comfort is more certain and no source of national
+prosperity is so sure. Nothing can compensate a people for a dependence
+upon others for the bread they eat, and that cheerful abundance on which
+the happiness of everyone so much depends is to be looked for nowhere with
+such sure reliance as in the industry of the agriculturist and the bounties
+of the earth.
+
+With foreign countries our relations exhibit the same favorable aspect
+which was presented in my last annual message, and afford continued proof
+of the wisdom of the pacific, just, and forbearing policy adopted by the
+first Administration of the Federal Government and pursued by its
+successors. The extraordinary powers vested in me by an act of Congress for
+the defense of the country in an emergency, considered so far probable as
+to require that the Executive should possess ample means to meet it, have
+not been exerted. They have therefore been attended with no other result
+than to increase, by the confidence thus reposed in me, my obligations to
+maintain with religious exactness the cardinal principles that govern our
+intercourse with other nations. Happily, in our pending questions with
+Great Britain, out of which this unusual grant of authority arose, nothing
+has occurred to require its exertion, and as it is about to return to the
+Legislature I trust that no future necessity may call for its exercise by
+them or its delegation to another Department of the Government.
+
+For the settlement of our northeastern boundary the proposition promised by
+Great Britain for a commission of exploration and survey has been received,
+and a counter project, including also a provision for the certain and final
+adjustment of the limits in dispute, is now before the British Government
+for its consideration. A just regard to the delicate state of this question
+and a proper respect for the natural impatience of the State of Maine, not
+less than a conviction that the negotiation has been already protracted
+longer than is prudent on the part of either Government, have led me to
+believe that the present favorable moment should on no account be suffered
+to pass without putting the question forever at rest. I feel confident that
+the Government of Her Britannic Majesty will take the same view of this
+subject, as I am persuaded it is governed by desires equally strong and
+sincere for the amicable termination of the controversy.
+
+To the intrinsic difficulties of questions of boundary lines, especially
+those described in regions unoccupied and but partially known, is to be
+added in our country the embarrassment necessarily arising out of our
+Constitution by which the General Government is made the organ of
+negotiating and deciding upon the particular interests of the States on
+whose frontiers these lines are to be traced. To avoid another controversy
+in which a State government might rightfully claim to have her wishes
+consulted previously to the conclusion of conventional arrangements
+concerning her rights of jurisdiction or territory, I have thought it
+necessary to call the attention of the Government of Great Britain to
+another portion of our conterminous dominion of which the division still
+remains to be adjusted I refer to the line from the entrance of Lake
+Superior to the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods,
+stipulations for the settlement of which are to be found in the seventh
+article of the treaty of Ghent. The commissioners appointed under that
+article by the two Governments having differed in their opinions, made
+separate reports, according to its stipulations, upon the points of
+disagreement, and these differences are now to be submitted to the
+arbitration of some friendly sovereign or state. The disputed points should
+be settled and the line designated before the Territorial government of
+which it is one of the boundaries takes its place in the Union as a State,
+and I rely upon the cordial cooperation of the British Government to effect
+that object.
+
+There is every reason to believe that disturbances like those which lately
+agitated the neighboring British Provinces will not again prove the sources
+of border contentions or interpose obstacles to the continuance of that
+good understanding which it is the mutual interest of Great Britain and the
+United States to preserve and maintain.
+
+Within the Provinces themselves tranquillity is restored, and on our
+frontier that misguided sympathy in favor of what was presumed to be a
+general effort in behalf of popular rights, and which in some instances
+misled a few of our more inexperienced citizens, has subsided into a
+rational conviction strongly opposed to all intermeddling with the internal
+affairs of our neighbors. The people of the United States feel, as it is
+hoped they always will, a warm solicitude for the success of all who are
+sincerely endeavoring to improve the political condition of mankind. This
+generous feeling they cherish toward the most distant nations, and it was
+natural, therefore, that it should be awakened with more than common warmth
+in behalf of their immediate neighbors; but it does not belong to their
+character as a community to seek the gratification of those feelings in
+acts which violate their duty as citizens, endanger the peace of their
+country, and tend to bring upon it the stain of a violated faith toward
+foreign nations. If, zealous to confer benefits on others, they appear for
+a moment to lose sight of the permanent obligations imposed upon them as
+citizens, they are seldom long misled. From all the information I receive,
+confirmed to some extent by personal observation, I am satisfied that no
+one can now hope to engage in such enterprises without encountering public
+indignation, in addition to the severest penalties of the law.
+
+Recent information also leads me to hope that the emigrants from Her
+Majesty's Provinces who have sought refuge within our boundaries are
+disposed to become peaceable residents and to abstain from all attempts to
+endanger the peace of that country which has afforded them an asylum. On a
+review of the occurrences on both sides of the line it is satisfactory to
+reflect that in almost every complaint against our country the offense may
+be traced to emigrants from the Provinces who have sought refuge here. In
+the few instances in which they were aided by citizens of the United States
+the acts of these misguided men were not only in direct contravention of
+the laws and well-known wishes of their own Government, but met with the
+decided disapprobation of the people of the United States.
+
+I regret to state the appearance of a different spirit among Her Majesty's
+subjects in the Canadas. The sentiments of hostility to our people and
+institutions which have been so frequently expressed there, and the
+disregard of our rights which has been manifested on some occasions, have,
+I am sorry to say, been applauded and encouraged by the people, and even by
+some of the subordinate local authorities, of the Provinces. The chief
+officers in Canada, fortunately, have not entertained the same feeling, and
+have probably prevented excesses that must have been fatal to the peace of
+the two countries.
+
+I look forward anxiously to a period when all the transactions which have
+grown out of this condition of our affairs, and which have been made the
+subjects of complaint and remonstrance by the two Governments,
+respectively, shall be fully examined, and the proper satisfaction given
+where it is due from either side.
+
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our intercourse with
+Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Naples, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, or
+Sweden. The internal state of Spain has sensibly improved, and a
+well-grounded hope exists that the return of peace will restore to the
+people of that country their former prosperity and enable the Government to
+fulfill all its obligations at home and abroad. The Government of Portugal,
+I have the satisfaction to state, has paid in full the eleventh and last
+installment due to our citizens for the claims embraced in the settlement
+made with it on the 3d of March, 1837.
+
+I lay before you treaties of commerce negotiated with the Kings of Sardinia
+and of the Netherlands, the ratifications of which have been exchanged
+since the adjournment of Congress. The liberal principles of these treaties
+will recommend them to your approbation. That with Sardinia is the first
+treaty of commerce formed by that Kingdom, and it will, I trust, answer the
+expectations of the present Sovereign by aiding the development of the
+resources of his country and stimulating the enterprise of his people. That
+with the Netherlands happily terminates a long-existing subject of dispute
+and removes from our future commercial intercourse all apprehension of
+embarrassment. The King of the Netherlands has also, in further
+illustration of his character for justice and of his desire to remove every
+cause of dissatisfaction, made compensation for an American vessel captured
+in 1800 by a French privateer, and carried into Curacoa, where the proceeds
+were appropriated to the use of the colony, then, and for a short time
+after, under the dominion of Holland.
+
+The death of the late Sultan has produced no alteration in our relations
+with Turkey. Our newly appointed minister resident has reached
+Constantinople, and I have received assurances from the present ruler that
+the obligations of our treaty and those of friendship will be fulfilled by
+himself in the same spirit that actuated his illustrious father.
+
+I regret to be obliged to inform you that no convention for the settlement
+of the claims of our citizens upon Mexico has yet been ratified by the
+Government of that country. The first convention formed for that purpose
+was not presented by the President of Mexico for the approbation of its
+Congress, from a belief that the King of Prussia, the arbitrator in case of
+disagreement in the joint commission to be appointed by the United States
+and Mexico, would not consent to take upon himself that friendly office.
+Although not entirely satisfied with the course pursued by Mexico, I felt
+no hesitation in receiving in the most conciliatory spirit the explanation
+offered, and also cheerfully consented to a new convention, in order to
+arrange the payments proposed to be made to our citizens in a manner which,
+while equally just to them, was deemed less onerous and inconvenient to the
+Mexican Government. Relying confidently upon the intentions of that
+Government, Mr. Ellis was directed to repair to Mexico, and diplomatic
+intercourse has been resumed between the two countries. The new convention
+has, he informs us, been recently submitted by the President of that
+Republic to its Congress under circumstances which promise a speedy
+ratification, a result which I can not allow myself to doubt.
+
+Instructions have been given to the commissioner of the United States under
+our convention with Texas for the demarcation of the line which separates
+us from that Republic. The commissioners of both Governments met in New
+Orleans in August last. The joint commission was organized, and adjourned
+to convene at the same place on the 12th of October. It is presumed to be
+now in the performance of its duties.
+
+The new Government of Texas has shown its desire to cultivate friendly
+relations with us by a prompt reparation for injuries complained of in the
+cases of two vessels of the United States.
+
+With Central America a convention has been concluded for the renewal of its
+former treaty with the United States. This was not ratified before the
+departure of our late charge d'affaires from that country, and the copy of
+it brought by him was not received before the adjournment of the Senate at
+the last session. In the meanwhile, the period limited for the exchange of
+ratifications having expired, I deemed it expedient, in consequence of the
+death of the charge d'affaires, to send a special agent to Central America
+to close the affairs of our mission there and to arrange with the
+Government an extension of the time for the exchange of ratifications.
+
+The commission created by the States which formerly composed the Republic
+of Colombia for adjusting the claims against that Government has by a very
+unexpected construction of the treaty under which it acts decided that no
+provision was made for those claims of citizens of the United States which
+arose from captures by Colombian privateers and were adjudged against the
+claimants in the judicial tribunals. This decision will compel the United
+States to apply to the several Governments formerly united for redress.
+With all these--New Granada, Venezuela, and Ecuador--a perfectly good
+understanding exists. Our treaty with Venezuela is faithfully carried into
+execution, and that country, in the enjoyment of tranquillity, is gradually
+advancing in prosperity under the guidance of its present distinguished
+President, General Paez. With Ecuador a liberal commercial convention has
+lately been concluded, which will be transmitted to the Senate at an early
+day.
+
+With the great American Empire of Brazil our relations continue unchanged,
+as does our friendly intercourse with the other Governments of South
+America--the Argentine Republic and the Republics of Uruguay, Chili, Peru,
+and Bolivia. The dissolution of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation may
+occasion some temporary inconvenience to our citizens in that quarter, but
+the obligations on the new Governments which have arisen out of that
+Confederation to observe its treaty stipulations will no doubt be soon
+understood, and it is presumed that no indisposition will exist to fulfill
+those which it contracted with the United States.
+
+The financial operations of the Government during the present year have, I
+am happy to say, been very successful. The difficulties under which the
+Treasury Department has labored, from known defects in the existing laws
+relative to the safe-keeping of the public moneys, aggravated by the
+suspension of specie payments by several of the banks holding public
+deposits or indebted to public officers for notes received in payment of
+public dues, have been surmounted to a very gratifying extent. The large
+current expenditures have been punctually met, and the faith of the
+Government in all its pecuniary concerns has been scrupulously maintained.
+
+The nineteen millions of Treasury notes authorized by the act of Congress
+of 1837, and the modifications thereof with a view to the indulgence of
+merchants on their duty bonds and of the deposit banks in the payment of
+public moneys held by them, have been so punctually redeemed as to leave
+less than the original ten millions outstanding at any one time, and the
+whole amount unredeemed now falls short of three millions. Of these the
+chief portion is not due till next year, and the whole would have been
+already extinguished could the Treasury have realized the payments due to
+it from the banks. If those due from them during the next year shall be
+punctually made, and if Congress shall keep the appropriations within the
+estimates, there is every reason to believe that all the outstanding
+Treasury notes can be redeemed and the ordinary expenses defrayed without
+imposing on the people any additional burden, either of loans or increased
+taxes.
+
+To avoid this and to keep the expenditures within reasonable bounds is a
+duty second only in importance to the preservation of our national
+character and the protection of our citizens in their civil and political
+rights. The creation in time of peace of a debt likely to become permanent
+is an evil for which there is no equivalent. The rapidity with which many
+of the States are apparently approaching to this condition admonishes us of
+our own duties in a manner too impressive to be disregarded. One, not the
+least important, is to keep the Federal Government always in a condition to
+discharge with ease and vigor its highest functions should their exercise
+be required by any sudden conjuncture of public affairs--a condition to
+which we are always exposed and which may occur when it is least expected.
+To this end it is indispensable that its finances should be untrammeled and
+its resources as far as practicable unencumbered. No circumstance could
+present greater obstacles to the accomplishment of these vitally important
+objects than the creation of an onerous national debt. Our own experience
+and also that of other nations have demonstrated the unavoidable and
+fearful rapidity with which a public debt is increased when the Government
+has once surrendered itself to the ruinous practice of supplying its
+supposed necessities by new loans. The struggle, therefore, on our part to
+be successful must be made at the threshold. To make our efforts effective,
+severe economy is necessary. This is the surest provision for the national
+welfare, and it is at the same time the best preservative of the principles
+on which our institutions rest. Simplicity and economy in the affairs of
+state have never failed to chasten and invigorate republican principles,
+while these have been as surely subverted by national prodigality, under
+whatever specious pretexts it may have been introduced or fostered.
+
+These considerations can not be lost upon a people who have never been
+inattentive to the effect of their policy upon the institutions they have
+created for themselves, but at the present moment their force is augmented
+by the necessity which a decreasing revenue must impose. The check lately
+given to importations of articles subject to duties, the derangements in
+the operations of internal trade, and especially the reduction gradually
+taking place in our tariff of duties, all tend materially to lessen our
+receipts; indeed, it is probable that the diminution resulting from the
+last cause alone will not fall short of $5,000,000 in the year 1842, as the
+final reduction of all duties to 20 per cent then takes effect. The whole
+revenue then accruing from the customs and from the sales of public lands,
+if not more, will undoubtedly be wanted to defray the necessary expenses of
+the Government under the most prudent administration of its affairs. These
+are circumstances that impose the necessity of rigid economy and require
+its prompt and constant exercise. With the Legislature rest the power and
+duty of so adjusting the public expenditure as to promote this end. By the
+provisions of the Constitution it is only in consequence of appropriations
+made by law that money can be drawn from the Treasury. No instance has
+occurred since the establishment of the Government in which the Executive,
+though a component part of the legislative power, has interposed an
+objection to an appropriation bill on the sole ground of its extravagance.
+His duty in this respect has been considered fulfilled by requesting such
+appropriations only as the public service may be reasonably expected to
+require. In the present earnest direction of the public mind toward this
+subject both the Executive and the Legislature have evidence of the strict
+responsibility to which they will be held; and while I am conscious of my
+own anxious efforts to perform with fidelity this portion of my public
+functions, it is a satisfaction to me to be able to count on a cordial
+cooperation from you.
+
+At the time I entered upon my present duties our ordinary disbursements,
+without including those on account of the public debt, the Post-Office, and
+the trust funds in charge of the Government, had been largely increased by
+appropriations for the removal of the Indians, for repelling Indian
+hostilities, and for other less urgent expenses which grew out of an
+overflowing Treasury. Independent of the redemption of the public debt and
+trusts, the gross expenditures of seventeen and eighteen millions in 1834
+and 1835 had by these causes swelled to twenty-nine millions in 1836, and
+the appropriations for 1837, made previously to the 4th of March, caused
+the expenditure to rise to the very large amount of thirty-three millions.
+We were enabled during the year 1838, notwithstanding the continuance of
+our Indian embarrassments, somewhat to reduce this amount, and that for the
+present year (1839) will not in all probability exceed twenty-six millions,
+or six millions less than it was last year. With a determination, so far as
+depends on me, to continue this reduction, I have directed the estimates
+for 1840 to be subjected to the severest scrutiny and to be limited to the
+absolute requirements of the public service. They will be found less than
+the expenditures of 1839 by over $5,000,000.
+
+The precautionary measures which will be recommended by the Secretary of
+the Treasury to protect faithfully the public credit under the fluctuations
+and contingencies to which our receipts and expenditures are exposed, and
+especially in a commercial crisis like the present, are commended to your
+early attention.
+
+On a former occasion your attention was invited to various considerations
+in support of a preemption law in behalf of the settlers on the public
+lands, and also of a law graduating the prices for such lands as had long
+been in the market unsold in consequence of their inferior quality. The
+execution of the act which was passed on the first subject has been
+attended with the happiest consequences in quieting titles and securing
+improvements to the industrious, and it has also to a very gratifying
+extent been exempt from the frauds which were practiced under previous
+preemption laws. It has at the same time, as was anticipated, contributed
+liberally during the present year to the receipts of the Treasury.
+
+The passage of a graduation law, with the guards before recommended, would
+also, I am persuaded, add considerably to the revenue for several years,
+and prove in other respects just and beneficial. Your early consideration
+of the subject is therefore once more earnestly requested.
+
+The present condition of the defenses of our principal seaports and
+navy-yards, as represented by the accompanying report of the Secretary of
+War, calls for the early and serious attention of Congress; and, as
+connecting itself intimately with this subject, I can not recommend too
+strongly to your consideration the plan submitted by that officer for the
+organization of the militia of the United States.
+
+In conformity with the expressed wishes of Congress, an attempt was made in
+the spring to terminate the Florida war by negotiation. It is to be
+regretted that these humane intentions should have been frustrated and that
+the effort to bring these unhappy difficulties to a satisfactory conclusion
+should have failed; but after entering into solemn engagements with the
+commanding general, the Indians, without any provocation, recommenced their
+acts of treachery and murder. The renewal of hostilities in that Territory
+renders it necessary that I should recommend to your favorable
+consideration the plan which will be submitted to you by the Secretary of
+War, in order to enable that Department to conduct them to a successful
+issue.
+
+Having had an opportunity of personally inspecting a portion of the troops
+during the last summer, it gives me pleasure to bear testimony to the
+success of the effort to improve their discipline by keeping them together
+in as large bodies as the nature of our service will permit. I recommend,
+therefore, that commodious and permanent barracks be constructed at the
+several posts designated by the Secretary of War. Notwithstanding the high
+state of their discipline and excellent police, the evils resulting to the
+service from the deficiency of company officers were very apparent, and I
+recommend that the staff officers be permanently separated from the line.
+
+The Navy has been usefully and honorably employed in protecting the rights
+and property of our citizens wherever the condition of affairs seemed to
+require its presence. With the exception of one instance, where an outrage,
+accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of the United States while
+engaged in a lawful commerce, nothing is known to have occurred to impede
+or molest the enterprise of our citizens on that element, where it is so
+signally displayed. On learning this daring act of piracy, Commodore Reed
+proceeded immediately to the spot, and receiving no satisfaction, either in
+the surrender of the murderers or the restoration of the plundered
+property, inflicted severe and merited chastisement on the barbarians.
+
+It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Navy respecting the
+disposition of our ships of war that it has been deemed necessary to
+station a competent force on the coast of Africa to prevent a fraudulent
+use of our flag by foreigners.
+
+Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our existing laws which
+relate to the sale and transfer of American vessels while abroad are
+extremely defective. Advantage has been taken of these defects to give to
+vessels wholly belonging to foreigners and navigating the ocean an apparent
+American ownership. This character has been so well simulated as to afford
+them comparative security in prosecuting the slave trade--a traffic
+emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded with abhorrence by our
+citizens, and of which the effectual suppression is nowhere more sincerely
+desired than in the United States. These circumstances make it proper to
+recommend to your early attention a careful revision of these laws, so that
+without impeding the freedom and facilities of our navigation or impairing
+an important branch of our industry connected with it the integrity and
+honor of our flag may be carefully preserved. Information derived from our
+consul at Havana showing the necessity of this was communicated to a
+committee of the Senate near the close of the last session, but too late,
+as it appeared, to be acted upon. It will be brought to your notice by the
+proper Department, with additional communications from other sources.
+
+The latest accounts from the exploring expedition represent it as
+proceeding successfully in its objects and promising results no less useful
+to trade and navigation than to science.
+
+The extent of post-roads covered by mail service on the 1st of July last
+was about 133,999 miles and the rate of annual transportation upon them
+34,496,878 miles. The number of post-offices on that day was 12,780 and on
+the 30th ultimo 13,028.
+
+The revenue of the Post-Office Department for the year ending with the 30th
+of June last was $4,476,638, exhibiting an increase over the preceding year
+of $241,560. The engagements and liabilities of the Department for the same
+period are $4,624,117.
+
+The excess of liabilities over the revenue for the last two years has been
+met out of the surplus which had previously accumulated. The cash on hand
+on the 30th ultimo was about $206,701.95 and the current income of the
+Department varies very little from the rate of current expenditures. Most
+of the service suspended last year has been restored, and most of the new
+routes established by the act of 7th July, 1838, have been set in
+operation, at an annual cost of $136,963. Notwithstanding the pecuniary
+difficulties of the country, the revenue of the Department appears to be
+increasing, and unless it shall be seriously checked by the recent
+suspension of payment by so many of the banks it will be able not only to
+maintain the present mail service, but in a short time to extend it. It is
+gratifying to witness the promptitude and fidelity with which the agents of
+this Department in general perform their public duties.
+
+Some difficulties have arisen in relation to contracts for the
+transportation of the mails by railroad and steamboat companies. It appears
+that the maximum of compensation provided by Congress for the
+transportation of the mails upon railroads is not sufficient to induce some
+of the companies to convey them at such hours as are required for the
+accommodation of the public. It is one of the most important duties of the
+General Government to provide and maintain for the use of the people of the
+States the best practicable mail establishment. To arrive at that end it is
+indispensable that the Post-Office Department shall be enabled to control
+the hours at which the mails shall be carried over railroads, as it now
+does over all other roads. Should serious inconveniences arise from the
+inadequacy of the compensation now provided by law, or from unreasonable
+demands by any of the railroad companies, the subject is of such general
+importance as to require the prompt attention of Congress.
+
+In relation to steamboat lines, the most efficient remedy is obvious and
+has been suggested by the Postmaster-General. The War and Navy Departments
+already employ steamboats in their service; and although it is by no means
+desirable that the Government should undertake the transportation of
+passengers or freight as a business, there can be no reasonable objection
+to running boats, temporarily, whenever it may be necessary to put down
+attempts at extortion, to be discontinued as soon as reasonable contracts
+can be obtained.
+
+The suggestions of the Postmaster-General relative to the inadequacy of the
+legal allowance to witnesses in cases of prosecutions for mail depredations
+merit your serious consideration. The safety of the mails requires that
+such prosecutions shall be efficient, and justice to the citizen whose time
+is required to be given to the public demands not only that his expenses
+shall be paid, but that he shall receive a reasonable compensation.
+
+The reports from the War, Navy, and Post-Office Departments will accompany
+this communication, and one from the Treasury Department will be presented
+to Congress in a few days.
+
+For various details in respect to the matters in charge of these
+Departments I would refer you to those important documents, satisfied that
+you will find in them many valuable suggestions which will be found well
+deserving the attention of the Legislature.
+
+From a report made in December of last year by the Secretary of State to
+the Senate, showing the trial docket of each of the circuit courts and the
+number of miles each judge has to travel in the performance of his duties,
+a great inequality appears in the amount of labor assigned to each judge.
+The number of terms to be held in each of the courts composing the ninth
+circuit, the distances between the places at which they sit and from thence
+to the seat of Government, are represented to be such as to render it
+impossible for the judge of that circuit to perform in a manner
+corresponding with the public exigencies his term and circuit duties. A
+revision, therefore, of the present arrangement of the circuit seems to be
+called for and is recommended to your notice.
+
+I think it proper to call your attention to the power assumed by
+Territorial legislatures to authorize the issue of bonds by corporate
+companies on the guaranty of the Territory. Congress passed a law in 1836
+providing that no act of a Territorial legislature incorporating banks
+should have the force of law until approved by Congress, but acts of a very
+exceptionable character previously passed by the legislature of Florida
+were suffered to remain in force, by virtue of which bonds may be issued to
+a very large amount by those institutions upon the faith of the Territory.
+A resolution, intending to be a joint one, passed the Senate at the same
+session, expressing the sense of Congress that the laws in question ought
+not to be permitted to remain in force unless amended in many material
+respects; but it failed in the House of Representatives for want of time,
+and the desired amendments have not been made. The interests involved are
+of great importance, and the subject deserves your early and careful
+attention.
+
+The continued agitation of the question relative to the best mode of
+keeping and disbursing the public money still injuriously affects the
+business of the country. The suspension of specie payments in 1837 rendered
+the use of deposit banks as prescribed by the act of 1836 a source rather
+of embarrassment than aid, and of necessity placed the custody of most of
+the public money afterwards collected in charge of the public officers. The
+new securities for its safety which this required were a principal cause of
+my convening an extra session of Congress, but in consequence of a
+disagreement between the two Houses neither then nor at any subsequent
+period has there been any legislation on the subject. The effort made at
+the last session to obtain the authority of Congress to punish the use of
+public money for private purposes as a crime a measure attended under other
+governments with signal advantage--was also unsuccessful, from diversities
+of opinion in that body, notwithstanding the anxiety doubtless felt by it
+to afford every practicable security. The result of this is still to leave
+the custody of the public money without those safeguards which have been
+for several years earnestly desired by the Executive, and as the remedy is
+only to be found in the action of the Legislature it imposes on me the duty
+of again submitting to you the propriety of passing a law providing for the
+safe-keeping of the public moneys, and especially to ask that its use for
+private purposes by any officers intrusted with it may be declared to be a
+felony, punishable with penalties proportioned to the magnitude of the
+offense.
+
+These circumstances, added to known defects in the existing laws and
+unusual derangement in the general operations of trade, have during the
+last three years much increased the difficulties attendant on the
+collection, keeping, and disbursement of the revenue, and called forth
+corresponding exertions from those having them in charge. Happily these
+have been successful beyond expectation. Vast sums have been collected and
+disbursed by the several Departments with unexpected cheapness and ease,
+transfers have been readily made to every part of the Union, however
+distant, and defalcations have been far less than might have been
+anticipated from the absence of adequate legal restraints. Since the
+officers of the Treasury and Post-Office Departments were charged with the
+custody of most of the public moneys received by them there have been
+collected $66,000,000, and, excluding the case of the late collector at New
+York, the aggregate amount of losses sustained in the collection can not,
+it is believed, exceed $60,000. The defalcation of the late collector at
+that city, of the extent and circumstances of which Congress have been
+fully informed, ran through all the modes of keeping the public money that
+have been hitherto in use, and was distinguished by an aggravated disregard
+of duty that broke through the restraints of every system, and can not,
+therefore, be usefully referred to as a test of the comparative safety of
+either. Additional information will also be furnished by the report of the
+Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to a call made upon that officer by the
+House of Representatives at the last session requiring detailed information
+on the subject of defaults by public officers or agents under each
+Administration from 1789 to 1837. This document will be submitted to you in
+a few days. The general results (independent of the Post-Office, which is
+kept separately and will be stated by itself), so far as they bear upon
+this subject, are that the losses which have been and are likely to be
+sustained by any class of agents have been the greatest by banks,
+including, as required in the resolution, their depreciated paper received
+for public dues; that the next largest have been by disbursing officers,
+and the least by collectors and receivers. If the losses on duty bonds are
+included, they alone will be threefold those by both collectors and
+receivers. Our whole experience, therefore, furnishes the strongest
+evidence that the desired legislation of Congress is alone wanting to
+insure in those operations the highest degree of security and facility.
+Such also appears to have been the experience of other nations. From the
+results of inquiries made by the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to the
+practice among them I am enabled to state that in twenty-two out of
+twenty-seven foreign governments from which undoubted information has been
+obtained the public moneys are kept in charge of public officers. This
+concurrence of opinion in favor of that system is perhaps as great as
+exists on any question of internal administration.
+
+In the modes of business and official restraints on disbursing officers no
+legal change was produced by the suspension of specie payments. The report
+last referred to will be found to contain also much useful information in
+relation to this subject.
+
+I have heretofore assigned to Congress my reasons for believing that the
+establishment of an independent National Treasury, as contemplated by the
+Constitution, is necessary to the safe action of the Federal Government.
+The suspension of specie payments in 1837 by the banks having the custody
+of the public money showed in so alarming a degree our dependence on those
+institutions for the performance of duties required by law that I then
+recommended the entire dissolution of that connection. This recommendation
+has been subjected, as I desired it should be, to severe scrutiny and
+animated discussion, and I allow myself to believe that notwithstanding the
+natural diversities of opinion which may be anticipated on all subjects
+involving such important considerations, it has secured in its favor as
+general a concurrence of public sentiment as could be expected on one of
+such magnitude.
+
+Recent events have also continued to develop new objections to such a
+connection. Seldom is any bank, under the existing system and practice,
+able to meet on demand all its liabilities for deposits and notes in
+circulation. It maintains specie payments and transacts a profitable
+business only by the confidence of the public in its solvency, and whenever
+this is destroyed the demands of its depositors and note holders, pressed
+more rapidly than it can make collections from its debtors, force it to
+stop payment. This loss of confidence, with its consequences, occurred in
+1837, and afforded the apology of the banks for their suspension. The
+public then acquiesced in the validity of the excuse, and while the State
+legislatures did not exact from them their forfeited charters, Congress, in
+accordance with the recommendation of the Executive, allowed them time to
+pay over the public money they held, although compelled to issue Treasury
+notes to supply the deficiency thus created.
+
+It now appears that there are other motives than a want of public
+confidence under which the banks seek to justify themselves in a refusal to
+meet their obligations. Scarcely were the country and Government relieved
+in a degree from the difficulties occasioned by the general suspension of
+1837 when a partial one, occurring within thirty months of the former,
+produced new and serious embarrassments, though it had no palliation in
+such circumstances as were alleged in justification of that which had
+previously taken place. There was nothing in the condition of the country
+to endanger a well-managed banking institution; commerce was deranged by no
+foreign war; every branch of manufacturing industry was crowned with rich
+rewards, and the more than usual abundance of our harvests, after supplying
+our domestic wants, had left our granaries and storehouses filled with a
+surplus for exportation. It is in the midst of this that an irredeemable
+and depreciated paper currency is entailed upon the people by a large
+portion of the banks. They are not driven to it by the exhibition of a loss
+of public confidence or of a sudden pressure from their depositors or note
+holders, but they excuse themselves by alleging that the current of
+business and exchange with foreign countries, which draws the precious
+metals from their vaults, would require in order to meet it a larger
+curtailment of their loans to a comparatively small portion of the
+community than it will be convenient for them to bear or perhaps safe for
+the banks to exact. The plea has ceased to be one of necessity. Convenience
+and policy are now deemed sufficient to warrant these institutions in
+disregarding their solemn obligations. Such conduct is not merely an injury
+to individual creditors, but it is a wrong to the whole community, from
+whose liberality they hold most valuable privileges, whose rights they
+violate, whose business they derange, and the value of whose property they
+render unstable and insecure. It must be evident that this new ground for
+bank suspensions, in reference to which their action is not only
+disconnected with, but wholly independent of, that of the public, gives a
+character to their suspensions more alarming than any which they exhibited
+before, and greatly increases the impropriety of relying on the banks in
+the transactions of the Government.
+
+A large and highly respectable portion of our banking institutions are, it
+affords me unfeigned pleasure to state, exempted from all blame on account
+of this second delinquency. They have, to their great credit, not only
+continued to meet their engagements, but have even repudiated the grounds
+of suspension now resorted to. It is only by such a course that the
+confidence and good will of the community can be preserved, and in the
+sequel the best interests of the institutions themselves promoted.
+
+New dangers to the banks are also daily disclosed from the extension of
+that system of extravagant credit of which they are the pillars. Formerly
+our foreign commerce was principally rounded on an exchange of commodities,
+including the precious metals, and leaving in its transactions but little
+foreign debt. Such is not now the case. Aided by the facilities afforded by
+the banks, mere credit has become too commonly the basis of trade. Many of
+the banks themselves, not content with largely stimulating this system
+among others, have usurped the business, while they impair the stability,
+of the mercantile community; they have become borrowers instead of lenders;
+they establish their agencies abroad; they deal largely in stocks and
+merchandise; they encourage the issue of State securities until the foreign
+market is glutted with them; and, unsatisfied with the legitimate use of
+their own capital and the exercise of their lawful privileges, they raise
+by large loans additional means for every variety of speculation. The
+disasters attendant on this deviation from the former course of business in
+this country are now shared alike by banks and individuals to an extent of
+which there is perhaps no previous example in the annals of our country. So
+long as a willingness of the foreign lender and a sufficient export of our
+productions to meet any necessary partial payments leave the flow of credit
+undisturbed all appears to be prosperous, but as soon as it is checked by
+any hesitation abroad or by an inability to make payment there in our
+productions the evils of the system are disclosed. The paper currency,
+which might serve for domestic purposes, is useless to pay the debt due in
+Europe. Gold and silver are therefore drawn in exchange for their notes
+from the banks. To keep up their supply of coin these institutions are
+obliged to call upon their own debtors, who pay them principally in their
+own notes, which are as unavailable to them as they are to the merchants to
+meet the foreign demand. The calls of the banks, therefore, in such
+emergencies of necessity exceed that demand, and produce a corresponding
+curtailment of their accommodations and of the currency at the very moment
+when the state of trade renders it most inconvenient to be borne. The
+intensity of this pressure on the community is in proportion to the
+previous liberality of credit and consequent expansion of the currency.
+Forced sales of property are made at the time when the means of purchasing
+are most reduced, and the worst calamities to individuals are only at last
+arrested by an open violation of their obligations by the banks--a refusal
+to pay specie for their notes and an imposition upon the community of a
+fluctuating and depreciated currency.
+
+These consequences are inherent in the present system. They are not
+influenced by the banks being large or small, created by National or State
+Governments. They are the results of the irresistible laws of trade or
+credit. In the recent events, which have so strikingly illustrated the
+certain effects of these laws, we have seen the bank of the largest capital
+in the Union, established under a national charter, and lately
+strengthened, as we were authoritatively informed, by exchanging that for a
+State charter with new and unusual privileges--in a condition, too, as it
+was said, of entire soundness and great prosperity--not merely unable to
+resist these effects, but the first to yield to them.
+
+Nor is it to be overlooked that there exists a chain of necessary
+dependence among these institutions which obliges them to a great extent to
+follow the course of others, notwithstanding its injustice to their own
+immediate creditors or injury to the particular community in which they are
+placed. This dependence of a bank, which is in proportion to the extent of
+its debts for circulation and deposits, is not merely on others in its own
+vicinity, but on all those which connect it with the center of trade.
+Distant banks may fail without seriously affecting those in our principal
+commercial cities, but the failure of the latter is felt at the extremities
+of the Union. The suspension at New York in 1837 was everywhere, with very
+few exceptions, followed as soon as it was known. That recently at
+Philadelphia immediately affected the banks of the South and West in a
+similar manner. This dependence of our whole banking system on the
+institutions in a few large cities is not found in the laws of their
+organization, but in those of trade and exchange. The banks at that center,
+to which currency flows and where it is required in payments for
+merchandise, hold the power of controlling those in regions whence it
+comes, while the latter possess no means of restraining them; so that the
+value of individual property and the prosperity of trade through the whole
+interior of the country are made to depend on the good or bad management of
+the banking institutions in the great seats of trade on the seaboard.
+
+But this chain of dependence does not stop here. It does not terminate at
+Philadelphia or New York. It reaches across the ocean and ends in London,
+the center of the credit system. The same laws of trade which give to the
+banks in our principal cities power over the whole banking system of the
+United States subject the former, in their turn, to the money power in
+Great Britain. It is not denied that the suspension of the New York banks
+in 1837, which was followed in quick succession throughout the Union, was
+produced by an application of that power, and it is now alleged, in
+extenuation of the present condition of so large a portion of our banks,
+that their embarrassments have arisen from the same cause.
+
+From this influence they can not now entirely escape, for it has its origin
+in the credit currencies of the two countries; it is strengthened by the
+current of trade and exchange which centers in London, and is rendered
+almost irresistible by the large debts contracted there by our merchants,
+our banks, and our States. It is thus that an introduction of a new bank
+into the most distant of our villages places the business of that village
+within the influence of the money power in England; it is thus that every
+new debt which we contract in that country seriously affects our own
+currency and extends over the pursuits of our citizens its powerful
+influence. We can not escape from this by making new banks, great or small,
+State or national. The same chains which bind those now existing to the
+center of this system of paper credit must equally fetter every similar
+institution we create. It is only by the extent to which this system has
+been pushed of late that we have been made fully aware of its irresistible
+tendency to subject our own banks and currency to a vast controlling power
+in a foreign lad, and it adds a new argument to those which illustrate
+their precarious situation.. Endangered in the first place by their own
+mismanagement and again by the conduct of every institution which connects
+them with the center of trade in our own country, they are yet subjected
+beyond all this to the effect of whatever measures policy, necessity, or
+caprice may induce those who control the credits of England to resort to. I
+mean not to comment upon these measures, present or past, and much less to
+discourage the prosecution of fair commercial dealing between the two
+countries, based on reciprocal benefits; but it having now been made
+manifest that the power of inflicting these and similar injuries is by the
+resistless law of a credit currency and credit trade equally capable of
+extending their consequences through all the ramifications of our banking
+system, and by that means indirectly obtaining, particularly when our banks
+are used as depositories of the public moneys, a dangerous political
+influence in the United States, I have deemed it my duty to bring the
+subject to your notice and ask for it your serious consideration.
+
+Is an argument required beyond the exposition of these facts to show the
+impropriety of using our banking institutions as depositories of the public
+money? Can we venture not only to encounter the risk of their individual
+and mutual mismanagement, but at the same time to place our foreign and
+domestic policy entirely under the control of a foreign moneyed interest?
+To do so is to impair the independence of our Government, as the present
+credit system has already impaired the independence of our banks; it is to
+submit all its important operations, whether of peace or war, to be
+controlled or thwarted, at first by our own banks and then by a power
+abroad greater than themselves. I can not bring myself to depict the
+humiliation to which this Government and people might be sooner or later
+reduced if the means for defending their rights are to be made dependent
+upon those who may have the most powerful of motives to impair them.
+
+Nor is it only in reference to the effect of this state of things on the
+independence of our Government or of our banks that the subject presents
+itself for consideration; it is to be viewed also in its relations to the
+general trade of our country. The time is not long passed when a deficiency
+of foreign crops was thought to afford a profitable market for the surplus
+of our industry, but now we await with feverish anxiety the news of the
+English harvest, not so much from motives of commendable sympathy, but
+fearful lest its anticipated failure should narrow the field of credit
+there. Does not this speak volumes to the patriot? Can a system be
+beneficent, wise, or just which creates greater anxiety for interests
+dependent on foreign credit than for the general prosperity of our own
+country and the profitable exportation of the surplus produce of our
+labor?
+
+The circumstances to which I have thus adverted appear to me to afford
+weighty reasons, developed by late events, to be added to those which I
+have on former occasions offered when submitting to your better knowledge
+and discernment the propriety of separating the custody of the public money
+from banking institutions. Nor has anything occurred to lessen, in my
+opinion, the force of what has been heretofore urged. The only ground on
+which that custody can be desired by the banks is the profitable use which
+they may make of the money. Such use would be regarded in individuals as a
+breach of trust or a crime of great magnitude, and yet it may be reasonably
+doubted whether, first and last, it is not attended with more mischievous
+consequences when permitted to the former than to the latter. The practice
+of permitting the public money to be used by its keepers, as here, is
+believed to be peculiar to this country and to exist scarcely anywhere
+else. To procure it here improper influences are appealed to, unwise
+connections are established between the Government and vast numbers of
+powerful State institutions, other motives than the public good are brought
+to bear both on the executive and legislative departments, and selfish
+combinations leading to special legislation are formed. It is made the
+interest of banking institutions and their stockholders throughout the
+Union to use their exertions for the increase of taxation and the
+accumulation of a surplus revenue, and while an excuse is afforded the
+means are furnished for those excessive issues which lead to extravagant
+trading and speculation and are the forerunners of a vast debt abroad and a
+suspension of the banks at home.
+
+Impressed, therefore, as I am with the propriety of the funds of the
+Government being withdrawn from the private use of either banks or
+individuals, and the public money kept by duly appointed public agents, and
+believing as I do that such also is the judgment which discussion,
+reflection, and experience have produced on the public mind, I leave the
+subject with you. It is, at all events, essential to the interests of the
+community and the business of the Government that a decision should be
+made.
+
+Most of the arguments that dissuade us from employing banks in the custody
+and disbursement of the public money apply with equal force to the receipt
+of their notes for public dues. The difference is only in form. In one
+instance the Government is a creditor for its deposits, and in the other
+for the notes it holds. They afford the same opportunity for using the
+public moneys, and equally lead to all the evils attendant upon it, since a
+bank can as safely extend its discounts on a deposit of its notes in the
+hands of a public officer as on one made in its own vaults. On the other
+hand, it would give to the Government no greater security, for in case of
+failure the claim of the note holder would be no better than that of a
+depositor.
+
+I am aware that the danger of inconvenience to the public and unreasonable
+pressure upon sound banks have been urged as objections to requiring the
+payment of the revenue in gold and silver. These objections have been
+greatly exaggerated. From the best estimates we may safely fix the amount
+of specie in the country at $85,000,000, and the portion of that which
+would be employed at any one time in the receipts and disbursements of the
+Government, even if the proposed change were made at once, would not, it is
+now, after fuller investigation, believed exceed four or five millions. If
+the change were gradual, several years would elapse before that sum would
+be required, with annual opportunities in the meantime to alter the law
+should experience prove it to be oppressive or inconvenient. The portions
+of the community on whose business the change would immediately operate are
+comparatively small, nor is it believed that its effect would be in the
+least unjust or injurious to them.
+
+In the payment of duties, which constitute by far the greater portion of
+the revenue, a very large proportion is derived from foreign commission
+houses and agents of foreign manufacturers, who sell the goods consigned to
+them generally at auction, and after paying the duties out of the avails
+remit the rest abroad in specie or its equivalent. That the amount of
+duties should in such cases be also retained in specie can hardly be made a
+matter of complaint. Our own importing merchants, by whom the residue of
+the duties is paid, are not only peculiarly interested in maintaining a
+sound currency, which the measure in question will especially promote, but
+are from the nature of their dealings best able to know when specie will be
+needed and to procure it with the least difficulty or sacrifice. Residing,
+too, almost universally in places where the revenue is received and where
+the drafts used by the Government for its disbursements must concentrate,
+they have every opportunity to obtain and use them in place of specie
+should it be for their interest or convenience. Of the number of these
+drafts and the facilities they may afford, as well as of the rapidity with
+which the public funds are drawn and disbursed, an idea may be formed from
+the fact that of nearly $20,000,000 paid to collectors and receivers during
+the present year the average amount in their hands at any one time has not
+exceeded a million and a half, and of the fifteen millions received by the
+collector of New York alone during the present year the average amount held
+by him subject to draft during each week has been less than half a
+million.
+
+The ease and safety of the operations of the Treasury in keeping the public
+money are promoted by the application of its own drafts to the public dues.
+The objection arising from having them too long outstanding might be
+obviated and they yet made to afford to merchants and banks holding them an
+equivalent for specie, and in that way greatly lessen the amount actually
+required. Still less inconvenience will attend the requirement of specie in
+purchases of public lands. Such purchases, except when made on speculation,
+are in general but single transactions, rarely repeated by the same person;
+and it is a fact that for the last year and a half, during which the notes
+of sound banks have been received, more than a moiety of these payments has
+been voluntarily made in specie, being a larger proportion than would have
+been required in three years under the graduation proposed.
+
+It is, moreover, a principle than which none is better settled by
+experience that the supply of the precious metals will always be found
+adequate to the uses for which they are required. They abound in countries
+where no other currency is allowed. In our own States, where small notes
+are excluded, gold and silver supply their place. When driven to their
+hiding places by bank suspensions, a little firmness in the community soon
+restores them in a sufficient quantity for ordinary purposes. Postage and
+other public dues have been collected in coin without serious inconvenience
+even in States where a depreciated paper currency has existed for years,
+and this, with the aid of Treasury notes for a part of the time, was done
+without interruption during the suspension of 1837. At the present moment
+the receipts and disbursements of the Government are made in legal currency
+in the largest portion of the Union. No one suggests a departure from this
+rule, and if it can now be successfully carried out it will be surely
+attended with even less difficulty when bank notes are again redeemed in
+specie.
+
+Indeed, I can not think that a serious objection would anywhere be raised
+to the receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public transactions
+were it not from an apprehension that a surplus in the Treasury might
+withdraw a large portion of it from circulation and lock it up unprofitably
+in the public vaults. It would not, in my opinion, be difficult to prevent
+such an inconvenience from occurring; but the authentic statements which I
+have already submitted to you in regard to the actual amount in the public
+Treasury at any one time during the period embraced in them and the little
+probability of a different state of the Treasury for at least some years to
+come seem to render it unnecessary to dwell upon it. Congress, moreover, as
+I have before observed, will in every year have an opportunity to guard
+against it should the occurrence of any circumstances lead us to apprehend
+injury from this source. Viewing the subject in all its aspects, I can not
+believe that any period will be more auspicious than the present for the
+adoption of all measures necessary to maintain the sanctity of our own
+engagements and to aid in securing to the community that abundant supply of
+the precious metals which adds so much to their prosperity and gives such
+increased stability to all their dealings.
+
+In a country so commercial as ours banks in some form will probably always
+exist, but this serves only to render it the more incumbent on us,
+notwithstanding the discouragements of the past, to strive in our
+respective stations to mitigate the evils they produce; to take from them
+as rapidly as the obligations of public faith and a careful consideration
+of the immediate interests of the community will permit the unjust
+character of monopolies; to check, so far as may be practicable, by prudent
+legislation those temptations of interest and those opportunities for their
+dangerous indulgence which beset them on every side, and to confine them
+strictly to the performance of their paramount duty--that of aiding the
+operations of commerce rather than consulting their own exclusive
+advantage. These and other salutary reforms may, it is believed, be
+accomplished without the violation of any of the great principles of the
+social compact, the observance of which is indispensable to its existence,
+or interfering in any way with the useful and profitable employment of real
+capital.
+
+Institutions so framed have existed and still exist elsewhere, giving to
+commercial intercourse all necessary facilities without inflating or
+depreciating the currency or stimulating speculation. Thus accomplishing
+their legitimate ends, they have gained the surest guaranty for their
+protection and encouragement in the good will of the community. Among a
+people so just as ours the same results could not fail to attend a similar
+course. The direct supervision of the banks belongs, from the nature of our
+Government, to the States who authorize them. It is to their legislatures
+that the people must mainly look for action on that subject. But as the
+conduct of the Federal Government in the management of its revenue has also
+a powerful, though less immediate, influence upon them, it becomes our duty
+to see that a proper direction is given to it. While the keeping of the
+public revenue in a separate and independent treasury and of collecting it
+in gold and silver will have a salutary influence on the system of paper
+credit with which all banks are connected, and thus aid those that are
+sound and well managed, it will at the same time sensibly check such as are
+otherwise by at once withholding the means of extravagance afforded by the
+public funds and restraining them from excessive issues of notes which they
+would be constantly called upon to redeem.
+
+I am aware it has been urged that this control may be best attained and
+exerted by means of a national bank. The constitutional objections which I
+am well known to entertain would prevent me in any event from proposing or
+assenting to that remedy; but in addition to this, I can not after past
+experience bring myself to think that it can any longer be extensively
+regarded as effective for such a purpose. The history of the late national
+bank, through all its mutations, shows that it was not so. On the contrary,
+it may, after a careful consideration of the subject, be, I think, safely
+stated that at every period of banking excess it took the lead; that in
+1817 and 1818, in 1823, in 1831, and in 1834 its vast expansions, followed
+by distressing contractions, led to those of the State institutions. It
+swelled and maddened the tides of the banking system, but seldom allayed or
+safely directed them. At a few periods only was a salutary control
+exercised, but an eager desire, on the contrary, exhibited for profit in
+the first place; and if afterwards its measures were severe toward other
+institutions, it was because its own safety compelled it to adopt them. It
+did not differ from them in principle or in form; its measures emanated
+from the same spirit of gain; it felt the same temptation to overissues; it
+suffered from and was totally unable to avert those inevitable laws of
+trade by which it was itself affected equally with them; and at least on
+one occasion, at an early day, it was saved only by extraordinary exertions
+from the same fate that attended the weakest institution it professed to
+supervise. In 1837 it failed equally with others in redeeming its notes
+(though the two years allowed by its charter for that purpose had not
+expired), a large amount of which remains to the present time outstanding.
+It is true that, having so vast a capital and strengthened by the use of
+all the revenues of the Government, it possessed more power; but while it
+was itself by that circumstance freed from the control which all banks
+require, its paramount object and inducement were left the same--to make
+the most for its stockholders, not to regulate the currency of the country.
+Nor has it, as far as we are advised, been found to be greatly otherwise
+elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of England has not
+prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to
+keep off a suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter
+of a century. And why should we expect it to be otherwise? A national
+institution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the
+State banks, is yet constituted upon the same principles, is conducted by
+men equally exposed to temptation, and is liable to the same disasters,
+with the additional disadvantage that its magnitude occasions an extent of
+confusion and distress which the mismanagement of smaller institutions
+could not produce. It can scarcely be doubted that the recent suspension of
+the United State Bank of Pennsylvania, of which the effects are felt not in
+that State alone, but over half the Union, had its origin in a course of
+business commenced while it was a national institution, and there is no
+good reason for supposing that the same consequences would not have
+followed had it still derived its powers from the General Government. It is
+in vain, when the influences and impulses are the same, to look for a
+difference in conduct or results. By such creations we do, therefore, but
+increase the mass of paper credit and paper currency, without checking
+their attendant evils and fluctuations. The extent of power and the
+efficiency of organization which we give, so far from being beneficial, are
+in practice positively injurious. They strengthen the chain of dependence
+throughout the Union, subject all parts more certainly to common disaster,
+and bind every bank more effectually in the first instance to those of our
+commercial cities, and in the end to a foreign power. In a word, I can not
+but believe that, with the full understanding of the operations of our
+banking system which experience has produced, public sentiment is not less
+opposed to the creation of a national bank for purposes connected with
+currency and commerce than for those connected with the fiscal operations
+of the Government.
+
+Yet the commerce and currency of the country are suffering evils from the
+operations of the State banks which can not and ought not to be overlooked.
+By their means we have been flooded with a depreciated paper, which it was
+evidently the design of the framers of the Constitution to prevent when
+they required Congress to "Coin money and regulate the value of foreign
+coins," and when they forbade the States "to coin money, emit bills of
+credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts," or
+"pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts." If they did not guard
+more explicitly against the present state of things, it was because they
+could not have anticipated that the few banks then existing were to swell
+to an extent which would expel to so great a degree the gold and silver for
+which they had provided from the channels of circulation, and fill them
+with a currency that defeats the objects they had in view. The remedy for
+this must chiefly rest with the States from whose legislation it has
+sprung. No good that might accrue in a particular case front the exercise
+of powers not obviously conferred on the General Government would authorize
+its interference or justify a course that might in the slightest degree
+increase at the expense of the States the power of the Federal authorities;
+nor do I doubt that the States will apply the remedy. Within the last few
+years events have appealed to them too strongly to be disregarded. They
+have seen that the Constitution, though theoretically adhered to, is
+subverted in practice; that while on the statute books there is no legal
+tender but gold and silver, no law impairing the obligations of contracts,
+yet that in point of fact the privileges conferred on banking corporations
+have made their notes the currency of the country; that the obligations
+imposed by these notes are violated under the impulses of interest or
+convenience, and that the number and power of the persons connected with
+these corporations or placed under their influence give them a fearful
+weight when their interest is in opposition to the spirit of the
+Constitution and laws. To the people it is immaterial whether these results
+are produced by open violations of the latter or by the workings of a
+system of which the result is the same. An inflexible execution even of the
+existing statutes of most of the States would redress many evils now
+endured, would effectually show the banks the dangers of mismanagement
+which impunity encourages them to repeat, and would teach all corporations
+the useful lesson that they are the subjects of the law and the servants of
+the people. What is still wanting to effect these objects must be sought in
+additional legislation, or, if that be inadequate, in such further
+constitutional grants or restrictions as may bring us back into the path
+from which we have so widely wandered.
+
+In the meantime it is the duty of the General Government to cooperate with
+the States by a wise exercise of its constitutional powers and the
+enforcement of its existing laws. The extent to which it may do so by
+further enactments I have already adverted to, and the wisdom of Congress
+may yet enlarge them. But above all, it is incumbent upon us to hold erect
+the principles of morality and law, constantly executing our own contracts
+in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, and thus serving as
+a rallying point by which our whole country may be brought back to that
+safe and honored standard.
+
+Our people will not long be insensible to the extent of the burdens
+entailed upon them by the false system that has been operating on their
+sanguine, energetic, and industrious character, nor to the means necessary
+to extricate themselves from these embarrassments. The weight which presses
+upon a large portion of the people and the States is an enormous debt,
+foreign and domestic. The foreign debt of our States, corporations, and men
+of business can scarcely be less than $200,000,000, requiring more than
+$10,000,000 a year to pay the interest. This sum has to be paid out of the
+exports of the country, and must of necessity cut off imports to that
+extent or plunge the country more deeply in debt from year to year. It is
+easy to see that the increase of this foreign debt must augment the annual
+demand on the exports to pay the interest, and to the same extent diminish
+the imports, and in proportion to the enlargement of the foreign debt and
+the consequent increase of interest must be the decrease of the import
+trade. In lieu of the comforts which it now brings us we might have our.
+gigantic banking institutions and splendid, but in many instances
+profitless, railroads and canals absorbing to a great extent in interest
+upon the capital borrowed to construct them the surplus fruits of national
+industry for years to come, and securing to posterity no adequate return
+for the comforts which the labors of their hands might otherwise have
+secured. It is not by the increase of this debt that relief is to be
+sought, but in its diminution. Upon this point there is, I am happy to say,
+hope before us; not so much in the return of confidence abroad, which will
+enable the States to borrow more money, as in a change of public feeling at
+home, which prompts our people to pause in their career and think of the
+means by which debts are to be paid before they are contracted. If we would
+escape embarrassment, public and private, we must cease to run in debt
+except for objects of necessity or such as will yield a certain return. Let
+the faith of the States, corporations, and individuals already pledged be
+kept with the most punctilious regard. It is due to our national character
+as well as to justice that this should on the part of each be a fixed
+principle of conduct. But it behooves us all to be more chary in pledging
+it hereafter. By ceasing to run in debt and applying the surplus of our
+crops and incomes to the discharge of existing obligations, buying less and
+selling more, and managing all affairs, public and private, with strict
+economy and frugality, we shall see our country soon recover from a
+temporary depression, arising not from natural and permanent causes, but
+from those I have enumerated, and advance with renewed vigor in her career
+of prosperity.
+
+Fortunately for us at this moment, when the balance of trade is greatly
+against us and the difficulty of meeting it enhanced by the disturbed state
+of our money affairs, the bounties of Providence have come to relieve us
+from the consequences of past errors. A faithful application of the immense
+results of the labors of the last season will afford partial relief for the
+present, and perseverance in the same course will in due season accomplish
+the rest. We have had full experience in times past of the extraordinary
+results which can in this respect be brought about in a short period by the
+united and well-directed efforts of a community like ours. Our surplus
+profits, the energy and industry of our population, and the wonderful
+advantages which Providence has bestowed upon our country in its climate,
+its various productions, indispensable to other nations, will in due time
+afford abundant means to perfect the most useful of those objects for which
+the States have been plunging themselves of late in embarrassment and debt,
+without imposing on ourselves or our children such fearful burdens.
+
+But let it be indelibly engraved on our minds that relief is not to be
+found in expedients. Indebtedness can not be lessened by borrowing more
+money or by changing the form of the debt. The balance of trade is not to
+be turned in our favor by creating new demands upon us abroad. Our currency
+can not be improved by the creation of new banks or more issues from those
+which now exist. Although these devices sometimes appear to give temporary
+relief, they almost invariably aggravate the evil in the end. It is only by
+retrenchment and reform--by curtailing public and private expenditures, by
+paying our debts, and by reforming our banking system--that we are to
+expect effectual relief, security for the future, and an enduring
+prosperity. In shaping the institutions and policy of the General
+Government so as to promote as far as it can with its limited powers these
+important ends, you may rely on my most cordial cooperation.
+
+That there should have been in the progress of recent events doubts in many
+quarters and in some a heated opposition to every change can not surprise
+us. Doubts are properly attendant on all reform, and it is peculiarly in
+the nature of such abuses as we are now encountering to seek to perpetuate
+their power by means of the influence they have been permitted to acquire.
+It is their result, if not their object, to gain for the few an ascendency
+over the many by securing to them a monopoly of the currency, the medium
+through which most of the wants of mankind are supplied; to produce
+throughout society a chain of dependence which leads all classes to look to
+privileged associations for the means of speculation and extravagance; to
+nourish, in preference to the manly virtues that give dignity to human
+nature, a craving desire for luxurious enjoyment and sudden wealth, which
+renders those who seek them dependent on those who supply them; to
+substitute for republican simplicity and economical habits a sickly
+appetite for effeminate indulgence and an imitation of that reckless
+extravagance which impoverished and enslaved the industrious people of
+foreign lands, and at last to fix upon us, instead of those equal political
+rights the acquisition of which was alike the object and supposed reward of
+our Revolutionary struggle, a system of exclusive privileges conferred by
+partial legislation. To remove the influences which had thus gradually
+grown up among us, to deprive them of their deceptive advantages, to test
+them by the light of wisdom and truth, to oppose the force which they
+concentrate in their sup-port--all this was necessarily the work of time,
+even among a people so enlightened and pure as that of the United States.
+In most other countries, perhaps, it could only be accomplished through
+that series of revolutionary movements which are too often found necessary
+to effect any great and radical reform; but it is the crowning merit of our
+institutions that they create and nourish in the vast majority of our
+people a disposition and a power peaceably to remedy abuses which have
+elsewhere caused the effusion of rivers of blood and the sacrifice of
+thousands of the human race. The result thus far is most honorable to the
+self-denial, the intelligence, and the patriotism of our citizens; it
+justifies the confident hope that they will carry through the reform which
+has been so well begun, and that they will go still further than they have
+yet gone in illustrating the important truth that a people as free and
+enlightened as ours will, whenever it becomes necessary, show themselves to
+be indeed capable of self-government by voluntarily adopting appropriate
+remedies for every abuse, and submitting to temporary sacrifices, however
+great, to insure their permanent welfare.
+
+My own exertions for the furtherance of these desirable objects have been
+bestowed throughout my official career with a zeal that is nourished by
+ardent wishes for the welfare of my country, and by an unlimited reliance
+on the wisdom that marks its ultimate decision on all great and
+controverted questions. Impressed with the solemn obligations imposed upon
+me by the Constitution, desirous also of laying before my fellow-citizens,
+with whose confidence and support I have been so highly honored, such
+measures as appear to me conducive to their prosperity, and anxious to
+submit to their fullest consideration the grounds upon which my opinions
+are formed, I have on this as on preceding occasions freely offered my
+views on those points of domestic policy that seem at the present time most
+prominently to require the action of the Government. I know that they will
+receive from Congress that full and able consideration which the importance
+of the subjects merits, and I can repeat the assurance heretofore made that
+I shall cheerfully and readily cooperate with you in every measure that
+will tend to promote the welfare of the Union.
+
+M. VAN BUREN
+
+***
+
+State of the Union Address
+Martin van Buren
+December 5, 1840
+
+Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
+
+Our devout gratitude is due to the Supreme Being for having graciously
+continued to our beloved country through the vicissitudes of another year
+the invaluable blessings of health, plenty, and peace. Seldom has this
+favored land been so generally exempted from the ravages of disease or the
+labor of the husbandman more amply rewarded, and never before have our
+relations with other countries been placed on a more favorable basis than
+that which they so happily occupy at this critical conjuncture in the
+affairs of the world. A rigid and persevering abstinence from all
+interference with the domestic and political relations of other States,
+alike due to the genius and distinctive character of our Government and to
+the principles by which it is directed; a faithful observance in the
+management of our foreign relations of the practice of speaking plainly,
+dealing justly, and requiring truth and justice in return as the best
+conservatives of the peace of nations; a strict impartiality in our
+manifestations of friendship in the commercial privileges we concede and
+those we require from others--these, accompanied by a disposition as prompt
+to maintain in every emergency our own rights as we are from principle
+averse to the invasion of those of others, have given to our country and
+Government a standing in the great family of nations of which we have just
+cause to be proud and the advantages of which are experienced by our
+citizens throughout every portion of the earth to which their enterprising
+and adventurous spirit may carry them. Few, if any, remain insensible to
+the value of our friendship or ignorant of the terms on which it can be
+acquired and by which it can alone be preserved.
+
+A series of questions of long standing, difficult in their adjustment and
+important in their consequences, in which the rights of our citizens and
+the honor of the country were deeply involved, have in the course of a few
+years (the most of them during the successful Administration of my
+immediate predecessor) been brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and the
+most important of those remaining are, I am happy to believe, in a fair way
+of being speedily and satisfactorily adjusted.
+
+With all the powers of the world our relations are those of honorable
+peace. Since your adjournment nothing serious has occurred to interrupt or
+threaten this desirable harmony. If clouds have lowered above the other
+hemisphere, they have not cast their portentous shadows upon our happy
+shores. Bound by no entangling alliances, yet linked by a common nature and
+interest with the other nations of mankind, our aspirations are for the
+preservation of peace, in whose solid and civilizing triumphs all may
+participate with a generous emulation. Yet it behooves us to be prepared
+for any event and to be always ready to maintain those just and enlightened
+principles of national intercourse for which this Government has ever
+contended. In the shock of contending empires it is only by assuming a
+resolute bearing and clothing themselves with defensive armor that neutral
+nations can maintain their independent rights.
+
+The excitement which grew out of the territorial controversy between the
+United States and Great Britain having in a great measure subsided, it is
+hoped that a favorable period is approaching for its final settlement. Both
+Governments must now be convinced of the dangers with which the question is
+fraught, and it must be their desire, as it is their interest, that this
+perpetual cause of irritation should be removed as speedily as practicable.
+In my last annual message you were informed that the proposition for a
+commission of exploration and survey promised by Great Britain had been
+received, and that a counter project, including also a provision for the
+certain and final adjustment of the limits in dispute, was then before the
+British Government for its consideration. The answer of that Government,
+accompanied by additional propositions of its own, was received through its
+minister here since your separation. These were promptly considered, such
+as were deemed correct in principle and consistent with a due regard to the
+just rights of the United States and of the State of Maine concurred in,
+and the reasons for dissenting from the residue, with an additional
+suggestion on our part, communicated by the Secretary of State to Mr. Fox.
+That minister, not feeling himself sufficiently instructed upon some of the
+points raised in the discussion, felt it to be his duty to refer the matter
+to his own Government for its further decision. Having now been for some
+time under its advisement, a speedy answer may be confidently expected.
+From the character of the points still in difference and the undoubted
+disposition of both parties to bring the matter to an early conclusion, I
+look with entire confidence to a prompt and satisfactory termination of the
+negotiation. Three commissioners were appointed shortly after the
+adjournment of Congress under the act of the last session providing for the
+exploration and survey of the line which separates the States of Maine and
+New Hampshire from the British Provinces. They have been actively employed
+until their progress was interrupted by the inclemency of the season, and
+will resume their labors as soon as practicable in the ensuing year.
+
+It is understood that their respective examinations will throw new light
+upon the subject in controversy and serve to remove any erroneous
+impressions which may have been made elsewhere prejudicial to the rights of
+the United States. It was, among other reasons, with a view of preventing
+the embarrassments which in our peculiar system of government impede and
+complicate negotiations involving the territorial rights of a State that I
+thought it my duty, as you have been informed on a previous occasion, to
+propose to the British Government, through its minister at Washington, that
+early steps should be taken to adjust the points of difference on the line
+of boundary from the entrance of Lake Superior to the most northwestern
+point of the Lake of the Woods by the arbitration of a friendly power in
+conformity with the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent. No answer has
+yet been returned by the British Government to this proposition.
+
+With Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and the remaining powers of Europe I
+am happy to inform you our relations continue to be of the most friendly
+character. With Belgium a treaty of commerce and navigation, based upon
+liberal principles of reciprocity and equality, was concluded in March
+last, and, having been ratified by the Belgian Government, will be duly
+laid before the Senate. It is a subject of congratulation that it provides
+for the satisfactory adjustment of a long-standing question of controversy,
+thus removing the only obstacle which could obstruct the friendly and
+mutually advantageous intercourse between the two nations. A messenger has
+been dispatched with the Hanoverian treaty to Berlin, where, according to
+stipulation, the ratifications are to be exchanged. I am happy to announce
+to you that after many delays and difficulties a treaty of commerce and
+navigation between the United States and Portugal was concluded and signed
+at Lisbon on the 26th of August last by the plenipotentiaries of the two
+Governments. Its stipulations are founded upon those principles of mutual
+liberality and advantage which the United States have always sought to make
+the basis of their intercourse with foreign powers, and it is hoped they
+will tend to foster and strengthen the commercial intercourse of the two
+countries.
+
+Under the appropriation of the last session of Congress an agent has been
+sent to Germany for the purpose of promoting the interests of our tobacco
+trade.
+
+The commissioners appointed under the convention for the adjustment of
+claims of citizens of the United States upon Mexico having met and
+organized at Washington in August last, the papers in the possession of the
+Government relating to those claims were communicated to the board. The
+claims not embraced by that convention are now the subject of negotiation
+between the two Governments through the medium of our minister at Mexico.
+
+Nothing has occurred to disturb the harmony of our relations with the
+different Governments of South America. I regret, however, to be obliged to
+inform you that the claims of our citizens upon the late Republic of
+Colombia have not yet been satisfied by the separate Governments into which
+it has been resolved.
+
+The charge d'affaires of Brazil having expressed the intention of his
+Government not to prolong the treaty of 1828, it will cease to be
+obligatory upon either party on the 12th day of December, 1841, when the
+extensive commercial intercourse between the United States and that vast
+Empire will no longer be regulated by express stipulations.
+
+It affords me pleasure to communicate to you that the Government of Chili
+has entered into an agreement to indemnify the claimants in the case of the
+Macectonian for American property seized in 1819, and to add that
+information has also been received which justifies the hope of an early
+adjustment of the remaining claims upon that Government.
+
+The commissioners appointed in pursuance of the convention between the
+United States and Texas for marking the boundary between them have,
+according to the last report received from our commissioner, surveyed and
+established the whole extent of the boundary north along the western bank
+of the Sabine River from its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico to the
+thirty-second degree of north latitude. The commission adjourned on the
+16th of June last, to reassemble on the 1st of November for the purpose of
+establishing accurately the intersection of the thirty-second degree of
+latitude with the western bank of the Sabine and the meridian line thence
+to Red River. It is presumed that the work will be concluded in the present
+season.
+
+The present sound condition of their finances and the success with which
+embarrassments in regard to them, at times apparently insurmountable, have
+been overcome are matters upon which the people and Government of the
+United States may well congratulate themselves. An overflowing Treasury,
+however it may be regarded as an evidence of public prosperity, is seldom
+conducive to the permanent welfare of any people, and experience has
+demonstrated its incompatibility with the salutary action of political
+institutions like those of the United States. Our safest reliance for
+financial efficiency and independence has, on the contrary, been found to
+consist in ample resources unencumbered with debt, and in this respect the
+Federal Government occupies a singularly fortunate and truly enviable
+position.
+
+When I entered upon the discharge of my official duties in March, 1837, the
+act for the distribution of the surplus revenue was in a course of rapid
+execution. Nearly $28,000,000 of the public moneys were, in pursuance of
+its provisions, deposited with the States in the months of January, April,
+and July of that year. In May there occurred a general suspension of specie
+payments by the banks, including, with very few exceptions, those in which
+the public moneys were deposited and upon whose fidelity the Government had
+unfortunately made itself dependent for the revenues which had been
+collected from the people and were indispensable to the public service.
+
+This suspension and the excesses in banking and commerce out of which it
+arose, and which were greatly aggravated by its occurrence, made to a great
+extent unavailable the principal part of the public money then on hand,
+suspended the collection of many millions accruing on merchants' bonds, and
+greatly reduced the revenue arising from customs and the public lands.
+These effects have continued to operate in various degrees to the present
+period, and in addition to the decrease in the revenue thus produced two
+and a half millions of duties have been relinquished by two biennial
+reductions under the act of 1833, and probably as much more upon the
+importation of iron for railroads by special legislation.
+
+Whilst such has been our condition for the last four years in relation to
+revenue, we have during the same period been subjected to an unavoidable
+continuance of large extraordinary expenses necessarily growing out of past
+transactions, and which could not be immediately arrested without great
+prejudice to the public interest. Of these, the charge upon the Treasurer
+in consequence of the Cherokee treaty alone, without adverting to others
+arising out of Indian treaties, has already exceeded $5,000,000; that for
+the prosecution of measures for the removal of the Seminole Indians, which
+were found in progress, has been nearly fourteen millions, and the public
+buildings have required the unusual sum of nearly three millions.
+
+It affords me, however, great pleasure to be able to say that from the
+commencement of this period to the present day every demand upon the
+Government, at home or abroad, has been promptly met. This has been done
+not only without creating a permanent debt or a resort to additional
+taxation in any form, but in the midst of a steadily progressive reduction
+of existing burdens upon the people, leaving still a considerable balance
+of available funds which will remain in the Treasury at the end of the
+year. The small amount of Treasury notes, not exceeding $4,500,000, still
+outstanding, and less by twenty-three millions than the United States have
+in deposit with the States, is composed of such only as are not yet due or
+have not been presented for payment. They may be redeemed out of the
+accruing revenue if the expenditures do not exceed the amount within which
+they may, it is thought, be kept without prejudice to the public interest,
+and the revenue shall prove to be as large as may justly be anticipated.
+
+Among the reflections arising from the contemplation of these
+circumstances, one, not the least gratifying, is the consciousness that the
+Government had the resolution and the ability to adhere in every emergency
+to the sacred obligations of law, to execute all its contracts according to
+the requirements of the Constitution, and thus to present when most needed
+a rallying point by which the business of the whole country might be
+brought back to a safe and unvarying standard--a result vitally important
+as well to the interests as to the morals of the people. There can surely
+now be no difference of opinion in regard to the incalculable evils that
+would have arisen if the Government at that critical moment had suffered
+itself to be deterred from upholding the only true standard of value,
+either by the pressure of adverse circumstances or the violence of
+unmerited denunciation. The manner in which the people sustained the
+performance of this duty was highly honorable to their fortitude and
+patriotism. It can not fail to stimulate their agents to adhere under all
+circumstances to the line of duty and to satisfy them of the safety with
+which a course really right and demanded by a financial crisis may in a
+community like ours be pursued, however apparently severe its immediate
+operation.
+
+The policy of the Federal Government in extinguishing as rapidly as
+possible the national debt, and subsequently in resisting every temptation
+to create a new one, deserves to be regarded in the same favorable light.
+Among the many objections to a national debt, the certain tendency of
+public securities to concentrate ultimately in the coffers of foreign
+stockholders is one which is every day gathering strength. Already have the
+resources of many of the States and the future industry of their citizens
+been indefinitely mortgaged to the subjects of European Governments to the
+amount of twelve millions annually to pay the constantly accruing interest
+on borrowed money--a sum exceeding half the ordinary revenues of the whole
+United States. The pretext which this relation affords to foreigners to
+scrutinize the management of our domestic affairs, if not actually to
+intermeddle with them, presents a subject for earnest attention, not to say
+of serious alarm. Fortunately, the Federal Government, with the exception
+of an obligation entered into in behalf of the District of Columbia, which
+must soon be discharged, is wholly exempt from any such embarrassment. It
+is also, as is believed, the only Government which, having fully and
+faithfully paid all its creditors, has also relieved itself entirely from
+debt. To maintain a distinction so desirable and so honorable to our
+national character should be an object of earnest solicitude. Never should
+a free people, if it be possible to avoid it, expose themselves to the
+necessity of having to treat of the peace, the honor, or the safety of the
+Republic with the governments of foreign creditors, who, however well
+disposed they may be to cultivate with us in general friendly relations,
+are nevertheless by the law of their own condition made hostile to the
+success and permanency of political institutions like ours. Most
+humiliating may be the embarrassments consequent upon such a condition.
+Another objection, scarcely less formidable, to the commencement of a new
+debt is its inevitable tendency to increase in magnitude and to foster
+national extravagance. He has been an unprofitable observer of events who
+needs at this day to be admonished of the difficulties which a government
+habitually dependent on loans to sustain its ordinary expenditures has to
+encounter in resisting the influences constantly exerted in favor of
+additional loans; by capitalists, who enrich themselves by government
+securities for amounts much exceeding the money they actually advance--a
+prolific source of individual aggrandizement in all borrowing countries; by
+stockholders, who seek their gains in the rise and fall of public stocks;
+and by the selfish importunities of applicants for appropriations for works
+avowedly for the accommodation of the public, but the real objects of which
+are too frequently the advancement of private interests. The known
+necessity which so many of the States will be under to impose taxes for the
+payment of the interest on their debts furnishes an additional and very
+cogent reason why the Federal Governments should refrain from creating a
+national debt, by which the people would be exposed to double taxation for
+a similar object. We possess within ourselves ample resources for every
+emergency, and we may be quite sure that our citizens in no future exigency
+will be unwilling to supply the Government with all the means asked for the
+defense of the country. In time of peace there can, at all events, be no
+justification for the creation of a permanent debt by the Federal
+Government. Its limited range of constitutional duties may certainly under
+such circumstances be performed without such a resort. It has, it is seen,
+been avoided during four years of greater fiscal difficulties than have
+existed in a similar period since the adoption of the Constitution, and one
+also remarkable for the occurrence of extraordinary causes of
+expenditures.
+
+But to accomplish so desirable an object two things are indispensable:
+First, that the action of the Federal Government be kept within the
+boundaries prescribed by its founders, and, secondly, that all
+appropriations for objects admitted to be constitutional, and the
+expenditure of them also, be subjected to a standard of rigid but
+well-considered and practical economy. The first depends chiefly on the
+people themselves--the opinions they form of the true construction of the
+Constitution and the confidence they repose in the political sentiments of
+those they select as their representatives in the Federal Legislature; the
+second rests upon the fidelity with which their more immediate
+representatives and other public functionaries discharge the trusts
+committed to them. The duty of economizing the expenses of the public
+service is admitted on all hands; yet there are few subjects upon which
+there exists a wider difference of opinion than is constantly manifested in
+regard to the fidelity with which that duty is discharged. Neither
+diversity of sentiment nor even mutual recriminations upon a point in
+respect to which the public mind is so justly sensitive can well be
+entirely avoided, and least so at periods of great political excitement. An
+intelligent people, however, seldom fail to arrive in the end at correct
+conclusions in such a matter. Practical economy in the management of public
+affairs can have no adverse influence to contend with more powerful than a
+large surplus revenue, and the unusually large appropriations for 1837 may
+without doubt, independently of the extraordinary requisitions for the
+public service growing out of the state of our Indian relations, be in no
+inconsiderable degree traced to this source. The sudden and rapid
+distribution of the large surplus then in the Treasury and the equally
+sudden and unprecedentedly severe revulsion in the commerce and business of
+the country, pointing with unerring certainty to a great and protracted
+reduction of the revenue, strengthened the propriety of the earliest
+practicable reduction of the public expenditures.
+
+But to change a system operating upon so large a surface and applicable to
+such numerous and diversified interests and objects was more than the work
+of a day. The attention of every department of the Government was
+immediately and in good faith directed to that end, and has been so
+continued to the present moment. The estimates and appropriations for the
+year 1838 (the first over which I had any control) were somewhat
+diminished. The expenditures of 1839 were reduced $6,000,000. Those of
+1840, exclusive of disbursements for public debt and trust claims, will
+probably not exceed twenty-two and a half millions, being between two and
+three millions less than those of the preceding year and nine or ten
+millions less than those of 1837. Nor has it been found necessary in order
+to produce this result to resort to the power conferred by Congress of
+postponing certain classes of the public works, except by deferring
+expenditures for a short period upon a limited portion of them, and which
+postponement terminated some time since--at the moment the Treasury
+Department by further receipts from the indebted banks became fully assured
+of its ability to meet them without prejudice to the public service in
+other respects. Causes are in operation which will, it is believed, justify
+a still further reduction without injury to any important national
+interest. The expenses of sustaining the troops employed in Florida have
+been gradually and greatly reduced through the persevering efforts of the
+War Department, and a reasonable hope may be entertained that the necessity
+for military operations in that quarter will soon cease. The removal of the
+Indians from within our settled borders is nearly completed. The pension
+list, one of the heaviest charges upon the Treasury, is rapidly diminishing
+by death. The most costly of our public buildings are either finished or
+nearly so, and we may, I think, safely promise ourselves a continued
+exemption from border difficulties.
+
+The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
+estimated at $ 1,500,000. This sum, with the expected receipts from all
+sources during the next year, will, it is believed, be sufficient to enable
+the Government to meet every engagement and have a suitable balance, in the
+Treasury at the end of the year, if the remedial measures connected with
+the customs and the public lands heretofore recommended are adopted and the
+new appropriations by Congress shall not carry the expenditures beyond the
+official estimates.
+
+The new system established by Congress for the safe-keeping of the public
+money, prescribing the kind of currency to be received for the public
+revenue and providing additional guards and securities against losses, has
+now been several mouths in operation. Although it might be premature upon
+an experience of such limited duration to form a definite opinion in regard
+to the extent of its influences in correcting many evils under which the
+Federal Government and the country have hitherto suffered, especially those
+that have grown out of banking expansions, a depreciated currency, and
+official defalcations, yet it is but right to say that nothing has occurred
+in the practical operation of the system to weaken in the slightest degree,
+but much to strengthen, the confident anticipations of its friends. The
+grounds of these have been heretofore so fully explained as to require no
+recapitulation. In respect to the facility and convenience it affords in
+conducting the public service, and the ability of the Government to
+discharge through its agency every duty attendant on the collection,
+transfer, and disbursement of the public money with promptitude and
+success, I can say with confidence that the apprehensions of those who felt
+it to be their duty to oppose its adoption have proved to be unfounded. On
+the contrary, this branch of the fiscal affairs of the Government has been,
+and it is believed may always be, thus carried on with every desirable
+facility and security. A few changes and improvements in the details of the
+system, without affecting any principles involved in it, will be submitted
+to you by the Secretary of the Treasury, and will, I am sure, receive at
+your hands that attention to which they may on examination be found to be
+entitled.
+
+I have deemed this brief summary of our fiscal affairs necessary to the due
+performance of a duty specially enjoined upon me by the Constitution. It
+will serve also to illustrate more fully the principles by which I have
+been guided in reference to two contested points in our public policy which
+were earliest in their development and have been more important in their
+consequences than any that have arisen under our complicated and difficult,
+yet admirable, system of government. I allude to a national debt and a
+national bank. It was in these that the political contests by which the
+country has been agitated ever since the adoption of the Constitution in a
+great measure originated, and there is too much reason to apprehend that
+the conflicting interests and opposing principles thus marshaled will
+continue as heretofore to produce similar if not aggravated consequences.
+Coming into office the declared enemy of both, I have earnestly endeavored
+to prevent a resort to either.
+
+The consideration that a large public debt affords an apology, and produces
+in some degree a necessity also, for resorting to a system and extent of
+taxation which is not only oppressive throughout, but is likewise so apt to
+lead in the end to the commission of that most odious of all offenses
+against the principles of republican government, the prostitution of
+political power, conferred for the general benefit, to the aggrandizement
+of particular classes and the gratification of individual cupidity, is
+alone sufficient, independently of the weighty objections which have
+already been urged, to render its creation and existence the sources of
+bitter and unappeasable discord. If we add to this its inevitable tendency
+to produce and foster extravagant expenditures of the public moneys, by
+which a necessity is created for new loans and new burdens on the people,
+and, finally, refer to the examples of every government which has existed
+for proof, how seldom it is that the system, when once adopted and
+implanted in the policy of a country, has failed to expand itself until
+public credit was exhausted and the people were no longer able to endure
+its increasing weight, it seems impossible to resist the conclusion that no
+benefits resulting from its career, no extent of conquest, no accession of
+wealth to particular classes, nor any nor all its combined advantages, can
+counterbalance its ultimate but certain results--a splendid government and
+an impoverished people.
+
+If a national bank was, as is undeniable, repudiated by the framers of the
+Constitution as incompatible with the rights of the States and the
+liberties of the people; if from the beginning it has been regarded by
+large portions of our citizens as coming in direct collision with that
+great and vital amendment of the Constitution which declares that all
+powers not conferred by that instrument on the General Government are
+reserved to the States and to the people; if it has been viewed by them as
+the first great step in the march of latitudinous construction, which
+unchecked would render that sacred instrument of as little value as an
+unwritten constitution, dependent, as it would alone be, for its meaning on
+the interested interpretation of a dominant party, and affording no
+security to the rights of the minority--if such is undeniably the case,
+what rational grounds could have been conceived for anticipating aught but
+determined opposition to such an institution at the present day.
+
+Could a different result have been expected when the consequences which
+have flowed from its creation, and particularly from its struggles to
+perpetuate its existence, had confirmed in so striking a manner the
+apprehensions of its earliest opponents; when it had been so clearly
+demonstrated that a concentrated money power, wielding so vast a capital
+and combining such incalculable means of influence, may in those peculiar
+conjunctures to which this Government is unavoidably exposed prove an
+overmatch for the political power of the people themselves; when the true
+character of its capacity to regulate according to its will and its
+interests and the interests of its favorites the value and production of
+the labor and property of every man in this extended country had been so
+fully and fearfully developed; when it was notorious that all classes of
+this great community had, by means of the power and influence it thus
+possesses, been infected to madness with a spirit of heedless speculation;
+when it had been seen that, secure in the support of the combination of
+influences by which it was surrounded, it could violate its charter and set
+the laws at defiance with impunity; and when, too, it had become most
+apparent that to believe that such an accumulation of powers can ever be
+granted without the certainty of being abused was to indulge in a fatal
+delusion?
+
+To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences
+I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of
+confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as
+are clearly within the constitutional authority of the Federal Government;
+of excluding from its expenses those improvident and unauthorized grants of
+public money for works of internal improvement which were so wisely
+arrested by the constitutional interposition of my predecessor, and which,
+if they had not been so checked, would long before this time have involved
+the finances of the General Government in embarrassments far greater than
+those which are now experienced by any of the States; of limiting all our
+expenditures to that simple, unostentatious, and economical administration
+of public affairs which is alone consistent with the character of our
+institutions; of collecting annually from the customs, and the sales of
+public lands a revenue fully adequate to defray all the expenses thus
+incurred; but under no pretense whatsoever to impose taxes upon the people
+to a greater amount than was actually necessary to the public service
+conducted upon the principles I have stated.
+
+In lieu of a national bank or a dependence upon banks of any description
+for the management of our fiscal affairs, I recommended the adoption of the
+system which is now in successful operation. That system affords every
+requisite facility for the transaction of the pecuniary concerns of the
+Government; will, it is confidently anticipated, produce in other respects
+many of the benefits which have been from time to time expected from the
+creation of a national bank, but which have never been realized; avoid the
+manifold evils inseparable from such an institution; diminish to a greater
+extent than could be accomplished by any other measure of reform the
+patronage of the Federal Government--a wise policy in all governments, but
+more especially so in one like ours, which works well only in proportion as
+it is made to rely for its support upon the unbiased and unadulterated
+opinions of its constituents; do away forever all dependence on corporate
+bodies either in the raising, collecting, safekeeping, or disbursing the
+public revenues, and place the Government equally above the temptation of
+fostering a dangerous and unconstitutional institution at home or the
+necessity of adapting its policy to the views and interests of a still more
+formidable money power abroad.
+
+It is by adopting and carrying out these principles under circumstances the
+most arduous and discouraging that the attempt has been made, thus far
+successfully, to demonstrate to the people of the United States that a
+national bank at all times, and a national debt except it be incurred at a
+period when the honor and safety of the nation demand the temporary
+sacrifice of a policy which should only be abandoned in such exigencies,
+are not merely unnecessary, but in direct and deadly hostility to the
+principles of their Government and to their own permanent welfare.
+
+The progress made in the development of these positions appears in the
+preceding sketch of the past history and present state of the financial
+concerns of the Federal Government. The facts there stated fully authorize
+the assertion that all the purposes for which this Government was
+instituted have been accomplished during four years of greater pecuniary
+embarrassment than were ever before experienced in time of peace, and in
+the face of opposition as formidable as any that was ever before arrayed
+against the policy of an Administration; that this has been done when the
+ordinary revenues of the Government were generally decreasing as well from
+the operation of the laws as the condition of the country, without the
+creation of a permanent public debt or incurring any liability other than
+such as the ordinary resources of the Government will speedily discharge,
+and without the agency of a national bank.
+
+If this view of the proceedings of the Government for the period it
+embraces be warranted by the facts as they are known to exist; if the Army
+and Navy have been sustained to the full extent authorized by law, and
+which Congress deemed sufficient for the defense of the country and the
+protection of its rights and its honor; if its civil and diplomatic service
+has been equally sustained; if ample provision has been made for the
+administration of justice and the execution of the laws; if the claims upon
+public gratitude in behalf of the soldiers of the Revolution have been
+promptly met and faithfully discharged; if there have been no failures in
+defraying the very large expenditures growing out of that long-continued
+and salutary policy of peacefully removing the Indians to regions of
+comparative safety and prosperity; if the public faith has at all times and
+everywhere been most scrupulously maintained by a prompt discharge of the
+numerous, extended, and diversified claims on the Treasury--if all these
+great and permanent objects, with many others that might be stated, have
+for a series of years, marked by peculiar obstacles and difficulties, been
+successfully accomplished without a resort to a permanent debt or the aid
+of a national bank, have we not a right to expect that a policy the object
+of which has been to sustain the public service independently of either of
+these fruitful sources of discord will receive the final sanction of a
+people whose unbiased and fairly elicited judgment upon public affairs is
+never ultimately wrong?
+
+That embarrassments in the pecuniary concerns of individuals of unexampled
+extent and duration have recently existed in this as in other commercial
+nations is undoubtedly true. To suppose it necessary now to trace these
+reverses to their sources would be a reflection on the intelligence of my
+fellow-citizens. Whatever may have been the obscurity in which the subject
+was involved during the earlier stages of the revulsion, there can not now
+be many by whom the whole question is not fully understood.
+
+Not deeming it within the constitutional powers of the General Government
+to repair private losses sustained by reverses in business having no
+connection with the public service, either by direct appropriations from
+the Treasury or by special legislation designed to secure exclusive
+privileges and immunities to individuals or classes in preference to or at
+the expense of the great majority necessarily debarred from any
+participation in them, no attempt to do so has been either made,
+recommended, or encouraged by the present Executive.
+
+It is believed, however, that the great purposes for the attainment of
+which the Federal Government was instituted have not been lost sight of.
+Intrusted only with certain limited powers, cautiously enumerated,
+distinctly specified, and defined with a precision and clearness which
+would seem to defy misconstruction, it has been my constant aim to confine
+myself within the limits so clearly marked out and so carefully guarded.
+Having always been of opinion that the best preservative of the union of
+the States is to be found in a total abstinence from the exercise of all
+doubtful powers on the part of the Federal Government rather than in
+attempts to assume them by a loose construction of the Constitution or an
+ingenious perversion of its words, I have endeavored to avoid recommending
+any measure which I had reason to apprehend would, in the opinion even of a
+considerable minority of my fellow-citizens, be regarded as trenching on
+the rights of the States or the provisions of the hallowed instrument of
+our Union. Viewing the aggregate powers of the Federal Government as a
+voluntary concession of the States, it seemed to me that such only should
+be exercised as were at the time intended to be given.
+
+I have been strengthened, too, in the propriety of this course by the
+conviction that all efforts to go beyond this tend only to produce
+dissatisfaction and distrust, to excite jealousies, and to provoke
+resistance. Instead of adding strength to the Federal Government, even when
+successful they must ever prove a source of incurable weakness by
+alienating a portion of those whose adhesion is indispensable to the great
+aggregate of united strength and whose voluntary attachment is in my
+estimation far more essential to the efficiency of a government strong in
+the best of all possible strength--the confidence and attachment of all
+those who make up its constituent elements.
+
+Thus believing, it has been my purpose to secure to the whole people and to
+every member of the Confederacy, by general, salutary, and equal laws
+alone, the benefit of those republican institutions which it was the end
+and aim of the Constitution to establish, and the impartial influence of
+which is in my judgment indispensable to their preservation. I can not
+bring myself to believe that the lasting happiness of the people, the
+prosperity of the States, or the permanency of their Union can be
+maintained by giving preference or priority to any class of citizens in the
+distribution of benefits or privileges, or by the adoption of measures
+which enrich one portion of the Union at the expense of another; nor can I
+see in the interference of the Federal Government with the local
+legislation and reserved rights of the States a remedy for present or a
+security against future dangers.
+
+The first, and assuredly not the least, important step toward relieving the
+country from the condition into which it had been plunged by excesses in
+trade, banking, and credits of all kinds was to place the business
+transactions of the Government itself on a solid basis, giving and
+receiving in all cases value for value, and neither countenancing nor
+encouraging in others that delusive system of credits from which it has
+been found so difficult to escape, and which has left nothing behind it but
+the wrecks that mark its fatal career.
+
+That the financial affairs of the Government are now and have been during
+the whole period of these wide-spreading difficulties conducted with a
+strict and invariable regard to this great fundamental principle, and that
+by the assumption and maintenance of the stand thus taken on the very
+threshold of the approaching crisis more than by any other cause or causes
+whatever the community at large has been shielded from the incalculable
+evils of a general and indefinite suspension of specie payments, and a
+consequent annihilation for the whole period it might have lasted of a just
+and invariable standard of value, will, it is believed, at this period
+scarcely be questioned.
+
+A steady adherence on the part of the Government to the policy which has
+produced such salutary results, aided by judicious State legislation and,
+what is not less .important, by the industry, enterprise, perseverance, and
+economy of the American people, can not fail to raise the whole country at
+an early period to a state of solid and enduring prosperity, not subject to
+be again overthrown by the suspension of banks or the explosion of a
+bloated credit system. It is for the people and their representatives to
+decide whether or not the permanent welfare of the country (which all good
+citizens equally desire, however widely they may differ as to the means of
+its accomplishment) shall be in this way secured, or whether the management
+of the pecuniary concerns of the Government, and by consequence to a great
+extent those of individuals also, shall be carried back to a condition of
+things which fostered those contractions and expansions of the currency and
+those reckless abuses of credit from the baleful effects of which the
+country has so deeply suffered--a return that can promise in the end no
+better results than to reproduce the embarrassments the Government has
+experienced, and to remove from the shoulders of the present to those of
+fresh victims the bitter fruits of that spirit of speculative enterprise to
+which our countrymen are so liable and upon which the lessons of experience
+are so unavailing. The choice is an important one, and I sincerely hope
+that it may be wisely made.
+
+A report from the Secretary of War, presenting a detailed view of the
+affairs of that Department, accompanies this communication.
+
+The desultory duties connected with the removal of the Indians, in which
+the Army has been constantly engaged on the northern and western frontiers
+and in Florida, have rendered it impracticable to carry into full effect
+the plan recommended by the Secretary for improving its discipline. In
+every instance where the regiments have been concentrated they have made
+great progress, and the best results may be anticipated from a continuance
+of this system. During the last season a part of the troops have been
+employed in removing Indians from the interior to the territory assigned
+them in the West--a duty which they have performed efficiently and with
+praiseworthy humanity--and that portion of them which has been stationed in
+Florida continued active operations there throughout the heats of summer.
+
+The policy of the United States in regard to the Indians, of which a
+succinct account is given in my message of 1838, and of the wisdom and
+expediency of which I am fully satisfied, has been continued in active
+operation throughout the whole period of my Administration. Since the
+spring of 1837 more than 40,000 Indians have been removed to their new
+homes west of the Mississippi, and I am happy to add that all accounts
+concur in representing the result of this measure as eminently beneficial
+to that people.
+
+The emigration of the Seminoles alone has been attended with serious
+difficulty and occasioned bloodshed, hostilities having been commenced by
+the Indians in Florida under the apprehension that they would be compelled
+by force to comply with their treaty stipulations. The execution of the
+treaty of Paynes Landing, signed in 1832, but not ratified until 1834, was
+postponed at the solicitation of the Indians until 1836, when they again
+renewed their agreement to remove peaceably to their new homes in the West.
+In the face of this solemn and renewed compact they broke their faith and
+commenced hostilities by the massacre of Major Dade's command, the murder
+of their agent, General Thompson, and other acts of cruel treachery. When
+this alarming and unexpected intelligence reached the seat of Government,
+every effort appears to have been made to reenforce General Clinch, who
+commanded the troops then in Florida. General Eustis was dispatched with
+reenforcements from Charleston, troops were called out from Alabama,
+Tennessee, and Georgia, and General Scott was sent to take the command,
+with ample powers and ample means. At the first alarm General Gaines
+organized a force at New Orleans, and without waiting for orders landed in
+Florida, where he delivered over the troops he had brought with him to
+General Scott.
+
+Governor Call was subsequently appointed to conduct a summer campaign, and
+at the close of it was replaced by General Jesup. These events and changes
+took place under the Administration of my predecessor. Notwithstanding the
+exertions of the experienced officers who had command there for eighteen
+months, on entering upon the administration of the Government I found the
+Territory of Florida a prey to Indian atrocities. A strenuous effort was
+immediately made to bring those hostilities to a close, and the army under
+General Jesup was reenforced until it amounted to 10,000 men, and furnished
+with abundant supplies of every description. In this campaign a great
+number of the enemy were captured and destroyed, but the character of the
+contest only was changed. The Indians, having been defeated in every
+engagement, dispersed in small bands throughout the country and became an
+enterprising, formidable, and ruthless banditti. General Taylor, who
+succeeded General Jesup, used his best exertions to subdue them, and was
+seconded in his efforts by the officers under his command; but he too
+failed to protect the Territory from their depredations. By an act of
+signal and cruel treachery they broke the truce made with them by General
+MacGrab, who was sent from Washington for the purpose of carrying into
+effect the expressed wishes of Congress, and have continued their
+devastations ever since. General Armistead, who was in Florida when General
+Taylor left the army by permission, assumed the command, and after active
+summer operations was met by propositions for peace, and from the fortunate
+coincidence of the arrival in Florida at the same period of a delegation
+from the Seminoles who are happily settled west of the Mississippi and are
+now anxious to persuade their countrymen to join them there hopes were for
+some time entertained that the Indians might be induced to leave the
+Territory without further difficulty. These hopes have proved fallacious
+and hostilities have been renewed throughout the whole of the Territory.
+That this contest has endured so long is to be attributed to causes beyond
+the control of the Government. Experienced generals have had the command of
+the troops, officers and soldiers have alike distinguished themselves for
+their activity, patience, and enduring courage, the army has been
+constantly furnished with supplies of every description, and we must look
+for the causes which have so long procrastinated the issue of the contest
+in the vast extent of the theater of hostilities, the almost insurmountable
+obstacles presented by the nature of the country, the climate, and the wily
+character of the savages.
+
+The sites for marine hospitals on the rivers and lakes which I was
+authorized to select and cause to be purchased have all been designated,
+but the appropriation not proving sufficient, conditional arrangements only
+have been made for their acquisition. It is for Congress to decide whether
+these Conditional purchases shall be sanctioned and the humane intentions
+of the law carried into full effect.
+
+The Navy, as will appear from the accompanying report of the Secretary, has
+been usefully and honorably employed in the protection of our commerce and
+citizens in the Mediterranean, the Pacific, on the coast of Brazil, and in
+the Gulf of Mexico. A small squadron, consisting of the frigate
+Constellation and the sloop of war Boston, under Commodore Kearney, is now
+on its way to the China and Indian seas for the purpose of attending to our
+interests in that quarter, and Commander Aulick, in the sloop of war
+Yorktown, has been instructed to visit the Sandwich and Society islands,
+the coasts of New Zealand and Japan, together with other ports and islands
+frequented by our whale ships, for the purpose of giving them countenance
+and protection should they be required. Other smaller vessels have been and
+still are employed in prosecuting the surveys of the coast of the United
+States directed by various acts of Congress, and those which have been
+completed will shortly be laid before you.
+
+The exploring expedition at the latest date was preparing to leave the Bay
+of Islands, New Zealand, in further prosecution of objects which have thus
+far been successfully accomplished. The discovery of a new continent, which
+was first seen in latitude 66° 2' south, longitude 154° 27' east,
+and afterwards in latitude 66° 31' south, longitude 153° 40' east,
+by Lieutenants Wilkes and Hudson, for an extent of 1,800 miles, but on
+which they were prevented from landing by vast bodies of ice which
+encompassed it, is one of the honorable results of the enterprise.
+Lieutenant Wilkes bears testimony to the zeal and good conduct of his
+officers and men, and it is but justice to that officer to state that he
+appears to have performed the duties assigned him with an ardor, ability,
+and perseverance which give every assurance of an honorable issue to the
+undertaking.
+
+The report of the Postmaster-General herewith transmitted will exhibit the
+service of that Department the past year and its present condition. The
+transportation has been maintained during the year to the full extent
+authorized by the existing laws; some improvements have been effected which
+the public interest seemed urgently to demand, but not involving any
+material additional expenditure; the contractors have generally performed
+their engagements with fidelity; the postmasters, with few exceptions, have
+rendered their accounts and paid their quarterly balances with promptitude,
+and the whole service of the Department has maintained the efficiency for
+which it has for several years been distinguished.
+
+The acts of Congress establishing new mail routes and requiring more
+expensive services on others and the increasing wants of the country have
+for three years past carried the expenditures something beyond the accruing
+revenues, the excess having been met until the past year by the surplus
+which had previously accumulated. That surplus having been exhausted and
+the anticipated increase in the revenue not having been realized owing to
+the depression in the commercial business of the country, the finances of
+the Department exhibit a small deficiency at the close of the last fiscal
+year. Its resources, however, are ample, and the reduced rates of
+compensation for the transportation service which may be expected on the
+future lettings from the general reduction of prices, with the increase of
+revenue that may reasonably be anticipated from the revival of commercial
+activity, must soon place the finances of the Department in a prosperous
+condition.
+
+Considering the unfavorable circumstances which have existed during the
+past year, it is a gratifying result that the revenue has not declined as
+compared with the preceding year, but, on the contrary, exhibits a small
+increase, the circumstances referred to having had no other effect than to
+check the expected income.
+
+It will be seen that the Postmaster-General suggests certain improvements
+in the establishment designed to reduce the weight of the mails, cheapen
+the transportation, insure greater regularity in the service, and secure a
+considerable reduction in the rates of letter postage--an object highly
+desirable. The subject is one of general interest to the community, and is
+respectfully recommended to your consideration.
+
+The suppression of the African slave trade has received the continued
+attention of the Government. The brig Dolphin and schooner Grampus have
+been employed during the last season on the coast of Africa for the purpose
+of preventing such portions of that trade as were said to be prosecuted
+under the American flag. After cruising off those parts of the coast most
+usually resorted to by slavers until the commencement of the rainy season,
+these vessels returned to the United States for supplies, and have since
+been dispatched on a similar service.
+
+From the reports of the commanding officers it appears that the trade is
+now principally carried on under Portuguese colors, and they express the
+opinion that the apprehension of their presence on the slave coast has in a
+great degree arrested the prostitution of the American flag to this inhuman
+purpose. It is hoped that by continuing to maintain this force in that
+quarter and by the exertions of the officers in command much will be done
+to put a stop to whatever portion of this traffic may have been carried on
+under the American flag and to prevent its use in a trade which, while it
+violates the laws, is equally an outrage on the rights of others and the
+feelings of humanity. The efforts of the several Governments who are
+anxiously seeking to suppress this traffic must, however, be directed
+against the facilities afforded by what are now recognized as legitimate
+commercial pursuits before that object can be fully accomplished.
+
+Supplies of provisions, water casks, merchandise, and articles connected
+with the prosecution of the slave trade are, it is understood, freely
+carried by vessels of different nations to the slave factories, and the
+effects of the factors are transported openly from one slave station to
+another without interruption or punishment by either of the nations to
+which they belong engaged in the commerce of that region. I submit to your
+judgments whether this Government, having been the first to prohibit by
+adequate penalties the slave trade, the first to declare it piracy, should
+not be the first also to forbid to its citizens all trade with the slave
+factories on the coast of Africa, giving an example to all nations in this
+respect which if fairly followed can not fail to produce the most effective
+results in breaking up those dens of iniquity.
+
+M. VAN BUREN
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY MARTIN VAN BUREN ***
+
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