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Title: State of the Union Addresses of Andrew Jackson

Author: Andrew Jackson

Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5016]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on April 11, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF ADDRESSES BY ANDREW JACKSON ***




This eBook was produced by James Linden.

The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***

Dates of addresses by Andrew Jackson in this eBook:
  December 8, 1829
  December 6, 1830
  December 6, 1831
  December 4, 1832
  December 3, 1833
  December 1, 1834
  December 7, 1835
  December 5, 1836



***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 8, 1829

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings to you on the
occasion of your assembling at the seat of Government to enter upon the
important duties to which you have been called by the voice of our
country-men. The task devolves on me, under a provision of the
Constitution, to present to you, as the Federal Legislature of 24 sovereign
States and 12,000,000 happy people, a view of our affairs, and to propose
such measures as in the discharge of my official functions have suggested
themselves as necessary to promote the objects of our Union.

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

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

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

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

Under the convention for regulating the reference to arbitration of the
disputed points of boundary under the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent,
the proceedings have hitherto been conducted in that spirit of candor and
liberality which ought ever to characterize the acts of sovereign States
seeking to adjust by the most unexceptionable means important and delicate
subjects of contention. The first sentiments of the parties have been
exchanged, and the final replication on our part is in a course of
preparation. This subject has received the attention demanded by its great
and peculiar importance to a patriotic member of this Confederacy. The
exposition of our rights already made is such as, from the high reputation
of the commissioners by whom it has been prepared, we had a right to
expect. Our interests at the Court of the Sovereign who has evinced his
friendly disposition by assuming the delicate task of arbitration have been
committed to a citizen of the State of Maine, whose character, talents, and
intimate acquaintance with the subject eminently qualify him for so
responsible a trust. With full confidence in the justice of our cause and
in the probity, intelligence, and uncompromising independence of the
illustrious arbitrator, we can have nothing to apprehend from the result.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The number of aspirants to the Presidency and the diversity of the
interests which may influence their claims leave little reason to expect a
choice in the first instance, and in that event the election must devolve
on the House of Representatives, where it is obvious the will of the people
may not be always ascertained, or, if ascertained, may not be regarded.
From the mode of voting by States the choice is to be made by 24 votes, and
it may often occur that one of these will be controlled by an individual
Representative. Honors and offices are at the disposal of the successful
candidate. Repeated ballotings may make it apparent that a single
individual holds the cast in his hand. May he not be tempted to name his
reward?

But even without corruption, supposing the probity of the Representative to
be proof against the powerful motives by which it may be assailed, the will
of the people is still constantly liable to be misrepresented. One may err
from ignorance of the wishes of his constituents; another from a conviction
that it is his duty to be governed by his own judgment of the fitness of
the candidates; finally, although all were inflexibly honest, all
accurately informed of the wishes of their constituents, yet under the
present mode of election a minority may often elect a President, and when
this happens it may reasonably be expected that efforts will be made on the
part of the majority to rectify this injurious operation of their
institutions. But although no evil of this character should result from
such a perversion of the first principle of our system -- that the majority
is to govern -- it must be very certain that a President elected by a
minority can not enjoy the confidence necessary to the successful discharge
of his duties.

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

I would therefore recommend such an amendment of the Constitution as may
remove all intermediate agency in the election of the President and
Vice-President. The mode may be so regulated as to preserve to each State
its present relative weight in the election, and a failure in the first
attempt may be provided for by confining the second to a choice between the
two highest candidates. In connection with such an amendment it would seem
advisable to limit the service of the Chief Magistrate to a single term of
either 4 or 6 years. If, however, it should not be adopted, it is worthy of
consideration whether a provision disqualifying for office the
Representatives in Congress on whom such an election may have devolved
would not be proper.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The public prosperity is evinced in the increased revenue arising from the
sales of the public lands and in the steady maintenance of that produced by
imposts and tonnage, not withstanding the additional duties imposed by the
act of [1828-05-19], and the unusual importations in the early part of that
year.

The balance in the Treasury on [1829-01-01] was $5,972,435.81. The receipts
of the current year are estimated at $24,602,230 and the expenditures for
the same time at $26,164,595, leaving a balance in the Treasury on
[1830-01-01] of $4,410,070.81.

There will have been paid on account of the public debt during the present
year the sum of $12,405,005.80, reducing the whole debt of the Government
on [1830-01-01] to $48,565,406.50, including $7M of the 5% stock subscribed
to the Bank of the United States. The payment on account of public debt
made on [1829-07-01] was $8,715,462.87. It was apprehended that the sudden
withdrawal of so large a sum from the banks in which it was deposited, at a
time of unusual pressure in the money market, might cause much injury to
the interests dependent on bank accommodations. But this evil was wholly
averted by an early anticipation of it at the Treasury, aided by the
judicious arrangements of the officers of the Bank of the United States.

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

After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable that any
adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the people of the
Union will until a remote period, if ever, leave the Government without a
considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond what may be required for its
current service. As, then, the period approaches when the application of
the revenue to the payment of debt will cease, the disposition of the
surplus will present a subject for the serious deliberation of Congress;
and it may be fortunate for the country that it is yet to be decided.

Considered in connection with the difficulties which have heretofore
attended appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, and with
those which this experience tells us will certainly arise when ever power
over such subjects may be exercised by the Central Government, it is hoped
that it may lead to the adoption of some plan which will reconcile the
diversified interests of the States and strengthen the bonds which unite
them. Every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefited by
the improvement of inland navigation and the construction of high ways in
the several States. Let us, then, endeavor to attain this benefit in a mode
which will be satisfactory to all. That hitherto adopted has by many of our
fellow citizens been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution, while
by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has been
employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils.

To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and federal
disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue would be its
apportionment among the several States according to their ratio of
representation, and should this measure not be found warranted by the
Constitution that it would be expedient to propose to the States an
amendment authorizings it. I regard an appeal to the source of power in
cases of real doubt, and where its exercise is deemed indispensable to the
general welfare, as among the most sacred of all our obligations.

Upon this country more than any other has, in the providence of God, been
cast the special guardianship of the great principle of adherence to
written constitutions. If it fail here, all hope in regard to it will be
extinguished.

That this was intended to be a government of limited and specific, and not
general, powers must be admitted by all, and it is our duty to preserve for
it the character intended by its framers. If experience points out the
necessity for an enlargement of these powers, let us apply for it to those
for whose benefit it is to be exercised, and not under-mine the whole
system by a resort to over-strained constructions. The scheme has worked
well. It has exceeded the hopes of those who devised it, and become an
object of admiration to the world. We are responsible to our country and to
the glorious cause of self-government for the preservation of so great a
good.

The great mass of legislation relating to our internal affairs was intended
to be left where the Federal Convention found it -- in the State
governments. Nothing is clearer, in my view, than that we are chiefly
indebted for the success of the Constitution under which we are now acting
to the watchful and auxiliary operation of the State authorities. This is
not the reflection of a day, but belongs to the most deeply rooted
convictions of my mind. I can not, therefore, too strongly or too
earnestly, for my own sense of its importance, warn you against all
encroachments upon the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty. Sustained by
its healthful and invigorating influence the federal system can never
fall.

In the collection of the revenue the long credits authorized on goods
imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope are the chief cause of the
losses at present sustained. If these were shortened to 6, 9, and 12
months, and ware-houses provided by Government sufficient to receive the
goods offered in deposit for security and for debenture, and if the right
of the United States to a priority of payment out of the estates of its
insolvent debtors were more effectually secured, this evil would in a great
measure be obviated. An authority to construct such houses is therefore,
with the proposed alteration of the credits, recommended to your
attention.

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

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

It is important that this branch of the public service should be subjected
to the supervision of such professional skill as will give it efficiency.
The expense attendant upon such a modification of the executive department
would be justified by the soundest principles of economy. I would
recommend, therefore, that the duties now assigned to the agent of the
Treasury, so far as they relate to the superintendence and management of
legal proceedings on the part of the United States, be transferred to the
Attorney General, and that this officer be placed on the same footing in
all respects as the heads of the other Departments, receiving like
compensation and having such subordinate officers provided for his
Department as may be requisite for the discharge of these additional
duties. The professional skill of the Attorney General, employed in
directing the conduct of marshals and district attorneys, would hasten the
collection of debts now in suit and hereafter save much to the Government.
It might be further extended to the superintendence of all criminal
proceedings for offenses against the United States. In making this transfer
great care should be taken, however, that the power necessary to the
Treasury Department be not impaired, 1 of its greatest securities
consisting in control over all accounts until they are audited or reported
for suit.

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

Since the last session of Congress numerous frauds on the Treasury have
been discovered, which I thought it my duty to bring under the cognizance
of the United States court for this district by a criminal prosecution. It
was my opinion and that of able counsel who were consulted that the cases
came within the penalties of the act of the 17th Congress approved
[1823-03-03], providing for punishment of frauds committed on the
Government of the United States. Either from some defect in the law or in
its administration every effort to bring the accused to trial under its
provisions proved ineffectual, and the Government was driven to the
necessity of resorting to the vague and inadequate provisions of the common
law. It is therefore my duty to call your attention to the laws which have
been passed for the protection of the Treasury. If, indeed, there be no
provision by which those who may be unworthily intrusted with its
guardianship can be punished for the most flagrant violation of duty,
extending even to the most fraudulent appropriation of the public funds to
their own use, it is time to remedy so dangerous an omission; or if the law
has been perverted from its original purposes, and criminals deserving to
be punished under its provisions have been rescued by legal subtleties, it
ought to be made so plain by amendatory provisions as to baffle the arts of
perversion and accomplish the ends of its original enactment.

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

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

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

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

The act of Congress of [1821-03-02], to reduce and fix the military
establishment, remaining unexecuted as it regards the command of 1 of the
regiments of artillery, can not now be deemed a guide to the Executive in
making the proper appointment. An explanatory act, designating the class of
officers out of which the grade is to be filled -- whether from the
military list as existing prior to the act of 1821 or from it as it has
been fixed by that act -- would remove this difficulty. It is also
important that the laws regulating the pay and emoluments of officers
generally should be more specific than they now are. Those, for example, in
relation to the PayMaster and Surgeon General assign to them an annual
salary of $2.500, but are silent as to allowances which in certain
exigencies of the service may be deemed indispensable to the discharge of
their duties. This circumstance has been the authority for extending to
them various allowances at different times under former Administrations,
but no uniform rule has been observed on the subject. Similar
inconveniences exist in other cases, in which the construction put upon the
laws by the public accountants may operate unequally, produce confusion,
and expose officers to the odium of claiming what is not their due.

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

I would also suggest a review of the pension law, for the purpose of
extending its benefits to every Revolutionary soldier who aided in
establishing our liberties, and who is unable to maintain himself in
comfort. These relics of the War of Independence have strong claims upon
their country's gratitude and bounty. The law is defective in not embracing
within its provisions all those who were during the last war disabled from
supporting themselves by manual labor. Such an amendment would add but
little to the amount of pensions, and is called for by the sympathies of
the people as well as by considerations of sound policy.

It will be perceived that a large addition to the list of pensioners has
been occasioned by an order of the late Administration, departing
materially from the rules which had previously prevailed. Considering it an
act of legislation, I suspended its operation as soon as I was informed
that it had commenced. Before this period, however, applications under the
new regulation had been preferred to the number of 154, of which, on [March
27], the date of its revocation, 87 were admitted. For the amount there was
neither estimate nor appropriation; and besides this deficiency, the
regular allowances, according to the rules which have heretofore governed
the Department, exceed the estimate of its late Secretary by about $50K,
for which an appropriation is asked.

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

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

Under these circumstances the question presented was whether the General
Government had a right to sustain those people in their pretensions. The
Constitution declares that "no new State shall be formed or erected within
the jurisdiction of any other State" without the consent of its
legislature. If the General Government is not permitted to tolerate the
erection of a confederate State within the territory of one of the members
of this Union against her consent, much less could it allow a foreign and
independent government to establish itself there.

Georgia became a member of the Confederacy which eventuated in our Federal
Union as a sovereign State, always asserting her claim to certain limits,
which, having been originally defined in her colonial charter and
subsequently recognized in the treaty of peace, she has ever since
continued to enjoy, except as they have been circumscribed by her own
voluntary transfer of a portion of her territory to the United States in
the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was admitted into the Union on the
same footing with the original States, with boundaries which were
prescribed by Congress.

There is no constitutional, conventional, or legal provision which allows
them less power over the Indians within their borders than is possessed by
Maine or New York. Would the people of Maine permit the Penobscot tribe to
erect an independent government within their State? And unless they did
would it not be the duty of the General Government to support them in
resisting such a measure? Would the people of New York permit each remnant
of the six Nations within her borders to declare itself an independent
people under the protection of the United States? Could the Indians
establish a separate republic on each of their reservations in Ohio? And if
they were so disposed would it be the duty of this Government to protect
them in the attempt? If the principle involved in the obvious answer to
these questions be abandoned, it will follow that the objects of this
Government are reversed, and that it has become a part of its duty to aid
in destroying the States which it was established to protect.

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

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

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

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

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

In time of peace we have need of no more ships of war than are requisite to
the protection of our commerce. Those not wanted for this object must lay
in the harbors, where without proper covering they rapidly decay, and even
under the best precautions for their preservation must soon become useless.
Such is already the case with many of our finest vessels, which, though
unfinished, will now require immense sums of money to be restored to the
condition in which they were when committed to their proper element.

On this subject there can be but little doubt that our best policy would be
to discontinue the building of ships of the first and second class, and
look rather to the possession of ample materials, prepared for the
emergencies of war, than to the number of vessels which we can float in a
season of peace, as the index of our naval power. Judicious deposits in
navy yards of timber and other materials, fashioned under the hands of
skillful work-men and fitted for prompt application to their various
purposes, would enable us at all times to construct vessels as fast as they
can be manned, and save the heavy expense of repairs, except to such
vessels as must be employed in guarding our commerce.

The proper points for the establishment of these yards are indicated with
so much force in the report of the Navy Board that in recommending it to
your attention I deem it unnecessary to do more than express my hearty
concurrence in their views. The yard in this District, being already
furnished with most of the machinery necessary for ship building, will be
competent to the supply of the two selected by the Board as the best for
the concentration of materials, and, from the facility and certainty of
communication between them, it will be useless to incur at those depots the
expense of similar machinery, especially that used in preparing the usual
metallic and wooden furniture of vessels.

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

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

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

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

In this general survey of our affairs a subject of high importance presents
itself in the present organization of the judiciary. An uniform operation
of the Federal Government in the different States is certainly desirable,
and existing as they do in the Union on the basis of perfect equality, each
State has a right to expect that the benefits conferred on the citizens of
others should be extended to hers. The judicial system of the United States
exists in all its efficiency in only fifteen members of the Union; to three
others the circuit courts, which constitute an important part of that
system, have been imperfectly extended, and to the remaining 6 altogether
denied. The effect has been to withhold from the inhabitants of the latter
the advantages afforded (by the Supreme Court) to their fellow citizens in
other States in the whole extent of the criminal and much of the civil
authority of the Federal judiciary. That this state of things ought to be
remedied, if it can be done consistently with the public welfare, is not to
be doubted. Neither is it to be disguised that the organization of our
judicial system is at once a difficult and delicate task. To extend the
circuit courts equally throughout the different parts of the Union, and at
the same time to avoid such a multiplication of members as would encumber
the supreme appellate tribunal, is the object desired. Perhaps it might be
accomplished by dividing the circuit judges into two classes, and providing
that the Supreme Court should be held by these classes alternately, the
Chief Justice always presiding.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 6, 1830

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The following are the prominent points which have in later years separated
the two Governments: Besides a restriction whereby all importations into
her colonies in American vessels are confined to our own products carried
hence, a restriction to which it does not appear that we have ever
objected, a leading object on the part of Great Britain has been to prevent
us from becoming the carriers of British West India commodities to any
other country than our own. On the part of the United States it has been
contended, first, that the subject should be regulated by treaty
stipulation in preference to separate legislation; second, that our
productions, when imported into the colonies in question, should not be
subject to higher duties than the productions of the mother country or of
her other colonial possessions, and, 3rd, that our vessels should be
allowed to participate in the circuitous trade between the United States
and different parts of the British dominions.

The first point, after having been for a long time strenuously insisted
upon by Great Britain, was given up by the act of Parliament of [1825- 07],
all vessels suffered to trade with the colonies being permitted to clear
from thence with any articles which British vessels might export and
proceed to any part of the world, Great Britain and her dependencies alone
excepted. On our part each of the above points had in succession been
explicitly abandoned in negotiations preceding that of which the result is
now announced.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You are apprised, although the fact has not yet been officially announced
to the House of Representatives, that a treaty was in the month of March
last concluded between the United States, and Denmark, by which $650K are
secured to our citizens as an indemnity for spoliations upon their commerce
in the years 1808, 1809, 1810, and 1811. This treaty was sanctioned by the
Senate at the close of its last session, and it now becomes the duty of
Congress to pass the necessary laws for the organization of the board of
commissioners to distribute the indemnity among the claimants. It is an
agreeable circumstance in this adjustment that the terms are in conformity
with the previously ascertained views of the claimants themselves, thus
removing all pretense for a future agitation of the subject in any form.

The negotiations in regard to such points in our foreign relations as
remain to be adjusted have been actively prosecuted during the recess.
Material advances have been made, which are of a character to promise
favorable results. Our country, by the blessing of God, is not in a
situation to invite aggression, and it will be our fault if she ever
becomes so. Sincerely desirous to cultivate the most liberal and friendly
relations with all; ever ready to fulfill our engagements with scrupulous
fidelity; limiting our demands upon others to mere justice; holding
ourselves ever ready to do unto them as we would wish to be done by, and
avoiding even the appearance of undue partiality to any nation, it appears
to me impossible that a simple and sincere application of our principles to
our foreign relations can fail to place them ultimately upon the footing on
which it is our wish they should rest.

Of the points referred to, the most prominent are our claims upon France
for spoliations upon our commerce; similar claims upon Spain, together with
embarrassments in the commercial intercourse between the two countries
which ought to be removed; the conclusion of the treaty of commerce and
navigation with Mexico, which has been so long in suspense, as well as the
final settlement of limits between ourselves and that Republic, and,
finally, the arbitrament of the question between the United States and
Great Britain in regard to the north-eastern boundary.

The negotiation with France has been conducted by our minister with zeal
and ability, and in all respects to my entire satisfaction. Although the
prospect of a favorable termination was occasionally dimmed by counter
pretensions to which the United States could not assent, he yet had strong
hopes of being able to arrive at a satisfactory settlement with the late
Government. The negotiation has been renewed with the present authorities,
and, sensible of the general and lively confidence of our citizens in the
justice and magnanimity of regenerated France, I regret the more not to
have it in my power yet to announce the result so confidently anticipated.
No ground, however, inconsistent with this expectation has yet been taken,
and I do not allow myself to doubt that justice will soon be done us. The
amount of the claims, the length of time they have remained unsatisfied,
and their incontrovertible justice make an earnest prosecution of them by
this Government an urgent duty. The illegality of the seizures and
confiscations out of which they have arisen is not disputed, and what ever
distinctions may have heretofore been set up in regard to the liability of
the existing Government it is quite clear that such considerations can not
now be interposed.

The commercial intercourse between the two countries is susceptible of
highly advantageous improvements, but the sense of this injury has had, and
must continue to have, a very unfavorable influence upon them. From its
satisfactory adjustment not only a firm and cordial friendship, but a
progressive development of all their relations, may be expected. It is,
therefore, my earnest hope that this old and vexatious subject of
difference may be speedily removed.

I feel that my confidence in our appeal to the motives which should govern
a just and magnanimous nation is alike warranted by the character of the
French people and by the high voucher we possess for the enlarged views and
pure integrity of the Monarch who now presides over their councils, and
nothing shall be wanting on my part to meet any manifestation of the spirit
we anticipate in one of corresponding frankness and liberality.

The subjects of difference with Spain have been brought to the view of that
Government by our minister there with much force and propriety, and the
strongest assurances have been received of their early and favorable
consideration.

The steps which remained to place the matter in controversy between Great
Britain and the United States fairly before the arbitrator have all been
taken in the same liberal and friendly spirit which characterized those
before announced. Recent events have doubtless served to delay the
decision, but our minister at the Court of the distinguished arbitrator has
been assured that it will be made within the time contemplated by the
treaty.

I am particularly gratified in being able to state that a decidedly
favorable, and, as I hope, lasting, change has been effected in our
relations with the neighboring Republic of Mexico. The unfortunate and
unfounded suspicions in regard to our disposition which it became my
painful duty to advert to on a former occasion have been, I believe,
entirely removed, and the Government of Mexico has been made to understand
the real character of the wishes and views of this in regard to that
country. The consequences is the establishment of friendship and mutual
confidence. Such are the assurances I have received, and I see no cause to
doubt their sincerity.

I had reason to expect the conclusion of a commercial treaty with Mexico in
season for communication on the present occasion. Circumstances which are
not explained, but which I am persuaded are not the result of an
indisposition on her part to enter into it, have produced the delay.

There was reason to fear in the course of the last summer that the harmony
of our relations might be disturbed by the acts of certain claimants, under
Mexican grants, of territory which had hitherto been under our
jurisdiction. The cooperation of the representative of Mexico near this
Government was asked on the occasion and was readily afforded. Instructions
and advice have been given to the governor of Arkansas and the officers in
command in the adjoining Mexican State by which it is hoped the quiet of
that frontier will be preserved until a final settlement of the dividing
line shall have removed all ground of controversy.

The exchange of ratifications of the treaty concluded last year with
Austria has not yet taken place. The delay has been occasioned by the
non-arrival of the ratification of that Government within the time
prescribed by the treaty. Renewed authority has been asked for by the
representative of Austria, and in the mean time the rapidly increasing
trade and navigation between the two countries have been placed upon the
most liberal footing of our navigation acts.

Several alleged depredations have been recently committed on our commerce
by the national vessels of Portugal. They have been made the subject of
immediate remonstrance and reclamation. I am not yet possessed of
sufficient information to express a definitive opinion of their character,
but expect soon to receive it. No proper means shall be omitted to obtain
for our citizens all the redress to which they may appear to be entitled.

Almost at the moment of the adjournment of your last session two bills --
the one entitled "An act for making appropriations for building light
houses, light boats, beacons, and monuments, placing buoys, and for
improving harbors and directing surveys", and the other "An act to
authorize a subscription for stock in the Louisville and Portland Canal
Company" -- were submitted for my approval. It was not possible within the
time allowed for me before the close of the session to give to these bills
the consideration which was due to their character and importance, and I
was compelled to retain them for that purpose. I now avail myself of this
early opportunity to return them to the Houses in which they respectively
originated with the reasons which, after mature deliberation, compel me to
withhold my approval.

The practice of defraying out of the Treasury of the United States the
expenses incurred by the establishment and support of light houses,
beacons, buoys, and public piers within the bays, inlets, harbors, and
ports of the United States, to render the navigation thereof safe and easy,
is coeval with the adoption of the Constitution, and has been continued
without interruption or dispute.

As our foreign commerce increased and was extended into the interior of the
country by the establishment of ports of entry and delivery upon our
navigable rivers the sphere of those expenditures received a corresponding
enlargement. Light houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and the removal of
sand bars, sawyers, and other partial or temporary impediments in the
navigable rivers and harbors which were embraced in the revenue districts
from time to time established by law were authorized upon the same
principle and the expense defrayed in the same manner. That these expenses
have at times been extravagant and disproportionate is very probable. The
circumstances under which they are incurred are well calculated to lead to
such a result unless their application is subjected to the closest
scrutiny. The local advantages arising from the disbursement of public
money too frequently, it is to be feared, invite appropriations for objects
of this character that are neither necessary nor useful.

The number of light house keepers is already very large, and the bill
before me proposes to add to it 51 more of various descriptions. From
representations upon the subject which are understood to be entitled to
respect I am induced to believe that there has not only been great
improvidence in the past expenditures of the Government upon these objects,
but that the security of navigation has in some instances been diminished
by the multiplication of light houses and consequent change of lights upon
the coast. It is in this as in other respects our duty to avoid all
unnecessary expense, as well as every increase of patronage not called for
by the public service.

But in the discharge of that duty in this particular it must not be
forgotten that in relation to our foreign commerce the burden and benefit
of protecting and accommodating it necessarily go together, and must do so
as long as the public revenue is drawn from the people through the custom
house. It is indisputable that whatever gives facility and security to
navigation cheapens imports and all who consume them are alike interested
in what ever produces this effect. If they consume, they ought, as they now
do, to pay; otherwise they do not pay. The consumer in the most inland
State derives the same advantage from every necessary and prudent
expenditure for the facility and security of our foreign commerce and
navigation that he does who resides in a maritime State. Local expenditures
have not of themselves a corresponding operation.

From a bill making *direct* appropriations for such objects I should not
have withheld my assent. The one now returned does so in several
particulars, but it also contains appropriations for surveys of local
character, which I can not approve. It gives me satisfaction to find that
no serious inconvenience has arisen from withholding my approval from this
bill; nor will it, I trust, be cause of regret that an opportunity will be
thereby afforded for Congress to review its provisions under circumstances
better calculated for full investigation than those under which it was
passed.

In speaking of direct appropriations I mean not to include a practice which
has obtained to some extent, and to which I have in one instance, in a
different capacity, given my assent -- that of subscribing to the stock of
private associations. Positive experience and a more thorough consideration
of the subject have convinced me of the impropriety as well as inexpediency
of such investments. All improvements effected by the funds of the nation
for general use should be open to the enjoyment of all our fellow citizens,
exempt from the payment of tolls or any imposition of that character. The
practice of thus mingling the concerns of the Government with those of the
States or of individuals is inconsistent with the object of its institution
and highly impolite. The successful operation of the federal system can
only be preserved by confining it to the few and simple, but yet important,
objects for which it was designed.

A different practice, if allowed to progress, would ultimately change the
character of this Government by consolidating into one the General and
State Governments, which were intended to be kept for ever distinct. I can
not perceive how bills authorizing such subscriptions can be otherwise
regarded than as bills for revenue, and consequently subject to the rule in
that respect prescribed by the Constitution. If the interest of the
Government in private companies is subordinate to that of individuals, the
management and control of a portion of the public funds is delegated to an
authority unknown to the Constitution and beyond the supervision of our
constituents; if superior, its officers and agents will be constantly
exposed to imputations of favoritism and oppression. Direct prejudice the
public interest or an alienation of the affections and respect of portions
of the people may, therefore, in addition to the general dis-credit
resulting to the Government from embarking with its constituents in
pecuniary stipulations, be looked for as the probable fruit of such
associations. It is no answer to this objection to say that the extent of
consequences like these can not be great from a limited and small number of
investments, because experience in other matters teaches us -- and we are
not at liberty to disregard its admonitions -- that unless an entire stop
be put to them it will soon be impossible to prevent their accumulation
until they are spread over the whole country and made to embrace many of
the private and appropriate concerns of individuals.

The power which the General Government would acquire within the several
States by becoming the principal stock-holder in corporations, controlling
every canal and each 60 or 100 miles of every important road, and giving a
proportionate vote in all their elections, is almost inconceivable, and in
my view dangerous to the liberties of the people.

This mode of aiding such works is also in its nature deceptive, and in many
cases conducive to improvidence in the administration of the national
funds. Appropriations will be obtained with much greater facility and
granted with less security to the public interest when the measure is thus
disguised than when definite and direct expenditures of money are asked
for. The interests of the nation would doubtless be better served by
avoiding all such indirect modes of aiding particular objects. In a
government like ours more especially should all public acts be, as far as
practicable, simple, undisguised, and intelligible, that they may become
fit subjects for the approbation to animadversion of the people.

The bill authorizing a subscription to the Louisville and Portland Canal
affords a striking illustration of the difficulty of withholding additional
appropriations for the same object when the first erroneous step has been
taken by instituting a partnership between the Government and private
companies. It proposes a third subscription on the part of the United
States, when each preceding one was at the time regarded as the extent of
the aid which Government was to render to that work; and the accompanying
bill for light houses, etc., contains an appropriation for a survey of the
bed of the river, with a view to its improvement by removing the
obstruction which the canal is designed to avoid. This improvement, if
successful, would afford a free passage of the river and render the canal
entirely useless. To such improvidence is the course of legislation subject
in relation to internal improvements on local matters, even with the best
intentions on the part of Congress.

Although the motives which have influenced me in this matter may be already
sufficiently stated, I am, never the less, induced by its importance to add
a few observations of a general character.

In my objections to the bills authorizing subscriptions to the Maysville
and Rockville road companies I expressed my views fully in regard to the
power of Congress to construct roads and canals within a State of to
appropriate money for improvements of a local character. I at the same time
intimated me belief that the right to make appropriations for such as were
of a national character had been so generally acted upon and so long
acquiesced in by the Federal and State Governments and the constituents of
each as to justify its exercise on the ground of continued and
uninterrupted usage, but that it was, never the less, highly expedient that
appropriations even of that character should, with the exception made at
the time, be deferred until the national debt is paid, and that in the mean
while some general rule for the action of the Government in that respect
ought to be established.

These suggestions were not necessary to the decision of the question then
before me, and were, I readily admit, intended to awake the attention and
draw forth the opinion and observations of our constituents upon a subject
of the highest importance to their interests, and 1 destined to exert a
powerful influence upon the future operations of our political system. I
know of no tribunal to which a public man in this country, in a case of
doubt and difficulty, can appeal with greater advantage or more propriety
than the judgment of the people; and although I must necessarily in the
discharge of my official duties be governed by the dictates of my own
judgment, I have no desire to conceal my anxious wish to conform as far as
I can to the views of those for whom I act.

All irregular expressions of public opinion are of necessity attended with
some doubt as to their accuracy, but making full allowances on that account
I can not, I think, deceive myself in believing that the acts referred to,
as well as the suggestions which I allowed myself to make in relation to
their bearing upon the future operations of the Government, have been
approved by the great body of the people. That those whose immediate
pecuniary interests are to be affected by proposed expenditures should
shrink from the application of a rule which prefers their more general and
remote interests to those which are personal and immediate is to be
expected. But even such objections must from the nature of our population
be but temporary in their duration, and if it were otherwise our course
should be the same, for the time is yet, I hope, far distant when those
intrusted with power to be exercised for the good of the whole will
consider it either honest or wise to purchase local favors at the sacrifice
of principle and general good.

So understanding public sentiment, and thoroughly satisfied that the best
interests of our common country imperiously require that the course which I
have recommended in this regard should be adopted, I have, upon the most
mature consideration, determined to pursue it.

It is due to candor, as well as to my own feelings, that I should express
the reluctance and anxiety which I must at all times experience in
exercising the undoubted right of the Executive to withhold his assent from
bills on other grounds than their constitutionality. That this right should
not be exercised on slight occasions all will admit. It is only in matters
of deep interest, when the principle involved may be justly regarded as
next in importance to infractions of the Constitution itself, that such a
step can be expected to meet with the approbation of the people. Such an
occasion do I conscientiously believe the present to be.

In the discharge of this delicate and highly responsible duty I am
sustained by the reflection that the exercise of this power has been deemed
consistent with the obligation of official duty by several of my
predecessors, and by the persuasion, too, that what ever liberal
institutions may have to fear from the encroachments of Executive power,
which has been every where the cause of so much strife and bloody
contention, but little danger is to be apprehended from a precedent by
which that authority denies to itself the exercise of powers that bring in
their train influence and patronage of great extent, and thus excludes the
operation of personal interests, every where the bane of official trust.

I derive, too, no small degree of satisfaction from the reflection that if
I have mistaken the interests and wishes of the people the Constitution
affords the means of soon redressing the error by selecting for the place
their favor has bestowed upon me a citizen whose opinions may accord with
their own. I trust, in the mean time, the interests of the nation will be
saved from prejudice by a rigid application of that portion of the public
funds which might otherwise be applied to different objects to that highest
of all our obligations, the payment of the public debt, and an opportunity
be afforded for the adoption of some better rule for the operations of the
Government in this matter than any which has hitherto been acted upon.

Profoundly impressed with the importance of the subject, not merely as
relates to the general prosperity of the country, but to the safety of the
federal system, I can not avoid repeating my earnest hope that all good
citizens who take a proper interest in the success and harmony of our
admirable political institutions, and who are incapable of desiring to
convert an opposite state of things into means for the gratification of
personal ambition, will, laying aside minor considerations and discarding
local prejudices, unite their honest exertions to establish some fixed
general principle which shall be calculated to effect the greatest extent
of public good in regard to the subject of internal improvement, and afford
the least ground for sectional discontent.

The general grounds of my objection to local appropriations have been
heretofore expressed, and I shall endeavor to avoid a repetition of what
has been already urged -- the importance of sustaining the State
sovereignties as far as is consistent with the rightful action of the
Federal Government, and of preserving the greatest attainable harmony
between them. I will now only add an expression of my conviction -- a
conviction which every day's experience serves to confirm -- that the
political creed which inculcates the pursuit of those great objects as a
paramount duty is the true faith, and one to which we are mainly indebted
for the present success of the entire system, and to which we must alone
look for its future stability.

That there are diversities in the interests of the different States which
compose this extensive Confederacy must be admitted. Those diversities
arising from situation, climate, population, and pursuits are doubtless, as
it is natural they should be, greatly exaggerated by jealousies and that
spirit of rivalry so inseparable from neighboring communities. These
circumstances make it the duty of those who are intrusted with the
management of its affairs to neutralize their effects as far as practicable
by making the beneficial operation of the Federal Government as equal and
equitable among the several States as can be done consistently with the
great ends of its institution.

It is only necessary to refer to undoubted facts to see how far the past
acts of the Government upon the subject under consideration have fallen
short of this object. The expenditures heretofore made for internal
improvements amount to upward of $5M, and have been distributed in very
unequal proportions amongst the States. The estimated expense of works of
which surveys have been made, together with that of others projected and
partially surveyed, amounts to more than $96M.

That such improvements, on account of particular circumstances, may be more
advantageously and beneficially made in some States than in others is
doubtless true, but that they are of a character which should prevent an
equitable distribution of the funds amongst the several States is not to be
conceded. The want of this equitable distribution can not fail to prove a
prolific source of irritation among the States.

We have it constantly before our eyes that professions of superior zeal in
the cause of internal improvement and a disposition to lavish the public
funds upon objects of this character are daily and earnestly put forth by
aspirants to power as constituting the highest claims to the confidence of
the people. Would it be strange, under such circumstances, and in times of
great excitement, that grants of this description should find their motives
in objects which may not accord with the public good? Those who have not
had occasion to see and regret the indication of a sinister influence in
these matters in past times have been more fortunate than myself in their
observation of the course of public affairs. If to these evils be added the
combinations and angry contentions to which such a course of things gives
rise, with their baleful influences upon the legislation of Congress
touching the leading and appropriate duties of the Federal Government, it
was but doing justice to the character of our people to expect the severe
condemnation of the past which the recent exhibitions of public sentiment
has evinced.

Nothing short of a radical change in the action of the Government upon the
subject can, in my opinion, remedy the evil. If, as it would be natural to
expect, the States which have been least favored in past appropriations
should insist on being redressed in those here after to be made, at the
expense of the States which have so largely and disproportionately
participated, we have, as matters now stand, but little security that the
attempt would do more than change the inequality from one quarter to
another.

Thus viewing the subject, I have heretofore felt it my duty to recommend
the adoption of some plan for the distribution of the surplus funds, which
may at any time remain in the Treasury after the national debt shall have
been paid, among the States, in proportion to the number of their
Representatives, to be applied by them to objects of internal improvement.

Although this plan has met with favor in some portions of the Union, it has
also elicited objections which merit deliberate consideration. A brief
notice of these objections here will not, therefore, I trust, be regarded
as out of place.

They rest, as far as they have come to my knowledge, on the following
grounds: first, an objection to the ration of distribution; second, an
apprehension that the existence of such a regulation would produce
improvident and oppressive taxation to raise the funds for distribution;
3rd, that the mode proposed would lead to the construction of works of a
local nature, to the exclusion of such as are general and as would
consequently be of a more useful character; and, last, that it would create
a discreditable and injurious dependence on the part of the State
governments upon the Federal power.

Of those who object to the ration of representatives as the basis of
distribution, some insist that the importations of the respective States
would constitute one that would be more equitable; and others again, that
the extent of their respective territories would furnish a standard which
would be more expedient and sufficiently equitable. The ration of
representation presented itself to my mind, and it still does, as one of
obvious equity, because of its being the ratio of contribution, whether the
funds to be distributed be derived from the customs or from direct
taxation. It does not follow, however, that its adoption is indispensable
to the establishment of the system proposed. There may be considerations
appertaining to the subject which would render a departure, to some extent,
from the rule of contribution proper. Nor is it absolutely necessary that
the basis of distribution be confined to 1 ground. It may, if in the
judgment of those whose right it is to fix it it be deemed politic and just
to give it that character, have regard to several.

In my first message I stated it to be my opinion that "it is not probably
that any adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the
people of the Union will until a remote period, if ever, leave the
Government without a considerable surplus in the Treasury beyond what may
be required for its current surplus". I have had no cause to change that
opinion, but much to confirm it. Should these expectations be realized, a
suitable fund would thus be produced for the plan under consideration to
operate upon, and if there be no such fund its adoption will, in my
opinion, work no injury to any interest; for I can not assent to the
justness of the apprehension that the establishment of the proposed system
would tend to the encouragement of improvident legislation of the character
supposed. What ever the proper authority in the exercise of constitutional
power shall at any time here after decide to be for the general good will
in that as in other respects deserve and receive the acquiescence and
support of the whole country, and we have ample security that every abuse
of power in that regard by agents of the people will receive a speedy and
effectual corrective at their hands. The views which I take of the future,
founded on the obvious and increasing improvement of all classes of our
fellow citizens in intelligence and in public and private virtue, leave me
without much apprehension on that head.

I do not doubt that those who come after us will be as much alive as we are
to the obligation upon all the trustees of political power to exempt those
for whom they act from all unnecessary burthens, and as sensible of the
great truth that the resources of the nation beyond those required for
immediate and necessary purposes of Government can no where be so well
deposited as in the pockets of the people.

It may some times happen that the interests of particular States would not
be deemed to coincide with the general interest in relation to improvements
within such States. But if the danger to be apprehended from this source is
sufficient to require it, a discretion might be reserved to Congress to
direct to such improvements of a general character as the States concerned
might not be disposed to unite in, the application of the quotas of those
States, under the restriction of confining to each State the expenditure of
its appropriate quota. It may, however, be assumed as a safe general rule
that such improvements as serve to increase the prosperity of the
respective States in which they are made, by giving new facilities to
trade, and thereby augmenting the wealth and comfort of their inhabitants,
constitute the surest mode of conferring permanent and substantial
advantages upon the whole. The strength as well as the true glory of the
Confederacy is founded on the prosperity and power of the several
independent sovereignties of which it is composed and the certainty with
which they can be brought into successful active cooperation through the
agency of the Federal Government.

It is, more over, within the knowledge of such as are at all conversant
with public affairs that schemes of internal improvement have from time to
time been proposed which, from their extent and seeming magnificence, were
readily regarded as of national concernment, but which upon fuller
consideration and further experience would now be rejected with great
unanimity.

That the plan under consideration would derive important advantages from
its certainty, and that the moneys set apart for these purposes would be
more judiciously applied and economically expended under the direction of
the State legislatures, in which every part of each State is immediately
represented, can not, I think, be doubted. In the new States particularly,
where a comparatively small population is scattered over an extensive
surface, and the representation in Congress consequently very limited, it
is natural to expect that the appropriations made by the Federal Government
would be more likely to be expended in the vicinity of those numbers
through whose immediate agency they were obtained than if the funds were
placed under the control of the legislature, in which every county of the
State has its own representative. This supposition does not necessarily
impugn the motives of such Congressional representatives, nor is it so
intended. We are all sensible of the bias to which the strongest minds and
purest hearts are, under such circumstances, liable. In respect to the last
objection -- its probable effect upon the dignity and independence of State
governments -- it appears to me only necessary to state the case as it is,
and as it would be if the measure proposed were adopted, to show that the
operation is most likely to be the very reverse of that which the objection
supposes.

In the one case the State would receive its quota of the national revenue
for domestic use upon a fixed principle as a matter of right, and from a
fund to the creation of which it had itself contributed its fair
proportion. Surely there could be nothing derogatory in that. As matters
now stand the States themselves, in their sovereign character, are not
unfrequently petitioners at the bar of the Federal Legislature for such
allowances out of the National Treasury as it may comport with their
pleasure or sense of duty to bestow upon them. It can not require argument
to prove which of the two courses is most compatible with the efficiency or
respectability of the State governments.

But all these are matters for discussion and dispassionate consideration.
That the desired adjustment would be attended with difficulty affords no
reason why it should not be attempted. The effective operation of such
motives would have prevented the adoption of the Constitution under which
we have so long lived and under the benign influence of which our beloved
country has so signally prospered. The framers of that sacred instrument
had greater difficulties to overcome, and they did overcome them. The
patriotism of the people, directed by a deep conviction of the importance
of the Union, produced mutual concession and reciprocal forbearance. Strict
right was merged in a spirit of compromise, and the result has consecrated
their disinterested devotion to the general weal. Unless the American
people have degenerated, the same result can be again effected when ever
experience points out the necessity of a resort to the same means to uphold
the fabric which their fathers have reared.

It is beyond the power of man to make a system of government like ours or
any other operate with precise equality upon States situated like those
which compose this Confederacy; nor is inequality always injustice. Every
State can not expect to shape the measures of the General Government to
suit its own particular interests. The causes which prevent it are seated
in the nature of things, and can not be entirely counteracted by human
means. Mutual forbearance becomes, therefore, a duty obligatory upon all,
and we may, I am confident, count upon a cheerful compliance with this high
injunction on the part of our constituents. It is not to be supposed that
they will object to make such comparatively inconsiderable sacrifices for
the preservation of rights and privileges which other less favored portions
of the world have in vain waded through seas of blood to acquire.

Our course is a safe one if it be but faithfully adhered to. Acquiescence
in the constitutionally expressed will of the majority, and the exercise of
that will in a spirit of moderation, justice, and brotherly kindness, will
constitute a cement which would for ever preserve our Union. Those who
cherish and inculcate sentiments like these render a most essential service
to their country, while those who seek to weaken their influence are, how
ever conscientious and praise worthy their intentions, in effect its worst
enemies.

If the intelligence and influence of the country, instead of laboring to
foment sectional prejudices, to be made subservient to party warfare, were
in good faith applied to the eradication of causes of local discontent, by
the improvement of our institutions and by facilitating their adaptation to
the condition of the times, this task would prove 1 of less difficulty. May
we not hope that the obvious interests of our common country and the
dictates of an enlightened patriotism will in the end lead the public mind
in that direction?

After all, the nature of the subject does not admit of a plan wholly free
from objection. That which has for some time been in operation is, perhaps,
the worst that could exist, and every advance that can be made in its
improvement is a matter eminently worthy of your most deliberate
attention.

It is very possible that one better calculated to effect the objects in
view may yet be devised. If so, it is to be hoped that those who disapprove
the past and dissent from what is proposed for the future will feel it
their duty to direct their attention to it, as they must be sensible that
unless some fixed rule for the action of the Federal Government in this
respect is established the course now attempted to be arrested will be
again resorted to. Any mode which is calculated to give the greatest degree
of effect and harmony to our legislation upon the subject, which shall best
serve to keep the movements of the Federal Government within the sphere
intended by those who modeled and those who adopted it, which shall lead to
the extinguishment of the national debt in the shortest period and impose
the lightest burthens upon our constituents, shall receive from me a
cordial and firm support.

Among the objects of great national concern I can not omit to press again
upon your attention that part of the Constitution which regulates the
election of President and Vice-President. The necessity for its amendment
is made so clear to my mind by observation of its evils and by the many
able discussions which they have elicited on the floor of Congress and
elsewhere that I should be wanting to my duty were I to withhold another
expression of my deep solicitude on the subject. Our system fortunately
contemplates a recurrence to first principles, differing in this respect
from all that have preceded it, and securing it, I trust, equally against
the decay and the commotions which have marked the progress of other
governments.

Our fellow citizens, too, who in proportion to their love of liberty keep a
steady eye upon the means of sustaining it, do not require to be reminded
of the duty they owe to themselves to remedy all essential defects in so
vital a part of their system. While they are sensible that every evil
attendant upon its operation is not necessarily indicative of a bad
organization, but may proceed from temporary causes, yet the habitual
presence, or even a single instance, of evils which can be clearly traced
to an organic defect will not, I trust, be over-looked through a too
scrupulous veneration for the work of their ancestors.

The Constitution was an experiment committed to the virtue and intelligence
of the great mass of our country-men, in whose ranks the framers of it
themselves were to perform the part of patriotic observation and scrutiny,
and if they have passed from the stage of existence with an increased
confidence in its general adaptation to our condition we should learn from
authority so high the duty of fortifying the points in it which time proves
to be exposed rather than be deterred from approaching them by the
suggestions of fear or the dictates of misplaced reverence.

A provision which does not secure to the people a direct choice of their
Chief Magistrate, but has a tendency to defeat their will, presented to my
mind such an inconsistence with the general spirit of our institutions that
I was indeed to suggest for your consideration the substitute which
appeared to me at the same time the most likely to correct the evil and to
meet the views of our constituents. The most mature reflection since has
added strength to the belief that the best interests of our country require
the speedy adoption of some plan calculated to effect this end. A
contingency which some times places it in the power of a single member of
the House of Representatives to decide an election of so high and solemn a
character is unjust to the people, and becomes when it occurs a source of
embarrassment to the individuals thus brought into power and a cause of
distrust of the representative body.

Liable as the Confederacy is, from its great extent, to parties founded
upon sectional interests, and to a corresponding multiplication of
candidates for the Presidency, the tendency of the constitutional reference
to the House of Representatives is to devolve the election upon that body
in almost every instance, and, what ever choice may then be made among the
candidates thus presented to them, to swell the influence of particular
interests to a degree inconsistent with the general good. The consequences
of this feature of the Constitution appear far more threatening to the
peace and integrity of the Union than any which I can conceive as likely to
result from the simple legislative action of the Federal Government.

It was a leading object with the framers of the Constitution to keep as
separate as possible the action of the legislative and executive branches
of the Government. To secure this object nothing is more essential than to
preserve the former from all temptations of private interest, and therefore
so to direct the patronage of the latter as not to permit such temptations
to be offered. Experience abundantly demonstrates that every precaution in
this respect is a valuable safe-guard of liberty, and 1 which my
reflections upon the tendencies of our system incline me to think should be
made still stronger.

It was for this reason that, in connection with an amendment of the
Constitution removing all intermediate agency in the choice of the
President, I recommended some restrictions upon the re-eligibility of that
officer and upon the tenure of offices generally. The reason still exists,
and I renew the recommendation with an increased confidence that its
adoption will strengthen those checks by which the Constitution designed to
secure the independence of each department of the Government and promote
the healthful and equitable administration of all the trusts which it has
created.

The agent most likely to contravene this design of the Constitution is the
Chief Magistrate. In order, particularly, that his appointment may as far
as possible be placed beyond the reach of any improper influences; in order
that he may approach the solemn responsibilities of the highest office in
the gift of a free people uncommitted to any other course than the strict
line of constitutional duty, and that the securities for this independence
may be rendered as strong as the nature of power and the weakness of its
possessor will admit, I can not too earnestly invite your attention to the
propriety of promoting such an amendment of the Constitution as will render
him ineligible after 1 term of service.

It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of
the Government, steadily pursued for nearly 30 years, in relation to the
removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a
happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision made
for their removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that
their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same
obvious advantages.

The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United
States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary
advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its
recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between
the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the
Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of
country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole
territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the
settlement of the whites it will incalculably strengthen the SW frontier
and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions
without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the
western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to
advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the
Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from
the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way
and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay,
which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under
the protection of the Government and through the influence of good
counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting,
civilized, and Christian community. These consequences, some of them so
certain and the rest so probable, make the complete execution of the plan
sanctioned by Congress at their last session an object of much solicitude.

Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge a more friendly
feeling than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from
their wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people. I have
endeavored to impress upon them my own solemn convictions of the duties and
powers of the General Government in relation to the State authorities. For
the justice of the laws passed by the States within the scope of their
reserved powers they are not responsible to this Government. As individuals
we may entertain and express our opinions of their acts, but as a
Government we have as little right to control them as we have to prescribe
laws for other nations.

With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw
tribes have with great unanimity determined to avail themselves of the
liberal offers presented by the act of Congress, and have agreed to remove
beyond the Mississippi River. Treaties have been made with them, which in
due season will be submitted for consideration. In negotiating these
treaties they were made to understand their true condition, and they have
preferred maintaining their independence in the Western forests to
submitting to the laws of the States in which they now reside. These
treaties, being probably the last which will ever be made with them, are
characterized by great liberality on the part of the Government. They give
the Indians a liberal sum in consideration of their removal, and
comfortable subsistence on their arrival at their new homes. If it be their
real interest to maintain a separate existence, they will there be at
liberty to do so without the inconveniences and vexations to which they
would unavoidably have been subject in Alabama and Mississippi.

Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country,
and Philanthropy has been long busily employed in devising means to avert
it, but its progress has never for a moment been arrested, and one by one
have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To follow to the tomb
the last of his race and to tread on the graves of extinct nations excite
melancholy reflections. But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these
vicissitudes as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room
for another. In the monuments and fortifications of an unknown people,
spread over the extensive regions of the West, we behold the memorials of a
once powerful race, which was exterminated of has disappeared to make room
for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there any thing in this which, upon
a comprehensive view of the general interests of the human race, is to be
regretted. Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to
the condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would
prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages
to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous
farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or
industry execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled
with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?

The present policy of the Government is but a continuation of the same
progressive change by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the
countries now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have
melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and
civilization are rolling to the westward, and we now propose to acquire the
countries occupied by the red men of the South and West by a fair exchange,
and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to a land where
their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual.

Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what
do they more than our ancestors did or than our children are now doing? To
better their condition in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was
dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands yearly leave the land of
their birth to seek new homes in distant regions. Does Humanity weep at
these painful separations from every thing, animate and inanimate, with
which the young heart has become entwined? Far from it. It is rather a
source of joy that our country affords scope where our young population may
range unconstrained in body or in mind, developing the power and faculties
of man in their highest perfection.

These remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles at their own expense,
purchase the lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes
from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this Government when,
by events which it can not control, the Indian is made discontented in his
ancient home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive
territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his
new abode? How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the
opportunity of removing to the West on such conditions! If the offers made
to the Indians were extended to them, they would be hailed with gratitude
and joy.

And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to
his home than the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting to
him to leave the graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and
children? Rightly considered, the policy of the General Government toward
the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling to submit to
the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from
this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the General Government
kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his
removal and settlement.

In the consummation of a policy originating at an early period, and
steadily pursued by every Administration within the present century -- so
just to the States and so generous to the Indians -- the Executive feels it
has a right to expect the cooperation of Congress and of all good and
disinterested men. The States, moreover, have a right to demand it. It was
substantially a part of the compact which made them members of our
Confederacy. With Georgia there is an express contract; with the new States
an implied one of equal obligation. Why, in authorizing Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama to form constitutions and
become separate States, did Congress include within their limits extensive
tracts of Indian lands, and, in some instances, powerful Indian tribes? Was
it not understood by both parties that the power of the States was to be
coextensive with their limits, and that with all convenient dispatch the
General Government should extinguish the Indian title and remove every
obstruction to the complete jurisdiction of the State governments over the
soil? Probably not one of those States would have accepted a separate
existence -- certainly it would never have been granted by Congress -- had
it been understood that they were to be confined for ever to those small
portions of their nominal territory the Indian title to which had at the
time been extinguished.

It is, therefore, a duty which this Government owes to the new States to
extinguish as soon as possible the Indian title to all lands which Congress
themselves have included within their limits. When this is done the duties
of the General Government in relation to the States and the Indians within
their limits are at an end. The Indians may leave the State or not, as they
choose. The purchase of their lands does not alter in the least their
personal relations with the State government. No act of the General
Government has ever been deemed necessary to give the States jurisdiction
over the persons of the Indians. That they possess by virtue of their
sovereign power within their own limits in as full a manner before as after
the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this Government add to or
diminish it.

May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more zealously
than those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection to the laws of the
States, will unite in attempting to open the eyes of those children of the
forest to their true condition, and by a speedy removal to relieve them
from all the evils, real or imaginary, present or prospective, with which
they may be supposed to be threatened.

Among the numerous causes of congratulation the condition of our impost
revenue deserves special mention, in as much as it promises the means of
extinguishing the public debt sooner than was anticipated, and furnishes a
strong illustration of the practical effects of the present tariff upon our
commercial interests.

The object of the tariff is objected to by some as unconstitutional, and it
is considered by almost all as defective in many of its parts.

The power to impose duties on imports originally belonged to the several
States. The right to adjust those duties with a view to the encouragement
of domestic branches of industry is so completely incidental to that power
that it is difficult to suppose the existence of the one without the other.
The States have delegated their whole authority over imports to the General
Government without limitation or restriction, saving the very
inconsiderable reservation relating to their inspection laws. This
authority having thus entirely passed from the States, the right to
exercise it for the purpose of protection does not exist in them, and
consequently if it be not possessed by the General Government it must be
extinct. Our political system would thus present the anomaly of a people
stripped of the right to foster their own industry and to counteract the
most selfish and destructive policy which might be adopted by foreign
nations. This sure can not be the case. This indispensable power thus
surrendered by the States must be within the scope of the authority on the
subject expressly delegated to Congress.

In this conclusion I am confirmed as well by the opinions of Presidents
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have each repeatedly
recommended the exercise of this right under the Constitution, as by the
uniform practice of Congress, the continued acquiescence of the States, and
the general understanding of the people.

The difficulties of a more expedient adjustment of the present tariff,
although great, are far from being insurmountable. Some are unwilling to
improve any of its parts because they would destroy the whole; others fear
to touch the objectionable parts lest those they approve should be
jeoparded. I am persuaded that the advocates of these conflicting views do
injustice to the American people and to their representatives. The general
interest is the interest of each, and my confidence is entire that to
insure the adoption of such modifications of the tariff as the general
interest requires it is only necessary that that interest should be
understood.

It is an infirmity of our nature to mingle our interests and prejudices
with the operation of our reasoning powers, and attribute to the objects of
our likes and dislikes qualities they do not possess and effects they can
not produce. The effects of the present tariff are doubtless over-rated,
both in its evils and in its advantages. By one class of reasoners the
reduced price of cotton and other agricultural products is ascribed wholly
to its influence, and by another the reduced price of manufactured
articles.

The probability is that neither opinion approaches the truth, and that both
are induced by that influence of interests and prejudices to which I have
referred. The decrease of prices extends throughout the commercial world,
embracing not only the raw material and the manufactured article, but
provisions and lands. The cause must therefore be deeper and more pervading
than the tariff of the United States. It may in a measure be attributable
to the increased value of the precious metals, produced by a diminution of
the supply and an increase in the demand, while commerce has rapidly
extended itself and population has augmented. The supply of gold and
silver, the general medium of exchange, has been greatly interrupted by
civil convulsions in the countries from which they are principally drawn. A
part of the effect, too, is doubtless owing to an increase of operatives
and improvements in machinery. But on the whole it is questionable whether
the reduction in the price of lands, produce, and manufactures has been
greater than the appreciation of the standard of value.

While the chief object of duties should be revenue, they may be so adjusted
as to encourage manufactures. In this adjustment, however, it is the duty
of the Government to be guided by the general good. Objects of national
importance alone ought to be protected. Of these the productions of our
soil, our mines, and our work shops, essential to national defense, occupy
the first rank. What ever other species of domestic industry, having the
importance to which I have referred, may be expected, after temporary
protection, to compete with foreign labor on equal terms merit the same
attention in a subordinate degree.

The present tariff taxes some of the comforts of life unnecessarily high;
it undertakes to protect interests too local and minute to justify a
general exaction, and it also attempts to force some kinds of manufactures
for which the country is not ripe. Much relief will be derived in some of
these respects from the measures of your last session.

The best as well as fairest mode of determining whether from any just
considerations a particular interest ought to receive protection would be
to submit the question singly for deliberation. If after due examination of
its merits, unconnected with extraneous considerations -- such as a desire
to sustain a general system or to purchase support for a different interest
-- it should enlist in its favor a majority of the representatives of the
people, there can be little danger of wrong or injury in adjusting the
tariff with reference to its protective effect. If this obviously just
principle were honestly adhered to, the branches of industry which deserve
protection would be saved from the prejudice excited against them when that
protection forms part of a system by which portions of the country feel or
conceive themselves to be oppressed. What is incalculably more important,
the vital principle of our system -- that principle which requires
acquiescence in the will of the majority -- would be secure from the
discredit and danger to which it is exposed by the acts of majorities
founded not on identity of conviction, but on combinations of small
minorities entered into for the purpose of mutual assistance in measures
which, resting solely on their own merits, could never be carried.

I am well aware that this is a subject of so much delicacy, on account of
the extended interests in involves, as to require that it should be touched
with the utmost caution, and that while an abandonment of the policy in
which it originated -- a policy coeval with our Government, and pursued
through successive Administrations -- is neither to be expected or desired,
the people have a right to demand, and have demanded, that it be so
modified as to correct abuses and obviate injustice.

That our deliberations on this interesting subject should be uninfluenced
by those partisan conflicts that are incident to free institutions is the
fervent wish of my heart. To make this great question, which unhappily so
much divides and excites the public mind, subservient to the short-sighted
views of faction, must destroy all hope of settling it satisfactorily to
the great body of the people and for the general interest. I can not,
therefore, in taking leave of the subject, too earnestly for my own
feelings or the common good warn you against the blighting consequences of
such a course.

According to the estimates at the Treasury Department, the receipts in the
Treasury during the present year will amount to $24,161,018, which will
exceed by about $300K the estimate presented in the last annual report of
the Secretary of the Treasury. The total expenditure during the year,
exclusive of public debt, is estimated at $13,742,311, and the payment on
account of public debt for the same period will have been $11,354,630,
leaving a balance in the Treasury on [1831-01-01] of $4,819,781.

In connection with the condition of our finances, it affords me pleasure to
remark that judicious and efficient arrangements have been made by the
Treasury Department for securing the pecuniary responsibility of the public
officers and the more punctual payment of the public dues. The Revenue
Cutter Service has been organized and placed on a good footing, and aided
by an increase of inspectors at exposed points, and regulations adopted
under the act of [1830-05], for the inspection and appraisement of
merchandise, has produced much improvement in the execution of the laws and
more security against the commission of frauds upon the revenue. Abuses in
the allowances for fishing bounties have also been corrected, and a
material saving in that branch of the service thereby effected. In addition
to these improvements the system of expenditure for sick sea men belonging
to the merchant service has been revised, and being rendered uniform and
economical the benefits of the fund applicable to this object have been
usefully extended.

The prosperity of our country is also further evinced by the increased
revenue arising from the sale of public lands, as will appear from the
report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the documents
accompanying it, which are herewith transmitted. I beg leave to draw your
attention to this report, and to the propriety of making early
appropriations for the objects which it specifies.

Your attention is again invited to the subjects connected with that portion
of the public interests intrusted to the War Department. Some of them were
referred to in my former message, and they are presented in detail in the
report of the Secretary of War herewith submitted. I refer you also to the
report of that officer for a knowledge of the state of the Army,
fortifications, arsenals, and Indian affairs, all of which it will be
perceived have been guarded with zealous attention and care. It is worthy
of your consideration whether the armaments necessary for the
fortifications on our maritime frontier which are now or shortly will be
completed should not be in readiness sooner than the customary
appropriations will enable the Department to provide them. This precaution
seems to be due to the general system of fortification which has been
sanctioned by Congress, and is recommended by that maxim of wisdom which
tells us in peace to prepare for war.

I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for a highly
satisfactory account of the manner in which the concerns of that Department
have been conducted during the present year. Our position in relation to
the most powerful nations of the earth, and the present condition of
Europe, admonish us to cherish this arm of our national defense with
peculiar care. Separated by wide seas from all those Governments whose
power we might have reason to dread, we have nothing to apprehend from
attempts at conquest. It is chiefly attacks upon our commerce and
harrassing in-roads upon our coast against which we have to guard. A naval
force adequate to the protection of our commerce, always afloat, with an
accumulation of the means to give it a rapid extension in case of need,
furnishes the power by which all such aggressions may be prevented or
repelled. The attention of the Government has therefore been recently
directed more to preserving the public vessels already built and providing
materials to be placed in depot for future use than to increasing their
number. With the aid of Congress, in a few years the Government will be
prepared in case of emergency to put afloat a powerful navy of new ships
almost as soon as old ones could be repaired.

The modifications in this part of the service suggested in my last annual
message, which are noticed more in detail in the report of the Secretary of
the Navy, are again recommended to your serious attention.

The report of the PostMaster General in like manner exhibits a satisfactory
view of the important branch of the Government under his charge. In
addition to the benefits already secured by the operations of the Post
Office Department, considerable improvements within the present year have
been made by an increase in the accommodation afforded by stage coaches,
and in the frequency and celerity of the mail between some of the most
important points of the Union.

Under the late contracts improvements have been provided for the southern
section of the country, and at the same time an annual saving made of
upward of $72K. Not with standing the excess of expenditure beyond the
current receipts for a few years past, necessarily incurred in the
fulfillment of existing contracts and in the additional expenses between
the periods of contracting to meet the demands created by the rapid growth
and extension of our flourishing country, yet the satisfactory assurance is
given that the future revenue of the Department will be sufficient to meets
its extensive engagements. The system recently introduced that subjects its
receipts and disbursements to strict regulation has entirely fulfilled its
designs. It gives full assurance of the punctual transmission, as well as
the security of the funds of the Department. The efficiency and industry of
its officers and the ability and energy of contractors justify an increased
confidence in its continued prosperity.

The attention of Congress was called on a former occasion to the necessity
of such a modification in the office of Attorney General of the United
States as would render it more adequate to the wants of the public service.
This resulted in the establishment of the office of Solicitor of the
Treasury, and the earliest measures were taken to give effect to the
provisions of the law which authorized the appointment of that officer and
defined his duties. But it is not believed that this provision, however
useful in itself, is calculated to supersede the necessity of extending the
duties and powers of the Attorney General's Office. On the contrary, I am
convinced that the public interest would be greatly promoted by giving to
that officer the general superintendence of the various law agents of the
Government, and of all law proceedings, whether civil or criminal, in which
the United States may be interested, allowing him at the same time such
compensation as would enable him to devote his undivided attention to the
public business. I think such a provision is alike due to the public and to
the officer.

Occasions of reference from the different Executive Departments to the
Attorney General are of frequent occurrence, and the prompt decision of the
questions so referred tends much to facilitate the dispatch of business in
those Departments. The report of the Secretary of the Treasury hereto
appended shows also a branch of the public service not specifically
intrusted to any officer which might be advantageously committed to the
Attorney General. But independently of those considerations this office is
now one of daily duty. It was originally organized and its compensation
fixed with a view to occasional service, leaving to the incumbent time for
the exercise of his profession in private practice. The state of things
which warranted such an organization no longer exists. The frequent claims
upon the services of this officer would render his absence from the seat of
Government in professional attendance upon the courts injurious to the
public service, and the interests of the Government could not fail to be
promoted by charging him with the general superintendence of all its legal
concerns.

Under a strong conviction of the justness of these suggestions, I recommend
it to Congress to make the necessary provisions for giving effect to them,
and to place the Attorney General in regard to compensation on the same
footing with the heads of the several Executive Departments. To this
officer might also be intrusted a cognizance of the cases of insolvency in
public debtors, especially if the views which I submitted on this subject
last year should meet the approbation of Congress -- to which I again
solicit your attention.

Your attention is respectfully invited to the situation of the District of
Columbia. Placed by the Constitution under the exclusive jurisdiction and
control of Congress, this District is certainly entitled to a much greater
share of its consideration than it has yet received. There is a want of
uniformity in its laws, particularly in those of a penal character, which
increases the expense of their administration and subjects the people to
all the inconveniences which result from the operation of different codes
in so small a territory. On different sides of the Potomac the same offense
is punishable in unequal degrees, and the peculiarities of many of the
early laws of MD and VA remain in force, not with standing their repugnance
in some cases to the improvements which have superseded them in those
States.

Besides a remedy for these evils, which is loudly called for, it is
respectfully submitted whether a provision authorizing the election of a
delegate to represent the wants of the citizens of this District on the
floor of Congress is not due to them and to the character of our
Government. No principles of freedom, and there is none more important than
that which cultivates a proper relation between the governors and the
governed. Imperfect as this must be in this case, yet it is believed that
it would be greatly improved by a representation in Congress with the same
privileges that are allowed to the other Territories of the United States.

The penitentiary is ready for the reception of convicts, and only awaits
the necessary legislation to put it into operation, as one object of which
I beg leave to recall your attention to the propriety of providing suitable
compensation for the officers charged with its inspection.

The importance of the principles involved in the inquiry whether it will be
proper to recharter the Bank of the United States requires that I should
again call the attention of Congress to the subject. Nothing has occurred
to lessen in any degree the dangers which many of our citizens apprehend
from that institution as at present organized. In the spirit of improvement
and compromise which distinguishes our country and its institutions it
becomes us to inquire whether it be not possible to secure the advantages
afforded by the present bank through the agency of a Bank of the United
States so modified in its principles and structures as to obviate
constitutional and other objections.

It is thought practicable to organize such a bank with the necessary
officers as a branch of the Treasury Department, based on the public and
individual deposits, without power to make loans or purchase property,
which shall remit the funds of the Government, and the expense of which may
be paid, if thought advisable, by allowing its officers to sell bills of
exchange to private individuals at a moderate premium. Not being a
corporate body, having no stock holders, debtors, or property, and but few
officers, it would not be obnoxious to the constitutional objections which
are urged against the present bank; and having no means to operate on the
hopes, fears, or interests of large masses of the community, it would be
shorn of the influence which makes that bank formidable. The States would
be strengthened by having in their hands the means of furnishing the local
paper currency through their own banks, while the Bank of the United
States, though issuing no paper, would check the issues of the State banks
by taking their notes in deposit and for exchange only so long as they
continue to be redeemed with specie. In times of public emergency the
capacities of such an institution might be enlarged by legislative
provisions.

These suggestions are made not so much as a recommendation as with a view
of calling the attention of Congress to the possible modifications of a
system which can not continue to exist in its present form without
occasional collisions with the local authorities and perpetual
apprehensions and discontent on the part of the States and the people.

In conclusion, fellow citizens, allow me to invoke in behalf of your
deliberations that spirit of conciliation and disinterestedness which is
the gift of patriotism. Under an over-ruling and merciful Providence the
agency of this spirit has thus far been signalized in the prosperity and
glory of our beloved country. May its influence be eternal.

***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 6, 1831

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

The representation of the people has been renewed for the 22nd time since
the Constitution they formed has been in force. For near half a century the
Chief Magistrates who have been successively chosen have made their annual
communications of the state of the nation to its representatives. Generally
these communications have been of the most gratifying nature, testifying an
advance in all the improvements of social and all the securities of
political life. But frequently and justly as you have been called on to be
grateful for the bounties of Providence, at few periods have they been more
abundantly or extensively bestowed than at the present; rarely, if ever,
have we had greater reason to congratulate each other on the continued and
increasing prosperity of our beloved country.

Agriculture, the first and most important occupation of man, has
compensated the labors of the husband-man with plentiful crops of all the
varied products of our extensive country. Manufactures have been
established in which the funds of the capitalist find a profitable
investment, and which give employment and subsistence to a numerous and
increasing body of industrious and dexterous mechanics. The laborer is
rewarded by high wages in the construction of works of internal
improvement, which are extending with unprecedented rapidity. Science is
steadily penetrating the recesses of nature and disclosing her secrets,
while the ingenuity of free minds is subjecting the elements to the power
of man and making each new conquest auxiliary to his comfort. By our mails,
whose speed is regularly increased and whose routes are every year
extended, the communication of public intelligence and private business is
rendered frequent and safe; the intercourse between distant cities, which
it formerly required weeks to accomplish, is now effected in a few days;
and in the construction of rail roads and the application of steam power we
have a reasonable prospect that the extreme parts of our country will be so
much approximated and those most isolated by the obstacles of nature
rendered so accessible as to remove an apprehension some times entertained
that the great extent of the Union would endanger its permanent existence.

If from the satisfactory view of our agriculture, manufactures, and
internal improvements we turn to the state of our navigation and trade with
foreign nations and between the States, we shall scarcely find less cause
for gratulation. A beneficent Providence has provided for their exercise
and encouragement an extensive coast, indented by capacious bays, noble
rivers, inland seas; with a country productive of every material for ship
building and every commodity for gainful commerce, and filled with a
population active, intelligent, well-informed, and fearless of danger.
These advantages are not neglected, and an impulse has lately been given to
commercial enterprise, which fills our ship yards with new constructions,
encourages all the arts and branches of industry connected with them,
crowds the wharves of our cities with vessels, and covers the most distant
seas with our canvas.

Let us be grateful for these blessings to the beneficent Being who has
conferred them, and who suffers us to indulge a reasonable hope of their
continuance and extension, while we neglect not the means by which they may
be preserved. If we may dare to judge of His future designs by the manner
in which His past favors have been bestowed, He has made our national
prosperity to depend on the preservation of our liberties, our national
force on our Federal Union, and our individual happiness on the maintenance
of our State rights and wise institutions. If we are prosperous at home and
respected abroad, it is because we are free, united, industrious, and
obedient to the laws. While we continue so we shall by the blessing of
Heaven go on in the happy career we have begun, and which has brought us in
the short period of our political existence from a population of 3,000,000
to 13,000,000; from 13 separate colonies to 24 united States; from weakness
to strength; from a rank scarcely marked in the scale of nations to a high
place in their respect.

This last advantage is one that has resulted in a great degree from the
principles which have guided our intercourse with foreign powers since we
have assumed an equal station among them, and hence the annual account
which the Executive renders to the country of the manner in which that
branch of his duties has been fulfilled proves instructive and salutary.

The pacific and wise policy of our Government kept us in a state of
neutrality during the wars that have at different periods since our
political existence been carried on by other powers; but this policy, while
it gave activity and extent to our commerce, exposed it in the same
proportion to injuries from the belligerent nations. Hence have arisen
claims of indemnity for those injuries. England, France, Spain, Holland,
Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and lately Portugal had all in a greater or less
degree infringed our neutral rights. Demands for reparation were made upon
all. They have had in all, and continue to have in some, cases a leading
influence on the nature of our relations with the powers on whom they were
made.

Of the claims upon England it is unnecessary to speak further than to say
that the state of things to which their prosecution and denial gave rise
has been succeeded by arrangements productive of mutual good feeling and
amicable relations between the two countries, which it is hoped will not be
interrupted. One of these arrangements is that relating to the colonial
trade which was communicated to Congress at the last session; and although
the short period during which it has been in force will not enable me to
form an accurate judgment of its operation, there is every reason to
believe that it will prove highly beneficial. The trade thereby authorized
has employed to [1831-09-30] upward of 30K tons of American and 15K tons of
foreign shipping in the outward voyages, and in the inward nearly an equal
amount of American and 20K only of foreign tonnage. Advantages, too, have
resulted to our agricultural interests from the state of the trade between
Canada and our Territories and States bordering or the St. Lawrence and the
Lakes which may prove more than equivalent to the loss sustained by the
discrimination made to favor the trade of the northern colonies with the
West Indies.

After our transition from the state of colonies to that of an independent
nation many points were found necessary to be settled between us and Great
Britain. Among them was the demarcation of boundaries not described with
sufficient precision in the treaty of peace. Some of the lines that divide
the States and Territories of the United States from the British Provinces
have been definitively fixed.

That, however, which separates us from the Provinces of Canada and New
Brunswick to the North and the East was still in dispute when I came into
office, but I found arrangements made for its settlement over which I had
no control. The commissioners who had been appointed under the provisions
of the treaty of Ghent having been unable to agree, a convention was made
with Great Britain by my immediate predecessor in office, with the advice
and consent of the Senate, by which it was agreed "that the points of
difference which have arisen in the settlement of the boundary line between
the American and British dominions, as described in the 5th article of the
treaty of Ghent, shall be referred, as therein provided, to some friendly
sovereign or State, who shall be invited to investigate and make a decision
upon such points of difference"; and the King of the Netherlands having by
the late President and His Britannic Majesty been designated as such
friendly sovereign, it became my duty to carry with good faith the
agreement so made into full effect. To this end I caused all the measures
to be taken which were necessary to a full exposition of our case to the
sovereign arbiter, and nominated as minister plenipotentiary to his Court a
distinguished citizen of the State most interested in the question, and who
had been one of the agents previously employed for settling the
controversy.

On [1831-01-10] His Majesty the King of the Netherlands delivered to the
plenipotentiaries of the United States and of Great Britain his written
opinion on the case referred to him. The papers in relation to the subject
will be communicated by a special message to the proper branch of the
Government with the perfect confidence that its wisdom will adopt such
measures as will secure an amicable settlement of the controversy without
infringing any constitutional right of the States immediately interested.

It affords me satisfaction to inform you that suggestions made by my
direction to the chargé d'affaires of His Britannic Majesty to this
Government have had their desired effect in producing the release of
certain American citizens who were imprisoned for setting up the authority
of the State of Maine at a place in the disputed territory under the actual
jurisdiction of His Britannic Majesty. From this and the assurances I have
received of the desire of the local authorities to avoid any cause of
collision I have the best hopes that a good understanding will be kept up
until it is confirmed by the final disposition of the subject.

The amicable relations which now subsist between the United States and
Great Britain, the increasing intercourse between their citizens, and the
rapid obliteration of unfriendly prejudices to which former events
naturally gave rise concurred to present this as a fit period for renewing
our endeavors to provide against the recurrence of causes of irritation
which in the event of war between Great Britain and any other power would
inevitably endanger our peace. Animated by the sincerest desire to avoid
such a state of things, and peacefully to secure under all possible
circumstances the rights and honor of the country, I have given such
instructions to the minister lately sent to the Court of London as will
evince that desire, and if met by a correspondent disposition, which we can
not doubt, will put an end to causes of collision which, without advantage
to either, tend to estrange from each other two nations who have every
motive to preserve not only peace, but an intercourse of the most amicable
nature.

In my message at the opening of the last session of Congress I expressed a
confident hope that the justice of our claims upon France, urged as they
were with perseverance and signal ability by our minister there, would
finally be acknowledged. This hope has been realized. A treaty has been
signed which will immediately be laid before the Senate for its
approbation, and which, containing stipulations that require legislative
acts, must have the concurrence of both houses before it can be carried
into effect.

By it the French Government engage to pay a sum which, if not quite equal
to that which may be found due to our citizens, will yet, it is believed,
under all circumstances, be deemed satisfactory by those interested. The
offer of a gross sum instead of the satisfaction of each individual claim
was accepted because the only alternatives were a rigorous exaction of the
whole amount stated to be due on each claim, which might in some instances
be exaggerated by design, in other over- rated through error, and which,
therefore, it would have been both ungracious and unjust to have insisted
on; or a settlement by a mixed commission, to which the French negotiators
were very averse, and which experience in other cases had shewn to be
dilatory and often wholly inadequate to the end.

A comparatively small sum is stipulated on our part to go to the extinction
of all claims by French citizens on our Government, and a reduction of
duties on our cotton and their wines has been agreed on as a consideration
for the renunciation of an important claim for commercial privileges under
the construction they gave to the treaty for the cession of Louisiana.

Should this treaty receive the proper sanction, a source of irritation will
be stopped that has for so many years in some degree alienated from each
other two nations who, from interest as well as the remembrance of early
associations, ought to cherish the most friendly relations; an
encouragement will be given for perseverance in the demands of justice by
this new proof that if steadily pursued they will be listened to, and
admonition will be offered to those powers, if any, which may be inclined
to evade them that they will never be abandoned; above all, a just
confidence will be inspired in our fellow citizens that their Government
will exert all the powers with which they have invested it in support of
their just claims upon foreign nations; at the same time that the frank
acknowledgment and provision for the payment of those which were addressed
to our equity, although unsupported by legal proof, affords a practical
illustration of our submission to the divine rule of doing to others what
we desire they should do unto us.

Sweden and Denmark having made compensation for the irregularities
committed by their vessels or in their ports to the perfect satisfaction of
the parties concerned, and having renewed the treaties of commerce entered
into with them, our political and commercial relations with those powers
continue to be on the most friendly footing.

With Spain our differences up to [1819-02-22] were settled by the treaty of
Washington of that date, but at a subsequent period our commerce with the
States formerly colonies of Spain on the continent of America was annoyed
and frequently interrupted by her public and private armed ships. They
captured many of our vessels prosecuting a lawful commerce and sold them
and their cargoes, and at one time to our demands for restoration and
indemnity opposed the allegation that they were taken in the violation of a
blockade of all the ports of those States. This blockade was declaratory
only, and the inadequacy of the force to maintain it was so manifest that
this allegation was varied to a charge of trade in contraband of war. This,
in its turn, was also found untenable, and the minister whom I sent with
instructions to press for the reparation that was due to our injured fellow
citizens has transmitted an answer to his demand by which the captures are
declared to have been legal, and are justified because the independence of
the States of America never having been acknowledged by Spain she had a
right to prohibit trade with them under her old colonial laws. This ground
of defense was contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly
alleged, but to the uniform practice and established laws of nations, and
had been abandoned by Spain herself in the convention which granted
indemnity to British subjects for captures made at the same time, under the
same circumstances, and for the same allegations with those of which we
complain.

I, however, indulge the hope that further reflection will lead to other
views, and feel confident that when His Catholic Majesty shall be convinced
of the justice of the claims his desire to preserve friendly relations
between the two countries, which it is my earnest endeavor to maintain,
will induce him to accede to our demand. I have therefore dispatched a
special messenger with instructions to our minister to bring the case once
more to his consideration, to the end that if (which I can not bring myself
to believe) the same decision (that can not but be deemed an unfriendly
denial of justice) should be persisted in the matter may before your
adjournment be laid before you, the constitutional judges of what is proper
to be done when negotiation for redress of injury fails.

The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France seemed to present a
favorable opportunity to renew our claims of a similar nature on other
powers, and particularly in the case of those upon Naples, more especially
as in the course of former negotiations with that power our failure to
induce France to render us justice was used as an argument against us. The
desires of the merchants, who were the principal sufferers, have therefore
been acceded to, and a mission has been instituted for the special purpose
of obtaining for them a reparation already too long delayed. This measure
having been resolved on, it was put in execution without waiting for the
meeting of Congress, because the state of Europe created an apprehension of
events that might have rendered our application ineffectual.

Our demands upon the Government of the two Sicilies are of a peculiar
nature. The injuries on which they are founded are not denied, nor are the
atrocity and perfidy under which those injuries were perpetrated attempted
to be extenuated. The sole ground on which indemnity has been refused is
the alleged illegality of the tenure by which the monarch who made the
seizures held his crown. This defense, always unfounded in any principle of
the law of nations, now universally abandoned, even by those powers upon
whom the responsibility for the acts of past rulers bore the most heavily,
will unquestionably be given up by His Sicilian Majesty, whose counsels
will receive an impulse from that high sense of honor and regard to justice
which are said to characterize him; and I feel the fullest confidence that
the talents of the citizen commissioned for that purpose will place before
him the just claims of our injured citizens in such as light as will enable
me before your adjournment to announce that they have been adjusted and
secured. Precise instructions to the effect of bringing the negotiation to
a speedy issue have been given, and will be obeyed.

In the late blockade of Terceira some of the Portuguese fleet captured
several of our vessels and committed other excesses, for which reparation
was demanded, and I was on the point of dispatching an armed force to
prevent any recurrence of a similar violence and protect our citizens in
the prosecution of their lawful commerce when official assurances, on which
I relied, made the sailing of the ships unnecessary. Since that period
frequent promises have been made that full indemnity shall be given for the
injuries inflicted and the losses sustained. In the performance there has
been some, perhaps unavoidable, delay; but I have the fullest confidence
that my earnest desire that this business may at once be closed, which our
minister has been instructed strongly to express, will very soon be
gratified. I have the better ground for this hope from the evidence of a
friendly disposition which that Government has shown an actual reduction in
the duty on rice the produce of our Southern States, authorizing the
anticipation that this important article of our export will soon be
admitted on the same footing with that produced by the most favored
nation.

With the other powers of Europe we have fortunately had no cause of
discussions for the redress of injuries. With the Empire of the Russias our
political connection is of the most friendly and our commercial of the most
liberal kind. We enjoy the advantages of navigation and trade given to the
most favored nation, but it has not yet suited their policy, or perhaps has
not been found convenient from other considerations, to give stability and
reciprocity to those privileges by a commercial treaty. The ill health of
the minister last year charged with making a proposition for that
arrangement did not permit him to remain at St. Petersburg, and the
attention of that Government during the whole of the period since his
departure having been occupied by the war in which it was engaged, we have
been assured that nothing could have been effected by his presence. A
minister will soon be nominated, as well to effect this important object as
to keep up the relations of amity and good understanding of which we have
received so many assurances and proofs from His Imperial Majesty and the
Emperor his predecessor.

The treaty with Austria is opening to us an important trade with the
hereditary dominions of the Emperor, the value of which has been hitherto
little known, and of course not sufficiently appreciated. While our
commerce finds an entrance into the south of Germany by means of this
treaty, those we have formed with the Hanseatic towns and Prussia and
others now in negotiation will open that vast country to the enterprising
spirit of our merchants on the north -- a country abounding in all the
materials for a mutually beneficial commerce, filled with enlightened and
industrious inhabitants, holding an important place in the politics of
Europe, and to which we owe so many valuable citizens. The ratification of
the treaty with the Porte was sent to be exchanged by the gentleman
appointed our chargé d'affaires to that Court. Some difficulties
occurred on his arrival, but at the date of his last official dispatch he
supposed they had been obviated and that there was every prospect of the
exchange being speedily effected.

This finishes the connected view I have thought it proper to give of our
political and commercial relations in Europe. Every effort in my power will
be continued to strengthen and extend them by treaties founded on
principles of the most perfect reciprocity of interest, neither asking nor
conceding any exclusive advantage, but liberating as far as it lies in my
power the activity and industry of our fellow citizens from the shackles
which foreign restrictions may impose.

To China and the East Indies our commerce continues in its usual extent,
and with increased facilities which the credit and capital of our merchants
afford by substituting bills for payments in specie. A daring outrage
having been committed in those seas by the plunder of one of our
merchant-men engaged in the pepper trade at a port in Sumatra, and the
piratical perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a state of society that
the usual course of proceedings between civilized nations could not be
pursued, I forthwith dispatched a frigate with orders to require immediate
satisfaction for the injury and indemnity to the sufferers.

Few changes have taken place in our connections with the independent States
of America since my last communication to Congress. The ratification of a
commercial treaty with the United Republics of Mexico has been for some
time under deliberation in their Congress, but was still undecided at the
date of our last dispatches. The unhappy civil commotions that have
prevailed there were undoubtedly the cause of the delay, but as the
Government is now said to be tranquillized we may hope soon to receive the
ratification of the treaty and an arrangement for the demarcation of the
boundaries between us. In the mean time, an important trade has been opened
with mutual benefit from St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, by caravans
to the interior Provinces of Mexico. This commerce is protected in its
progress through the Indian countries by the troops of the United States,
which have been permitted to escort the caravans beyond our boundaries to
the settled part of the Mexican territory.

From Central America I have received assurances of the most friendly kind
and a gratifying application for our good offices to remove a supposed
indisposition toward that Government in a neighboring State. This
application was immediately and successfully complied with. They gave us
also the pleasing intelligence that differences which had prevailed in
their internal affairs had been peaceably adjusted. Our treaty with this
Republic continues to be faithfully observed, and promises a great and
beneficial commerce between the two countries -- a commerce of the greatest
importance if the magnificent project of a ship canal through the dominions
of that State from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, now in serious
contemplation, shall be executed.

I have great satisfaction in communicating the success which has attended
the exertions of our minister in Colombia to procure a very considerable
reduction in the duties on our flour in that Republic. Indemnity also has
been stipulated for injuries received by our merchants from illegal
seizures, and renewed assurances are given that the treaty between the two
countries shall be faithfully observed.

Chili and Peru seem to be still threatened with civil commotions, and until
they shall be settled disorders may naturally be apprehended, requiring the
constant presence of a naval force in the Pacific Ocean to protect our
fisheries and guard our commerce.

The disturbances that took place in the Empire of Brazil previously to and
immediately consequent upon the abdication of the late Emperor necessarily
suspended any effectual application for the redress of some past injuries
suffered by our citizens from that Government, while they have been the
cause of others, in which all foreigners seem to have participated.
Instructions have been given to our minister there to press for indemnity
due for losses occasioned by these irregularities, and to take care of our
fellow citizens shall enjoy all the privileges stipulated in their favor by
the treaty lately made between the two powers, all which the good
intelligence that prevails between our minister at Rio Janeiro and the
Regency gives us the best reason to expect.

I should have placed Buenos Ayres in the list of South American powers in
respect to which nothing of importance affecting us was to be communicated
but for occurrences which have lately taken place at the Falkland Islands,
in which the name of that Republic has been used to cover with a show of
authority acts injurious to our commerce and to the property and liberty of
our fellow citizens. In the course of the present year one of our vessels,
engaged in the pursuit of a trade which we have always enjoyed without
molestation, has been captured by a band acting, as they pretend, under the
authority of the Government of Buenos Ayres. I have therefore given orders
for the dispatch of an armed vessel to join our squadron in those seas and
aid in affording all lawful protection to our trade which shall be
necessary, and shall without delay send a minister to inquire into the
nature of the circumstances and also of the claim, if any, that is set up
by that Government to those islands. In the mean time, I submit the case to
the consideration of Congress, to the end that they may clothe the
Executive with such authority and means as they may deem necessary for
providing a force adequate to the complete protection of our fellow
citizens fishing and trading in those seas.

This rapid sketch of our foreign relations, it is hoped, fellow citizens,
may be of some use in so much of your legislation as may bear on that
important subject, while it affords to the country at large a source of
high gratification in the contemplation of our political and commercial
connection with the rest of the world. At peace with all; having subjects
of future difference with few, and those susceptible of easy adjustment;
extending our commerce gradually on all sides and on none by any but the
most liberal and mutually beneficial means, we may, by the blessing of
Providence, hope for all that national prosperity which can be derived from
an intercourse with foreign nations, guided by those eternal principles of
justice and reciprocal good will which are binding as well upon States as
the individuals of whom they are composed.

I have great satisfaction in making this statement of our affairs, because
the course of our national policy enables me to do it without any
indiscreet exposure of what in other governments is usually concealed from
the people. Having none but a straight-forward, open course to pursue,
guided by a single principle that will bear the strongest light, we have
happily no political combinations to form, no alliances to entangle us, no
complicated interests to consult, and in subjecting all we have done to the
consideration of our citizens and to the inspection of the world we give no
advantage to other nations and lay ourselves open to no injury.

It may not be improper to add that to preserve this state of things and
give confidence to the world in the integrity of our designs all our
consular and diplomatic agents are strictly enjoined to examine well every
cause of complaint preferred by our citizens, and while they urge with
proper earnestness those that are well founded, to countenance none that
are unreasonable or unjust, and to enjoin on our merchants and navigators
the strictest obedience to the laws of the countries to which they resort,
and a course of conduct in their dealings that may support the character of
our nation and render us respected abroad.

Connected with this subject, I must recommend a revisal of our consular
laws. Defects and omissions have been discovered in their operation that
ought to be remedied and supplied. For your further information on this
subject I have directed a report to be made by the Secretary of State,
which I shall hereafter submit to your consideration.

The internal peace and security of our confederated States is the next
principal object of the General Government. Time and experience have proved
that the abode of the native Indian within their limits is dangerous to
their peace and injurious to himself. In accordance with my recommendation
at a former session of Congress, an appropriation of $500K was made to aid
the voluntary removal of the various tribes beyond the limits of the
States. At the last session I had the happiness to announce that the
Chickasaws and Choctaws had accepted the generous offer of the Government
and agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi River, by which the whole of
the State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama will be freed from
Indian occupancy and opened to a civilized population. The treaties with
these tribes are in a course of execution, and their removal, it is hoped,
will be completed in the course of 1832.

At the request of the authorities of Georgia the registration of Cherokee
Indians for emigration has been resumed, and it is confidently expected
that half, if not two-third, of that tribe will follow the wise example of
their more westerly brethren. Those who prefer remaining at their present
homes will hereafter be governed by the laws of Georgia, as all her
citizens are, and cease to be the objects of peculiar care on the part of
the General Government.

During the present year the attention of the Government has been
particularly directed to those tribes in the powerful and growing State of
Ohio, where considerable tracts of the finest lands were still occupied by
the aboriginal proprietors. Treaties, either absolute or conditional, have
been made extinguishing the whole Indian title to the reservations in that
State, and the time is not distant, it is hoped, when Ohio will be no
longer embarrassed with the Indian population. The same measures will be
extended to Indiana as soon as there is reason to anticipate success. It is
confidently believed that perseverance for a few years in the present
policy of the Government will extinguish the Indian title to all lands
lying within the States composing our Federal Union, and remove beyond
their limits every Indian who is not willing to submit to their laws.

Thus will all conflicting claims to jurisdiction between the States and the
Indian tribes be put to rest. It is pleasing to reflect that results so
beneficial, not only to the States immediately concerned, but to the
harmony of the Union, will have been accomplished by measures equally
advantageous to the Indians. What the native savages become when surrounded
by a dense population and by mixing with the whites may be seen in the
miserable remnants of a few Eastern tribes, deprived of political and civil
rights, forbidden to make contracts, and subjected to guardians, dragging
out a wretched existence, without excitement, without hope, and almost
without thought.

But the removal of the Indians beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the
States does not place them beyond the reach of philanthropic aid and
Christian instruction. On the contrary, those whom philanthropy or religion
may induce to live among them in their new abode will be more free in the
exercise of their benevolent functions than if they had remained within the
limits of the States, embarrassed by their internal regulations. Now
subject to no control but the superintending agency of the General
Government, exercised with the sole view of preserving peace, they may
proceed unmolested in the interesting experiment of gradually advancing a
community of American Indians from barbarism to the habits and enjoyments
of civilized life.

Among the happiest effects of the improved relations of our Republic has
been an increase of trade, producing a corresponding increase of revenue
beyond the most sanguine anticipations of the Treasury Department.

The state of the public finances will be fully shown by the Secretary of
the Treasury in the report which he will presently lay before you. I will
here, however, congratulate you upon their prosperous condition. The
revenue received in the present year will not fall short of $27,700,000,
and the expenditures for all objects other than the public debt will not
exceed $14,700,000. The payment on account of the principal and interest of
the debt during the year will exceed $16,500,000, a greater sum than has
been applied to that object out of the revenue in any year since the
enlargement of the sinking fund except the two years following immediately
there after. The amount which will have been applied to the public debt
from [1829-03-04] to [1832-01-01], which is less than three years since the
Administration has been placed in my hands, will exceed $40,000,000.

From the large importations of the present year it may be safely estimated
that the revenue which will be received into the Treasury from that source
during the next year, with the aid of that received from the public lands,
will considerably exceed the amount of the receipts of the present year;
and it is believed that with the means which the Government will have at
its disposal from various sources, which will be fully stated by the proper
Department, the whole of the public debt may be extinguished, either by
redemption or purchase, within the four years of my Administration. We
shall then exhibit the rare example of a great nation, abounding in all the
means of happiness and security, altogether free from debt.

The confidence with which the extinguishment of the public debt may be
anticipated presents an opportunity for carrying into effect more fully the
policy in relation to import duties which has been recommended in my former
messages. A modification of the tariff which shall produce a reduction of
our revenue to the wants of the Government and an adjustment of the duties
on imports with a view to equal justice in relation to all our national
interests and to the counteraction of foreign policy so far as it may be
injurious to those interests, is deemed to be one of the principal objects
which demand the consideration of the present Congress. Justice to the
interests of the merchant as well as the manufacturer requires that
material reductions in the import duties be prospective; and unless the
present Congress shall dispose of the subject the proposed reductions can
not properly be made to take effect at the period when the necessity for
the revenue arising from present rates shall cease. It is therefore
desirable that arrangements be adopted at your present session to relieve
the people from unnecessary taxation after the extinguishment of the public
debt. In the exercise of that spirit of concession and conciliation which
has distinguished the friends of our Union in all great emergencies, it is
believed that this object may be effected without injury to any national
interest.

In my annual message of [1829-12], I had the honor to recommend the
adoption of a more liberal policy than that which then prevailed toward
unfortunate debtors to the Government, and I deem it my duty again to
invite your attention to this subject.

Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last session passed an act for
the relief of certain insolvent debtors of the United States, but the
provisions of that law have not been deemed such as were adequate to that
relief to this unfortunate class of our fellow citizens which may be safely
extended to them. The points in which the law appears to be defective will
be particularly communicated by the Secretary of the Treasury, and I take
pleasure in recommending such an extension of its provisions as will
unfetter the enterprise of a valuable portion of our citizens and restore
to them the means of usefulness to themselves and the community. While
deliberating on this subject I would also recommend to your consideration
the propriety of so modifying the laws for enforcing the payment of debts
due either to the public or to individuals suing in the courts of the
United States as to restrict the imprisonment of the person to cases of
fraudulent concealment of property. The personal liberty of the citizen
seems too sacred to be held, as in many cases it now is, at the will of a
creditor to whom he is willing to surrender all the means he has of
discharging his debt.

The reports from the Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments and from
the PostMaster General, which accompany this message, present satisfactory
views of the operations of the Departments respectively under their charge,
and suggest improvements which are worthy of and to which I invite the
serious attention of Congress. Certain defects and omissions having been
discovered in the operation of the laws respecting patents, they are
pointed out in the accompanying report from the Secretary of State.

I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal Constitution giving
the election of President and Vice-President to the people and limiting the
service of the former to a single term. So important do I consider these
changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in accordance with my sense
of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new Congress. For
my views more at large, as well in relation to these points as to the
disqualification of members of Congress to receive an office from a
President in whose election they have had an official agency, which I
proposed as a substitute, I refer you to my former messages.

Our system of public accounts is extremely complicated, and it is believed
may be much improved. Much of the present machinery and a considerable
portion of the expenditure of public money may be dispensed with, while
greater facilities can be afforded to the liquidation of claims upon the
Government and an examination into their justice and legality quite as
efficient as the present secured. With a view to a general reform in the
system, I recommend the subject to the attention of Congress.

I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the condition of the
District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise in the framers of our
Constitution to place the people of this District under the jurisdiction of
the General Government, but to accomplish the objects they had in view it
is not necessary that this people should be deprived of all the privileges
of self-government. Independently of the difficulty of inducing the
representatives of distant States to turn their attention to projects of
laws which are not of the highest interest to their constituents, they are
not individually, nor in Congress collectively, well qualified to legislate
over the local concerns of this District. Consequently its interests are
much neglected, and the people are almost afraid to present their
grievances, lest a body in which they are not represented and which feels
little sympathy in their local relations should in its attempt to make laws
for them do more harm than good.

Governed by the laws of the States whence they were severed, the two shores
of the Potomac within the 10 miles square have different penal codes -- not
the present codes of Virginia and Maryland, but such as existed in those
States at the time of the cession to the United States. As Congress will
not form a new code, and as the people of the District can not make one for
themselves, they are virtually under two governments. Is it not just to
allow them at least a Delegate in Congress, if not a local legislature, to
make laws for the District, subject to the approval or rejection of
Congress? I earnestly recommend the extension to them of every political
right which their interests require and which may be compatible with the
Constitution.

The extension of the judiciary system of the United States is deemed to be
one of the duties of the Government. One-fourth of the States in the Union
do not participate in the benefits of a circuit court. To the States of
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, admitted
into the Union since the present judicial system was organized, only a
district court has been allowed. If this be sufficient, then the circuit
courts already existing in 18 States ought to be abolished; if it be not
sufficient, the defect ought to be remedied, and these States placed on the
same footing with the other members of the Union. It was on this condition
and on this footing that they entered the Union, and they may demand
circuit courts as a matter not of concession, but of right. I trust that
Congress will not adjourn leaving this anomaly in our system.

Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to the Bank of
the United States as at present organized, I felt it my duty in my former
messages frankly to disclose them, in order that the attention of the
Legislature and the people should be seasonably directed to that important
subject, and that it might be considered and finally disposed of in a
manner best calculated to promote the ends of the Constitution and subserve
the public interests. Having thus conscientiously discharged a
constitutional duty, I deem it proper on this occasion, without a more
particular reference to the views of the subject then expressed to leave it
for the present to the investigation of an enlightened people and their
representatives.

In conclusion permit me to invoke that Power which superintends all
governments to infuse into your deliberations at this important crisis of
our history a spirit of mutual forbearance and conciliation. In that spirit
was our Union formed, and in that spirit must it be preserved.

***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 4, 1832

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

It gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon your return to the seat of
Government for the purpose of discharging your duties to the people of the
United States. Although the pestilence which had traversed the Old World
has entered our limits and extended its ravages over much of our land, it
has pleased Almighty God to mitigate its severity and lessen the number of
its victims compared with those who have fallen in most other countries
over which it has spread its terrors. Not with standing this visitation,
our country presents on every side marks of prosperity and happiness
unequaled, perhaps, in any other portion of the world. If we fully
appreciate our comparative condition, existing causes of discontent will
appear unworthy of attention, and, with hearts of thankfulness to that
divine Being who has filled our cup of prosperity, we shall feel our
resolution strengthened to preserve and hand down to our posterity that
liberty and that union which we have received from our fathers, and which
constitute the sources and the shield of all our blessings.

The relations of our country continue to present the same picture of
amicable intercourse that I had the satisfaction to hold up to your view at
the opening of your last session. The same friendly professions, the same
desire to participate in our flourishing commerce, the same dispositions,
evinced by all nations with whom we have any intercourse. This desirable
state of things may be mainly ascribed to our undeviating practice of the
rule which has long guided our national policy, to require no exclusive
privileges in commerce and to grant none. It is daily producing its
beneficial effect in the respect shown to our flag, the protection of our
citizens and their property abroad, and in the increase of our navigation
and the extension of our mercantile operations. The returns which have been
made out since we last met will show an increase during the last preceding
year of more than 80K tons in our shipping and of near $40,000,000 in the
aggregate of our imports and exports.

Nor have we less reason to felicitate ourselves on the position of our
political than of our commercial concerns. They remain in the state in
which they were when I last addressed you -- a state of prosperity and
peace, the effect of a wise attention to the parting advice of the revered
Father of his Country on this subject, condensed into a maxim for the use
of posterity by one of his most distinguished successors -- to cultivate
free commerce and honest friendship with all nations, but to make
entangling alliances with none. A strict adherence to this policy has kept
us aloof from the perplexing questions that now agitate the European world
and have more than once deluged those countries with blood. Should those
scenes unfortunately recur, the parties to the contest may count on a
faithful performance of the duties incumbent on us as a neutral nation, and
our own citizens may equally rely on the firm assertion of their neutral
rights.

With the nation that was our earliest friend and ally in the infancy of our
political existence the most friendly relations have subsisted through the
late revolutions of its Government, and, from the events of the last,
promise a permanent duration. It has made an approximation in some of its
political institutions to our own, and raised a monarch to the throne who
preserves, it is said, a friendly recollection of the period during which
he acquired among our citizens the high consideration that could then have
been produced by his personal qualifications alone.

Our commerce with that nation is gradually assuming a mutually beneficial
character, and the adjustment of the claims of our citizens has removed the
only obstacle there was to an intercourse not only lucrative, but
productive of literary and scientific improvement.

From Great Britain I have the satisfaction to inform you that I continue to
receive assurances of the most amicable disposition, which have on my part
on all proper occasions been promptly and sincerely reciprocated. The
attention of that Government has latterly been so much engrossed by matters
of a deeply interesting domestic character that we could not press upon it
the renewal of negotiations which had been unfortunately broken off by the
unexpected recall of our minister, who had commenced them with some hopes
of success. My great object was the settlement of questions which, though
now dormant, might here-after be revived under circumstances that would
endanger the good understanding which it is the interest of both parties to
preserve inviolate, cemented as it is by a community of language, manners,
and social habits, and by the high obligations we owe to our British
ancestors for many of our most valuable institutions and for that system of
representative government which has enabled us to preserve and improve
them.

The question of our North-East boundary still remains unsettled. In my last
annual message I explained to you the situation in which I found that
business on my coming into office, and the measures I thought it my duty to
pursue for asserting the rights of the United States before the sovereign
who had been chosen by my predecessor to determine the question, and also
the manner in which he had disposed of it. A special message to the Senate
in their executive capacity afterwards brought before them to the question
whether they would advise a submission to the opinion of the sovereign
arbiter. That body having considered the award as not obligatory and
advised me to open a further negotiation, the proposition was immediately
made to the British Government, but the circumstances to which I have
alluded have hitherto prevented any answer being given to the overture.
Early attention, however, has been promised to the subject, and every
effort on my part will be made for a satisfactory settlement of this
question, interesting to the Union generally, and particularly so to one of
its members.

The claims of our citizens on Spain are not yet acknowledged. On a closer
investigation of them than appears to have heretofore taken place it was
discovered that some of these demands, however strong they might be upon
the equity of that Government, were not such as could be made the subject
of national interference; and faithful to the principle of asking nothing
but what was clearly right, additional instructions have been sent to
modify our demands so as to embrace those only on which, according to the
laws of nations, we had a strict right to insist. An inevitable delay in
procuring the documents necessary for this review of the merits of these
claims retarded this operation until an unfortunate malady which has
afflicted His Catholic Majesty prevented an examination of them. Being now
for the first time presented in an unexceptionable form, it is confidently
hoped that the application will be successful.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the application I directed to be
made for the delivery of a part of the archives of Florida, which had been
carried to The Havannah, has produced a royal order for their delivery, and
that measures have been taken to procure its execution.

By the report of the Secretary of State communicated to you on [1832-06-25]
you were informed of the conditional reduction obtained by the minister of
the United States at Madrid of the duties on tonnage levied on American
shipping in the ports of Spain. The condition of that reduction having been
complied with on our part by the act passed [1832-07-13], I have the
satisfaction to inform you that our ships now pay no higher nor other
duties in the continental ports of Spain than are levied on their national
vessels.

The demands against Portugal for illegal captures in the blockade of
Terceira have been allowed to the full amount of the accounts presented by
the claimants, and payment was promised to be made in three installments.
The first of these has been paid; the second, although due, had not at the
date of our last advices been received, owing, it was alleged, to
embarrassments in the finances consequent on the civil war in which that
nation is engaged.

The payments stipulated by the convention with Denmark have been punctually
made, and the amount is ready for distribution among the claimants as soon
as the board, now sitting, shall have performed their functions.

I regret that by the last advices from our chargé d'affaires at
Naples that Government had still delayed the satisfaction due to our
citizens, but at that date the effect of the last instructions was not
known. Dispatches from thence are hourly expected, and the result will be
communicated to you without delay.

With the rest of Europe our relations, political and commercial, remain
unchanged. Negotiations are going on to put on a permanent basis the
liberal system of commerce now carried on between us and the Empire of
Russia. The treaty concluded with Austria is executed by His Imperial
Majesty with the most perfect good faith, and as we have no diplomatic
agent at his Court he personally inquired into and corrected a proceeding
of some of his subaltern officers to the injury of our consul in one of his
ports.

Our treaty with the Sublime Porte is producing its expected effects on our
commerce. New markets are opening for our commodities and a more extensive
range for the employment of our ships. A slight augmentation of the duties
on our commerce, inconsistent with the spirit of the treaty, had been
imposed, but on the representation of our chargé d'affaires it has
been promptly withdrawn, and we now enjoy the trade and navigation of the
Black Sea and of all the ports belonging to the Turkish Empire and Asia on
the most perfect equality with all foreign nations.

I wish earnestly that in announcing to you the continuance of friendship
and the increase of a profitable commercial intercourse with Mexico, with
Central America, and the States of the South I could accompany it with the
assurance that they all are blessed with that internal tranquillity and
foreign peace which their heroic devotion to the cause of their
independence merits. In Mexico a sanguinary struggle is now carried on,
which has caused some embarrassment to our commerce, but both parties
profess the most friendly disposition toward us. To the termination of this
contest we look for the establishment of that secure intercourse so
necessary to nations whose territories are contiguous. How important it
will be to us we may calculate from the fact that even in this unfavorable
state of things our maritime commerce has increased, and an internal trade
by caravans from St. Louis to Santa Fe, under the protection of escorts
furnished by the Government, is carried on to great advantage and is daily
increasing. The agents provided for by the treaty, with this power to
designate the boundaries which it established, have been named on our part,
but one of the evils of the civil war now raging there has been that the
appointment of those with whom they were to cooperate has not yet been
announced to us.

The Government of Central America has expelled from its territory the party
which some time since disturbed its peace. Desirous of fostering a
favorable disposition toward us, which has on more than one occasion been
evinced by this interesting country, I made a second attempt in this year
to establish a diplomatic intercourse with them; but the death of the
distinguished citizen whom I had appointed for that purpose has retarded
the execution of measures from which I hoped much advantage to our
commerce. The union of the three States which formed the Republic of
Colombia has been dissolved, but they all, it is believed, consider
themselves as separately bound by the treaty which was made in their
federal capacity. The minister accredited to the federation continues in
that character near the Government of New Grenada, and hopes were
entertained that a new union would be formed between the separate States,
at least for the purposes of foreign intercourse. Our minister has been
instructed to use his good offices, when ever they shall be desired, to
produce the reunion so much to be wished for, the domestic tranquillity of
the parties, and the security and facility of foreign commerce.

Some agitations naturally attendant on an infant reign have prevailed in
the Empire of Brazil, which have had the usual effect upon commercial
operations, and while they suspended the consideration of claims created on
similar occasions, they have given rise to new complaints on the part of
our citizens. A proper consideration for calamities and difficulties of
this nature has made us less urgent and peremptory in our demands for
justice than duty to our fellow citizens would under other circumstances
have required. But their claims are not neglected, and will on all proper
occasions be urged, and it is hoped with effect.

I refrain from making any communication on the subject of our affairs with
Buenos Ayres, because the negotiation communicated to you in my last annual
message was at the date of our last advices still pending and in a state
that would render a publication of the details inexpedient.

A treaty of amity and commerce has been formed with the Republic of Chili,
which, if approved by the Senate, will be laid before you. That Government
seems to be established, and at peace with its neighbors; and its ports
being the resorts of our ships which are employed in the highly important
trade of the fisheries, this commercial convention can not but be of great
advantage to our fellow citizens engaged in that perilous but profitable
business.

Our commerce with the neighboring State of Peru, owing to the onerous
duties levied on our principal articles of export, has been on the decline,
and all endeavors to procure an alteration have hitherto proved fruitless.
With Bolivia we have yet no diplomatic intercourse, and the continual
contests carried on between it and Peru have made me defer until a more
favorable period the appointment of any agent for that purpose.

An act of atrocious piracy having been committed on one of our trading
ships by the inhabitants of a settlement on the west coast of Sumatra, a
frigate was dispatched with orders to demand satisfaction for the injury if
those who committed it should be found to be members of a regular
government, capable of maintaining the usual relations with foreign
nations; but if, as it was supposed and as they proved to be, they were a
band of lawless pirates, to inflict such a chastisement as would deter them
and others from like aggressions. This last was done, and the effect has
been an increased respect for our flag in those distant seas and additional
security for our commerce.

In the view I have given of our connection with foreign powers allusions
have been made to their domestic disturbances or foreign wars, to their
revolutions or dissensions. It may be proper to observe that this is done
solely in cases where those events affect our political relations with
them, or to show their operation on our commerce. Further than this it is
neither our policy nor our right to interfere. Our best wishes on all
occasions, our good offices when required, will be afforded to promote the
domestic tranquillity and foreign peace of all nations with whom we have
any intercourse. Any intervention in their affairs further than this, even
by the expression of an official opinion, is contrary to our principles of
international policy, and will always be avoided.

The report which the Secretary of the Treasury will in due time lay before
you will exhibit the national finances in a highly prosperous state. Owing
to the continued success of our commercial enterprise, which has enabled
the merchants to fulfill their engagements with the Government, the
receipts from customs during the year will exceed the estimate presented at
the last session, and with the other means of the Treasury will prove fully
adequate not only to meet the increased expenditures resulting from the
large appropriations made by Congress, but to provide for the payment of
all the public debt which is at present redeemable.

It is now estimated that the customs will yield to the Treasury during the
present year upward of $28,000,000. The public lands, however, have proved
less productive than was anticipated, and according to present information
will not much exceed $2,000,000. The expenditures for all objects other
than the public debt are estimated to amount during the year to about
$16,500,000, while a still larger sum, viz, $18,000,000, will have been
applied to the principal and interest of the public debt.

It is expected, however, that in consequence of the reduced rates of duty
which will take effect after [1833-03-03] there will be a considerable
falling off in the revenue from customs in the year 1833. It will never the
less be amply sufficient to provide for all the wants of the public
service, estimated even upon a liberal scale, and for the redemption and
purchase of the remainder of the public debt. On [1833-01-01] the entire
public debt of the United States, funded and unfunded, will be reduced to
within a fraction of $7,000,000, of which $2,227,363 are not of right
redeemable until [1834-01-01] and $4,735,296 not until [1835-01-02]. The
commissioners of the sinking funds, however, being invested with full
authority to purchase the debt at the market price, and the means of the
Treasury being ample, it may be hoped that the whole will be extinguished
within the year 1833.

I can not too cordially congratulate Congress and my fellow citizens on the
near approach of that memorable and happy event -- the extinction of the
public debt of this great and free nation.

Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy marked out by the legislation of
the country for this object, the present Administration has devoted to it
all the means which a flourishing commerce has supplied and a prudent
economy preserved for the public Treasury. Within the four years for which
the people have confided the Executive power to my charge $58,000,000 will
have been applied to the payment of the public debt. That this has been
accomplished without stinting the expenditures for all other proper objects
will be seen by referring to the liberal provision made during the same
period for the support and increase of our means of maritime and military
defense, for internal improvements of a national character, for the removal
and preservation of the Indians, and, lastly, for the gallant veterans of
the Revolution.

The final removal of this great burthen from our resources affords the
means of further provision for all the objects of general welfare and
public defense which the Constitution authorizes, and presents the occasion
for such further reductions in the revenue as may not be required for them.
From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury it will be seen that after
the present year such a reduction may be made to a considerable extent, and
the subject is earnestly recommended to the consideration of Congress in
the hope that the combined wisdom of the representatives of the people will
devise such means of effecting that salutary object as may remove those
burthens which shall be found to fall unequally upon any and as may promote
all the great interests of the community.

Long and patient reflection has strengthened the opinions I have heretofore
expressed to Congress on this subject, and I deem it my duty on the present
occasion again to urge them upon the attention of the Legislature. The
soundest maxims of public policy and the principals upon which our
republican institutions are founded recommend a proper adaptation of the
revenue to the expenditure, and they also require that the expenditure
shall be limited to what, by an economical administration, shall be
consistent with the simplicity of the Government and necessary to an
efficient public service.

In effecting this adjustment it is due, in justice to the interests of the
different States, and even to the preservation of the Union itself, that
the protection afforded by existing laws to any branches of the national
industry should not exceed what may be necessary to counteract the
regulations of foreign nations and to secure a supply of those articles of
manufacture essential to the national independence and safety in time of
war. If upon investigation it shall be found, as it is believed it will be,
that the legislative protection granted to any particular interest is
greater than is indispensably requisite for these objects, I recommend that
it be gradually diminished, and that as far as may be consistent with these
objects the whole scheme of duties be reduced to the revenue standard as
soon as a just regard to the faith of the Government and to the
preservation of the large capital invested in establishments of domestic
industry will permit.

That manufactures adequate to the supply of our domestic consumption would
in the abstract be beneficial to our country there is no reason to doubt,
and to effect their establishment there is perhaps no American citizen who
would not for a while be willing to pay a higher price for them. But for
this purpose it is presumed that a tariff of high duties, designed for
perpetual protection, which they maintain has the effect to reduce the
price by domestic competition below that of the foreign article.
Experience, however, our best guide on this as on other subjects, makes it
doubtful whether the advantages of this system are not counter-balanced by
many evils, and whether it does not tend to beget in the minds of a large
portion of our country-men a spirit of discontent and jealousy dangerous to
the stability of the Union.

What, then, shall be done? Large interests have grown up under the implied
pledge of our national legislation, which it would seem a violation of
public faith suddenly to abandon. Nothing could justify it but the public
safety, which is the supreme law. But those who have vested their capital
in manufacturing establishments can not expect that the people will
continue permanently to pay high taxes for their benefit, when the money is
not required for any legitimate purpose in the administration of the
Government. Is it not enough that the high duties have been paid as long as
the money arising from them could be applied to the common benefit in the
extinguishment of the public debt?

Those who take an enlarged view of the condition of our country must be
satisfied that the policy of protection must be ultimately limited to those
articles of domestic manufacture which are indispensable to our safety in
time of war. Within this scope, on a reasonable scale, it is recommended by
every consideration of patriotism and duty, which will doubtless always
secure to it a liberal and efficient support. But beyond this object we
have already seen the operation of the system productive of discontent. In
some sections of the Republic its influence is deprecated as tending to
concentrate wealth into a few hands, and as creating those germs of
dependence and vice which in other countries have characterized the
existence of monopolies and proved so destructive of liberty and the
general good. A large portion of the people in one section of the Republic
declares it not only inexpedient on these grounds, but as disturbing the
equal relations of property by legislation, and therefore unconstitutional
and unjust.

Doubtless these effects are in a great degree exaggerated, and may be
ascribed to a mistaken view of the considerations which led to the adoption
of the tariff system; but they are never the less important in enabling us
to review the subject with a more thorough knowledge of all its bearings
upon the great interests of the Republic, and with a determination to
dispose of it so that none can with justice complain.

It is my painful duty to state that in one quarter of the United States
opposition to the revenue laws has arisen to a height which threatens to
thwart their execution, if not to endanger the integrity of the Union. What
ever obstructions may be thrown in the way of the judicial authorities of
the General Government, it is hoped they will be able peaceably to overcome
them by the prudence of their own officers and the patriotism of the
people. But should this reasonable reliance on the moderation and good
sense of all portions of our fellow citizens be disappointed, it is
believed that the laws themselves are fully adequate to the suppression of
such attempts as may be immediately made. Should the exigency arise
rendering the execution of the existing laws impracticable from any cause
what ever, prompt notice of it will be given to Congress, with a suggestion
of such views and measures as may be deemed necessary to meet it.

In conformity with principles heretofore explained, and with the hope of
reducing the General Government to that simple machine which the
Constitution created and of withdrawing from the States all other influence
than that of its universal beneficence in preserving peace, affording an
uniform currency, maintaining the inviolability of contracts, diffusing
intelligence, and discharging unfelt its other super-intending functions, I
recommend that provision be made to dispose of all stocks now held by it in
corporations, whether created by the General or State Governments, and
placing the proceeds in the Treasury. As a source of profit these stocks
are of little or no value; as a means of influence among the States they
are adverse to the purity of our institutions. The whole principle on which
they are based is deemed by many unconstitutional, and to persist in the
policy which they indicate is considered wholly inexpedient.

It is my duty to acquaint you with an arrangement made by the Bank of the
United States with a portion of the holders of the 3% stock, by which the
Government will be deprived of the use of the public funds longer than was
anticipated. By this arrangement, which will be particularly explained by
the Secretary of the Treasury, a surrender of the certificates of this
stock may be postponed until [1833 October], and thus may be continued by
the failure of the bank to perform its duties.

Such measures as are within the reach of the Secretary of the Treasury have
been taken to enable him to judge whether the public deposits in that
institution may be regarded as entirely safe; but as his limited power may
prove inadequate to this object, I recommend the subject to the attention
of Congress, under the firm belief that it is worthy of their serious
investigation. An inquiry into the transactions of the institution,
embracing the branches as well as the principal bank, seems called for by
the credit which is given throughout the country to many serious charges
impeaching its character, and which if true may justly excite the
apprehension that it is no longer a safe depository of the money of the
people.

Among the interests which merit the consideration of Congress after the
payment of the public debt, one of the most important, in my view, is that
of the public lands. Previous to the formation of our present Constitution
it was recommended by Congress that a portion of the waste lands owned by
the States should be ceded to the United States for the purposes of general
harmony and as a fund to meet the expenses of the war. The recommendation
was adopted, and at different periods of time the States of Massachusetts,
New York, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia granted their
vacant soil for the uses for which they had been asked. As the lands may
now be considered as relieved from this pledge, it is in the discretion of
Congress to dispose of them in such way as best to conduce to the quiet,
harmony, and general interest of the American people. In examining this
question all local and sectional feelings should be discarded and the whole
United States regarded as one people, interested alike in the prosperity of
their common country.

It can not be doubted that the speedy settlement of these lands constitutes
the true interest of the Republic. The wealth and strength of a country are
its population, and the best part of that population are cultivators of the
soil. Independent farmers are every where the basis of society and true
friends of liberty.

In addition to these considerations questions have already arisen, and may
be expected hereafter to grow out of the public lands, which involve the
rights of the new States and the powers of the General Government, and
unless a liberal policy be now adopted there is danger that these questions
may speedily assume an importance not now generally anticipated. The
influence of a great sectional interest, when brought into full action,
will be found more dangerous to the harmony and union of the States than
any other cause of discontent, and it is the part of wisdom and sound
policy to foresee its approaches and endeavor if possible to counteract
them.

Of the various schemes which have been hitherto proposed in regard to the
disposal of the public lands, none has yet received the entire approbation
of the National Legislature. Deeply impressed with the importance of a
speedy and satisfactory arrangement of the subject, I deem it my duty on
this occasion to urge it upon your consideration, and to the propositions
which have been heretofore suggested by others to contribute those
reflections which have occurred to me, in the hope that they may assist you
in your future deliberations.

It seems to me to be our policy that the public lands shall cease as soon
as practicable to be a source of revenue, and that they be sold to settlers
in limited parcels at a price barely sufficient to reimburse to the United
States the expense of the present system and the cost arising under our
Indian compacts. The advantages of accurate surveys and undoubted titles
now secured to purchasers seem to forbid the abolition of the present
system, because none can be substituted which will more perfectly
accomplish these important ends. It is desirable, however, that in
convenient time this machinery be withdrawn from the States, and that the
right of soil and the future disposition of it be surrendered to the States
respectively in which it lies.

The adventurous and hardy population of the West, besides contributing
their equal share of taxation under our impost system, have in the progress
of our Government, for the lands they occupy, paid into the Treasury a
large proportion of $40,000,000, and of the revenue received therefrom but
a small part has been expended among them. When to the disadvantage of
their situation in this respect we add the consideration that it is their
labor alone which gives real value to the lands, and that the proceeds
arising from their sale are distributed chiefly among States which had not
originally any claim to them, and which have enjoyed the undivided
emolument arising from the sale of their own lands, it can not be expected
that the new States will remain longer contented with the present policy
after the payment of the public debt. To avert the consequences which may
be apprehended from this cause, to pub an end for ever to all partial and
interested legislation on the subject, and to afford to every American
citizen of enterprise the opportunity of securing an independent freehold,
it seems to me, therefore, best to abandon the idea of raising a future
revenue out of the public lands.

In former messages I have expressed my conviction that the Constitution
does not warrant the application of the funds of the General Government to
objects of internal improvement which are not national in their character,
and, both as a means of doing justice to all interests and putting an end
to a course of legislation calculated to destroy the purity of the
Government, have urged the necessity of reducing the whole subject to some
fixed and certain rule. As there never will occur a period, perhaps, more
propitious than the present to the accomplishment of this object, I beg
leave to press the subject again upon your attention.

Without some general and well-defined principles ascertaining those objects
of internal improvement to which the means of the nation may be
constitutionally applied, it is obvious that the exercise of the power can
never be satisfactory. Besides the danger to which it exposes Congress of
making hasty appropriations to works of the character of which they may be
frequently ignorant, it promotes a mischievous and corrupting influence
upon elections by holding out to the people the fallacious hope that the
success of a certain candidate will make navigable their neighboring creek
or river, bring commerce to their doors, and increase the value of their
property. It thus favors combinations to squander the treasure of the
country upon a multitude of local objects, as fatal to just legislation as
to the purity of public men.

If a system compatible with the Constitution can not be devised which is
free from such tendencies, we should recollect that that instrument
provides within itself the mode of its amendment, and that there is,
therefore, no excuse for the assumption of doubtful powers by the General
Government. If those which are clearly granted shall be found incompetent
to the ends of its creation, it can at any time apply for their
enlargement; and there is no probability that such an application, if
founded on the public interest, will ever be refused. If the propriety of
the proposed grant be not sufficiently apparent to command the assent of
3/4 of the States, the best possible reason why the power should not be
assumed on doubtful authority is afforded; for if more than one quarter of
the States are unwilling to make the grant its exercise will be productive
of discontents which will far over-balance any advantages that could be
derived from it. All must admit that there is nothing so worthy of the
constant solicitude of this Government as the harmony and union of the
people.

Being solemnly impressed with the conviction that the extension of the
power to make internal improvements beyond the limit I have suggested, even
if it be deemed constitutional, is subversive of the best interests of our
country, I earnestly recommend to Congress to refrain from its exercise in
doubtful cases, except in relation to improvements already begun, unless
they shall first procure from the States such an amendment of the
Constitution as will define its character and prescribe its bounds. If the
States feel themselves competent to these objects, why should this
Government wish to assume the power? If they do not, then they will not
hesitate to make the grant. Both Governments are the Governments of the
people; improvements must be made with the money of the people, and if the
money can be collected and applied by those more simple and economical
political machines, the State governments, it will unquestionably be safer
and better for the people than to add to the splendor, the patronage, and
the power of the General Government. But if the people of the several
States think otherwise they will amend the Constitution, and in their
decision all ought cheerfully to acquiesce.

For a detailed and highly satisfactory view of the operations of the War
Department I refer you to the accompanying report of the Secretary of War.

The hostile incursions of the Sac and Fox Indians necessarily led to the
interposition of the Government. A portion of the troops, under Generals
Scott and Atkinson, and of the militia of the State of Illinois were called
into the field. After a harassing warfare, prolonged by the nature of the
country and by the difficulty of procuring subsistence, the Indians were
entirely defeated, and the disaffected band dispersed or destroyed. The
result has been creditable to the troops engaged in the service. Severe as
is the lesson to the Indians, it was rendered necessary by their unprovoked
aggressions, and it is to be hoped that its impression will be permanent
and salutary.

This campaign has evinced the efficient organization of the Army and its
capacity for prompt and active service. Its several departments have
performed their functions with energy and dispatch, and the general
movement was satisfactory.

Our fellow citizens upon the frontiers were ready, as they always are, in
the tender of their services in the hour of danger. But a more efficient
organization of our militia system is essential to that security which is
one of the principal objects of all governments. Neither our situation nor
our institutions require or permit the maintenance of a large regular
force. History offers too many lessons of the fatal result of such a
measure not to warn us against its adoption here. The expense which attends
it, the obvious tendency to employ it because it exists and thus to engage
in unnecessary wars, and its ultimate danger to public liberty will lead
us, I trust, to place our principal dependence for protection upon the
great body of the citizens of the Republic. If in asserting rights or in
repelling wrongs war should come upon us, our regular force should be
increased to an extent proportional to the emergency, and our present small
Army is a nucleus around which such force could be formed and embodied. But
for the purposes of defense under ordinary circumstances we must rely upon
the electors of the country. Those by whom and for whom the Government was
instituted and is supported will constitute its protection in the hour of
danger as they do its check in the hour of safety.

But it is obvious that the militia system is imperfect. Much time is lost,
much unnecessary expense incurred, and much public property wasted under
the present arrangement. Little useful knowledge is gained by the musters
and drills as now established, and the whole subject evidently requires a
thorough examination. Whether a plan of classification remedying these
defects and providing for a system of instruction might not be adopted is
submitted to the consideration of Congress. The Constitution has vested in
the General Government an independent authority upon the subject of the
militia which renders its action essential to the establishment or
improvement of the system, and I recommend the matter to your consideration
in the conviction that the state of this important arm of the public
defense requires your attention.

I am happy to inform you that the wise and humane policy of transferring
from the eastern to the western side of the Mississippi the remnants of our
aboriginal tribes, with their own consent and upon just terms, has been
steadily pursued, and is approaching, I trust, its consummation. By
reference to the report of the Secretary of War and to the documents
submitted with it you will see the progress which has been made since your
last session in the arrangement of the various matters connected with our
Indian relations. With one exception every subject involving any question
of conflicting jurisdiction or of peculiar difficulty has been happily
disposed of, and the conviction evidently gains ground among the Indians
that their removal to the country assigned by the United States for their
permanent residence furnishes the only hope of their ultimate prosperity.

With that portion of the Cherokees, however, living within the State of
Georgia it has been found impracticable as yet to make a satisfactory
adjustment. Such was my anxiety to remove all the grounds of complaint and
to bring to a termination the difficulties in which they are involved that
I directed the very liberal propositions to be made to them which accompany
the documents herewith submitted. They can not but have seen in these
offers the evidence of the strongest disposition on the part of the
Government to deal justly and liberally with them. An ample indemnity was
offered for their present possessions, a liberal provision for their future
support and improvement, and full security for their private and political
rights. What ever difference of opinion may have prevailed respecting the
just claims of these people, there will probably be none respecting the
liberality of the propositions, and very little respecting the expediency
of their immediate acceptance. They were, however, rejected, and thus the
position of these Indians remains unchanged, as do the views communicated
in my message to the Senate of [1831-02-22].

I refer you to the annual report of the Secretary of the Navy, which
accompanies this message, for a detail of the operations of that branch of
the service during the present year.

Besides the general remarks on some of the transactions of our Navy
presented in the view which has been taken of our foreign relations, I
seize this occasion to invite to your notice the increased protection which
it has afforded to our commerce and citizens on distant seas without any
augmentation of the force in commission. In the gradual improvement of its
pecuniary concerns, in the constant progress in the collection of materials
suitable for use during future emergencies, and in the construction of
vessels and the buildings necessary to their preservation and repair, the
present state of this branch of the service exhibits the fruits of that
vigilance and care which are so indispensable to its efficiency. Various
new suggestions, contained in the annexed report, as well as others
heretofore to Congress, are worthy of your attention, but none more so than
that urging the renewal for another term of 6 years of the general
appropriation for the gradual improvement of the Navy.

From the accompanying report of the PostMaster General you will also
perceive that that Department continues to extend its usefulness without
impairing its resources or lessening the accommodations which it affords in
the secure and rapid transportation of the mail.

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the views heretofore
expressed in relation to the mode of choosing the President and Vice-
President of the United States, and to those respecting the tenure of
office generally. Still impressed with the justness of those views and with
the belief that the modifications suggested on those subjects if adopted
will contribute to the prosperity and harmony of the country, I earnestly
recommend them to your consideration at this time.

I have heretofore pointed out defects in the law for punishing official
frauds, especially within the District of Columbia. It has been found
almost impossible to bring notorious culprits to punishment, and, according
to a decision of the court for this District, a prosecution is barred by a
lapse of two years after the fraud has been committed. It may happen again,
as it has already happened, that during the whole 2 years all the evidences
of the fraud may be in the possession of the culprit himself. However
proper the limitation may be in relation to private citizens, it would seem
that it ought not to commence running in favor of public officers until
they go out of office.

The judiciary system of the United States remains imperfect. Of the 9
Western and South Western States, three only enjoy the benefits of a
circuit court. Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee are embraced in the general
system, but Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisian
have only district courts. If the existing system be a good one, why should
it not be extended? If it be a bad one, why is it suffered to exist? The
new States were promised equal rights and privileges when they came into
the Union, and such are the guaranties of the Constitution. Nothing can be
more obvious than the obligation of the General Government to place all the
States on the same footing in relation to the administration of justice,
and I trust this duty will be neglected no longer.

On many of the subjects to which your attention is invited in this
communication it is a source of gratification to reflect that the steps to
be now adopted are uninfluenced by the embarrassments entailed upon the
country by the wars through which it has passed. In regard to most of our
great interests we may consider ourselves as just starting in our career,
and after a salutary experience about to fix upon a permanent basis the
policy best calculated to promote the happiness of the people and
facilitate their progress toward the most complete enjoyment of civil
liberty. On an occasion so interesting and important in our history, and of
such anxious concern to the friends of freedom throughout the world, it is
our imperious duty to lay aside all selfish and local considerations and be
guided by a lofty spirit of devotion to the great principles on which our
institutions are founded.

That this Government may be so administered as to preserve its efficiency
in promoting and securing these general objects should be the only aim of
our ambition, and we can not, therefore, too carefully examine its
structure, in order that we may not mistake its powers or assume those
which the people have reserved to themselves or have preferred to assign to
other agents. We should bear constantly in mind the fact that the
considerations which induced the framers of the Constitution to withhold
from the General Government the power to regulate the great mass of the
business and concerns of the people have been fully justified by
experience, and that it can not now be doubted that the genius of all our
institutions prescribes simplicity and economy as the characteristics of
the reform which is yet to be effected in the present and future execution
of the functions bestowed upon us by the Constitution.

Limited to a general superintending power to maintain peace at home and
abroad, and to prescribe laws on a few subjects of general interest not
calculated to restrict human liberty, but to enforce human rights, this
Government will find its strength and its glory in the faithful discharge
of these plain and simple duties. Relieved by its protecting shield from
the fear of war and the apprehension of oppression, the free enterprise of
our citizens, aided by the State sovereignties, will work out improvements
and ameliorations which can not fail to demonstrate that the great truth
that the people can govern themselves is not only realized in our example,
but that it is done by a machinery in government so simple and economical
as scarcely to be felt. That the Almighty Ruler of the Universe may so
direct our deliberations and over-rule our acts as to make us instrumental
in securing a result so dear to mankind is my most earnest and sincere
prayer.

***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 3, 1833

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

On your assembling to perform the high trusts which the people of the
United States have confided to you, of legislating for their common
welfare, it gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon the happy condition
of our beloved country. By the favor of Divine Providence health is again
restored to us, peace reigns within our borders, abundance crowns the
labors of our fields, commerce and domestic industry flourish and increase,
and individual happiness rewards the private virtue and enterprise of our
citizens.

Our condition abroad is no less honorable than it is prosperous at home.
Seeking nothing that is not right and determined to submit to nothing that
is wrong, but desiring honest friendships and liberal intercourse with all
nations, the United States have gained throughout the world the confidence
and respect which are due to a policy so just and so congenial to the
character of the American people and to the spirit of their institutions.

In bringing to your notice the particular state of our foreign affairs, it
affords me high gratification to inform you that they are in a condition
which promises the continuance of friendship with all nations.

With Great Britain the interesting question of our North East boundary
remains still undecided. A negotiation, however, upon that subject has been
renewed since the close of the last Congress, and a proposition has been
submitted to the British Government with the view of establishing, in
conformity with the resolution of the Senate, the line designated by the
treaty of 1783. Though no definitive answer has been received, it may be
daily looked for, and I entertain a hope that the overture may ultimately
lead to a satisfactory adjustment of this important matter.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that a negotiation which, by desire
of the House of Representatives, was opened some years ago with the British
Government, for the erection of light houses on the Bahamas, has been
successful. Those works, when completed, together with those which the
United States have constructed on the western side of the Gulf of Florida,
will contribute essentially to the safety of navigation in that sea. This
joint participation in establishments interesting to humanity and
beneficial to commerce is worthy of two enlightened nations, and indicates
feelings which can not fail to have a happy influence upon their political
relations. It is gratifying to the friends of both to perceive that the
intercourse between the two people is becoming daily more extensive, and
that sentiments of mutual good will have grown up befitting their common
origin and justifying the hope that by wise counsels on each side not only
unsettled questions may be satisfactorily terminated, but new causes of
misunderstanding prevented.

Not withstanding that I continue to receive the most amicable assurances
from the Government of France, and that in all other respects the most
friendly relations exist between the United States and that Government, it
is to be regretted that the stipulations of the convention concluded on
1831-07-04 remain in some important parts unfulfilled.

By the second article of that convention it was stipulated that the sum
payable to the United States should be paid at Paris, in 6 annual
installments, into the hands of such person or persons as should be
authorized by the Government of the United States to receive it, and by the
same article the first installment was payable on 1833-02-02. By the act of
Congress of 1832-07-13 it was made the duty of the Secretary of the
Treasury to cause the several installments, with the interest thereon, to
be received from the French Government and transferred to the United States
in such manner as he may deem best; and by the same act of Congress the
stipulations on the part of the United States in the convention were in all
respects fulfilled. Not doubting that a treaty thus made and ratified by
the two Governments, and faithfully executed by the United States, would be
promptly complied with by the other party, and desiring to avoid the risk
and expense of intermediate agencies, the Secretary of the Treasury deemed
it advisable to receive and transfer the first installment by means of a
draft upon the French minister of finance.

A draft for this purpose was accordingly drawn in favor of the cashier of
the Bank of the United States for the amount accruing to the United States
out of the first installment, and the interest payable with it. This bill
was not drawn at Washington until 5 days after the installment was payable
at Paris, and was accompanied by a special authority from the President
authorizing the cashier or his assigns to receive the amount. The mode thus
adopted of receiving the installment was officially made known to the
French Government by the American chargé d'affaires at Paris,
pursuant to instructions from the Department of State. The bill, however,
though not presented for payment until 1833-03-23, was not paid, and for
the reason assigned by the French minister of finance that no appropriation
had been made by the French Chambers. It is not known to me that up to that
period any appropriation had been required of the Chambers, and although a
communication was subsequently made to the Chambers by direction of the
King, recommending that the necessary provision should be made for carrying
the convention into effect, it was at an advanced period of the session,
and the subject was finally postponed until the next meeting of the
Chambers.

Not withstanding it has been supposed by the French ministry that the
financial stipulations of the treaty can not be carried into effect without
an appropriation by the Chambers, it appears to me to be not only
consistent with the character of France, but due to the character of both
Governments, as well as to the rights of our citizens, to treat the
convention, made and ratified in proper form, as pledging the good faith of
the French Government for its execution, and as imposing upon each
department an obligation to fulfill it; and I have received assurances
through our chargé d'affaires at Paris and the French minister
plenipotentiary at Washington, and more recently through the minister of
the United States at Paris, that the delay has not proceeded from any
indisposition on the part of the King and his ministers to fulfill their
treaty, and that measures will be presented at the next meeting of the
Chambers, and with a reasonable hope of success, to obtain the necessary
appropriation.

It is necessary to state, however, that the documents, except certain lists
of vessels captured, condemned, or burnt at sea, proper to facilitate the
examination and liquidation of the reclamations comprised in the
stipulations of the convention, and which by the 6th article France engaged
to communicate to the United States by the intermediary of the legation,
though repeatedly applied for by the American chargé d'affaires
under instructions from this Government, have not yet been communicated;
and this delay, it is apprehended, will necessarily prevent the completion
of the duties assigned to the commissioners within the time at present
prescribed by law.

The reasons for delaying to communicate these documents have not been
explicitly stated, and this is the more to be regretted as it is not
understood that the interposition of the Chambers is in any manner required
for the delivery of those papers.

Under these circumstances, in a case so important to the interests of our
citizens and to the character of our country, and under disappointments so
unexpected, I deemed it my duty, however I might respect the general
assurances to which I have adverted, no longer to delay the appointment of
a minister plenipotentiary to Paris, but to dispatch him in season to
communicate the result of his application to the French Government at an
early period of your session. I accordingly appointed a distinguished
citizen for this purpose, who proceeded on his mission in August last and
was presented to the King early in the month of October. He is particularly
instructed as to all matters connected with the present posture of affairs,
and I indulge the hope that with the representations he is instructed to
make, and from the disposition manifested by the King and his ministers in
their recent assurances to our minister at Paris, the subject will be early
considered, and satisfactorily disposed of at the next meeting of the
Chambers.

As this subject involves important interests and has attracted a
considerable share of the public attention, I have deemed it proper to make
this explicit statement of its actual condition, and should I be
disappointed in the hope now entertained the subject will be again brought
to the notice of Congress in such manner as the occasion may require.

The friendly relations which have always been maintained between the United
States and Russia have been further extended and strengthened by the treaty
of navigation and commerce concluded on 1832-12-06, and sanctioned by the
Senate before the close of its last session. The ratifications having been
since exchanged, the liberal provisions of the treaty are now in full
force, and under the encouragement which they have secured a flourishing
and increasing commerce, yielding its benefits to the enterprise of both
nations, affords to each the just recompense of wise measures, and adds new
motives for that mutual friendship which the two countries have hitherto
cherished toward each other.

It affords me peculiar satisfaction to state that the Government of Spain
has at length yielded to the justice of the claims which have been so long
urged in behalf of our citizens, and has expressed a willingness to provide
an indemnification as soon as the proper amount can be agreed upon. Upon
this latter point it is probable an understanding had taken place between
the minister of the United States and the Spanish Government before the
decease of the late King of Spain; and, unless that event may have delayed
its completion, there is reason to hope that it may be in my power to
announce to you early in your present session the conclusion of a
convention upon terms not less favorable than those entered into for
similar objects with other nations. That act of justice would well accord
with the character of Spain, and is due to the United States from their
ancient friend. It could not fail to strengthen the sentiments of amity and
good will between the two nations which it is so much the wish of the
United States to cherish and so truly the interest of both to maintain.

By the first section of an act of Congress passed on 1832-07-13 the tonnage
duty on Spanish ships arriving from the ports of Spain previous to
1817-10-20, being 5 cents per ton. That act was intended to give effect on
our side to an arrangement made with the Spanish Government by which
discriminating duties of tonnage were to be abolished in the ports of the
United States and Spain on he vessels of the two nations. Pursuant to that
arrangement, which was carried into effect on the part of Spain on
1832-05-20, by a royal order dated 1832-04-29, American vessels in the
ports of Spain have paid 5 cents per ton, which rate of duty is also paid
in those ports by Spanish ships; but as American vessels pay no tonnage
duty in the ports of the United States, the duty of 5 cents payable in our
ports by Spanish vessels under the act above mentioned is really a
discriminating duty, operating to the disadvantage of Spain.

Though no complaint has yet been made on the part of Spain, we are not the
less bound by the obligations of good faith to remove the discrimination,
and I recommend that the act be amended accordingly. As the royal order
above alluded to includes the ports of the Balearic and Canary islands as
well as those of Spain, it would seem that the provisions of the act of
Congress should be equally extensive, and that for the repayments of such
duties as may have been improperly received an addition should be made to
the sum appropriated at the last session of Congress for refunding
discriminating duties.

As the arrangement referred to, however, did not embrace the islands of
Cuba and Puerto Rico, discriminating duties to the prejudice of American
shipping continue to be levied there. From the extent of the commerce
carried on between the United States and those islands, particularly the
former, this discrimination causes serious injury to one of those great
national interests which it has been considered an essential part of our
policy to cherish, and has given rise to complaints on the part of our
merchants. Under instructions given to our minister at Madrid, earnest
representations have been made by him to the Spanish Government upon this
subject, and there is reason to expect, from the friendly disposition which
is entertained toward this country, that a beneficial change will be
produced.

The disadvantage, however, to which our shipping is subjected by the
operation of these discriminating duties requires that they be met by
suitable countervailing duties during your present session, power being at
the same time vested in the President to modify or discontinue them as the
discriminating duties on American vessels or their cargoes may be modified
or discontinued at those islands. Intimations have been given to the
Spanish Government that the United States may be obliged to resort to such
measures as are of necessary self-defense, and there is no reason to
apprehend that it would be unfavorably received. The proposed proceeding if
adopted would not be permitted, however, in any degree to induce a
relaxation in the efforts of our minister to effect a repeal of this
irregularity by friendly negotiation, and it might serve to give force to
his representations by showing the dangers to which that valuable trade is
exposed by the obstructions and burdens which a system of discriminating
and countervailing duties necessarily produces.

The selection and preparation of the Florida archives for the purpose of
being delivered over to the United States, in conformity with the royal
order as mentioned in my last annual message, though in progress, has not
yet been completed. This delay has been produced partly by causes which
were unavoidable, particularly the prevalence of the cholera at Havana; but
measures have been taken which it is believed will expedite the delivery of
those important records.

Congress were informed at the opening of the last session that "owing, as
was alleged, to embarrassments in the finances of Portugal, consequent upon
the civil war in which that nation was engaged", payment had been made of
only one installment of the amount which the Portuguese Government had
stipulated to pay for indemnifying our citizens for property illegally
captured in the blockade of Terceira. Since that time a postponement for
two years, with interest, of the 2 remaining installments was requested by
the Portuguese Government, and as a consideration it offered to stipulate
that rice of the United States should be admitted into Portugal at the same
duties as Brazilian rice. Being satisfied that no better arrangement could
be made, my consent was given, and a royal order of the King of Portugal
was accordingly issued on 1833-02-04 for the reduction of the duty on rice
of the United States. It would give me great pleasure if in speaking of
that country, in whose prosperity the United States are so much interested,
and with whom a long- subsisting, extensive, and mutually advantageous
commercial intercourse has strengthened the relation of friendship, I could
announce to you the restoration of its internal tranquillity.

Subsequently to the commencement of the last session of Congress the final
installment payable by Denmark under the convention of 1830-03-28 was
received. The commissioners for examining the claims have since terminated
their labors, and their awards have been paid at the Treasury as they have
been called for. The justice rendered to our citizens by that Government is
thus completed, and a pledge is thereby afforded for the maintenance of
that friendly intercourse becoming the relations that the two nations
mutually bear to each other.

It is satisfactory to inform you that the Danish Government have recently
issued an ordinance by which the commerce with the island of St. Croix is
placed on a more liberal footing than heretofore. This change can not fail
to prove beneficial to the trade between the United States and that colony,
and the advantages likely to flow from it may lead to greater relaxations
in the colonial systems of other nations.

The ratifications of the convention with the King of the two Sicilies have
been duly exchanged, and the commissioners appointed for examining the
claims under it have entered upon the duties assigned to them by law. The
friendship that the interests of the two nations require of them being now
established, it may be hoped that each will enjoy the benefits which a
liberal commerce should yield to both.

A treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Belgium was
concluded during the last winter and received the sanction of the Senate,
but the exchange of the ratifications has been hitherto delayed, in
consequence, in the first instance, of some delay in the reception of the
treaty at Brussels, and, subsequently, of the absence of the Belgian
minister of foreign affairs at the important conferences in which his
Government is engaged at London. That treaty does but embody those enlarged
principles of friendly policy which it is sincerely hoped will always
regulate the conduct of the two nations having such strong motives to
maintain amicable relations toward each other and so sincerely desirous to
cherish them.

With all the other European powers with whom the United States have formed
diplomatic relations and with the Sublime Porte the best understanding
prevails. From all I continue to receive assurances of good will toward the
United States -- assurances which it gives me no less pleasure to
reciprocate than to receive. With all, the engagements which have been
entered into are fulfilled with good faith on both sides. Measures have
also been taken to enlarge our friendly relations and extend our commercial
intercourse with other States. The system we have pursued of aiming at no
exclusive advantages, of dealing with all on terms of fair and equal
reciprocity, and of adhering scrupulously to all our engagements is well
calculated to give success to efforts intended to be mutually beneficial.

The wars of which the southern part of this continent was so long the
theater, and which were carried on either by the mother country against the
States which had formerly been her colonies or by the States against each
other, having terminated, and their civil dissensions having so far
subsided as with few exceptions no longer to disturb the public
tranquillity, it is earnestly hoped those States will be able to employ
themselves without interruption in perfecting their institutions,
cultivating the arts of peace, and promoting by wise councils and able
exertions the public and private prosperity which their patriotic struggles
so well entitle them to enjoy.

With those States our relations have under-gone but little change during
the present year. No reunion having yet taken place between the States
which composed the Republic of Colombia, our chargé d'affaires at
Bogota has been accredited to the Government of New Grenada, and we have,
therefore, no diplomatic relations with Venezuela and Equator, except as
they may be included in those heretofore formed with the Colombian
Republic.

It is understood that representatives from the three stattes were about to
assemble at Bogota to confer on the subject of their mutual interests,
particularly that of their union, and if the result should render it
necessary, measures will be taken on our part to preserve with each that
friendship and those liberal commercial connections which it has been the
constant desire of the United States to cultivate with their sister
Republics of this hemisphere. Until the important question of reunion shall
be settled, however, the different matters which have been under discussion
between the United States and the Republic of Colombia, or either of the
States which composed it, are not likely to be brought to a satisfactory
issue.

In consequence of the illness of the chargé d'affaires appointed to
Central America at the last session of Congress, he was prevented from
proceeding on his mission until the month of October. It is hoped, however,
that he is by this time at his post, and that the official intercourse,
unfortunately so long interrupted, has been thus renewed on the part of the
two nations so amicably and advantageously connected by engagements founded
on the most enlarged principles of commercial reciprocity.

It is gratifying to state that since my last annual message some of the
most important claims of our fellow citizens upon the Government of Brazil
have been satisfactorily adjusted, and a reliance is placed on the friendly
dispositions manifested by it that justice will also be done in others. No
new causes of complaint have arisen, and the trade between the two
countries flourishes under the encouragement secured to it by the liberal
provisions of the treaty.

It is cause of regret that, owing, probably, to the civil dissensions which
have occupied the attention of the Mexican Government, the time fixed by
the treaty of limits with the United States for the meeting of the
commissioners to define the boundaries between the two nations has been
suffered to expire without the appointment of any commissioners on the part
of that Government. While the true boundary remains in doubt by either
party it is difficult to give effect to those measures which are necessary
to the protection and quiet of our numerous citizens residing near that
frontier. The subject is one of great solicitude to the United States, and
will not fail to receive my earnest attention.

The treaty concluded with Chili and approved by the Senate at its last
session was also ratified by the Chilian Government, but with certain
additional and explanatory articles of a nature to have required it to be
again submitted to the Senate. The time limited for the exchange of the
ratification, however, having since expired, the action of both Governments
on the treaty will again become necessary.

The negotiations commenced with the Argentine Republic relative to the
outrages committed on our vessels engaged in the fisheries at the Falkland
Islands by persons acting under the color of its authority, as well as the
other matters in controversy between the two Governments, have been
suspended by the departure of the chargé d'affaires of the United
States from Buenos Ayres. It is understood, however, that a minister was
subsequently appointed by that Government to renew the negotiation in the
United States, but though daily expected he has not yet arrived in this
country.

With Peru no treaty has yet been formed, and with Bolivia no diplomatic
intercourse has yet been established. It will be my endeavor to encourage
those sentiments of amity and that liberal commerce which belong to the
relations in which all the independent States of this continent stand
toward each other.

I deem it proper to recommend to your notice the revision of our consular
system. This has become an important branch of the public service, in as
much as it is intimately connected with the preservation of our national
character abroad, with the interest of our citizens in foreign countries,
with the regulation and care of our commerce, and with the protection of
our sea men. At the close of the last session of Congress I communicated a
report from the Secretary of State upon the subject, to which I now refer,
as containing information which may be useful in any inquiries that
Congress may see fit to institute with a view to a salutary reform of the
system.

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate you upon the prosperous
condition of the finances of the country, as will appear from the report
which the Secretary of the Treasury will in due time lay before you. The
receipts into the Treasury during the present year will amount to more than
$32,000,000. The revenue derived from customs will, it is believed, be more
than $28,000,000, and the public lands will yield about $3,0900,000. The
expenditures within the year for all objects, including $2,572,240.99 on
account of the public debt, will not amount to $25,000,000, and a large
balance will remain in the Treasury after satisfying all the appropriations
chargeable on the revenue for the present year.

The measures taken by the Secretary of the Treasury will probably enable to
pay off in the course of the present year the residue of the exchanged 4.5%
stock, redeemable on 1834-01-01. It has therefore been included in the
estimated expenditures of this year, and forms a part of the sum above
stated to have been paid on account of the public debt. The payment of this
stock will reduce the whole debt of the United States, funded and unfunded,
to the sum of $4,760,082.08, and as provision has already been made for the
4.5% stocks above mentioned, and charged in the expenses of the present
year, the sum last stated is all that now remains of the national debt; and
the revenue of the coming year, together with the balance now in the
Treasury, will be sufficient to discharge it, after meeting the current
expenses of the Government. Under the power given to the commissioners of
the sinking fund, it will, I have no doubt, be purchased on favorable terms
within the year.

From this view of the state of the finances and the public engagements yet
to be fulfilled you will perceive that if Providence permits me to meet you
at another session I shall have the high gratification of announcing to you
that the national debt is extinguished. I can not refrain from expressing
the pleasure I feel at the near approach of that desirable event. The short
period of time within which the public debt will have been discharged is
strong evidence of the abundant resources of the country and of the
prudence and economy with which the Government has heretofore been
administered. We have waged two wars since we became a nation, with one of
the most powerful kingdoms in the world, both of them undertaken in defense
of our dearest rights, been successfully prosecuted and honorably
terminated; and many of those who partook in the first struggle as well as
in the second will have lived to see the last item of the debt incurred in
these necessary but expensive conflicts faithfully and honestly discharged.
And we shall have the proud satisfaction of bequeathing to the public
servants who follow us in the administration of the Government the rare
blessing of a revenue sufficiently abundant, raised without injustice or
oppression to our citizens, and unencumbered with any burdens but what they
themselves shall think proper to impose upon it.

The flourishing state of the finances ought not, however, to encourage us
to indulge in a lavish expenditure of the public treasure. The receipts of
the present year do not furnish the test by which we are to estimate the
income of the next. The changes made in our revenue system by the acts of
Congress of 1832 and 1833, and more especially by the former, have swelled
the receipts of the present year far beyond the amount to be expected in
future years upon the reduced tariff of duties. The shortened credits on
revenue bonds and the cash duties on woolens which were introduced by the
act of 1832, and took effect on 1832-03-04, have brought large sums into
the Treasury in 1833, which, according to the credits formerly given, would
not have been payable until 1834, and would have formed a part of the
income of that year. These causes would of themselves produce a great
diminution of the receipts in the year 1834 as compared with the present
one, and they will be still more diminished by the reduced rates of duties
which take place on 1834-01-01 on some of the most important and productive
articles.

Upon the best estimates that can be made the receipts of the next year,
with the aid of the unappropriated amount now in the Treasury, will not be
much more than sufficient to meet the expenses of the year and pay the
small remnant of the national debt which yet remains unsatisfied. I can
not, therefore, recommend to you any alteration in the present tariff of
duties. The rate as now fixed by law on the various articles was adopted at
the last session of Congress, as a matter of compromise, with unusual
unanimity, and unless it is found to produce more than the necessities of
the Government call for there would seem to be no reason at this time to
justify a change.

But while I forbear to recommend any further reduction of the duties beyond
that already provided for by the existing laws, I must earnestly and
respectfully press upon Congress the importance of abstaining from all
appropriations which are not absolutely required for the public interest
and authorized by the powers clearly delegated to the United States. We are
beginning a new era in our Government. The national debt, which has so long
been a burden on the Treasury, will be finally discharged in the course of
the ensuing year. No more memory will afterwards be needed than what may be
necessary to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government. Now, then, is
the proper moment to fix our system of expenditure on firm and durable
principles, and I can not too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid
economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond
the real necessities of the Government and not to increase the wants of the
Government by unnecessary and profuse expenditures.

If a contrary course should be pursued, it may happen that the revenue of
1834 will fall short of the demands upon it, and after reducing the tariff
in order to lighten the burdens of the people, and providing for a still
further reduction to take effect hereafter, it would be much to be deplored
if at the end of another year we should find ourselves obliged to retrace
our steps and impose additional taxes to meet unnecessary expenditures.

It is my duty on this occasion to call your attention to the destruction of
the public building occupied by the Treasury Department, which happened
since the last adjournment of Congress. A thorough inquiry into the causes
of this loss was directed and made at the time, the result of which will be
duly communicated to you. I take pleasure, however, in stating here that by
the laudable exertions of the officers of the Department and many of the
citizens of the District but few papers were lost, and none that will
materially affect the public interest.

The public convenience requires that another building should be erected as
soon as practicable, and in providing for it it will be advisable to
enlarge in some manner the accommodations for the public officers of the
several Departments, and to authorize the erection of suitable depositories
for the safe-keeping of the public documents and records.

Since the last adjournment of Congress the Secretary of the Treasury has
directed the money of the United States to be deposited in certain State
banks designated by him, and he will immediately lay before you his reasons
for this direction. I concur with him entirely in the view he has taken on
the subject, and some months before the removal I urged upon the Department
the propriety of taking that step. The near approach of the day on which
the charger will expire, as well as the conduct of the bank, appeared to me
to call for this measure upon the high considerations of public interest
and public duty. The extent of its misconduct, however, although known to
be great, was not at that time fully developed by proof. It was not until
late in the month of August that I received from the Government directors
an official report establishing beyond question that this great and
powerful institution had been actively engaged in attempting to influence
the elections of the public officers by means of its money, and that, in
violation of the express provisions of its charter, it had by a formal
resolution placed its funds at the disposition of its president to be
employed in sustaining the political power of the bank. A copy of this
resolution is contained in the report of the Government directors before
referred to, and how ever the object may be disguised by cautious language,
no one can doubt that this money was in truth intended for electioneering
purposes, and the particular uses to which it was proved to have been
applied abundantly show that it was so understood. Not only was the
evidence complete as to the past application of the money and power of the
bank to electioneering purposes, but that the resolution of the board of
directors authorized the same course to be pursued in future.

It being thus established by unquestionable proof that the Bank of the
United States was converted into a permanent electioneering engine, it
appeared to me that the path of duty which the executive department of the
Government ought to pursue was not doubtful. As by the terms of the bank
charter no officer but the Secretary of the Treasury could remove the
deposits, it seemed to me that this authority ought to be at once exerted
to deprive that great corporation of the support and countenance of the
Government in such an use of its and such an exertion of its power. In this
point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people
of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their
unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation
are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their
decisions. It must now be determined whether the bank is to have its
candidates for all offices in the country, from the highest to the lowest,
or whether candidates on both sides of political questions shall be brought
forward as heretofore and supported by the usual means.

At this time the efforts of the bank to control public opinion, through the
distresses of some and the fears of others, are equally apparent, and, if
possible, more objectionable. By a curtailment of its accommodations more
rapid than any emergency requires, and even while it retains specie to an
almost unprecedented amount in its vaults, it is attempting to produce
great embarrassment in one portion of the community, while through presses
known to have been sustained by its money it attempts by unfounded alarms
to create a panic in all.

These are the means by which it seems to expect that it can force a
restoration of the deposits, and as a necessary consequence extort from
Congress a renewal of its charter. I am happy to know that through the good
sense of our people the effort to get up a panic has hitherto failed, and
that through the increased accommodations which the State banks have been
enabled to afford, no public distress has followed the exertions of the
bank, and it can not be doubted that the exercise of its power and the
expenditure of its money, as well as its efforts to spread groundless
alarm, will be met and rebuked as they deserve. In my own sphere of duty I
should feel myself called on by the facts disclosed to order a scire facias
against the bank, with a view to put an end to the chartered rights it has
so palpably violated, were it not that the charter itself will expire as
soon as a decision would probably be obtained from the court of last
resort.

I called the attention of Congress to this subject in my last annual
message, and informed them that such measures as were within the reach of
the Secretary of the Treasury had been taken to enable him to judge whether
the public deposits in the Bank of the United States were entirely safe;
but that as his single powers might be inadequate to the object, I
recommended the subject to Congress as worthy of their serious
investigation, declaring it as my opinion that an inquiry into the
transactions of that institution, embracing the branches as well as the
principal bank, was called for by the credit which was given throughout the
country to many serious charges impeaching their character, and which, if
true, might justly excite the apprehension that they were no longer a safe
depository for the public money. The extent to which the examination thus
recommended was gone into is spread upon your journals, and is too well
known to require to be stated. Such as was made resulted in a report from a
majority of the Committee of Ways and Means touching certain specified
points only, concluding with a resolution that the Government deposits
might safely be continued in the Bank of the United States. This resolution
was adopted at the close of the session by the vote of a majority of the
House of Representatives.

Although I may not always be able to concur in the views of the public
interest or the duties of its agents which may be taken by the other
departments of the Government or either of its branches, I am, not
withstanding, wholly incapable of receiving otherwise than with the most
sincere respect all opinions or suggestions proceeding from such a source,
and in respect to none am I more inclined to do so than to the House of
Representatives. But it will be seen from the brief views at this time
taken of the subject by myself, as well as the more ample ones presented by
the Secretary of the Treasury, that the change in the deposits which has
been ordered has been deemed to be called for by considerations which are
not affected by the proceedings referred to, and which, if correctly viewed
by that Department, rendered its act a matter of imperious duty.

Coming as you do, for the most part, immediately from the people and the
States by election, and possessing the fullest opportunity to know their
sentiments, the present Congress will be sincerely solicitous to carry into
full and fair effect the will of their constituents in regard to this
institution. It will be for those in whose behalf we all act to decide
whether the executive department of the Government, in the steps which it
has taken on this subject, has been found in the line of its duty.

The accompanying report of the Secretary of War, with the documents annexed
to it, exhibits the operations of the War Department for the past year and
the condition of the various subjects intrusted to its administration.

It will be seen from them that the Army maintains the character it has
heretofore acquired for efficiency and military knowledge. Nothing has
occurred since your last session to require its services beyond the
ordinary routine duties which upon the sea-board and the in-land frontier
devolve upon it in a time of peace. The system so wisely adopted and so
long pursued of constructing fortifications at exposed points and of
preparing and collecting the supplies necessary for the military defense of
the country, and thus providently furnishing in peace the means of defense
in war, has been continued with the usual results. I recommend to your
consideration the various subjects suggested in the report of the Secretary
of War. Their adoption would promote the public service and meliorate the
condition of the Army.

Our relations with the various Indian tribes have been undisturbed since
the termination of the difficulties growing out of the hostile aggressions
of the Sac and Fox Indians. Several treaties have been formed for the
relinquishment of territory to the United States and for the migration of
the occupants of the region assigned for their residence West of the
Mississippi. Should these treaties be ratified by the Senate, provision
will have been made for the removal of almost all the tribes remaining E of
that river and for the termination of many difficult and embarrassing
questions arising out of their anomalous political condition.

It is to be hoped that those portions of two of the Southern tribes, which
in that event will present the only remaining difficulties, will realize
the necessity of emigration, and will speedily resort to it. My original
convictions upon this subject have been confirmed by the course of events
for several years, and experience is every day adding to their strength.
That those tribes can not exist surrounded by our settlements and in
continual contact with our citizens is certain. They have neither the
intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement
which are essential to any favorable change in their condition. Established
in the midst of another and a superior race, and without appreciating the
causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must
necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.

Such has been their fate heretofore, and if it is to be averted -- and it
is -- it can only be done by a general removal beyond our boundary and by
the reorganization of their political system upon principles adapted to the
new relations in which they will be placed. The experiment which has been
recently made has so far proved successful. The emigrants generally are
represented to be prosperous and contented, the country suitable to their
wants and habits, and the essential articles of subsistence easily
procured. When the report of the commissioners now engaged in investigating
the condition and prospects of these Indians and in devising a plan for
their intercourse and government is received, I trust ample means of
information will be in possession of the Government for adjusting all the
unsettled questions connected with this interesting subject.

The operations of the Navy during the year and its present condition are
fully exhibited in the annual report from the Navy Department.

Suggestions are made by the Secretary of various improvements, which
deserve careful consideration, and most of which, if adopted, bid fair to
promote the efficiency of this important branch of the public service.
Among these are the new organization of the Navy Board, the revision of the
pay to officers, and a change in the period of time or in the manner of
making the annual appropriations, to which I beg leave to call your
particular attention.

The views which are presented on almost every portion of our naval
concerns, and especially on the amount of force and the number of officers,
and the general course of policy appropriate in the present state of our
country for securing the great and useful purposes of naval protection in
peace and due preparation for the contingencies of war, meet with my entire
approbation.

It will be perceived from the report referred to that the fiscal concerns
of the establishment are in an excellent condition, and it is hoped that
Congress may feel disposed to make promptly every suitable provision
desired either for preserving or improving the system.

The general Post Office Department has continued, upon the strength of its
own resources, to facilitate the means of communication between the various
portions of the Union with increased activity. The method, however, in
which the accounts of the transportation of the mail have always been kept
appears to have presented an imperfect view of its expenses. It has
recently been discovered that from the earliest records of the Department
the annual statements have been calculated to exhibit an amount
considerably short of the actual expense incurred for that service. These
illusory statements, together with the expense of carrying into effect the
law of the last session of Congress establishing new mail routes, and a
disposition on the part of the head of the Department to gratify the wishes
of the public in the extension of mail facilities, have induced him to
incur responsibilities for their improvement beyond what the current
resources of the Department would sustain. As soon as he had discovered the
imperfection of the method he caused an investigation to be made of its
results and applied the proper remedy to correct the evil. It became
necessary for him to withdraw some of the improvements which he had made to
bring the expenses of the Department within its own resources. These
expenses were incurred for the public good, and the public have enjoyed
their benefit. They are now but partially suspended, and that where they
may be discontinued with the least inconvenience to the country.

The progressive increase in the income from postages has equaled the
highest expectations, and it affords demonstrative evidence of the growing
importance and great utility of this Department. The details are exhibited
in the accompanying report of the PostMaster General.

The many distressing accidents which have of late occurred in that portion
of our navigation carried on by the use of steam power deserve the
immediate and unremitting attention of the constituted authorities of the
country. The fact that the number of those fatal disasters is constantly
increasing, not withstanding the great improvements which are every where
made in the machinery employed and in the rapid advances which have made in
that branch of science, shows very clearly that they are in a great degree
the result of criminal negligence on the part of those by whom the vessels
are navigated and to whose care and attention the lives and property of our
citizens are so extensively intrusted.

That these evils may be greatly lessened, if not substantially removed, by
means of precautionary and penal legislation seems to be highly probably.
So far, therefore, as the subject can be regarded as within the
constitutional purview of Congress I earnestly recommend it to your prompt
and serious consideration.

I would also call your attention to the views I have heretofore expressed
of the propriety of amending the Constitution in relation to the mode of
electing the President and the Vice-President of the United States.
Regarding it as all important to the future quiet and harmony of the people
that every intermediate agency in the election of these officers should be
removed and that their eligibility should be limited to one term of either
4 or 6 years, I can not too earnestly invite your consideration of the
subject.

Trusting that your deliberations on all the topics of general interest to
which I have adverted, and such others as your more extensive knowledge of
the wants of our beloved country may suggest, may be crowned with success,
I tender you in conclusion the cooperation which it may be in my power to
afford them.

***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 1, 1834

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

In performing my duty at the opening of your present session it gives me
pleasure to congratulate you again upon the prosperous condition of our
beloved country. Divine Providence has favored us with general health, with
rich rewards in the fields of agriculture and in every branch of labor, and
with peace to cultivate and extend the various resources which employ the
virtue and enterprise of our citizens. Let us trust that in surveying a
scene so flattering to our free institutions our joint deliberations to
preserve them may be crowned with success.

Our foreign relations continue, with but few exceptions, to maintain the
favorable aspect which they bore in my last annual message, and promise to
extend those advantages which the principles that regulate our intercourse
with other nations are so well calculated to secure.

The question of our North East boundary is still pending with Great
Britain, and the proposition made in accordance with the resolution of the
Senate for the establishment of a line according to the treaty of 1783 has
not been accepted by that Government. Believing that every disposition is
felt on both sides to adjust this perplexing question to the satisfaction
of all the parties interested in it, the hope is yet indulged that it may
be effected on the basis of that proposition.

With the Governments of Austria, Russia, Prussia, Holland, Sweden, and
Denmark the best understanding exists. Commerce with all is fostered and
protected by reciprocal good will under the sanction of liberal
conventional or legal provisions.

In the midst of her internal difficulties the Queen of Spain has ratified
the convention for the payment of the claims of our citizens arising since
1819. It is in the course of execution on her part, and a copy of it is now
laid before you for such legislation as may be found necessary to enable
those interested to derive the benefits of it.

Yielding to the force of circumstances and to the wise counsels of time and
experience, that power has finally resolved no longer to occupy the
unnatural position in which she stood to the new Governments established in
this hemisphere. I have the great satisfaction of stating to you that in
preparing the way for the restoration of harmony between those who have
sprung from the same ancestors, who are allied by common interests, profess
the same religion, and speak the same language the United States have been
actively instrumental. Our efforts to effect this good work will be
persevered in while they are deemed useful to the parties and our entire
disinterestedness continues to be felt and understood. The act of Congress
to countervail the discriminating duties to the prejudice of our navigation
levied in Cuba and Puerto Rico has been transmitted to the minister of the
United States at Madrid, to be communicated to the Government of the Queen.
No intelligence of its receipt has yet reached the Department of State. If
the present condition of the country permits the Government to make a
careful and enlarged examination of the true interests of these important
portions of its dominions, no doubt is entertained that their future
intercourse with the United States will be placed upon a more just and
liberal basis.

The Florida archives have not yet been selected and delivered. Recent
orders have been sent to the agent of the United States at Havana to return
with all that he can obtain, so that they may be in Washington before the
session of the Supreme Court, to be used in the legal questions there
pending to which the Government is a party.

Internal tranquillity is happily restored to Portugal. The distracted state
of the country rendered unavoidable the postponement of a final payment of
the just claims of our citizens. Our diplomatic relations will be soon
resumed, and the long-subsisting friendship with that power affords the
strongest guaranty that the balance due will receive prompt attnetion.

The first installment due under the convention of indemnity with the King
of the Two Sicilies has been duly received, and an offer has been made to
extinguish the whole by a prompt payment -- an offer I did not consider
myself authorized to accept, as the indemnification provided is the
exclusive property of individual citizens of the United States. The
original adjustment of our claims and the anxiety displayed to fulfill at
once the stipulations made for the payment of them are highly honorable to
the Government of the Two Sicilies. When it is recollected that they were
the result of the injustice of an intrusive power temporarily dominant in
its territory, a repugnance to acknowledge and to pay which would have been
neither unnatural nor unexpected, the circumstances can not fail to exalt
its character for justice and good faith in the eyes of all nations.

The treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Belgium,
brought to your notice in my last annual message as sanctioned by the
Senate, but the ratifications of which had not been exchanged owing to a
delay in its reception at Brussels and a subsequent absence of the Belgian
minister of foreign affairs, has been, after mature deliberation, finally
disavowed by that Government as inconsistent with the powers and
instructions given to their minister who negotiated it. This disavowal was
entirely unexpected, as the liberal principles embodied in the convention,
and which form the ground-work of the objections to it, were perfectly
satisfactory to the Belgian representative, and were supposed to be not
only within the powers granted, but expressly conformable to the
instructions given to him. An offer, not yet accepted, has been made by
Belgium to renew negotiations for a treaty less liberal in its provisions
on questions of general maritime law.

Our newly established relations with the Sublime Porte promise to be useful
to our commerce and satisfactory in every respect to this Government. Our
intercourse with the Barbary Powers continues without important change,
except that the present political state of Algiers has induced me to
terminate the residence there of a salaried consul and to substitute an
ordinary consulate, to remain so long as the place continues in the
possession of France. Our first treaty with one of these powers, the
Emperor of Morocco, was formed in 1786, and was limited to fifty years.
That period has almost expired. I shall take measures to renew it with the
greater satisfaction as its stipulations are just and liberal and have
been, with mutual fidelity and reciprocal advantage, scrupulously
fulfilled.

Intestine dissensions have too frequently occurred to mar the prosperity,
interrupt the commerce, and distract the governments of most of the nations
of this hemisphere which have separated themselves from Spain. When a firm
and permanent understanding with the parent country shall have produced a
formal acknowledgment of their independence, and the idea of danger from
that quarter can be no longer entertained, the friends of freedom expect
that those countries, so favored by nature, will be distinguished for their
love of justice and their devotion to those peaceful arts the assiduous
cultivation of which confers honor upon nations and gives value to human
life.

In the mean time I confidently hope that the apprehensions entertained that
some of the people of these luxuriant regions may be tempted, in a moment
of unworthy distrust of their own capacity for the enjoyment of liberty, to
commit the too common error of purchasing present repose by bestowing on
some favorite leaders the fatal gift of irresponsible power will not be
realized. With all these Governments and with that of Brazil no unexpected
changes in our relations have occurred during the present year.

Frequent causes of just complaint have arisen upon the part of the citizens
of the United States, some times from the irregular action of the
constituted subordinate authorities of the maritime regions and some times
from the leaders or partisans of those in arms against the established
Governments. In all cases representations have been or will be made, and as
soon as their political affairs are in a settled position it is expected
that our friendly remonstrances will be followed by adequate redress.

The Government of Mexico made known in [1833] December last the appointment
of commissioners and a surveyor on its part to run, in conjunction with
ours, the boundary line between its territories and the United States, and
excused the delay for the reasons anticipated -- the prevalence of civil
war. The commissioners and surveyors not having met within the time
stipulated by the treaty, a new arrangement became necessary, and our
chargé d'affaires was instructed in [1833] January to negotiate in
Mexico an article additional to the pre-existing treaty. This instruction
was acknowledged, and no difficulty was apprehended in the accomplishment
of that object. By information just received that additional article to the
treaty will be obtained and transmitted to this country as soon as it can
receive the ratification of the Mexican Congress.

The reunion of the three States of New Grenada, Venezuela, and Equador,
forming the Republic of Colombia, seems every day to become more
improbable. The commissioners of the two first are understood to be now
negotiating a just division of the obligations contracted by them when
united under one government. The civil war in Equador, it is believed, has
prevented even the appointment of a commissioner on its part.

I propose at an early day to submit, in the proper form, the appointment of
a diplomatic agent to Venezuela, the importance of the commerce of that
country to the United States and the large claims of our citizens upon the
Government arising before and since the division of Colombia rendering it,
in my judgment, improper longer to delay this step.

Our representatives to Central America, Peru, and Brazil are either at or
on their way to their respective posts.

From the Argentine Republic, from which a minister was expected to this
Government, nothing further has been heard. Occasion has been taken on the
departure of a new consul to Buenos Ayres to remind that Government that
its long delayed minister, whose appointment had been made known to us, had
not arrived.

It becomes my unpleasant duty to inform you that this pacific and highly
gratifying picture of our foreign relations does not include those with
France at this time. It is not possible that any Government and people
could be more sincerely desirous of conciliating a just and friendly
intercourse with another nation than are those of the United States with
their ancient ally and friend. This disposition is founded as well on the
most grateful and honorable recollections associated with our struggle for
independence as upon a well grounded conviction that it is consonant with
the true policy of both. The people of the United States could not,
therefore, see without the deepest regret even a temporary interruption of
the friendly relations between the two countries -- a regret which would, I
am sure, be greatly aggravated if there should turn out to be any
reasonable ground for attributing such a result to any act of omission or
commission on our part. I derive, therefore, the highest satisfaction from
being able to assure you that the whole course of this Government has been
characterized by a spirit so conciliatory and for bearing as to make it
impossible that our justice and moderation should be questioned, what ever
may be the consequences of a longer perseverance on the part of the French
Government in her omission to satisfy the conceded claims of our citizens.

The history of the accumulated and unprovoked aggressions upon our commerce
committed by authority of the existing Governments of France between the
years 1800 and 1817 has been rendered too painfully familiar to Americans
to make its repetition either necessary or desirable. It will be sufficient
here to remark that there has for many years been scarcely a single
administration of the French Government by whom the justice and legality of
the claims of our citizens to indemnity were not to a very considerable
extent admitted, and yet near a quarter of a century has been wasted in
ineffectual negotiations to secure it.

Deeply sensible of the injurious effects resulting from this state of
things upon the interests and character of both nations, I regarded it as
among my first duties to cause one more effort to be made to satisfy France
that a just and liberal settlement of our claims was as well due to her own
honor as to their incontestable validity. The negotiation for this purpose
was commenced with the late Government of France, and was prosecuted with
such success as to leave no reasonable ground to doubt that a settlement of
a character quite as liberal as that which was subsequently made would have
been effected had not the revolution by which the negotiation was cut off
taken place. The discussions were resumed with the present Government, and
the result showed that we were not wrong in supposing that an event by
which the two Governments were made to approach each other so much nearer
in their political principles, and by which the motives for the most
liberal and friendly intercourse were so greatly multiplied, could exercise
no other than a salutary influence upon the negotiation.

After the most deliberate and thorough examination of the whole subject a
treaty between the two Governments was concluded and signed at Paris on
1831-07-04, by which it was stipulated that "the French Government, in
order to liberate itself from all the reclamations preferred against it by
citizens of the United States for unlawful seizures, captures,
sequestrations, confiscations, or destruction of their vessels, cargoes, or
other property, engages to pay a sum of 25,000,000 francs to the United
States, who shall distribute it among those entitled in the manner and
according to the rules it shall determine"; and it was also stipulated on
the part of the French Government that this 25,000,000 francs should "be
paid at Paris, in six annual installments of 4,166,666 francs and 66
centimes each, into the hands of such person or persons "as shall be
authorized by the Government of the US to receive it", the first
installment to be paid "at the expiration of one year next following the
exchange of the ratifications of this convention and the others at
successive intervals of a year, one after another, 'til the whole shall be
paid. To the amount of each of the said installments shall be added
interest at 4% thereupon, as upon the other installments then remaining
unpaid, the said interest to be computed from the day of the exchange of
the present convention".

It was also stipulated on the part of the United States, for the purpose of
being completely liberated from all the reclamations presented by France on
behalf of its citizens, that the sum of 1,500,000 francs should be paid to
the Government of France in six annual installments, to be deducted out of
the annual sums which France had agreed to pay, interest thereupon being in
like manner computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications. In
addition to this stipulation, important advantages were secured to France
by the following article, viz: The wines of France, from and after the
exchange of the ratifications of the present conventions, shall be admitted
to consumption in the States of the Union at duties which shall not exceed
the following rates by the gallon (such as it is used at present for wines
in the US), to wit: 6 cents for red wines in casks; 10 cents for white
wines in casks, and 22 cents for wines of all sorts in bottles. The
proportions existing between the duties on French wines thus reduced and
the general rates of the tariff which went into operation 1829-01-01, shall
be maintained in case the Government of the United States should think
proper to diminish those general rates in a new tariff.

In consideration of this stipulation, which shall be binding on the United
States for 10 years, the French Government abandons the reclamations which
it had formed in relation to the 8th article of the treaty of cession of
Louisiana. It engages, moreover, to establish on the long-staple cottons of
the United States which after the exchange of the ratifications of the
present convention shall be brought directly thence to France by the
vessels of the US or by French vessels the same duties as on short-staple
cotton. This treaty was duly ratified in the manner prescribed by the
constitutions of both countries, and the ratification was exchanged at the
city of Washington on 1832-02-02. On account of its commercial stipulations
it was in five days thereafter laid before the Congress of the United
States, which proceeded to enact such laws favorable to the commerce of
France as were necessary to carry it into full execution, and France has
from that period to the present been in the unrestricted enjoyment of the
valuable privileges that were thus secured to her.

The faith of the French nation having been thus solemnly pledged through
its constitutional organ for the liquidation and ultimate payment of the
long deferred claims of our citizens, as also for the adjustment of other
points of great and reciprocal benefits to both countries, and the United
States having, with a fidelity and promptitude by which their conduct will,
I trust, be always characterized, done every thing that was necessary to
carry the treaty into full and fair effect on their part, counted with the
most perfect confidence on equal fidelity and promptitude on the part of
the French Government. In this reasonable expectation we have been, I
regret to inform you, wholly disappointed. No legislative provision has
been made by France for the execution of the treaty, either as it respects
the indemnity to be paid or the commercial benefits to be secured to the
United States, and the relations between the United States and that power
in consequence thereof are placed in a situation threatening to interrupt
the good understanding which has so long and so happily existed between the
two nations.

Not only has the French Government been thus wanting in the performance of
the stipulations it has so solemnly entered into with the United States,
but its omissions have been marked by circumstances which would seem to
leave us without satisfactory evidences that such performance will
certainly take place at a future period. Advice of the exchange of
ratifications reached Paris prior to 1832-04-08. The French Chambers were
then sitting, and continued in session until 1832-04-21, and although one
installment of the indemnity was payable on 1833-02-02, one year after the
exchange of ratifications, no application was made to the Chambers for the
required appropriation, and in consequence of no appropriation having then
been made the draft of the United States Government for that installment
was dishonored by the minister of finance, and the United States thereby
involved in much controversy.

The next session of the Chambers commenced on 1832-11-19, and continued
until 1833-04-25. Not withstanding the omission to pay the first
installment had been made the subject of earnest remonstrance on our part,
the treaty with the United States and a bill making the necessary
appropriations to execute it were not laid before the Chamber of Deputies
until 1833-04-06, nearly five months after its meeting, and only nineteen
days before the close of the session. The bill was read and referred to a
committee, but there was no further action upon it.

The next session of the Chambers commenced on 1833-04-26, and continued
until 1833-06-26. A new bill was introduced on 1833-06-11, but nothing
important was done in relation to it during the session.

In 1834 April, nearly three years after the signature of the treaty, the
final action of the French Chambers upon the bill to carry the treaty into
effect was obtained, and resulted in a refusal of the necessary
appropriations. The avowed grounds upon which the bill was rejected are to
be found in the published debates of that body, and no observations of mine
can be necessary to satisfy Congress of their utter insufficiency. Although
the gross amount of the claims of our citizens is probably greater than
will be ultimately allowed by the commissioners, sufficient is, never the
less, shown to render it absolutely certain that the indemnity falls far
short of the actual amount of our just claims, independently of the
question of damages and interest for the detention. That the settlement
involved a sacrifice in this respect was well known at the time -- a
sacrifice which was cheerfully acquiesced in by the different branches of
the Federal Government, whose action upon the treaty was required from a
sincere desire to avoid further collision upon this old and disturbing
subject and in the confident expectation that the general relations between
the two countries would be improved thereby.

The refusal to vote the appropriation, the news of which was received from
our minister in Paris about 1834-05-15, might have been considered the
final determination of the French Government not to execute the
stipulations of the treaty, and would have justified an immediate
communication of the facts to Congress, with a recommendation of such
ultimate measures as the interest and honor of the United States might seem
to require. But with the news of the refusal of the Chambers to make the
appropriation were conveyed the regrets of the King and a declaration that
a national vessel should be forthwith sent out with instructions to the
French minister to give the most ample explanations of the past and the
strongest assurances for the future. After a long passage the promised
dispatch vessel arrived.

The pledges given by the French minister upon receipt of his instructions
were that as soon after the election of the new members as the charter
would permit the legislative Chambers of France should be called together
and the proposition for an appropriation laid before them; that all the
constitutional powers of the King and his cabinet should be exerted to
accomplish the object, and that the result should be made known early
enough to be communicated to Congress at the commencement of the present
session. Relying upon these pledges, and not doubting that the acknowledged
justice of our claims, the promised exertions of the King and his cabinet,
and, above all, that sacred regard for the national faith and honor for
which the French character has been so distinguished would secure an early
execution of the treaty in all its parts, I did not deem it necessary to
call the attention of Congress to the subject at the last session.

I regret to say that the pledges made through the minister of France have
not been redeemed. The new Chambers met on 1834-07-31, and although the
subject of fulfilling treaties was alluded to in the speech from the
throne, no attempt was made by the King or his cabinet to procure an
appropriation to carry it into execution. The reasons given for this
omission, although they might be considered sufficient in an ordinary case,
are not consistent with the expectations founded upon the assurances given
here, for there is no constitutional obstacle to entering into legislative
business at the first meeting of the Chambers. This point, however, might
have been over-looked had not the Chambers, instead of being called to meet
at so early a day that the result of their deliberations might be
communicated to me before the meeting of Congress, been prorogued to
1834-12-29 -- a period so late that their decision can scarcely be made
known to the present Congress prior to its dissolution. To avoid this delay
our minister in Paris, in virtue of the assurance given by the French
minister in the United States, strongly urged the convocation of the
Chambers at an earlier day, but without success. It is proper to remark,
however, that this refusal has been accompanied with the most positive
assurances on the part of the executive government of France of their
intention to press the appropriation at the ensuing session of the
Chambers.

The executive branch of this Government has, as matters stand, exhausted
all the authority upon the subject with which it is invested and which it
had any reason to believe could be beneficially employed.

The idea of acquiescing in the refusal to execute the treaty will not, I am
confident, be for a moment entertained by any branch of this Government,
and further negotiation upon the subject is equally out of the question.

If it shall be the pleasure of Congress to await the further action of the
French Chambers, no further consideration of the subject will at this
session probably be required at your hands. But if from the original delay
in asking for an appropriation, from the refusal of the Chambers to grant
it when asked, from the omission to bring the subject before the Chambers
at their last session, from the fact that, including that session, there
have been five different occasions when the appropriation might have been
made, and from the delay in convoking the Chambers until some weeks after
the meeting of Congress, when it was well known that a communication of the
whole subject to Congress at the last session was prevented by assurances
that it should be disposed of before its present meeting, you should feel
yourselves constrained to doubt whether it be the intention of the French
Government, in all its branches, to carry the treaty into effect, and think
that such measures as the occasion may be deemed to call for should be now
adopted, the important question arises what those measures shall be.

Our institutions are essentially pacific. Peace and friendly intercourse
with all nations are as much the desire of our Government as they are the
interest of our people. But these objects are not to be permanently secured
by surrendering the rights of our citizens or permitting solemn treaties
for their indemnity, in cases of flagrant wrong, to be abrogated or set
aside.

It is undoubtedly in the power of Congress seriously to affect the
agricultural and manufacturing interests of France by the passage of laws
relating to her trade with the United States. Her products, manufactures,
and tonnage may be subjected to heavy duties in our ports, or all
commercial intercourse with her may be suspended. But there are powerful
and to my mind conclusive objections to this mode of proceeding.

We can not embarrass or cut off the trade of France without at the same
time in some degree embarrassing or cutting off our own trade. The injury
of such a warfare must fall, though unequally, upon our own citizens, and
could not but impair the means of the Government and weaken that united
sentiment in support of the rights and honor of the nation which must now
pervade every bosom. Nor is it impossible that such a course of legislation
would introduce once more into our national councils those disturbing
questions in relation to the tariff of duties which have been so recently
put to rest. Besides, by every measure adopted by the Government of the
United Sstates with the view of injuring France the clear perception of
right which will induce our own people and the rulers and people of all
other nations, even of France herself, to pronounce our quarrel just will
be obscured and the support rendered to us in a final resort to more
decisive measures will be more limited and equivocal.

There is but one point of controversy, and upon that the whole civilized
world must pronounce France to be in the wrong. We insist that she shall
pay us a sum of money which she has acknowledged to be due, and of the
justice of this demand there can be but one opinion among mankind. True
policy would seem to dictate that the question at issue should be kept thus
disencumbered and that not the slightest pretense should be given to France
to persist in her refusal to make payment by any act on our part affecting
the interests of her people. The question should be left, as it is now, in
such an attitude that when France fulfills her treaty stipulations all
controversy will be at an end.

It is my conviction that the United States ought to insist on a prompt
execution of the treaty, and in case it be refused or longer delayed take
redress into their own hands. After the delay on the part of France of a
quarter of a century in acknowledging these claims by treaty, it is not to
be tolerated that another quarter of a century is to be wasted in
negotiating about the payment. The laws of nations provide a remedy for
such occasions. It is a well-settled principle of the international code
that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or
neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to
the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the debt without
giving just cause of war. This remedy has been repeatedly resorted to, and
recently by France herself toward Portugal, under circumstances less
unquestionable.

The time at which resort should be had to this or any other mode of redress
is a point to be decided by Congress. If an appropriation shall not be made
by the French Chambers at their next session, it may justly be concluded
that the Government of France has finally determined to disregard its own
solemn undertaking and refuse to pay an acknowledged debt. In that event
every day's delay on our part will be a stain upon our national honor, as
well as a denial of justice to our injured citizens. Prompt measures, when
the refusal of France shall be complete, will not only be most honorable
and just, but will have the best effect upon our national character.

Since France, in violation of the pledges given through her minister here,
has delayed her final action so long that her decision will not probably be
known in time to be communicated to this Congress, I recommend that a law
be passed authorizing reprisals upon French property in case provision
shall not be made for the payment of the debt at the approaching session of
the French Chambers. Her pride and power are too well known to expect any
thing from her fears and preclude the necessity of a declaration that
nothing partaking of the character of intimidation is intended by us. She
ought to look upon it as the evidence only of an inflexible determination
on the part of the United States to insist on their rights.

That Government, by doing only what it has itself acknowledged to be just,
will be able to spare the United States the necessity of taking redress
into their own hands and save the property of French citizens from that
seizure and sequestration which American citizens so long endured without
retaliation or redress. If she should continue to refuse that act of
acknowledged justice and, in violation of the law of nations, make
reprisals on our part the occasion of hostilities against the United
States, she would but add violence to injustice, and could not fail to
expose herself to the just censure of civilized nations and to the
retributive judgments of Heaven.

Collision with France is the more to be regretted on account of the
position she occupies in Europe in relation to liberal institutions, but in
maintaining our national rights and honor all governments are alike to us.
If by a collision with France in a case where she is clearly in the wrong
the march of liberal principles shall be impeded, the responsibility for
that result as well as every other will rest on her own head.

Having submitted these considerations, it belongs to Congress to decide
whether after what has taken place it will still await the further action
of the French Chambers or now adopt such provisional measures as it may
deem necessary and best adapted to protect the rights and maintain the
honor of the country. What ever that decision may be, it will be faithfully
enforced by the Executive as far as he is authorized so to do.

According to the estimate of the Treasury Department, the revenue accruing
from all sources during the present year will amount to $20,624,717, which,
with the balance remaining in the Treasury on 1834-01-01 of $11,702,905,
produces an aggregate of $32,327,623. The total expenditure during the year
for all objects, including the public debt, is estimated at $25,591,390,
which will leave a balance in the Treasury on 1835-01-01 of $6,736,232. In
this balance, however, will be included about $1,150,000 of what was
heretofore reported by the Department as not effective.

Of former appropriations it is estimated that there will remain unexpended
at the close of the year $8,002,925, and that of this sum there will not be
required more than $5,141,964 to accomplish the objects of all the current
appropriations. Thus it appears that after satisfying all those
appropriations and after discharging the last item of our public debt,
which will be done on 1835-01-01, there will remain unexpended in the
Treasury an effective balance of about $440,000. That such should be the
aspect of our finances is highly flattering to the industry and enterprise
of our population and auspicious of the wealth and prosperity which await
the future cultivation of their growing resources. It is not deemed
prudent, however, to recommend any change for the present in our impost
rates, the effect of the gradual reduction now in progress in many of them
not being sufficiently tested to guide us in determining the precise amount
of revenue which they will produce.

Free from public debt, at peace with all the world, and with no complicated
interests to consult in our intercourse with foreign powers, the present
may be hailed as the epoch in our history the most favorable for the
settlement of those principles in our domestic policy which shall be best
calculated to give stability to our Republic and secure the blessings of
freedom to our citizens.

Among these principles, from our past experience, it can not be doubted
that simplicity in the character of the Federal Government and a rigid
economy in its administration should be regarded as fundamental and sacred.
All must be sensible that the existence of the public debt, by rendering
taxation necessary for its extinguishment, has increased the difficulties
which are inseparable from every exercise of the taxing power, and that it
was in this respect a remote agent in producing those disturbing questions
which grew out of the discussions relating to the tariff. If such has been
the tendency of a debt incurred in the acquisition and maintenance of our
national rights and liberties, the obligations of which all portions of the
Union cheerfully acknowledged, it must be obvious that what ever is
calculated to increase the burdens of Government without necessity must be
fatal to all our hopes of preserving its true character.

While we are felicitating ourselves, therefore, upon the extinguishment of
the national debt and the prosperous state of our finances, let us not be
tempted to depart from those sound maxims of public policy which enjoin a
just adaptation of the revenue to the expenditures that are consistent with
a rigid economy and an entire abstinence from all topics of legislation
that are not clearly within the constitutional powers of the Government and
suggested by the wants of the country. Properly regarded under such a
policy, every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives
to individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members
of our happy Confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support.
But above all, its most important effect will be found in its influence
upon the character of the Government by confining its action to those
objects which will be sure to secure to it the attachment and support of
our fellow citizens.

Circumstances make it my duty to call the attention of Congress to the Bank
of the United States. Created for the convenience of the Government, that
institution has become the scourge of the people. Its interference to
postpone the payment of a portion of the national debt that it might retain
the public money appropriated for that purpose to strengthen it in a
political contest, the extraordinary extension and contraction of its
accommodations to the community, its corrupt and partisan loans, its
exclusion of the public directors from a knowledge of its most important
proceedings, the unlimited authority conferred on the president to expend
its funds in hiring writers and procuring the execution of printing, and
the use made of that authority, the retention of the pension money and
books after the selection of new agents, the groundless claim to heavy
damages in consequence of the protest of the bill drawn on the French
Government, have through various channels been laid before Congress.

Immediately after the close of the last session the bank, through its
president, announced its ability and readiness to abandon the system of
unparalleled curtailment and the interruption of domestic exchanges which
it had practiced upon from 1833-08-01 to 1834-06-30, and to extend its
accommodations to the community. The grounds assumed in this annunciation
amounted to an acknowledgment that the curtailment, in the extent to which
it had been carried, was not necessary to the safety of the bank, and had
been persisted in merely to induce Congress to grant the prayer of the bank
in its memorial relative to the removal of the deposits and to give it a
new charter. They were substantially a confession that all the real
distresses which individuals and the country had endured for the preceding
6 or 8 months had been needlessly produced by it, with the view of
affecting through the sufferings of the people the legislative action of
Congress.

It is subject of congratulation that Congress and the country had the
virtue and firmness to bear the infliction, that the energies of our people
soon found relief from this wanton tyranny in vast importations of th
eprecious metals from almost every part of the world, and that at the close
of this tremendous effort to control our Government the bank found itself
powerless and no longer able to loan out its surplus means. The community
had learned to manage its affairs without its assistance, and trade had
already found new auxiliaries, so that on 1834-10-01 the extraordinary
spectacle was presented of a national more than half of whose capital was
either lying unproductive in its vaults or in the hands of foreign
bankers.

To the needless distresses brought on the country during the last session
of Congress has since been added the open seizure of the dividends on the
public stock to the amount of $170,041, under pretense of paying damages,
cost, and interest upon the protested French bill. This sum constituted a
portion of the estimated revenues for the year 1834, upon which the
appropriations made by Congress were based. It would as soon have been
expected that our collectors would seize on the customs or the receivers of
our land offices on the moneys arising from the sale of public lands under
pretenses of claims against the United States as that the bank would have
retained the dividends. Indeed, if the principle be established that any
one who chooses to set up a claim against the United States may without
authority of law seize on the public property or money wherever he can find
it to pay such claim, there will remain no assurance that our revenue will
reach the Treasury or that it will be applied after the appropriation to
the purposes designated in the law.

The pay masters of our Army and the pursers of our Navy may under like
pretenses apply to their own use moneys appropriated to set in motion the
public force, and in time of war leave the country without defense. This
measure resorted to by the bank is disorganizing and revolutionary, and if
generally resorted to by private citizens in like cases would fill the land
with anarchy and violence.

It is a constitutional provision "that no money shall be drawn from the
Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law". The palpable
object of this provision is to prevent the expenditure of the public money
for any purpose what so ever which shall not have been 1st approved by the
representatives of the people and the States in Congress assembled. It
vests the power of declaring for what purposes the public money shall be
expended in the legislative department of the Government, to the exclusion
of the executive and judicial, and it is not within the constitutional
authority of either of those departments to pay it away without law or to
sanction its payment.

According to this plain constitutional provision, the claim of the bank can
never be paid without an appropriation by act of Congress. But the bank has
never asked for an appropriation. It attempts to defeat the provision of
the Constitution and obtain payment without an act of Congress. Instead of
awaiting an appropriation passed by both Houses and approved by the
President, it makes an appropriation for itself and invites an appeal to
the judiciary to sanction it. That the money had not technically been paid
into the Treasury does not affect the principle intended to be established
by the Constitution.

The Executive and the judiciary have as little right to appropriate and
expend the public money without authority of law before it is placed to the
credit of the Treasury as to take it from the Treasury. In the annual
report of the Secretary of the Treasury, and in his correspondence with the
president of the bank, and the opinions of the Attorney General
accompanying it, you will find a further examination of the claims of the
bank and the course it has pursued.

It seems due to the safety of the people funds remaining in that bank and
to the honor of the American people that measures be taken to separate the
Government entirely from an institution so mischievous to the public
prosperity and so regardless of the Constitution and laws. By transferring
the public deposits, by appointing other pension agents as far as it had
the power, by ordering the discontinuance of the receipt of bank checks in
the payment of the public dues after 1834-01-01, the Executive has exerted
all its lawful authority to sever the connection between the Government and
this faithless corporation.

The high-handed career of this institution imposes upon the constitutional
functionaries of this Government duties of the gravest and most imperative
character -- duties which they can not avoid and from which I trust there
will be no inclination on the part of any of them to shrink. My own sense
of them is most clear, as is also my readiness to discharge those which may
rightfully fall on me. To continue any business relations with the Bank of
the United States that may be avoided without a violation of the national
faith after that institution has set at open defiance the conceded right of
the Government to examine its affairs, after it has done all in its power
to deride the public authority in other respects and to bring it into
disrepute at home and abroad, after it has attempted to defeat the clearly
expressed will of the people by turning against them the immense power
intrusted to its hands and by involving a country otherwise peaceful,
flourishing, and happy, in dissension, embarrassment, and distress, would
make the nation itself a party to the degradation so sedulously prepared
for itss public agents and do much to destroy the confidence of man-kind in
popular governments and to bring into contempt their authority and
efficiency.

In guarding against an evil of such magnitude consideration of temprary
convenience should be thrown out of the question, and we should be
influenced by such motives only as look to the honor and preservation of
the republican system. Deeply and solemnly impressed with the justice of
these views, I feel it to be my duty to recommend to you that a law be
passed authorizing the sale of the public stock; that the provision of the
charter requiring the receipt of notes of the bank in payment of public
dues shall, in accordance with the power reserved to Congress in the 14th
section of the charter, be suspended until the bank pays to the Treasury
the dividends withheld, and that all laws connecting the Government or its
officers with the bank, directly or indirectly, be repealed, and that the
institution be left hereafter to its own resources and means.

Events have satisfied my mind, and I think the minds of the American
people, that the mischiefs and dangers which flow from a national bank far
over-balance all its advantages. The bold effort the present bank has made
to control the Government, the distresses it has wantonly produced, the
violence of which it has been the occasion in one of our cities famed for
its observance of law and order, are but premonitions of the fate which
awaits the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of
this institution or the establishment of another like it. It is fervently
hoped that thus admonished those who have heretofore favored the
establishment of a substitute for the present bank will be induced to
abandon it, as it is evidently better to incur any inconvenience that may
be reasonably expected than to concentrate the whole moneyed power of the
Republic in any form what so ever or under any restrictions.

Happily it is already illustrated that the agency of such an institution is
not necessary to the fiscal operations of the Government. The State banks
are found fully adequate to the performance of all services which were
required of the Bank of the United States, quite as promptly and with the
same cheapness. They have maintained themselves and discharged all these
duties while the Bank of the United States was still powerful and in the
field as an open enemy, and it is not possible to conceive that they will
find greater difficulties in their operations when that enemy shall cease
to exist.

The attention of Congress is earnestly invited to the regulation of the
deposits in the State banks by law. Although the power now exercised by the
executive department in this behalf is only such as was uniformly exerted
through every Administration from the origin of the Government up to the
establishment of the present bank, yet it is one which is susceptible of
regulation by law, and therefore ought so to be regulated. The power of
Congress to direct in what places the Treasurer shall keep the moneys in
the Treasury and to impose restrictions upon the Executive authority in
relation to their custody and removal is unlimited, and its exercise will
rather be courted than discouraged by those public officers and agents on
whom rests the responsibility for their safety. It is desirable that as
little power as possible should be left to the President or the Secretary
of the Treasury over those institutions, which, being thus freed from
Executive influence, and without a common head to direct their operations,
would have neither the temptation nor the ability to interfere in the
political conflicts of the country. Not deriving their charters from the
national authorities, they would never have those inducements to meddle in
general elections which have led the Bank of the United States to agitate
and convulse the country for upward of two years.

The progress of our gold coinage is creditable to the officers of the Mint,
and promises in a short period to furnish the country with a sound and
portable currency, which will much diminish the inconvenience to travelers
of the want of a general paper currency should the State banks be incapable
of furnishing it. Those institutions have already shown themselves
competent to purchase and furnish domestic exchange for the convenience of
trade at reasonable rates, and not a doubt is entertained that in a short
period all the wants of the country in bank accommodations and exchange
will be supplid as promptly and as cheaply as they have heretofore been by
the Bank of the United States. If the several States shall be induced
gradually to reform their banking systems and prohibit the issue of all
small notes, we shall in a few years have a currency as sound and as little
liable to fluctuations as any other commercial country.

The report of the Secretary of War, together with the accompanying
documents from the several bureaux of that Department, will exhibit the
situation of the various objects committed to its administration.

No event has occurred since your last session rendering necessary any
movements of the Army, with the exception of the expedition of the regiment
of dragoons into the territory of the wandering and predatory tribes
inhabiting the western frontier and living adjacent to the Mexican
boundary. These tribes have been heretofore known to us principally by
their attacks upon our own citizens and upon other Indians entitled to the
protection of the United States. It became necessary for the peace of the
frontiers to check these habitual inroads, and I am happy to inform you
that the object has been effected without the commission of any act of
hostility. Colonel Dodge and the troops under his command have acted with
equal firmness and humanity, and an arrangement has been made with those
Indians which it is hoped will assure their permanent pacific relations
with the United States and the other tribes of Indians upon that border. It
is to be regretted that the prevalence of sickness in that quarter has
deprived the country of a number of valuable lives, and particularly that
General Leavenworth, an officer well known, and esteemed for his gallant
services in the late war and for his subsequent good conduct, has fallen a
victim to his zeal and exertions in the discharge of his duty.

The Army is in a high state of discipline. Its moral condition, so far as
that is known here, is good, and the various branches of the public service
are carefully attended to. It is amply sufficient under its present
organization for providing the necessary garrisons for the seaboard and for
the defense of the internal frontier, and also for preserving the elements
of military knowledge and for keeping pace with those improvements which
modern experience is continually making. And these objects appear to me to
embrace all the legitimate purposes for which a permanent military force
should be maintained in our country. The lessons of history teach us its
danger and the tendency which exists to an increase. This can be best met
and averted by a just caution on the part of the public itself, and of
those who represent them in Congress.

From the duties which devolve on teh Engineer Department and upon the
topographical engineers, a different organization seems to be demanded by
the public interest, and I recommend the subject to your consideration.

No important change has during this season taken place in the condition of
the Indians. Arrangements are in progress for the removal of the Creeks,
and will soon be for the removal of the Seminoles. I regret that the
Cherokees east of the Mississippi have not yet determined as a community to
remove. How long the personal causes which have heretofore retarded that
ultimately inevitable measure will continue to operate I am unable to
conjecture. It is certain, however, that delay will bring with it
accumulated evils which will render their condition more and more
unpleasant. The experience of every year adds to the conviction that
emigration, and that alone, can preserve from destruction the remnant of
the tribes yet living amongst us. The facility with which the necessaries
of life are procured and the treaty stipulations providing aid for the
emigrant Indians in their agricultural pursuits and in the important
concern of education, and their removal from those causes which have
heretofore depressed all and destroyed many of the tribes, can not fail to
stimulate their exertions and to reward their industry.

The two laws passed at the last session of Congress on the subject of
Indian affairs have been carried into effect, and detailed instructions for
their administration have been given. It will be seen by the estimates for
the present session that a great reduction will take place in the
expenditures of the Department in consequence of these laws, and there is
reason to believe that their operation will be salutary and that the
colonization of the Indians on the western frontier, together with a
judicious system of administration, will still further reduce the expenses
of this branch of the public service and at the same time promote its
usefulness and efficiency.

Circumstances have been recently developed showing the existence of
extensive frauds under the various laws granting pensions and gratuities
for Revolutionary services. It is impossible to estimate the amount which
may have been thus fraudulently obtained from the National Treasury. I am
satisfied, however, it has been such as to justify a re-examination of the
system and the adoption of the necessary checks in its administration. All
will agree that the services and sufferings of the remnant of our
Revolutionary band should be fully compensated; but while this is done,
every proper precaution should be taken to prevent the admission of
fabricated and fraudulent claims.

In the present mode of proceeding the attestations and certificates of the
judicial officers of the various States from a considerable portion of the
checks which are interposed against the commission of frauds. These,
however, have been and may be fabricated, and in such a way as to elude
detection at the examining offices. And independently of this practical
difficulty, it is ascertained that these documents are often loosely
granted; some times even blank certificates have been issued; some times
prepared papers have been signed without inquiry, and in one instance, at
least, the seal of the court has been within reach of a person most
interested in its improper application. It is obvious that under such
circumstances no severity of administration can check the abuse of the law.
And information has from time to time been communicated to the Pension
Office questioning or denying the right of persons placed upon the pension
list to the bounty of the country.

Such cautions are always attended to and examined, but a far more general
investigation is called for, and I therefore recommend, in conformity with
the suggestion of the Secretary of War, that an actual inspection should be
made in each State into the circumstances and claims of every person now
drawing a pension. The honest veteran has nothing to fear from such a
scrutiny, while the fraudulent claimant will be detected and the public
Treasury relieved to an amount, I have reason to believe, far greater than
has heretofore been suspected. The details of such a plan could be so
regulated as to interpose the necessary checks without any burdensome
operation upon the pensioners. The object should be two-fold: To look into
the original justice of the claims, so far as this can be done under a
proper system of regulations, by an examination of the claimants themselves
and by inquiring in the vicinity of their residence into their history and
into the opinion entertained of their Revolutionary services. To ascertain
in all cases whether the original claimant is living and this by actual
personal inspection. This measure will, if adopted, be productive, I think,
of the desired results, and I therefore recommend it to your consideration,
with the further suggestion that all payments should be suspended 'til the
necessary reports are received.

It will be seen by a tabular statement annexed to the documents transmitted
to Congress that the appropriations for objects connected with the War
Department, made at the last session, for the service of the year 1834,
excluding the permanent appropriation for the payment of military
gratuities under the act of 1832-06-07, the appropriation of $200,000 for
arming and equipping the militia, and the appropriation of $10,000 for the
civilization of the Indians, which are not annually renewed, amounted to
the sum of $9,003,261, and that the estimates of appropriations necessary
for the same branches of service for the year 1835 amount to the sum of
$5,778,964, making a difference in the appropriations of the current year
over the estimates of the appropriations for the next of $3,224,297.

The principal causes which have operated at this time to produce this great
difference are shown in the reports and documents and in the detailed
estimates. Some of these causes are accidental and temporary, while others
are permanent, and, aided by a just course of administration, may continue
to operate beneficially upon the public expenditures.

A just economy, expending where the public service requires and withholding
where it does not, is among the indispensable duties of the Government.

I refer you to the accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy and to
the documents with it for a full view of the operations of that important
branch of our service during the present year. It will be seen that the
wisdom and liberality with which Congress has provided for the gradual
increase of our navy material have been seconded by a corresponding zeal
and fidelity on the part of those to whom has been confided the execution
of the laws on the subject, and that but a short period would be now
required to put in commission a force large enough for any exigency into
which the country may be thrown.

When we reflect upon our position in relation to other nations, it must be
apparent that in the event of conflicts with them we must look chiefly to
our Navy for the protection of our national rights. The wide seas which
separate us from other Governments must of necessity be the theater on
which an enemy will aim to assail us, and unless we are prepared to meet
him on this element we can not be said to possess the power requisite to
repel or prevent aggressions. We can not, therefore, watch with too much
attention this arm of our defense, or cherish with too much care the means
by which it can possess the necessary efficiency and extension. To this end
our policy has been heretofore wisely directed to the constant employment
of a force sufficient to guard our commerce, and to the rapid accumulation
of the materials which are necessary to repair our vessels and construct
with ease such new ones as may be required in a state of war.

In accordance with this policy, I recommend to your consideration the
erection of the additional dry dock described by the Secretary of the Navy,
and also the construction of the steam batteries to which he has referred,
for the purpose of testing their efficacy as auxiliaries to the system of
defense now in use.

The report of the PostMaster General herewith submitted exhibits the
condition and prospects of that Department. From that document it appears
that there was a deficit in the funds of the Department at the commencement
of the present year beyond its available means of $315,599.98, which on the
first of July last (1834-07-01) had been reduced to $268,092.74. It appears
also that the revenues for the coming year will exceed the expenditures
about $270,000, which, with the excess of revenue which will result from
the operations of the current half year, may be expected, independently of
any increase in the gross amount of postages, to supply the entire deficit
before the end of 1835. But as this calculation is based on the gross
amount of postages which had accrued within the period embraced by the
times of striking the balances, it is obvious that without a progressive
increase in the amount of postages the existing retrenchments must be
persevered in through the year 1836 that the Department may accumulate a
surplus fund sufficient to place it in a condition of perfect ease.

It will be observed that the revenues of the Post Office Department, though
they have increased, and their amount is above that of any former year,
have yet fallen short of the estimates more than $100,000. This is
attributed in a great degree to the increase of free letters growing out of
the extension and abuse of the franking privilege. There has been a gradual
increase in the number of executive offices to which it has been granted,
and by an act passed in 1833-03, it was extended to members of Congress
throughout the whole year. It is believed that a revision of the laws
relative to the franking privilege, with some enactments to enforce more
rigidly the restrictions under which it is granted, would operate
beneficially to the country, by enabling the Department at an earlier
period to restore the mail facilities that have been withdrawn, and to
extend them more widely, as the growing settlements of the country may
require.

To a measure so important to the Government and so just to our
constituents, who ask no exclusive privileges for themselves and are not
willing to concede them to others, I earnestly recommend the serious
attention of Congress.

The importance of the Post Office Department and the magnitude to which it
has grown, both in its revenues and in its operations, seem to demand its
reorganization by law. The whole of its receipts and disbursements have
hitherto been left entirely to Executive control and individual discretion.
The principle is as sound in relation to this as to any other Department of
the Government, that as little discretion should be confided to the
executive officer who controls it as is compatible with its efficiency. It
is therefore earnestly recommended that it be organized with an auditor and
treasurer of its own, appointed by the President and Senate, who shall be
branches of the Treasury Department.

Your attention is again respectfully invited to the defect which exists in
the judicial system of the United States. Nothing can be more desirable
than the uniform operation of the Federal judiciary throughout the several
States, all of which, standing on the same footing as members of the Union,
have equal rights to the advantages and benefits resulting from its laws.
This object is not attained by the judicial acts now in force, because they
leave one quarter of the States without circuit courts.

It is undoubtedly the duty of Congress to place all the States on the same
footing in this respect, either by the creation of an additional number of
associate judges or by an enlargement of the circuits assigned to those
already appointed so as to include the new States. What ever may be the
difficulty in a proper organization of the judicial system so as to secure
its efficiency and uniformity in all parts of the Union and at the same
time to avoid such an increase of judges as would encumber the supreme
appellate tribunal, it should not be allowed to weigh against the great
injustice which the present operation of the system produces.

I trust that I may be also pardoned for renewing the recommendation I have
so often submitted to your attention in regard to the mode of electing the
President and Vice President of the United States. All the reflection I
have been able to bestow upon the subject increases my conviction that the
best interests of the country will be promoted by the adoption of some plan
which will secure in all contingencies that important right of sovereignty
to the direct control of the people. Could this be attained, and the terms
of those officers be limited to a single period of either four or six
years, I think our liberties would possess an additional safeguard.

At your last session I called the attention of Congress to the destruction
of the public building occupied by the Treasury Department. As the public
interest requires that another building should be erected with as little
delay as possible, it is hoped that the means will be seasonably provided
and that they will be ample enough to authorize such an enlargement and
improvement in the plan of the building as will more effectually
accommodate the public officers and secure the public documents deposited
in it from the casualties of fire.

I have not been able to satisfy myself that the bill entitled "An act to
improve the navigation of the Wabash River", which was sent to me at the
close of your last session, ought to pass, and I have therefore withheld
from it my approval and now return it to the Senate, the body in which it
originated.

There can be no question connected with the administration of public
affairs more important or more difficult to be satisfactorily dealth with
than that which relates to the rightful authority and proper action of the
Federal Government upon the subject of internal improvements. To inherent
embarrassments have been added others resulting from the course of our
legislation concerning it.

I have heretofore communicated freely with Congress upon this subject, and
in adverting to it again I can not refrain from expressing my increased
conviction of its extreme importance as well in regard to its bearing upon
the maintenance of the Constitution and the prudent management of the
public revenue as on account of its disturbing effect upon the harmony of
the Union.

We are in no danger from violations of the Constitution by which
encroachments are made upon the personal rights of the citizen. The
sentence of condemnation long since pronounced by the American people upon
acts of that character will, I doubt not, continue to prove as salutary in
its effects as it is irreversible in its nature.

But against the dangers of unconstitutional acts which, instead of menacing
the vengeance of offended authority, proffer local advantages and bring in
their train the patronage of the Government, we are, I fear, not so safe.
To suppose that because our Government has been instituted for the benefit
of the people it must therefore have the power to do what ever may seem to
conduce to the public good is an error into which even honest minds are too
apt to fall. In yielding themselves to this fallacy they overlook the great
considerations in which the Federal Constitution was founded. They forget
that in consequence of the conceded diversities in the interest and
condition of the different States it was foreseen at the period of its
adoption that although a particular measure of the Government might be
beneficial and proper in 1 State it might be the reverse in another; that
it was for this reason the States would not consent to make a grant to the
Federal Government of the general and usual powers of government, but of
such only as were specifically enumerated, and the probable effects of
which they could, as they thought, safely anticipate; and they forget also
the paramount obligation upon all to abide by the compact then so solemnly
and, as it was hoped, so firmly established.

In addition to the dangers to the Constitution springing from the sources I
have stated, there has been one which was perhaps greater than all. I
allude to the materials which this subject has afforded for sinister
appeals to selfish feelings, and the opinion heretofore so extensively
entertained of its adaptation to the purposes of personal ambition. With
such stimulus it is not surprising that the acts and pretensions of the
Federal Government in this behalf should some times have been carried to an
alarming extent. The questions which have arisen upon this subject have
related -- To the power of making internal improvements within the limits
of a State, with the right of territorial jurisdiction, sufficient at least
for their preservation and use. To the right of appropriating money in aid
of such works when carried on by a State of by a company in virtue of State
authority, surrendering the claim of jurisdiction; and To the propriety of
appropriation for improvements of a particular class, viz, for light
houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and for the removal of sand bars,
sawyers, and other temporary and partial impediments in our navigable
rivers and harbors. The claims of power for the General Government upon
each of these points certainly present matter of the deepest interest. The
first is, however, of much the greatest importance, in as much as, in
addition to the dangers of unequal and improvident expenditures of public
moneys common to all, there is super-added to that the conflicting
jurisdictions of the respective governments. Federal jurisdiction, at least
to the extent I have stated, has been justly regarded by its advocates as
necessarily appurtenant to the power in question, if that exists by the
Constitution.

That the most injurious conflicts would unavoidably arise between the
respective jurisdictions of the State and Federal Governments in the
absence of a constitutional provision marking out their respective
boundaries can not be doubted. The local advantages to be obtained would
induce the States to overlook in the beginning the dangers and difficulties
to which they might ultimately be exposed. The powers exercised by the
Federal Government would soon be regarded with jealousy by the State
authorities, and originating as they must from implication or assumption,
it would be impossible to affix to them certain and safe limits.

Opportunities and temptations to the assumption of power incompatible with
State sovereignty would be increased and those barriers which resist the
tendency of our system toward consolidation greatly weakened. The officers
and agents of the General Government might not always have the discretion
to abstain from intermeddling with State concerns, and if they did they
would not always escape the suspicion of having done so. Collisions and
consequent irritations would spring up; that harmony which should ever
exist between the General Government and each member of the Confederacy
would be frequently interrupted; a spirit of contention would be engendered
and the dangers of disunion greatly multiplied.

Yet we know that not withstanding these grave objections this dangerous
doctrine was at one time apparently proceeding to its final establishment
with fearful rapidity. The desier to embark the Federal Government in works
of internal improvement prevailed in the highest degree during the first
session of the first Congress that I had the honor to meet in my present
situation. When the bill authorizing a subscription on the part of the
United States for stock in the Maysville and Lexington TurnPike Company
passed the two houses, there had been reported by the Committees of
Internal Improvements bills containing appropriations for such objects,
inclusive of those for the Cumberland road and for harbors and light
houses, to the amount of $106,000,000. In this amount was included
authority to the Secretary of the Treasury to subscribe for the stock of
different companies to a great extent, and the residue was principally for
the direct construction of roads by this Government. In addition to these
projects, which had been presented to the two Houses under the sanction and
recommendation of their respective Committees on Internal Improvements,
there were then still pending before the committees, and in memorials to
Congress presented but not referred, different projects for works of a
similar character, the expense of which can not be estimated with
certainty, but must have exceeded $100,000,000.

Regarding the bill authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Maysville
and Lexington TurnPike Company as the entering wedge of a system which,
however weak at first, might soon become strong enough to rive the bands of
the Union asunder, and believing that if its passage was acquiesced in by
the Executive and the people there would no longer be any limitation upon
the authority of the General Government in respect to the appropriation of
money for such objects, I deemed it an imperative duty to withhold from it
the Executive approval.

Although from the obviously local character of that work I might well have
contented myself with a refusal to approve the bill upon that ground, yet
sensible of the vital importance of the subject, and anxious that my views
and opinions in regard to the whole matter should be fully understood by
Congress and by my constituents, I felt it my duty to go further. I
therefore embraced that early occasion to apprise Congress that in my
opinion the Constitution did not confer upon it the power to authorize the
construction of ordinary roads and canals within the limits of a State and
to say, respectfully, that no bill admitting such a power could receive my
official sanction. I did so in the confident expectation that the speedy
settlement of the public mind upon the whole subject would be greatly
facilitated by the difference between the 2 Houses and myself, and that the
harmonious action of the several departments of the Federal Government in
regard to it would be ultimately secured.

So far, at least, as it regards this branch of the subject, my best hopes
have been realized. Nearly four years have elapsed, and several sessions of
Congress have intervened, and no attempt within my recollection has been
made to induce Congress to exercise this power. The applications for the
construction of roads and canals which were formerly multiplied upon your
files are no longer presented, and we have good reason to infer that the
current public sentiment has become so decided against the pretension as
effectually to discourage its reassertion. So thinking, I derive the
greatest satisfaction from the conviction that thus much at least has been
secured upon this important and embarrassing subject.

From attempts to appropriate the national funds to objects which are
confessedly of a local character we can not, I trust, have anything further
to apprehend. My views in regard to the expediency of making appropriations
for works which are claimed to be of a national character and prosecuted
under State authority -- assuming that Congress have the right to do so --
were stated in my annual message to Congress in 1830, and also in that
containing my objections to the Maysville road bill.

So thoroughly convinced am I that no such appropriations ought to be made
by Congress until a suitable constitutional provision is made upon the
subject, and so essential do I regard the point to the highest interests of
our country, that I could not consider myself as discharging my duty to my
constituents in giving the Executive sanction to any bill containing such
an appropriation. If the people of the United States desire that the public
Treasury shall be resorted to for the means to prosecute such works, they
will concur in an amendment of the Constitution prescribing a rule by which
the national character of the works is to be tested, and by which the
greatest practicable equality of benefits may be secured to each member of
the Confederacy. The effects of such a regulation would be most salutary in
preventing unprofitable expenditures, in securing our legislation from the
pernicious consequences of a scramble for the favors of Government, and in
repressing the spirit of discontent which must inevitably arise from an
unequal distribution of treasures which belong alike to all.

There is another class of appropriations for what may be called, without
impropriety, internal improvements, which have always been regarded as
standing upon different grounds from those to which I have referred. I
allude to such as have for their object the improvement of our harbors, the
removal of partial and temporary obstructions in our navigable rivers, for
the facility and security of our foreign commerce. The grounds upon which I
distinguished appropriations of this character from others have already
been stated to Congress. I will now only add that at the 1st session of
Congress under the new Constitution it was provided by law that all
expenses which should accrue from and after the 15th day of August, 1789,
in the necessary support and maintenance and repairs of all light houses,
beacons, buoys, and public piers erected, placed, or sunk before the
passage of the act within any bay, inlet, harbor, or port of the United
States, for rendering the navigation thereof easy and safe, should be
defrayed out of the Treasury of the United States, and, further, that it
should be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to provide by
contracts, with the approbation of the President, for rebuilding when
necessary and keeping in good repair the light houses, beacons, buoys, and
public piers in the several States, and for furnishing them with supplies.

Appropriations for similar objects have been continued from that time to
the present without interruption or dispute. As a natural consequence of
the increase and extension of our foreign commerce, ports of entry and
delivery have been multiplied and established, not only upon our sea-board
but in the interior of the country upon our lakes and navigable rivers. The
convenience and safety of this commerce have led to the gradual extension
of these expenditures; to the erection of light houses, the placing,
planting, and sinking of buoys, beacons, and piers, and to the removal of
partial and temporary obstructions in our navigable rivers and in the
harbors upon our Great Lakes as well as on the sea-board.

Although I have expressed to Congress my apprehension that these
expenditures have some times been extravagant and disproportionate to the
advantages to be derived from them, I have not gelt it to be my duty to
refuse my assent to bills containing them, and have contented myself to
follow in this respect in the foot-steps of all my predecessors. Sensible,
however, from experience and observation of the great abuses to which the
unrestricted exercise of this authority by Congress was exposed, I have
prescribed a limitation for the government of my own conduct by which
expenditures of this character are confined to places below the ports of
entry or delivery established by law. I am very sentible that this
restriction is not as satisfactory as could be desired, and that much
embarrassment may be caused to the executive department in its execution by
appropriations for remote and not well-understood objects. But as neither
my own reflections nor the lights which I may properly derive from other
sources have supplied me with a better, I shall continue to apply my best
exertions to a faithful application of the rule upon which it is founded.

I sincerely regret that I could not give my assent to the bill entitled:
"An act to improve the navigation of the Wabash River"; but I could not
have done so without receding from the ground which I have, upon the
fullest consideration, taken upon this subject, and of which Congress has
been heretofore apprised, and without throwing the subject again open to
abuses which no good citizen entertaining my opinions could desire.

I rely upon the intelligence and candor of my fellow citizens, in whose
liberal indulgence I have already so largely participated, for a correct
appreciation on my motives in interposing as I have done on this and other
occasions checks to a course of legislation which, without in the slightest
degree calling in question the motives of others, I consider as sanctioning
improper and unconstitutional expenditures of public treasure.

I am not hostile to internal improvements, and wish to see them extended to
every part of the country. But I am fully persuaded, if they are not
commenced in a proper manner, confined to proper objects, and conducted
under an authority generally conceded to be rightful, that a successful
prosecution of them can not be reasonably expected. The attempt will meet
with resistance where it might otherwise receive support, and instead of
strengthening the bonds of our Confederacy it will only multiply and
aggravate the causes of disunion.

***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 7, 1835

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

In the discharge of my official duty the again devolves upon me of
communicating with a new Congress. The reflection that the representation
of the Union has been recently renewed, and that the constitutional term of
its service will expire with my own, heightens the solicitude with which I
shall attempt to lay before it the state of our national concerns and the
devout hope which I cherish that its labors to improve them may be crowned
with success.

You are assembled at a period of profound interest to the American patriot.
The unexampled growth and prosperity of our country having given us a rank
in the scale of nations which removes all apprehension of danger to our
integrity and independence from external foes, the career of freedom is
before us, with an earnest from the past that if true to ourselves there
can be no formidable obstacle in the future to its peaceful and
uninterrupted pursuit. Yet, in proportion to the disappearance of those
apprehensions which attended our weakness, as once contrasted with the
power of some of the States of the Old World, should we now be solicitous
as to those which belong to the conviction that it is to our own conduct we
must look for the preservation of those causes on which depend the
excellence and the duration of our happy system of government.

In the example of other systems founded on the will of the people we trace
to internal dissension the influences which have so often blasted the hopes
of the friends of freedom. The social elements, which were strong and
successful when united against external danger, failed in the more
difficult task of properly adjusting their own internal organization, and
thus gave way the great principle of self-government. Let us trust that
this admonition will never be forgotten by the Government or the people of
the United States, and that the testimony which our experience thus far
holds out to the great human family of the practicability and the blessings
of free government will be confirmed in all time to come.

We have but to look at the state of our agriculture, manufactures, and
commerce and the unexampled increase of our population to feel the
magnitude of the trust committed to us. Never in any former period of our
history have we had greater reason than we now have to be thankful to
Divine Providence for the blessings fo health and general prosperity. Every
branch of labor we see crowned with the most abundant rewards. In every
element of national resources and wealth and of individual comfort we
witness the most rapid and solid improvements. With no interruptions to
this pleasing prospect at home which will not yield to the spirit of
harmony and good will that so strikingly pervades the mass of the people in
every quarter, amidst all the diversity of interest and pursuits to which
they are attached, and with no cause of solicitude in regard to our
external affairs which will not, it is hoped, disappear before the
principles of simple justice and the forbearance that mark our intercourse
with foreign powers, we have every reason to feel proud of our beloved
country.

The general state of our foreign relations has not materially changed since
my last annual message.

In the settlement of the question of the North Eastern boundary little
progress has been made. Great Britain has declined acceding to the
proposition of the United States, presented in accordance with the
resolution of the Senate, unless certain preliminary conditions were
admitted, which I deemed incompatible with a satisfactory and rightful
adjustment of the controversy. Waiting for some distinct proposal from the
Government of Great Britain, which has been invited, I can only repeat the
expression of my confidence that, with the strong mutual disposition which
I believe exists to make a just arrangement, this perplexing question can
be settled with a due regard to the well-founded pretensions and pac ific
policy of all the parties to it. Events are frequently occurring on the
North Eastern frontier of a character to impress upon all the necessity of
a speedy and definitive termination of the dispute. This consideration,
added to the desire common to both to relieve the liberal and friendly
relations so happily existing between the two countries from all
embarrassment, will no doubt have its just influence upon both.

Our diplomatic intercourse with Portugal has been renewed, and it is
expected that the claims of our citizens, partially paid, will be fully
satisfied as soon as the condition of the Queen's Government will permit
the proper attention to the subject of them. That Government has, I am
happy to inform you, manifested a determination to act upon the liberal
principles which have marked our commercial policy. The happiest effects
upon the future trade between the United States and Portugal are
anticipated from it, and the time is not thought to be remote when a system
of perfect reciprocity will be established.

The installments due under the convention with the King of the Two Sicilies
have been paid with that scrupulous fidelity by which his whole conduct has
been characterized, and the hope is indulged that the adjustment of the
vexed question of our claims will be followed by a more extended and
mutually beneficial intercourse between the two countries.

The internal contest still continues in Spain. Distinguished as this
struggle has unhappily been by incidents of the most sanguinary character,
the obligations of the late treaty of indemnification with us have been,
never the less, faithfully executed by the Spanish Government.

No provision having been made at the last session of Congress for the
ascertainment of the claims to be paid and the apportionment of the funds
under the convention made with Spain, I invite your early attention to the
subject. The public evidences of the debt have, according to the terms of
the convention and in the forms prescribed by it, been placed in the
possession of the United States, and the interest as it fell due has been
regularly paid upon them. Our commercial intercourse with Cuba stands as
regulated by the act of Congress. No recent information has been received
as to the disposition of the Government of Madrid, and the lamented death
of our recently appointed minister on his way to Spain, with the pressure
of their affairs at home, renders it scarcely probable that any change is
to be looked for during the coming year.

Further portions of the Florida archives have been sent to the United
States, although the death of one of the commissioners at a critical moment
embarrassed the progress of the delivery of them. The higher officers of
the local government have recently shown an anxious desire, in compliance
with the orders from the parent Government, to facilitate the selection and
delivery of all we have a right to claim.

Negotiations have been opened at Madrid for the establishment of a lasting
peace between Spain and such of the Spanish American Governments of this
hemisphere as have availed themselves of the intimation given to all of
them of the disposition of Spain to treat upon the basis of their entire
independence. It is to be regretted that simultaneous appointments by all
of ministers to negotiate with Spain had not been made. The negotiation
itself would have been simplified, and this long-standing dispute,
spreading over a large portion of the world, would have been brought to a
more speedy conclusion.

Our political and commercial relations with Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and
Denmark stand on the usual favorable bases. One of the articles of our
treaty with Russia in relation to the trade on the North-West coast of
America having expired, instructions have been given to our minister at St.
Petersburg to negotiate a renewal of it. The long and unbroken amity
between the two Governments gives every reason for supposing the article
will be renewed, if stronger motives do not exist to prevent it than with
our view of the subject can be anticipated here. I ask your attention to
the message of my predecessor at the opening of the second session fo the
19th Congress, relative to our commercial intercourse with Holland, and to
the documents connected with that subject, communicated to the House of
Representatives on the 10th of January, 1825, and 18th of January, 1827.

Coinciding in the opinion of my predecessor that Holland is not, under the
regulations of her present system, entitled to have her vessels and their
cargoes received into the United States on the footing of American vessels
and cargoes as regards duties of tonnage and impost, a respect for his
reference of it to the Legislature has alone prevented me from acting on
the subject. I should still have waited without comment for the action of
Congress, but recently a claim has been made by Belgian subjects to
admission into our ports for their ships and cargoes on the same footing as
American, with the allegation we could not dispute that our vessels
received in their ports the identical treatment shewn to them in the ports
of Holland, upon whose vessels no discrimination is made in the ports of
the United States.

Given the same privileges the Belgians expected the same benefits --
benefits that were, in fact, enjoyed when Belgium and Holland were united
under one Government. Satisfied with the justice of their pretension to be
placed on the same footing with Holland, I could not, never the less,
without disregard to the principle of our laws, admit their claim to be
treated as Americans, and at the same time a respect for Congress, to whom
the subject had long since been referred, has prevented me from producing a
just equality by taking from the vessels of Holland privileges
conditionally granted by acts of Congress, although the condition upon
which the grant was made has, in my judgment, failed since 1822. I
recommend, therefore, a review of the act of 1824, and such modification of
it as will produce an equality on such terms as Congress shall think best
comports with our settled policy and the obligations of justice to two
friendly powers.

With the Sublime Porte and all the Governments on the coast of Barbary our
relations continue to be friendly. The proper steps have been taken to
renew our treaty with Morocco.

The Argentine Republic has again promised to send within the current year a
minister to the United States.

A convention with Mexico for extending the time for the appointment of
commissioners to run the boundary line has been concluded and will be
submitted to the Senate. Recent events in that country have awakened the
liveliest solicitude in the United States. Aware of the strong temptations
existing and powerful inducements held out to the citizens of the United
States to mingle in the dissensions of our immediate neighbors,
instructions have been given to the district attorneys of the United States
where indications warranted it to prosecute without respect to persons all
who might attempt to violate the obligations of our neutrality, while at
the same time it has been thought necessary to apprise the Government of
Mexico that we should require the integrity of our territory to be
scrupulously respected by both parties.

From our diplomatic agents in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Central America,
Venezuela, and New Granada constant assurances are received of the
continued good understanding with the Governments to which they are
severally accredited. With those Governments upon which our citizens have
valid and accumulating claims, scarcely an advance toward a settlement of
them is made, owing mainly to their distracted state or to the pressure of
imperative domestic questions. Our patience has been and will probably be
still further severely tried, but our fellow citizens whose interests are
involved may confide in the determination of the Government to obtain for
them eventually ample retribution.

Unfortunately, many of the nations of this hemisphere are still
self-tormented by domestic dissensions. Revolution succeeds revolution;
injuries are committed upon foreigners engaged in lawful pursuits; much
time el apses before a government sufficiently stable is erected to justify
expectation of redress; ministers are sent and received, and before the
discussions of past injuries are fairly begun fresh troubles arise; but too
frequently new injuries are added to the old, to be discussed together with
the existing government after it has proved its ability to sustain the
assaults made upon it, or with its successor if overthrown. If this unhappy
condition of things continues much longer, other nations will be under the
painful necessity of deciding whether justice to their suffering citizens
does not require a prompt redress of injuries by their own power, without
waiting for the establishment of a government competent and enduring enough
to discuss and to make satisfaction for them.

Since the last session of Congress the validity of our claims upon France,
as liquidated by the treaty of 1831, has been acknowledged by both branches
of her legislature, and the money has been appropriated for their
discharge; but the payment is, I regret to inform you, still withheld.

A brief recapitulation of the most important incidents in this protracted
controversy will shew how utterly untenable are the grounds upon which this
course is attempted to be justified.

On entering upon the duties of my station I found the United States an
unsuccessful applicant to the justice of France for the satisfaction of
claims the validity of which was never questionable, and has now been most
solemnly admitted by France herself. The antiquity of these claims, their
high justice, and the aggravating circumstances out of which they arose are
too familiar to the American people to require description. It is
sufficient to say that for a period of 10 years and upward our commerce
was, with but little interruption, the subject of constant aggression on
the part of France -- aggressions the ordinary features of which were
condemnations of vessels and cargoes under arbitrary decrees, adopted in
contravention as well of the laws of nations as of treaty stipulations,
burnings on the high seas, and seizures and confiscations under special
imperial rescripts in the ports of other nations occupied by the armies or
under the control of France. Such it is now conceded is the character of
the wrongs we suffered -- wrongs in many cases so flagrant that even their
authors never denied our right to reparation. Of the extent of these
injuries some conception may be formed from the fact that after the burning
of a large amount at sea and the necessary deterioration in other cases by
long detention the American property so seized and sacrificed at forced
sales, excluding what was adjudged to privateers before or without
condemnation, brought into the French treasury upward of 24,000,000 francs,
besides large custom house duties.

The subject had already been an affair of 20 years' uninterrupted
negotiation, except for a short time when France was overwhelmed by the
military power of united Europe. During this period, whilst other nations
were extorting from her payment of their claims at the point of the
bayonet, the United States intermitted their demand for justice out of
respect to the oppressed condition of a gallant people to whom they felt
under obligations for fraternal assistance in their own days of suffering
and peril. The bad effects of these protracted and unavailing discussions,
were obvious, and the line of duty was to my mind equally so.

This was either to insist upon the adjustment of our claims within a
reasonable period or to abandon them altogether. I could not doubt that by
this course the interests and honor of both countries would be best
consulted. Instructions were therefore given in this spirit to the minister
who was sent out once more to demand reparation.

Upon the meeting of Congress in December, 1829, I felt it my duty to speak
of these claims and the delays of France in terms calculated to call the
serious attention of both countries to the subject. The then French
ministry took exception to the message on the ground of its conataining a
menace, under it was not agreeable to the French Government to negotiate.
The American minister of his own accord refuted the construction which was
attempted to be put upon the message and at the same time called to the
recollection of the French ministry that the President's message was a
communication addressed, not to foreign governments, but to the Congress of
the United States, in which it was enjoined upon him by the Constitution to
lay before that body information of the state of the Union, comprehending
its foreign as well as its domestic relations, and that if in the discharge
of this duty he felt it indumbent upon him to summon the attention of
Congress in due time to what might be the possible consequences of existing
difficulties with any foreign government, he might fairly be supposed to do
so under a sense of his own Government, and not from any intention of
holding a menace over a foreign power.

The views taken by him received my approbation, the French Government was
satisfied, and the negotiation was continued. It terminated in the treaty
of July 4, recognizing the justice of our claims in part and promising
payment to the amount of 25,000,000 francs in 6 annual installments.

The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged at Washington on the second
of February, 1832, and in 5 days thereafter it was laid before Congress,
who immediately passed the acts necessary on our part to secure to France
the commercial advantages conceded to her in the compact. The treaty had
previously been solemnly ratified by the King of the French in terms which
are certainly not mere matters of form, and of which the translation is as
follows: WE, approving the above convention in all and each of the
dispositions which are contained in it, do declare, by ourselves as well as
by our heirs and successors, that it is accepted, approved, ratified, and
confirmed, and by these presents, signed by our hand, we do accept,
approve, ratify, and confirm it; promising, on the faith and word of a
king, to observe it and to cause it to be observed inviolably, without ever
contravening it or suffering it to be contravened, directly or indirectly,
for any cause or under any pretense whatsoever. Official information of the
exchange of ratifications in the United States reached Paris whilst the
Chambers were in session. The extraordinary and to us injurious delays of
the French Government in their action upon the subject of its fulfillment
have been heretofore stated to Congress, and I have no disposition to
enlarge upon them here. It is sufficient to observe that the then pending
session was allowed to expire without even an effort to obtain the
necessary appropriations; that the two succeeding ones were also suffered
to pass away without anything like a serious attempt to obtain a decision
upon the subject, and that it was not until the fourth session, almost
three years after the conclusion of the treaty and more than two years
after the exchange of ratifications, that the bill for the execution of the
treaty was pressed to a vote and rejected.

In the mean time the Government of the United States, having full
confidence that a treaty entered into and so solemnly ratified by the
French King would be executed in good faith, and not doubting that
provision would be made for the payment of the first installment which was
to become due on the second day of February, 1833, negotiated a draft for
the amount through the Bank of the United States. When this draft was
presented by the holder with the credentials required by the treaty to
authorize him to receive the money, the Government of France allowed it to
be protested. In addition to the injury in the nonpayment of the money by
France, conformably to her engagement, the United States were exposed to a
heavy claim on the part of the bank under pretense of damages, in
satisfaction of which that institution seized upon and still retains an
equal amount of the public money.

Congress was in session when the decision of the Chambers reached
Washington, and an immediate communication of this apparently final
decision of France not to fulfill the stipulation of the treaty was the
course naturally to be expected from the President. The deep tone of
dissatisfaction which pervaded the public mind and the correspondent
excitement produced in Congress by only a general knowledge of the result
rendered it more than probable that a resort to immediate measures of
redress would be the consequence of calling the attention of that body to
the subject. Sincerely desirous of preserving the pacific relations which
had so long existed between the two countries, I was anxious to avoid this
course if I could be satisfied that by so neither the interests nor the
honor of my country would be compromitted. Without the fullest assurances
on that point, I could not hope to acquit myself of the responsibility to
be incurred in suffering Congress to adjourn without laying the subject
before them. Those received by me were believed to be of that character.

That the feelings produced in the United States by the news of the
rejection of the appropriation would be such as I have described them to
have been was foreseen by the French Government, and prompt measures were
taken by it to prevent the consequence. The King in person expressed
through our minister at Paris his profound regret at the decision of the
Chambers, and promised to send forthwith a ship with dispatches to his
miniter here authorizing him to give such assurances as would satisfy the
Government and people of the United States that the treaty would yet be
faithfully executed by France.

The national ship arrived, and the minister received his instructions.
Claiming to act under the authority derived from them, he gave to this
government in the name of his the most solemn assurances that as soon after
the new elections as the charter would permit the French Chambers would be
convened and the attempt to procure the necessary appropriations renewed;
that all the constitutional powers of the King and his ministers should be
put in requisition to accomplish the object, and he was understood, and so
expressly informed by this Government at the time, to engage that the
question should be pressed to a decision at a period sufficiently early to
permit information of the result to be communicated to Congress at the
commencement of their next session. Relying upon these assurances, I
incurred the responsibility, great as I regarded it to be, of suffering
Congress to separate without communicating with them upon the subject.

The expectations justly founded upon the promises thus solemnly made to
this Government by that of France were not realized. The French Chambers
met on the thirty-first of July, 1834, soon after the election, and
although our minister in Paris urged the French ministry to bring the
subject before them, they declined doing so. He next insisted that the
Chambers, of prorogued without acting on the subject, should be reassembled
at a period so early that their action on the treaty might be known in
Washington prior to the meeting of Congress.

This reasonable request was not only declined, but the Chambers were
prorogued to the 29th of December, a day so late that their decision,
however urgently pressed, could not in all probability be obtained in time
to reach Washington before the necessary adjournment of Congress by the
Constitution. The reasons given by the ministry for refusing to convoke the
Chambers at an earlier period were afterwards shewn not to be insuperable
by their actual convocation on the first of December under a special call
for domestic purposes, which fact, however, did not become known to this
Government until after the commencement of the last session of Congress.

Thus disappointed in our just expectations, it became my imperative duty to
consult with Congress in regard to the expediency of a resort to
retaliatory measures in case the stipulations of the treaty should not be
speedily complied with, and to recommend such as in my judgment the
occasion c alled for. To this end an unreserved communication of the case
in all its aspects became indispensable. To have shrunk in making it from
saying all that was necessary to its correct understanding, and that the
truth would justify, for fear of giving offense to others, would have been
unworthy of us. To have gone, on the other hand, a single step further for
the purpose of wounding the pride of a Government and people with whom we
had so many motives for cultivating relations of amity and reciprocal
advantage would have been unwise and improper.

Admonished by the past of the difficulty of making even the simplest
statement of our wrongs without disturbing the sensibilities of those who
had by their position become responsible for their redress, and earnestly
desirous of preventing further obstacles from that source, I went out of my
way to preclude a construction of the message by which the recommendation
that was made to Congress might be regarded as a menace to France in not
only disavowing such a design, but in declaring that her pride and her
power were too well known to expect anything from her fears. The message
did not reach Paris until more than a month after the Chambers had been in
session, and such was the insensibility of the ministry to our rightful
claims and just expectations that our minister had been informed that the
matter when introduced would not be pressed as a cabinet measure.

Although the message was not officially communicated to the French
Government, and not withstanding the declaration to the contrary which it
contained, the French minstry decided to consider the conditional
recommendation of reprisals a menace and an insult which the honor of the
nation made it incumbent on them to resent. The measures resorted to by
them to evince their sense of the supposed indignity were the immediate
recall of their minister at Washington, the offer of passports to the
American minister at Paris, and a public notice to the legislative Chambers
that all diplomatic intercourse with the United States had been suspended.

Having in this manner vindicated the dignity of France, they next proceeded
to illustrate her justice. To this end a bill was immediately introduced
into the Chamber of Deputies proposing to make the appropriations necessary
to carry into effect the treaty. As this bill subsequently passed into a
law, the provisions of which now constitute the main subject of difficulty
between the two nations, it becomes my duty, in order to place the subject
before you in a clear light, to trace the history of its passage and to
refer with some particularity to the proceedings and discussions in regard
to it.

The minister of finance in his opening speech alluded to the measures which
had been adopted to resent the supposed indignity, and recommended the
execution of the treaty as a measure required by the honor and justice of
France. He as the organ of the ministry declared the message, so long as it
had not received the sanction of Congress, a mere expression of the
personal opinion of the President, for which neither the Government nor
people of the United States were responsible, and that an engagement had
been entered into for the fulfillment of which the honor of France was
pledged. Entertaining these views, the single condition which the French
ministry proposed to annex to the payment of the money was that it should
not be made until it was ascertained that the Government of the United
States had done nothing to injure the interests of France, or, in other
words, that no steps had been authorized by Congress of a hostile character
toward France.

What the disposition of action of Congress might be was then unknown to the
French cabinet; but on the 14th day of January the Senate resolved that it
was at that time inexpedient to adopt any legislative measures in regard to
the state of affairs between the United States and France, and no action on
the subject had occurred in the House of Representatives. These facts were
known in Paris prior to the 28th of March, 1835, when the committee to whom
the bill of indemnification had been referred reported it to the Chamber of
Deputies. That committee substantially re-echoed the sentiments of the
ministry, declared that Congress had set aside the proposition of the
President, and recommended the passage of the bill without any other
restriction than that originally proposed. Thus was it known to the French
ministry and Chambers that if the position assumed by them, and which had
been so frequently and solemnly announced as the only one compatible with
the honor of France, was maintained and the bill passed as originally
proposed, the money would be paid and there would be an end of this
unfortunate controversy.

But this cheering prospect was soon destroyed by an amendment introduced
into the bill at the moment of its passage, providing that the money should
not be paid until the French Government had received satisfactory
explanations of the President's message of the second December, 1834, and,
what is still more extraordinary, the president of the council of ministers
adopted this amendment and consented to its incorporation in the bill. In
regard to a supposed insult which had been formally resented by the recall
of their minister and the offer of passports to ours, they now for the
first time proposed to ask explanations. Sentiments and propositions which
they had declared could not justly be imputed to the Government or people
of the United States are set up as obstacles to the performance of an act
of conceded justice to that Government and people. They had declared that
the honor of France required the fulfillment of the engagement into which
the King had entered, unless Congress adopted the recommendations of the
message. They ascertained that Congress did not adopt them, and yet that
fulfillment is refused unless they first obtain from the President
explanations of an opinion characterized by themselves as personal and
inoperative.

The conception that it was my intention to menace or insult the Government
of France is as unfounded as the attempt to extort from the fears of that
nation what her sense of justice may deny would be vain and ridiculous. But
the Constitution of the United States imposes on the President the duty of
laying before Congress the condition of the country in its foreign and
domestic relations, and of recommending such measures as may in his opinion
be required by its interests. From the performance of this duty he can not
be deterred by the fear of wounding the sensibilities of the people or
government of whom it may become necessary to speak; and the American
people are incapble of submitting to an interference by any government on
earth, however powerful, with the free performance of the domestic duties
which the Constitution has imposed on their public functionaries.

The discussions which intervene between the several departments of our
Government being to ourselves, and for anything said in them our public
servants are only responsible to their own constituents and to each other.
If in the course of their consultations facts are erroneously stated or
unjust deductions are made, they require no other inducement to correct
them, however informed of their error, than their love of justice and what
is due to their own character; but they can never submit to be interrogated
upon the subject as a matter of right by a foreign power. When our
discussions terminate in acts, our responsibility to foreign powers
commences, not as individuals, but as a nation. The principle which calls
in question the President for the language of his message would equally
justify a foreign power in demanding explanations of the language used in
the report of a committee or by a member in debate.

This is not the first time that the Government of France has taken
exception to the messages of American Presidents. President Washington and
the first President Adams in the performance of their duties to the
American people fell under the animadversions of the French Directory. The
obj ection taken by the ministry of Charles 10, and removed by the
explanation made by our minister upon the spot, has already been adverted
to. When it was understood that the ministry of the present King took
exception to my message of last year, putting a construction upon it which
was disavowed on its face, our late minister at Paris, in answer to the
note which first announced a dissatisfaction with the language used in the
message, made a communication to the French Government under date of the
29th of January, 1835, calculated to remove all impressions which an
unreasonable susceptibility had created. He repeated and called the
attention of the French Government to the disavowal contained in the
message itself of any intention to intimidate by menace; he truly declared
that it contained and was intended to contain no charge of ill faith
against the King of the French, and properly distinguished between the
right to complain in unexceptionable terms of the omission to execute an
agreement and an accusation of bad motives in withholding such execution,
and demonstrated that the necessary use of that right ought not to be
considered as an offensive imputation.

Although this communication was made without instructions and entirely on
the minister's own responsibility, yet it was afterwards made the act of
this Government by my full approbation, and that approbation was officially
made known on the 25th of April, 1835, to the French Government. It,
however, failed to have any effect. The law, after this friendly
explanation, passed with the obnoxious amendment, supported by the King's
ministers, and was finally approved by the King.

The people of the United States are justly attached to a pacific system in
their intercourse with foreign nations. It is proper, therefore, that they
should know whether their Government has adhered to it. In the present
instance it has been carried to the utmost extent that was consistent with
a becoming self-respect. The note of the 29th of January, to which I have
before alluded, was not the only one which our minister took upon himself
the responsibility of presenting on the same subject and in the same
spirit.

Finding that it was intended to make the payment of a just debt dependent
on the performance of a condition which he knew could never be complied
with, he thought it a duty to make another attempt to convince the French
Government that whilst self-respect and regard to the dignity of other
nations would always prevent us from using any language that ought to give
offense, yet we could never admit a right in any foreign government to ask
explanations of or to interfere in any manner in the communications which
one branch of our public councils made with another; that in the present
case no such language had been used, and that this had in a former note
been fully and voluntarily state, before it was contemplated to make the
explantion a condition; and that there might be no misapprehension he
stated the terms used in that note, and he officially informed them that it
had been approved by the President, and that therefore every explanation
which could reasonably be asked or honorably given had been already made;
that the contemplated measure had been anticipated by a voluntary and
friendly declaration, and was therefore not only useless, but might be
deemed offensive, and certainly would not be complied with if annexed as a
condition.

When this latter communication, to which I especially invite the attention
of Congress, was laid before me, I entertained the hope that the means it
was obviously intended to afford of an honorable and speedy adjustment of
the difficulties between the two nations would have been accepted, and I
therefore did not hesitate to give it my sanction and full approbation.
This was due to the minister who had made himself responsible for the act,
and it was published to the people of the United States and is now laid
before their representatives to shew hos far their Executive has gone in
its endeavors to restore a good understanding betwe en the two countries.
It would have been at any time communicated to the Government of France had
it been officially requested.

The French Government having received all the explanation which honor and
principle permitted, and which could in reason be asked, it was hoped it
would no longer hesitate to pay the installments now due. The agent
authorized to receive the money was instructed to inform the French
minister of his readiness to do so. In reply to this notice he was told
that the money could not then be paid, because the formalities required by
the act of the Chambers had not been arranged.

Not having received any official information of the intentions of the
French Government, and anxious to bring, as far as practicable, this
unpleasant affair to a close before the meeting of Congress, that you might
have the whole subject before you, I caused our charge' d'affaires at Paris
to be instructed to ask for the final determination of the French
Government, and in the event of their refusal to pay the installments now
due, without further explanations to return to the United States.

The result of this last application has not yet reached us, but is daily
expected. That it may be favorable is my sincere wish. France having now,
through all the branches of her Government, acknowledged the validity of
our claims and the obligation of the treaty of 1831, and there really
existing no adequate cause for further delay, will at length, it may be
hoped, adopt the course which the interests of both nations, not less than
the principles of justice, so imperiously require. The treaty being once
executed on her part, little will remain to disturb the friendly relations
of the two countries -- nothing, indeed, which will not yield to the
suggestions of a pacific and enlightened policy and to the influence of
that mutual good will and of those generous recollections which we may
confidently expect will then be revived in all their ancient force.

In any event, however, the principle involved in the new aspect which has
been given to the controversy is so vitally important to the independent
administration of the Government that it can neither be surrendered nor
compromitted without national degradation. I hope it is unnecessary for me
to say that such a sacrifice will not be made through any agency of mine.
The honor of my country shall never be stained by an apology from me for
the statement of truth and the performance of duty; nor can I give any
explanation of my official acts except such as is due to integrity and
justice and consistent with the principles on which our institutions have
been framed. This determination will, I am confident, be approved by my
constituents. I have, indeed, studied their character to but little purpose
if the sum of 25,000,000 francs will have the weight of a feather in the
estimation of what appertains to their national independence, and if,
unhappily, a different impression should at any time obtain in any quarter,
they will, I am sure, rally round the Government of their choice with
alacrity and unanimity, and silence for ever the degrading imputation.

Having thus frankly presented to you the circumstances which since the last
session of Congress have occurred in this interesting and important matter,
with the views of the Executive in regard to them, it is at this time only
necessary to add that when ever the advices now daily expected from our
chargyyé d'affaires shall have been received they will be made the
subject of a special communication.

The condition of the public finances was never more flattering than at the
present period.

Since my last annual communication all the remains of the public debt have
been redeemed, or money has been placed in deposit for this purpose when
ever the creditors choose to receive it. All the other pecuniary
engagements of the Government have been honorably and promptly fulfilled,
and there will be a balance in the Treasury at the close of the year of
about $19,000,000. It is believed that after meeting all outstanding and
unexpended appropriations there will remain near $11,000,000 to be applied
to any new objects which Congress may designate or to the more rapid
execution of the works already in progress. In aid of these objects, and to
satisfy the current expenditures of the ensuing year, it is estimated that
there will be received from various sources $20,000,000 more in 1836.

Should Congress make new appropriations in conformity with the estimates
which will be submitted from the proper Departments, amounting to about
$24,000,000, still the available surplus at the close of the next year,
after deducting all unexpended appropriations, will probably not be less
than $6,000,000. This sum can, in my judgment, be now usefully applied to
proposed improvements in our navy yards, and to new national works which
are not enumerated in the present estimates or to the more rapid completion
of those already begun. Either would be constitutional and useful, and
would render unnecessary any attempt in our present peculiar condition to
divide the surplus revenue or to reduce it any faster than will be effected
by the existing laws.

In any event, as the annual report from the Secretary of the Treasury will
enter into details, shewing the probability of some decrease in the revenue
during the next 7 years and a very considerable deduction in 1842, it is
not recommended that Congress should undertake to modify the present tariff
so as to disturb the principles on which the compromise act was passed.
Taxation on some of the articles of general consumption which are not in
competition with our own productions may be no doubt so diminished as to
lessen to some extent the source of this revenue, and the same object can
also be assisted by more liberal provisions for the subjects of public
defense, which in the present state of our prosperity and wealth may be
expected to engage your attention.

If, however, after satisfying all the demands which can arise from these
sources the unexpended balance in the Treasury should still continue to
increase, it would be better to bear with the evil until the great changes
contemplated in our tariff laws have occurred and shall enable us to revise
the system with that care and circumspection which are due to so delicate
and important a subject.

It is certainly our duty to diminish as far as we can the burdens of
taxation and to regard all the restrictions which are imposed on the trade
and navigation of our citizens as evils which we shall mitigate when ever
we are not prevented by the adverse legislation and policy of foreign
nations or those primary duties which the defense and independence of our
country enjoin upon us. That we have accomplished much toward the relief of
our citizens by the changes which have accompanied the payment of the
public debt and the adoption of the present revenue laws is manifest from
the fact that compared to 1833 there is a diminution of near $25,000,000 in
the last two years, and that our expenditures, independently of those for
the public debt, have been reduced near $9,000,000 during the same period.
Let us trust that by the continued observance of economy and by harmonizing
the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce much more
may be accomplished to diminish the burdens of government and to increase
still further the enterprise and the patriotic affection of all classes of
our citizens and all the members of our happy Confederacy. As the data
which the Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you in regard to our
financial resources are full and extended, and will afford a safe guide in
your future calculations, I think it unnecessary to offer any further
observations on that subject here.

Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity of the country, not the
least gratifying is that afforded by the receipts from the sales of the
public lands, which amount in the present year to the unexpected sum of
$11,000,000. This circumstance attests the rapidity with which agriculture,
the first and most important occupation of man, advances and contributes to
the wealth and power of our extended territory. Being still of the opinion
that it is our best policy, as far as we can consistently with the
obligations under which those lands were ceded to the United States, to
promote their speedy settlement, I beg leave to call the attention of the
present Congress to the suggestions I have offered respecting it in my
former messages.

The extraordinary receipts from the sales of the public lands invite you to
consider what improvements the land system, and particularly the condition
of the General Land Office, may require. At the time this institution was
organized, near a quarter century ago, it would probably have been thought
extravagant to anticipate for this period such an addition to its business
as has been produced by the vast increase of those sales during the past
and present years. It may also be observed that since the year 1812 the
land offices and surveying districts have been greatly multiplied, and that
numerous legislative enactments from year to year since that time have
imposed a great amount of new and additional duties upon that office, while
the want of a timely application of force commensurate with the care and
labor required has caused the increasing embarrassment of accumulated
arrears in the different branches of the establishment.

These impediments to the expedition of much duty in the General Land Office
induce me to submit to your judgment whether some modification of the laws
relating to its organization, or an organization of a new character, be not
called for at the present juncture, to enable the office to accomplish all
the ends of its institution with a greater degree of facility and
promptitude than experience has proved to be practicable under existing
regulations. The variety of the concerns and the magnitude and complexity
of the details occupying and dividing the attention of the Commissioner
appear to render it difficult, if not impracticable, for that officer by
any possible assiduity to bestow on all the multifarious subjects upon
which he is called to act the ready and careful attention due to their
respective importance, unless the Legislature shall assist him by a law
providing, or enabling him to provide, for a more regular and economical
distribution of labor, with the incident responsibility among those
employed under his direction. The mere manual operation of affixing his
signature to the vast number of documents issuing from his office subtracts
so largely from the time and attention claimed by the weighty and
complicated subjects daily accumulating in that branch of the public
service as to indicate the strong necessity of revising the organic law of
the establishment. It will be easy for Congress hereafter to proportion the
expenditure on account of this branch of the service to its real wants by
abolishing from time to time the offices which can be dispensed with.

The extinction of the public debt having taken place, there is no longer
any use for the offices of Commissioners of Loans and of the Sinking Fund.
I recommend, therefore, that they be abolished, and that proper measures be
taken for the transfer to the Treasury Department of any funds, books, and
papers connected with the operations of those offices, and that the proper
power be given to that Department for closing finally any portion of their
business which may remain to be settled.

It is also incumbent on Congress in guarding the pecuniary interests of the
country to discontinue by such a law as was passed in 1812 the receipt of
the bills of the Bank of the United States in payment of the public
revenue, and to provide for the designation of an agent whose duty it shall
be to take charge of the books and stock of the United States in that
institution, and to close all connection with it after the 3d of March,
1836 1836-03-03, when its charter expires. In making provision in regard to
the disposition of this stock it will be essential to define clearly and
strictly the duties and powers of the officer charged with that branch of
the public service.

It will be seen from the correspondence which the Secretary of the Treasury
will lay before you that not withstanding the large amount of the stock
which the United States hold in that institution no information has yet
been communicated which will enable the Government to anticipate when it
can receive any dividends or derive any benefit from it.

Connected with the condition of the finances and the flourishing state of
the country in all its branches of industry, it is pleasing to witness the
advantages which have been already derived from the recent laws regulating
the value of the gold coinage. These advantages will be more apparent in
the course of the next year, when the branch mints authorized to be
established in North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana shall have gone into
operation. Aided, as it is hoped they will be, by further reforms in the
banking systems of the States and by judicious regulations on the part of
Congress in relation to the custody of the public moneys, it may be
confidently anticipated that the use of gold and silver as circulating
medium will become general in the ordinary transactions connected with the
labor of the country.

The great desideratum in modern times is an efficient check upon the power
of banks, preventing that excessive issue of paper whence arise those
fluctuations in the standard of value which render uncertain the rewards of
labor. It was supposed by those who established the Bank of the United
States that from the credit given to it by the custody of the public moneys
and other privileges and the precautions taken to guard against the evils
which the country had suffered in the bankruptcy of many of the State
institutions of that period we should derive from that institution all the
security and benefits of a sound currency and every good end that was
attainable under the provision of the Constitution which authorizes
Congress alone to coin money and regulate the value thereof. But it is
scarcely necessary now to say that these anticipations have not been
realized.

After the extensive embarrassment and distress recently produced by the
Bank of the United States, from which the country is now recovering,
aggravated as they were by pretensions to power which defied the public
authority, and which if acquiesced in by the people would have changed the
whole character of our Government, every candid and intelligent individual
must admit that for the attainment of the great advantages of a sound
currency we must look to a course of legislation radically different from
that which created such an institution.

In considering the means of obtaining so important an end we must set aside
all calculations of temporary convenience, and be influenced by those only
which are in harmony with the true character and the permanent interests of
the Republic. We must recur to first principles and see what it is that has
prevented the legislation of Congress and the States on the subject of
currency from satisfying the public expectation and realizing results
corresponding to those which have attended the action of our system when
truly consistent with the great principle of equality upon which it rests,
and with that spirit of forbearance and mutual concession and generous
patriotism which was originally, and must ever continue to be, the vital
element of our Union.

On this subject I am sure that I can not be mistaken in ascribing our want
of success to the undue countenance which has been afforded to the spirit
of monopoly. All the serious dangers which our system has yet encountered
may be traced to the resort to implied powers and the use of corporations
clothed with privileges, the effect of which is to advance the interests of
the few at the expense of the many.

We have felt but one class of these dangers exhibited in the contest waged
by the Bank of the United States against the Government for the last four
years. Happily they have been obviated for the present by the indignant
resistance of the people, but we should recollect that the principle whence
they sprung is an ever-active one, which will not fail to renew its effo
rts in the same and in other forms so long as there is a hope of success,
founded either on the inattention of the people or the treachery of their
representatives to the subtle progress of its influence.

The bank is, in fact, but one of the fruits of a system at war with the
genius of all our institutions -- a system founded upon a political creed
the fundamental principle of which is a distrust of the popular will as a
safe regulator of political power, and whose great ultimate object and
inevitable result, should it prevail, is the consolidation of all power in
our system in one central government. Lavish public disbursements and
corporations with exclusive privileges would be its substitutes for the
original and as yet sound checks and balances of the Constitution -- the
means by whose silent and secret operation a control would be exercised by
the few over the political conduct of the many by first acquiring that
control over the labor and earnings of the great body of the people.
Wherever this spirit has effected an alliance with political power, tyranny
and despotism have been the fruit. If it is ever used for the ends of
government, it has to be incessantly watched, or it corrupts the sources of
the public virtue and agitates the country with questions unfavorable to
the harmonious and steady pursuit of its true interests.

We are now to see whether, in the present favorable condition of the
country, we can not take an effectual stand against thei spirit of
monopoly, and practically prove in respect to the currency as well as other
important interests that ther is no necessity for so extensive a resort to
it as that which has been heretofore practiced. The experience of another
year has confirmed the utter fallacy of the idea that the Bank of the
United States was necessary as a fiscal agent of the Government. Without
its aid as such, indeed, in despite of all the embarrassment it was in its
power to create, the revenue has been paid with punctuality by our
citizens, the business of exchange, both foreign and domestic, has been
conducted with convenience, and the circulating medium has been greatly
improved.

By the use of the State banks, which do not derive their charters from the
General Government and are not controlled by its authority, it is
ascertained that the moneys of the United States can be collected and
disbursed without loss or inconvenience, and that all the wants of the
community in relation to exchange and currency are supplied as well as they
have ever been before. If under circumstances the most unfavorable to the
steadiness of the money market it has been found that the considerations on
which the Bank of the United States rested its claims to the public favor
were imaginary and groundless, it can not be doubted that the experience of
the future will be more decisive against them.

It has been seen that without the agency of a great moneyed monopoly the
revenue can be collected and conveniently and safely applied to all the
purposes of the public expenditure. It is also ascertained that instead of
being necessarily made to promote the evils of an unchecked paper system,
the management of the revenue can be made auxiliary to the reform which the
legislatures of several of the States have already commenced in regard to
the suppression of small bills, and which has only to be fostered by proper
regulations on the part of Congress to secure a practical return to the
extent required for the security of the currency to the constitutional
medium.

Severed from the Government as political engines, and not susceptible of
dangerous extension and combination, the State banks will not be tempted,
nor will they have teh power, which we have seen exercised, to divert the
public funds from the legitimate purposes of the Government. The collection
and custody of the revenue, being, on the contrary, a source of credit to
them, will increase the security which the States provide for a faithful
execution of their trusts by multiplying the scrutinies to which their
operations and accounts will be subjected. Thus disposed, as well from
interest as the obligations of their charters, it can not be doubted that
such conditions as Congress may see fit to adopt respecting the deposits in
these institutions, with a view to the gradual disuse, of the small bills
will be cheerfully complied with, and that we shall soon gain in place of
the Bank of the United States a practical reform in the whole paper system
of the country. If by this policy we can ultimately witness the suppression
of all bank bills below $20, it is apparent that gold and silver will take
their place and become the principal circulating medium in the common
business of the farmers and mechanics of the country. The attainment of
such a result will form an era in the history of our country which will be
dwelt upon with delight by every true friend of its liberty and
independence. It will lighten the great tax which our paper system has so
long collected from the earnings of labor, and do more to revive and
perpetuate those habits of economy and simplicity which are so congenial to
the character of republicans than all the legislation which has yet been
attempted.

To this subject I feel that I can not too earnestly invite the special
attention of Congress, without the exercise of whose authority the
opportunity to accomplish so much public good must pass unimproved. Deeply
impressed with its vital importance, the Executive has taken all the steps
within his constitutional power to guard the public revenue and defeat the
expectation which the Bank of the United States indulged of renewing and
perpetuating its monopoly on the ground of its necessity as a fiscal agent
and as affording a sounder currency than could be obtained without such an
institution.

In the performance of this duty much responsibility was incurred which
would have been gladly avoided if the stake which the public had in the
question could have been otherwise preserved. Although clothed with the
legal authority and supported by precedent, I was aware that there was in
the act of the removal of the deposits a liability to excite that
sensitiveness to Executive power which it is characteristic and the duty of
free men to indulge; but I relied on this feeling also, directed by
patriotism and intelligence, to vindicate the conduct which in the end
would appear to have been called for by the interests of my country. The
apprehensions natural to this feeling that there may have been a desire,
through the instrumentality of that measure, to extend the Executive
influence, or that it may have been prompted by motives not sufficiently
free from ambition, were not over-looked. Under the operation of our
institutions the public servant who is called on to take a step of high
responsibility should feel in the freedom which gives rise to such
apprehensions his highest security. When unfounded the attention which they
arouse and the discussions they excite deprive those who indulge them of
the power to do harm; when just they but hasten the certainty with which
the great body of our citizens never fail to repel an attempt to procure
the sanction to any exercise of power inconsistent with the jealous
maintenance of their rights.

Under such convictions, and entertaining no doubt that my constitutional
obligations demanded the steps which were taken inreference to the removal
of the deposits, it was impossible for me to be deterred from the path of
duty by a fear that my motives could be misjudged or that political
prejudices could defeat the just consideration of the merits of my conduct.
The result has shewn how safe is this reliance upon the patriotic temper
and enlightened discernment of the people. That measure has now been before
them and has stood the test of all the severe analysis which its general
importance, the interests it affected, and the apprehensions it excited
were calculated to produce, and it now remains for Congress to consider
what legislation has become necessary in consequence.

I need only add to what I have on former occasions said on this subject
general ly that in the regulations which Congress may prescribe respecting
the custody of the public moneys it is desirable that as little discretion
as may be deemed consistent with their safe-keeping should be given to the
executive agents. No one can be more deeply impressed than I am with the
soundness of the doctrine which restrains and limits, by specific
provisions, executive discretion, as far as it can be done consistently
with the preservation of its constitutional character. In respect to the
control over the public money this doctrine is peculiarly applicable, and
is in harmony with the great principle which I felt I was sustaining in the
controversy with the Bank of the United States, which has resulted in
severing to some extent a dangerous connection between a moneyed and
political power. The duty of the Legislature to define, by clear and
positive enactments, the nature and extent of the action which it belongs
to the Executive to superintend springs out of a policy analogous to that
which enjoins upon all branches of the Federal Government an abstinence
from the exercise of powers not clearly granted.

In such a Government, possessing only limited and specific powers, the
spirit of its general administration can not be wise or just when it
opposes the reference of all doubtful points to the great source of
authority, the States and the people, whose number and diversified
relations securing them against the influences and excitements which may
mis-lead their agents, make them the safest depository of power. In its
application to the Executive, with reference to the legislative branch of
the Government, the same rule of action should make the President ever
anxious to avoid the exercise of any discretionary authority which can be
regulated by Congress. The biases which may operate upon him will not be so
likely to extend to the representatives of the people in that body.

In my former messages to Congress I have repeatedly urged the propriety of
lessening the discretionary authority lodged in the various Departments,
but it has produced no effect as yet, except the discontinuance of extra
allowances in the Army and Navy and the substitution of fixed salaries in
the latter. It is believed that the same principles could be advantageously
applied in all cases, and would promote the efficiency and economy of the
public service, at the same tiem that greater satisfaction and more equal
justice would be secured to the public officers generally.

The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will put you in possession
of the operations of the Department confided to his care in all its
diversified relations during the past year.

I am gratified in being able to inform you that no occurrence has required
any movement of the military force, except such as is common to a state of
peace. The services of the Army have been limited to their usual duties at
the various garrisons upon the Atlantic and in-land frontier, with the
exceptions states by the Secretary of War. Our small military establishment
appears to be adequate to the purposes for which it is maintained, and it
forms a nucleus around which any additional force may be collected should
the public exigencies unfortunately require any increase of our military
means.

***

State of the Union Address
Andrew Jackson
December 5, 1836

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

Addressing to you the last annual message I shall ever present to the
Congress of the United States, it is a source of the most heartfelt
satisfaction to be able to congratulate you on the high state of prosperity
which our beloved country has attained. With no causes at home or abroad to
lessen the confidence with which we look to the future for continuing
proofs of the capacity of our free institutions to produce all the fruits
of good government,

the general condition of our affairs may well excite our national pride.

I can not avoid congratulating you, and my country particularly, on the
success of the efforts made during my Administration by the Executive and
Legislature, in conformity with the sincere, constant, and earnest desire
of the people, to maintain peace and establish cordial relations with all
foreign powers. Our gratitude is due to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe,
and I invite you to unite with me in offering to Him fervent supplications
that His providential care may ever be extended to those who follow us,
enabling them to avoid the dangers and the horrors of war consistently with
a just and indispensable regard to the rights and honor of our country. But
although the present state of our foreign affairs, standing, without
important change, as they did when you separated in July last, is
flattering in the extreme, I regret to say that many questions of an
interesting character, at issue with other powers, are yet unadjusted.
Amongst the most prominent of these is that of our NE boundary. With an
undiminished confidence in the sincere desire of His Britannic Majesty's
Government to adjust that question, I am not yet in possession of the
precise grounds upon which it proposes a satisfactory adjustment.

With France our diplomatic relations have been resumed, and under
circumstances which attest the disposition of both Governments to preserve
a mutually beneficial intercourse and foster those amicable feelings which
are so strongly required by the true interests of the two countries. With
Russia, Austria, Prussia, Naples, Sweden, and Denmark the best
understanding exists, and our commercial intercourse is gradually expanding
itself with them. It is encouraged in all these countries, except Naples,
by their mutually advantageous and liberal treaty stipulations with us.

The claims of our citizens on Portugal are admitted to be just, but
provision for the payment of them has been unfortunately delayed by
frequent political changes in that Kingdom.

The blessings of peace have not been secured by Spain. Our connections with
that country are on the best footing, with the exception of the burdens
still imposed upon our commerce with her possessions out of Europe.

The claims of American citizens for losses sustained at the bombardment of
Antwerp have been presented to the Governments of Holland and Belgium, and
will be pressed, in due season, to settlement.

With Brazil and all our neighbors of this continent we continue to maintain
relations of amity and concord, extending our commerce with them as far as
the resources of the people and the policy of their Governments will
permit. The just and long-standing claims of our citizens upon some of them
are yet sources of dissatisfaction and complaint. No danger is apprehended,
however, that they will not be peacefully, although tardily, acknowledged
and paid by all, unless the irritating effect of her struggle with Texas
should unfortunately make our immediate neighbor, Mexico, an exception.

It is already known to you, by the correspondence between the two
Governments communicated at your last session, that our conduct in relation
to that struggle is regulated by the same principles that governed us in
the dispute between Spain and Mexico herself, and I trust that it will be
found on the most severe scrutiny that our acts have strictly corresponded
with our professions. That the inhabitants of the United States should feel
strong prepossessions for the one party is not surprising. But this
circumstance should of itself teach us great caution, lest it lead us into
the great error of suffering public policy to be regulated by partially or
prejudice; and there are considerations connected with the possible result
of this contest between the two parties of so much delicacy and importance
to the United States that our character requires that we should neither
anticipate events nor attempt to control them.

The known desire of the Texans to become a part of our system, although its
gratification depends upon the reconcilement of various and conflicting
interests, necessarily a work of time and uncertain in itself, is
calculated to expose our conduct to misconstruction in the eyes of the
world. There are already those who, indifferent to principle themselves and
prone to suspect the want of it in others, charge us with ambitious designs
and insidious policy.

You will perceive by the accompanying documents that the extraordinary
mission from Mexico has been terminated on the sole ground that the
obligations of this Government to itself and to Mexico, under treaty
stipulations, have compelled me to trust a discretionary authority to a
high officer of our Army to advance into territory claimed as part of Texas
if necessary to protect our own or the neighboring frontier from Indian
depredation. In the opinion of the Mexican functionary who has just left
us, the honor of his country will be wounded by American soldiers entering,
with the most amicable avowed purposes, upon ground from which the
followers of his Government have been expelled, and over which there is at
present no certainty of a serious effort on its part to re-establish its
dominion. The departure of this minister was the more singular as he was
apprised that the sufficiency of the causes assigned for the advance of our
troops by the commanding general had been seriously doubted by me, and
there was every reason to suppose that the troops of the United States,
their commander having had time to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the
information upon which they had been marched to Nacogdoches, would be
either there in perfect accordance with the principles admitted to be just
in his conference with the Secretary of State by the Mexican minister
himself, or were already withdrawn in consequence of the impressive
warnings their commanding officer had received from the Department of War.
It is hoped and believed that his Government will take a more dispassionate
and just view of this subject, and not be disposed to construe a measure of
justifiable precaution, made necessary by its known inability in execution
of the stipulations of our treaty to act upon the frontier, into an
encroachment upon its rights or a stain upon its honor.

In the mean time the ancient complaints of injustice made on behalf of our
citizens are disregarded, and new causes of dissatisfaction have arisen,
some of them of a character requiring prompt remonstrance and ample and
immediate redress. I trust, however, by tempering firmness with courtesy
and acting with great forbearance upon every incident that has occurred or
that may happen, to do and to obtain justice, and thus avoid the necessity
of again bringing this subject to the view of Congress.

It is my duty to remind you that no provision has been made to execute our
treaty with Mexico for tracing the boundary line between the two countries.
What ever may be the prospect of Mexico's being soon able to execute the
treaty on its part, it is proper that we should be in anticipation prepared
at all times to perform our obligations, without regard to the probable
condition of those with whom we have contracted them.

The result of the confidential inquiries made into the condition and
prospects of the newly declared Texan Government will be communicated to
you in the course of the session.

Commercial treaties promising great advantages to our enterprising
merchants and navigators have been formed with the distant Governments of
Muscat and Siam. The ratifications have been exchanged, but have not
reached the Department of State. Copes of the treaties will be transmitted
to you if received before, or published if arriving after, the close of the
present session of Congress.

Nothing has occurred to interrupt the good understanding that has long
existed with the Barbary Powers, nor to check the good will which is
gradually growing up from our intercourse with the dominions of the
Government of growing of the distinguished chief of the Ottoman Empire.

Information has been received at the Department of State that a treaty with
the Emperor of Morocco has just been negotiated, which, I hope, will be
received in time to be laid before the Senate previous to the close of the
session.

You will perceive from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury that the
financial means of the country continue to keep pace with its improvement
in all other respects. The receipts into the Treasury during the present
year

will amount to about $47,691,898; those from customs being estimated at
$22,523,151, those from lands at about $24,000,000, and the residue from
miscellaneous sources. The expenditures for all objects during the year are
estimated not to exceed $32,000,000, which will leave a balance in the
Treasury for public purposes on the first day of January next of about
$41,723,959. This sum, with the exception of $5,000,000, will be
transferred to the several States in accordance with the provisions of the
act regulating the deposits of the public money.

The unexpended balances of appropriation on the first day of January next
are estimated at $14,636,062, exceeding by $9,636,062 the amount which will
be left in the deposit banks, subject to the draft of the Treasurer of the
United States, after the contemplated transfers to the several States are
made. If, therefore, the future receipts should not be sufficient to meet
these outstanding and future appropriations, there may be soon a necessity
to use a portion of the funds deposited with the States.

The consequences apprehended when the deposit act of the last session
received a reluctant approval have been measurably realized. Though an act
merely for the deposit of the surplus moneys of the United States in the
State treasuries for safe-keeping until they may be wanted for the service
of the General Government, it has been extensively spoken of as an act to
give the money to the several States, and they have been advised to use it
as a givt, without regard to the means of refunding it when called for.
Such a suggestion has doubtless been made without a proper attention to the
various principles and interests which are affected by it.

It is manifest that the law itself can not sanction such a suggestion, and
that as it now stands the States have no more authority to receive and use
these deposits without intending to return them than any deposit bank or
any individual temporarily charged with the safe-keeping or application of
the public money would now have for converting the same to their private
use without the consent and against the will of the Government. But
independently of the violation of public faith and moral obligation which
are involved in this suggestion when examined in reference to the terms of
the present deposit act, it is believed that the considerations which
should govern the future legislation of Congress on this subject will be
equally conclusive against the adoption of any measure recognizing the
principles on which the suggestion has been made.

Considering the intimate connection of the subject with the financial
interests of the country and its great importance in whatever aspect it can
be viewed, I have bestowed upon it the most anxious reflection, and feel it
to be my duty to state to Congress such thoughts as have occurred to me, to
aid their deliberation in treating it in the manner best calculated to
conduce to the common good.

The experience of other nations admonished us to hasten the extinguishment
of the public debt; but it will be in vain that we have congratulated each
other upon the disappearance of this evil if we do not guard against the
equally great one of promoting the unnecessary accumulation of public
revenue. No political maxim is better established than that which tells us
that an improvident expenditure of money is the parent of profligacy, and
that no people can hope to perpetuate their liberties who long acquiesce in
a policy which taxes them for objects not necessary to the legitimate and
real wants of their Government. Flattering as is the condition of our
country at the present period, because of its unexampled advance in all the
steps of social and political improvement, it can not be disguised that
there is a lurking danger already apparent in the neglect of this warning
truth, and that the time has arrived when the representatives of the people
should be employed in devising some more appropriate remedy than now exists
to avert it.

Under our present revenue system there is every probability that there will
continue to be a surplus beyond the wants of the Government, and it has
become our duty to decide whether such a result be consistent with the true
objects of our Government.

Should a surplus be permitted to accumulate beyond the appropriations, it
must be retained in the Treasury, as it now is, or distributed among the
people or the States.

To retain it in the Treasury unemployed in any way is impracticable; it is,
besides, against the genius of our free institutions to lock up in vaults
the treasure of the nation. To take from the people the right of bearing
arms and put their weapons of defense in the hands of a standing army would
be scarcely more dangerous to their liberties than to permit the Government
to accumulate immense amounts of treasure beyond the supplies necessary to
its legitimate wants. Such a treasure would doubtless be employed at some
time, as it has been in other countries, when opportunity tempted
ambition.

To collect it merely for distribution to the States would seem to be highly
impolitic, if not as dangerous as the proposition to retain it in the
Treasury.

The shortest reflection must satisfy everyone that to require the people to
pay taxes to the Government merely that they may be paid back again is
sporting with the substantial interests of the country, and no system which
produces such a result can be expected to receive the public countenance.
Nothing could be gained by it even if each individual who contributed a
portion of the tax could receive back promptly the same portion. But it is
apparent that no system of the kind can ever be enforced which will not
absorb a considerable portion of the money to be distributed in salaries
and commissions to the agents employed in the process and in the various
losses and depreciations which arise from other causes, and the practical
effect of such an attempt must ever be to burden the people with taxes, not
for purposes beneficial to them, but to swell the profits of deposit banks
and support a band of useless public officers.

A distribution to the people is impracticable and unjust in other respects.
It would be taking one man's property and giving it to another. Such would
be the unavoidable result of a rule of equality (and none other is spoken
of or would be likely to be adopted), in as much as there is no mode by
which the amount of the individual contributions of our citizens to the
public revenue can be ascertained. We know that they contribute unequally,
and a rule, therefore, that would distribute to them equally would be
liable to all the objections which apply to the principle of an equal
division of property. To make the General Government the instrument of
carrying this odious principle into effect would be at once to destroy the
means of its usefulness and change the character designed for it by the
framers of the Constitution.

But the more extended and injurious consequences likely to result from a
policy which would collect a surplus revenue from the purpose of
distributing it may be forcibly illustrated by an examination of the
effects already produced by the present deposit act. This act, although
certainly designed to secure the safe-keeping of the public revenue, is not
entirely free in its tendencies from any of the objections which apply to
this principle of distribution. The Government had without necessity
received from the people a large surplus, which, instead of being employed
as heretofore and returned to them by means of the public expenditure, was
deposited with sundry banks. The banks proceeded to make loans upon this
surplus, and thus converted it into banking capital, and in this manner it
has tended to multiply bank charters and has had a great agency in
producing a spirit of wild speculation. The possession and use of the
property out of which this surplus was created belonged to the people, but
the Government has transferred its possession to incorporated banks, whose
interest and effort it is to make large profits out of its use. This
process need only be stated to show its injustice and bad policy.

And the same observations apply to the influence which is produced by the
steps necessary to collect as well as to distribute such a revenue. About
3/5 of all the duties on imports are paid in the city of New York, but it
is obvious that the means to pay those duties are drawn from every quarter
of the Union. Every citizen in every State who purchases and consumes an
article which has paid a duty at that port contributes to the accumulating
mass. The surplus collected there must therefore be made up of moneys or
property withdrawn from other points and other States. Thus the wealth and
business of every region from which these surplus funds proceed must be to
some extent injured, while that of the place where the funds are
concentrated and are employed in banking are proportionably extended. But
both in making the transfer of the funds which are first necessary to pay
the duties and collect the surplus and in making the re-transfer which
becomes necessary when the time arrives for the distribution of that
surplus there is a considerable period when the funds can not be brought
into use, and it is manifest that, besides the loss inevitable from such an
operation, its tendency is to produce fluctuations in the business of the
country, which are always productive of speculation and detrimental to the
interests of regular trade. Argument can scarcely be necessary to show that
a measure of this character ought not to receive further legislative
encouragement.

By examining the practical operation of the ration for distribution adopted
in the deposit bill of the last session we shall discover other features
that appear equally objectionable. Let it be assumed, for the sake of
argument, that the surplus moneys to be deposited with the States have been
collected and belong to them in the ration of their federal representative
population -- an assumption founded upon the fact that any deficiencies in
our future revenue from imposts and public lands must be made up by direct
taxes collected from the States in that ration. It is proposed to
distribute this surplus -- say $30,000,000 -- not according to the ration
in which it has been collected and belongs to the people of the States, but
in that of their votes in the colleges of electors of President and Vice
President. The effect of a distribution upon that ration is shown by the
annexed table, marked A.

By an examination of that table it will be perceived that in the
distribution of a surplus of $30,000,000 upon that basis there is a great
departure from the principle which regards representation as the true
measure of taxation, and it will be found that the tendency of that
departure will be to increase whatever inequalities have been supposed to
attend the operation of our federal system in respect to its bearings upon
the different interests of the Union. In making the basis of representation
the basis of taxation the framers of the Constitution intended to equalize
the burdens which are necessary to support the Government, and the adoption
of that ratio, while it accomplished this object, was also the means of
adjusting other great topics arising out of the conflicting views
respecting the political equality of the various members of the
Confederacy. What ever, therefore, disturbs the liberal spirit of the
compromises which established a rule of taxation so just and equitable, and
which experience has proved to be so well adapted to the genius and habits
of our people, should be received with the greatest caution and distrust.

A bare inspection in the annexed table of the differences produced by the
ration used in the deposit act compared with the results of a distribution
according to the ration of direct taxation must satisfy every unprejudiced
mind that the former ration contravenes the spirit of the Constitution and
produces a degree of injustice in the operations of the Federal Government
which would be fatal to the hope of perpetuating it. By the ration of
direct taxation, for example, the State of Delaware in the collection of
$30,000,000 of revenue would pay into the Treasury $188,716, and in a
distribution of $30,000,000 she would receive back from the Government,
according to the ration of the deposit bill, the sum of $306,122; and
similar results would follow the comparison between the small and the large
States throughout the Union, thus realizing to the small States an
advantage which would be doubtless as unacceptable to them as a motive for
incorporating the principle in any system which would produce it as it
would be inconsistent with the rights and expectations of the large
States.

It was certainly the intention of that provision of the Constitution which
declares that "all duties, imposts, and excises" shall "be uniform
throughout the United States" to make the burdens of taxation fall equally
upon the people in what ever State of the Union they may reside. But what
would be the value of such a uniform rule if the moneys raised by it could
be immediately returned by a different one which will give to the people of
some States much more and to those of others much less than their fair
proportions? Were the Federal Government to exempt in express terms the
imports, products, and manufactures of some portions of the country from
all duties while it imposed heavy ones on others, the injustice could not
be greater. It would be easy to show how by the operation of such a
principle the large States of the Union would not only have to contribute
their just share toward the support of the Federal Government, but also
have to bear in some degree the taxes necessary to support the governments
of their smaller sisters; but it is deemed unnecessary to state the details
where the general principle is so obvious.

A system liable to such objections can never be supposed to have been
sanctioned by the framers of the Constitution when they conferred on
Congress the taxing power, and I feel persuaded that a mature examination
of the subject will satisfy everyone that there are insurmountable
difficulties in the operation of any plan which can be devised of
collecting revenue for the purpose of distributing it. Congress is only
authorized to levy taxes "to pay the debts and provide for the common
defense and general welfare of the United States". There is no such
provision as would authorize Congress to collect together the property of
the country, under the name of revenue, for the purpose of dividing it
equally or unequally among the States or the people. Indeed, it is not
probable that such an idea ever occurred to the States when they adopted
the Constitution. But however this may be, the only safe rule for us in
interpreting the powers granted to the Federal Government is to regard the
absence of express authority to touch a subject so important and delicate
as this as equivalent to a prohibition.

Even if our powers were less doubtful in this respect as the Constitution
now stands, there are considerations afforded by recent experience which
would seem to make it our duty to avoid a resort to such a system. All will
admit that the simplicity and economy of the State governments mainly
depend on the fact that money has to be supplied to support them by the
same men, or their agents, who vote it away in appropriations. Hence when
there are extravagant and wasteful appropriations there must be a
corresponding increase of taxes, and the people, becoming awakened, will
necessarily scrutinize the character of measures which thus increase their
burdens. By the watchful eye of self-interest the agents of the people in
the State governments are repressed and kept within the limits of a just
economy.

But if the necessity of levying the taxes be taken from those who make the
appropriations and thrown upon a more distant and less responsible set of
public agents, who have power to approach the people by an indirect and
stealthy taxation, there is reason to fear that prodigality will soon
supersede those characteristics which have thus far made us look with so
much pride and confidence to the State governments as the main-stay of our
Union and liberties. The State legislatures, instead of studying to
restrict their State expenditures to the smallest possible sum, will claim
credit for their profusion, and harass the General Government for increased
supplies.

Practically there would soon be but one taxing power, and that vested in a
body of men far removed from the people, in which the farming and mechanic
interests would scarcely be represented. The States would gradually lose
their purity as well as their independence; they would not dare to murmur
at the proceedings of the General Government, lest they should lose their
supplies; all would be merged in a practical consolidation, cemented by
wide-spread corruption, which could only be eradicated by one of those
bloody revolutions which occasionally over-throw the despotic systems of
the Old World.

In all the other aspects in which I have been able to look at the effect of
such a principle of distribution upon the best interests of the country I
can see nothing to compensate for the disadvantages to which I have
adverted. If we consider the protective duties, which are in a great degree
the source of the surplus revenue, beneficial to one section of the Union
and prejudicial to another, there is no corrective for the evil in such a
plan of distribution. On the contrary, there is reason to fear that all the
complaints which have sprung from this cause would be aggravated. Everyone
must be sensible that a distribution of the surplus must beget a
disposition to cherish the means which create it, and any system,
therefore, into which it enters must have a powerful tendency to increase
rather than diminish the tariff. If it were even admitted that the
advantages of such a system could be made equal to all the sections of the
Union, the reasons already so urgently calling for a reduction of the
revenue would never the less lose none of their force, for it will always
be improbable that an intelligent and virtuous community can consent to
raise a surplus for the mere purpose of dividing it, diminished as it must
inevitably be by the expenses of the various machinery necessary to the
process.

The safest and simplest mode of obviating all the difficulties which have
been mentioned is to collect only revenue enough to meet the wants of the
Government, and let the people keep the balance of their property in their
own hands, to be used for their own profit. Each State will then support
its own government and contribute its due share toward the support of the
General Government. There would be no surplus to cramp and lessen the
resources of individual wealth and enterprise, and the banks would be left
to their ordinary means. Whatever agitations and fluctuations might arise
from our unfortunate paper system, they could never be attributed, justly
or unjustly, to the action of the Federal Government. There would be some
guaranty that the spirit of wild speculation which seeks to convert the
surplus revenue into banking capital would be effectually checked, and that
the scenes of demoralization which are now so prevalent through the land
would disappear.

Without desiring to conceal that the experience and observation of the last
two years have operated a partial change in my views upon this interesting
subject, it is never the less regretted that the suggestions made by me in
my annual messages of 1829 and 1830 have been greatly misunderstood. At
that time the great struggle was begun against that latitudinarian
construction of the Constitution which authorizes the unlimited
appropriation of the revenues of the Union to internal improvements within
the States, tending to invest in the hands and place under the control of
the General Government all the principal roads and canals of the country,
in violation of State rights and in derogation of State authority.

At the same time the condition of the manufacturing interest was such as to
create an apprehension that the duties on imports could not without
extensive mischief be reduced in season to prevent the accumulation of a
considerable surplus after the payment of the national debt. In view of the
dangers of such a surplus, and in preference to its application to internal
improvements in derogation of the rights and powers of the States, the
suggestion of an amendment of the Constitution to authorize its
distribution was made. It was an alternative for what were deemed greater
evils -- a temporary resort to relieve an over-burdened treasury until the
Government could, without a sudden and destructive revulsion in the
business of the country, gradually return to the just principle of raising
no more revenue from the people in taxes than is necessary for its
economical support.

Even that alternative was not spoken of but in connection with an amendment
of the Constitution. No temporary inconvenience can justify the exercise of
a prohibited power not granted by that instrument, and it was from a
conviction that the power to distribute even a temporary surplus of revenue
is of that character that it was suggested only in connection with an
appeal to the source of all legal power in the General Government, the
States which have established it. No such appeal has been taken, and in my
opinion a distribution of the surplus revenue by Congress either to the
States or the people is to be considered as among the prohibitions of the
Constitution.

As already intimated, my views have undergone a change so far as to be
convinced that no alteration of the Constitution in this respect is wise or
expedient. The influence of an accumulating surplus upon the credit system
of the country, producing dangerous extensions and ruinous contractions,
fluctuations in the price of property, rash speculation, idleness,
extravagance, and a deterioration of morals, have taught us the important
lesson that any transient mischief which may attend the reduction of our
revenue to the wants of our Government is to be borne in preference to an
over-flowing treasury.

I beg leave to call your attention to another subject intimately associated
with the preceding one -- the currency of the country.

It is apparent from the whole context of the Constitution, as well as the
history of the times which gave birth to it, that it was the purpose of the
Convention to establish a currency consisting of the precious metals.
These, from their peculiar properties which rendered them the standard of
value in all other countries, were adopted in this as well to establish its
commercial standard in reference to foreign countries by a permanent rule
as to exclude the use of a mutable medium of exchange, such as of certain
agricultural commodities recognized by the statutes of some States as a
tender for debts, or the still more pernicious expedient of a paper
currency.

The last, from the experience of the evils of the issues of paper during
the Revolution, had become so justly obnoxious as not only to suggest the
clause in the Constitution forbidding the emission of bills of credit by
the States, but also to produce that vote in the Convention which negatived
the proposition to grant power to Congress to charter corporations -- a
proposition well understood at the time as intended to authorize the
establishment of a national bank, which was to issue a currency of bank
notes on a capital to be created to some extent out of Government stocks.
Although this proposition was refused by a direct vote of the Convention,
the object was afterwards in effect obtained by its ingenious advocates
through a strained construction of the Constitution. The debts of the
Revolution were funded at prices which formed no equivalent compared with
the nominal amount of the stock, and under circumstances which exposed the
motives of some of those who participated in the passage of the act to
distrust.

The facts that the value of the stock was greatly enhanced by the creation
of the bank, that it was well understood that such would be the case, and
that some of the advocates of the measure were largely benefited by it
belong to the history of the times, and are well calculated to diminish the
respect which might otherwise have been due to the action of the Congress
which created the institution.

On the establishment of a national bank it became the interest of its
creditors that gold should be superseded by the paper of the bank as a
general currency. A value was soon attached to the gold coins which made
their exportation to foreign countries as a mercantile commodity more
profitable than their retention and use at home as money. It followed as a
matter of course, if not designed by those who established the bank, that
the bank became in effect a substitute for the Mint of the United States.

Such was the origin of a national bank currency, and such the beginning of
those difficulties which now appear in the excessive issues of the banks
incorporated by the various States.

Although it may not be possible by any legislative means within our power
to change at once the system which has thus been introduced, and has
received the acquiescence of all portions of the country, it is certainly
our duty to do

all that is consistent with our constitutional obligations in preventing
the mischiefs which are threatened by its undue extension. That the efforts
of the fathers of our Government to guard against it by a constitutional
provision were founded on an intimate knowledge of the subject has been
frequently attested by the bitter experience of the country. The same
causes which led them to refuse their sanction to a power authorizing the
establishment of incorporations for banking purposes now exist in a much
stronger degree to urge us to exert the utmost vigilance in calling into
action

the means necessary to correct the evils resulting from the unfortunate
exercise of the power, and it is hoped that the opportunity for effecting
this great good will be improved before the country witnesses new scenes of
embarrassment and distress.

Variableness must ever be the characteristic of a currency of which the
precious metals are not the chief ingredient, or which can be expanded or
contracted without regard to the principles that regulate the value of
those metals as a standard in the general trade of the world. With us bank
issues constitute such a currency, and must ever do so until they are made
dependent on those just proportions of gold and silver as a circulating
medium which experience has proved to be necessary not only in this but in
all other commercial countries. Where those proportions are not infused
into the circulation and do not control it, it is manifest that prices must
vary according to the tide of bank issues, and the value and stability of
property must stand exposed to all the uncertainty which attends the
administration of institutions that are constantly liable to the temptation
of an interest distinct from that of the community in which they are
established.

The progress of an expansion, or rather a depreciation, of the currency by
excessive bank issues is always attended by a loss to the laboring classes.
This portion of the community have neither time nor opportunity to watch
the ebbs and flows of the money market. Engaged from day to day in their
useful toils, they do not perceive that although their wages are nominally
the same, or even somewhat higher, they are greatly reduced in fact by the
rapid increase of a spurious currency, which, as it appears to make money
abound, they are at first inclined to consider a blessing.

It is not so with the speculator, by whom this operation is better
understood, and is made to contribute to his advantage. It is not until the
prices of the necessaries of life become so dear that the laboring classes
can not supply their wants out of their wages that the wages rise and
gradually reach a justly proportioned rate to that of the products of their
labor. When thus, by depreciation in consequence of the quantity of paper
in circulation, wages as well as prices become exorbitant, it is soon found
that the whole effect of the adulteration is a tariff on our home industry
for the benefit of the countries where gold and silver circulate and
maintain uniformity and moderation in prices. It is then perceived that the
enhancement of the price of land and labor produces a corresponding
increase in the price of products until these products do not sustain a
competition with similar ones in other countries, and thus both
manufactured and agricultural productions cease to bear expectation from
the country of the spurious currency, because they can not be sold for
cost.

This is the process by which specie is banished by the paper of the banks.
Their vaults are soon exhausted to pay for foreign commodities. The next
step is a stoppage of specie payment -- a total degradation of paper as a
currency -- unusual depression of prices, the ruin of debtors, and the
accumulation of property in the hands of creditors and cautious
capitalists.

It was in view of these evils, together with the dangerous power wielded by
the Bank of the United States and its repugnance to our Constitution, that
I was induced to exert the power conferred upon me by the American people
to prevent the continuance of that institution. But although various
dangers to our republican institutions have been obviated by the failure of
that bank to extort from the Government a renewal of its charter, it is
obvious that little has been accomplished except a salutary change of
public opinion toward restoring to the country the sound currency provided
for in the Constitution.

In the acts of several of the States prohibiting the circulation of small
notes and the auxiliary enactments of Congress at the last session
forbidding their reception or payment on public account, the true policy of
the country has been advanced and a larger portion of the precious metals
infused into our circulating medium. These measures will probably be
followed up in due time by the enactment of State laws banishing from
circulation bank notes of still higher denominations, and the object may be
materially promoted by further acts of Congress forbidding the employment
as fiscal agents of such banks as continue to issue notes of low
denominations and throw impediments in the way of the circulation of gold
and silver.

The effects of an extension of bank credits and over-issues of bank paper
have been strikingly illustrated in the sales of the public lands. From the
returns made by the various registers and receivers in the early part of
last summer it was perceived that the receipts arising from the sales of
the public lands were increasing to an unprecedented amount. In effect,
however, these receipts amounted to nothing more than credits in bank. The
banks lent out their notes to speculators. They were paid to the receivers
and immediately returned to the banks, to be lent out again and again,
being mere instruments to transfer to speculators the most valuable public
land and pay the Government by a credit on the books of the banks.

Those credits on the books of some of the Western banks, usually called
deposits, were already greatly beyond their immediate means of payment, and
were rapidly increasing. Indeed, each speculation furnished means for
another; for no sooner had one individual or company paid in the notes than
they were immediately lent to another for a like purpose, and the banks
were extending their business and their issues so largely as to alarm
considerate men and render it doubtful whether these bank credits, if
permitted to accumulate, would ultimately be of the least value to the
Government. The spirit of expansion and speculation was not confined to the
deposit banks, but pervaded the whole multitude of banks throughout the
Union and was giving rise to new institutions to aggravate the evil.

The safety of the public funds and the interest of the people generally
required that these operations should be checked; and it became the duty of
every branch of the General and State Governments to adopt all legitimate
and proper means to produce that salutary effect. Under this view of my
duty I directed the issuing of the order which will be laid before you by
the Secretary of the Treasury, requiring payment for the public lands sold
to be made in specie, with an exception until the 15th of the present month
in favor of actual settlers.

This measure has produced many salutary consequences. It checked the career
of the Western banks and gave them additional strength in anticipation of
the pressure which has since pervaded our Eastern as well as the European
commercial cities. By preventing the extension of the credit system it
measurably cut off the means of speculation and retarded its progress in
monopolizing the most valuable of the public lands. It has tended to save
the new States from a non-resident proprietorship, one of the greatest
obstacles to the advancement of a new country and the prosperity of an old
one. It has tended to keep open the public lands for entry by emigrants at
Government prices instead of their being compelled to purchase of
speculators at double or triple prices. And it is conveying into the
interior large sums in silver and gold, there to enter permanently into the
currency of the country and place it on a firmer foundation. It is
confidently believed that the country will find in the motives which
induced that order and the happy consequences which will have ensued much
to commend and nothing to condemn.

It remains for Congress if they approve the policy which dictated this
order to follow it up in its various bearings. Much good, in my judgment,
would be produced by prohibiting sales of the public lands except to actual
settlers at a reasonable reduction of price, and to limit the quantity
which shall be sold to them. Although it is believed the General Government
never ought to receive anything but the constitutional currency in exchange
for the public lands, that point would be of less importance if the lands
were sold for immediate settlement and cultivation. Indeed, there is
scarcely a mischief arising out of our present land system, including the
accumulating surplus of revenues, which would not be remedied at once by a
restriction on land sales to actual settlers; and it promises other
advantages to the country in general and to the new States in particular
which can not fail to receive the most profound consideration of Congress.

Experience continues to realize the expectations entertained as to the
capacity of the State banks to perform the duties of fiscal agents for the
Government at the time of the removal of the deposits. It was alleged by
the advocates of the Bank of the United States that the State banks, what
ever might be the regulations of the Treasury Department, could not make
the transfers required by the Government or negotiate the domestic
exchanges of the country. It is now well ascertained that the real domestic
exchanges performed through discounts by the United States Bank and its 25
branches were at least 1/3 less than those of the deposit banks for an
equal period of time; and if a comparison be instituted between the amounts
of service rendered by these institutions on the broader basis which has
been used by the advocates of the United States Bank in estimating what
they consider the domestic exchanges transacted by it, the result will be
still more favorable to the deposit banks.

The whole amount of public money transferred by the Bank of the United
States in 1832 was $16,000,000. The amount transferred and actually paid by
the deposit banks in the year ending the first of October last was
$39,319,899; the amount transferred and paid between that period and the
6th of November was $5,399,000, and the amount of transfer warrants
outstanding on that day was $14,450,000, making an aggregate of
$59,168,894. These enormous sums of money first mentioned have been
transferred with the greatest promptitude and regularity, and the rates at
which the exchanges have been negotiated previously to the passage of the
deposit act were generally below those charged by the Bank of the United
States. Independently of these services, which are far greater than those
rendered by the United States Bank and its 25 branches, a number of the
deposit banks have, with a commendable zeal to aid in the improvement of
the currency, imported from abroad, at their own expense, large sums of the
precious metals for coinage and circulation.

In the same manner have nearly all the predictions turned out in respect to
the effect of the removal of the deposits -- a step unquestionably
necessary to prevent the evils which it was foreseen the bank itself would
endeavor to create in a final struggle to procure a renewal of its charter.
It may be thus, too, in some degree with the further steps which may be
taken to prevent the excessive issue of other bank paper, but it is to be
hoped that nothing will now deter the Federal and State authorities from
the firm and vigorous performance of their duties to themselves and to the
people in this respect.

In reducing the revenue to the wants of the Government your particular
attention is invited to those articles which constitute the necessaries of
life. The duty on salt was laid as a war tax, and was no doubt continued to
assist in providing for the payment of the war debt. There is no article
the release of which from taxation would be felt so generally and so
beneficially. To this may be added all kinds of fuel and provisions.
Justice and benevolence unite in favor of releasing the poor of our cities
from burdens which are not necessary to the support of our Government and
tend only to increase the wants of the destitute.

It will be seen by the report of the Secretary of the Treasury and the
accompanying documents that the Bank of the United States has made no
payment on account of the stock held by the Government in that institution,
although urged to pay any portion which might suit its convenience, and
that it has given no information when payment may be expected. Nor,
although repeatedly requested, has it furnished the information in relation
to its condition which Congress authorized the Secretary to collect at
their last session. Such measures as are within the power of the Executive
have been taken to ascertain the value of the stock and procure the payment
as early as possible.

The conduct and present condition of that bank and the great amount of
capital vested in it by the United States require your careful attention.
Its charter expired on the third day of March last, and it has now no power
but that given in the twenty-first section, "to use the corporate name,
style, and capacity for the purpose of suits for the final settlement and
liquidation of the affairs and accounts of the corporation, and for the
sale and disposition of their estate -- real, personal, and mixed -- but
not for any other purpose or in any other manner what so ever, nor for a
period exceeding two years after the expiration of the said term of
incorporation".

Before the expiration of the charter the stock-holders of the bank obtained
an act of incorporation from the legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding
only the United States. Instead of proceeding to wind up their concerns and
pay over to the United States the amount due on account of the stock held
by them, the president and directors of the old bank appear to have
transferred the books, papers, notes, obligations, and most or all of its
property to this new corporation, which entered upon business as a
continuation of the old concern.

Amongst other acts of questionable validity, the notes of the expired
corporation are known to have been used as its own and again put in
circulation. That the old bank had no right to issue or re-issue its notes
after the expiration of its charter can not be denied, and that it could
not confer any such right on its substitute any more than exercise it
itself is equally plain. In law and honesty the notes of the bank in
circulation at the expiration of its charter should have been called in by
public advertisement, paid up as presented, and, together with those on
hand, canceled and destroyed.

Their re-issue is sanctioned by no law and warranted by no necessity. If
the United States be responsible in their stock for the payment of these
notes, their re- issue by the new corporation for their own profit is a
fraud on the Government. If the United States is not responsible, then
there is no legal responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud on the
country. They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership, but,
contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner and without his consent, are
again re-issued and circulated.

It is the high and peculiar duty of Congress to decide whether any further
legislation be necessary for the security of the large amount of public
property now held and in use by the new bank, and for vindicating the
rights of the Government and compelling a speedy and honest settlement with
all the creditors of the old bank, public and private, or whether the
subject shall be left to the power now possessed by the Executive and
judiciary. It remains to be seen whether the persons who as managers of the
old bank undertook to control the Government, retained the public
dividends, shut their doors upon a committee of the House of
Representatives, and filled the country with panic to accomplish their own
sinister objects may now as managers of a new bank continue with impunity
to flood the country with a spurious currency, use the $7M of Government
stock for their own profit, and refuse to the United States all information
as to the present condition of their own property and the prospect of
recovering it into their own possession.

The lessons taught by the Bank of the United States can not well be lost
upon the American people. They will take care never again to place so
tremendous a power in irresponsible hands, and it will be fortunate if they
seriously consider the consequences which are likely to result on a smaller
scale from the facility with which corporate powers are granted by their
State governments.

It is believed that the law of the last session regulating the deposit
banks operates onerously and unjustly upon them in many respects, and it is
hoped that Congress, on proper representations, will adopt the
modifications which are necessary to prevent this consequence.

The report of the Secretary of War ad interim and the accompanying
documents, all which are herewith laid before you, will give you a full
view of the diversified and important operations of that Department during
the past year.

The military movements rendered necessary by the aggressions of the hostile
portions of the Seminole and Creek tribes of Indians, and by other
circumstances, have required the active employment of nearly our whole
regular force, including the Marine Corps, and of large bodies of militia
and volunteers. With all these events so far as they were known at the seat
of Government before the termination of your last session you are already
acquainted, and it is therefore only needful in this place to lay before
you a brief summary of what has since occurred.

The war with the Seminoles during the summer was on our part chiefly
confined to the protection of our frontier settlements from the incursions
of the enemy, and, as a necessary and important means for the
accomplishment of that end, to the maintenance of the posts previously
established. In the course of this duty several actions took place, in
which the bravery and discipline of both officers and men were
conspicuously displayed, and which I have deemed it proper to notice in
respect to the former by the granting of brevet rank for gallant services
in the field. But as the force of the Indians was not so far weakened by
these partial successes as to lead them to submit, and as their savage
inroads were frequently repeated, early measures were taken for placing at
the disposal of Governor Call, who as commander in chief of the Territorial
militia had been temporarily invested with the command, an ample force for
the purpose of resuming offensive operations in the most efficient manner
so soon as the season should permit. Major General Jesup was also directed,
on the conclusion of his duties in the Creek country, to repair to Florida
and assume the command.

The result of the first movement made by the forces under the direction of
Governor Call in October last, as detailed in the accompanying papers,
excited much surprise and disappointment. A full explanation has been
required of the causes which led to the failure of that movement, but has
not yet been received. In the mean time, as it was feared that the health
of Governor Call, who was understood to have suffered much from sickness,
might not be adequate to the crisis, and as Major General Jesup was known
to have reached Florida, that officer was directed to assume command, and
to prosecute all needful operations with the utmost promptitude and vigor.
From the force at his disposal and the dispositions he has made and is
instructed to make, and from the very efficient measures which it is since
ascertained have been taken by Governor Call, there is reason to hope that
they will soon be enabled to reduce the enemy to subjection. In the mean
time, as you will perceive from the report of the Secretary, there is
urgent necessity for further appropriations to suppress these hostilities.

Happily for the interests of humanity, the hostilities with the Creeks were
brought to a close soon after your adjournment, without that effusion of
blood which at one time was apprehended as inevitable. The unconditional
submission of the hostile party was followed by their speedy removal to the
country assigned them West of the Mississippi. The inquiry as to alleged
frauds in the purchase of the reservations of these Indians and the causes
of their hostilities, requested by the resolution of the House of
Representatives of the first of July last [1836-07-01] to be made by the
President, is now going on through the agency of commissioners appointed
for that purpose. Their report may be expected during your present
session.

The difficulties apprehended in the Cherokee country have been prevented,
and the peace and safety of that region and its vicinity effectually
secured, by the timely measures taken by the War Department, and still
continued.

The discretionary authority given to General Gaines to cross the Sabine and
to occupy a position as far West as Nacogdoches, in case he should deem
such a step necessary to the protection of the frontier and to the
fulfillment of the stipulations contained in our treaty with Mexico, and
the movement subsequently made by that officer have been alluded to in a
former part of this message. At the date of the latest intelligence from
Nacogdoches our troops were yet at that station, but the officer who has
succeeded General Gaines has recently been advised that from the facts
known at the seat of Government there would seem to be no adequate cause
for any longer maintaining that position, and he was accordingly
instructed, in case the troops were not already withdrawn under the
discretionary powers before possessed by him, to give the requisite orders
for that purpose on the receipt of the instructions, unless he shall then
have in his possession such information as shall satisfy him that the
maintenance of the post is essential to the protection of our frontiers and
to the due execution of our treaty stipulations, as previously explained to
him.

Whilst the necessities existing during the present year for the service of
militia and volunteers have furnished new proofs of the patriotism of our
fellow citizens, they have also strongly illustrated the importance of an
increase in the rank and file of the Regular Army. The views of this
subject submitted by the Secretary of War in his report meet my entire
concurrence, and are earnestly commended to the deliberate attention of
Congress. In this connection it is also proper to remind you that the
defects in our present militia system are every day rendered more apparent.
The duty of making further provision by law for organizing, arming, and
disciplining this arm of defense has been so repeatedly presented to
Congress by myself and my predecessors that I deem it sufficient on this
occasion to refer to the last annual message and to former Executive
communications in which the subject has been discussed.

It appears from the reports of the officers charged with mustering into
service the volunteers called for under the act of Congress of the last
session that more presented themselves at the place of rendezvous in
Tennessee than were sufficient to meet the requisition which had been made
by the Secretary of War upon the governor of that State. This was
occasioned by the omission of the governor to apportion the requisition to
the different regiments of militia so as to obtain the proper number of
troops and no more. It seems but just to the patriotic citizens who
repaired to the general rendezvous under circumstances authorizing them to
believe that their services were needed and would be accepted that the
expenses incurred by them while absent from their homes should be paid by
the Government. I accordingly recommend that a law to this effect be passed
by Congress, giving them a compensation which will cover their expenses on
the march to and from the place of rendezvous and while there; in
connection with which it will also be proper to make provision for such
other equitable claims growing out of the service of the militia as may not
be embraced in the existing laws.

On the unexpected breaking out of hostilities in Florida, Alabama, and
Georgia it became necessary in some cases to take the property of
individuals for public use. Provision should be made by law for
indemnifying the owners; and I would also respectfully suggest whether some
provision may not be made, consistently with the principles of our
Government, for the relief of the sufferers by Indian depredations or by
the operations of our own troops.

No time was lost after the making of the requisite appropriations in
resuming the great national work of completing the unfinished
fortifications on our sea-board and of placing them in a proper state of
defense. In consequence, however, of the very late day at which those bills
were passed, but little progress could be made during the season which has
just closed. A very large amount of the moneys granted at your last session
accordingly remains unexpended; but as the work will be again resumed at
the earliest moment in the coming spring, the balance of the existing
appropriations, and in several cases which will be laid before you, with
the proper estimates, further sums for the like objects, may be usefully
expended during the next year.

The recommendations of an increase in the Engineer Corps and for a
reorganization of the Topographical Corps, submitted to you in my last
annual message, derive additional strength from the great embarrassments
experienced during the present year in those branches of the service, and
under which they are now suffering. Several of the most important surveys
and constructions directed by recent laws have been suspended in
consequence of the want of adequate force in these corps.

The like observations may be applied to the Ordnance Corps and to the
general staff, the operations of which as they are now organized must
either be frequently interrupted or performed by officers taken from the
line of the Army, to the great prejudice of the service.

For a general view of the condition of the Military Academy and of other
branches of the military service not already noticed, as well as for
further illustrations of those which have been mentioned, I refer you to
the accompanying documents, and among the various proposals contained
therein for legislative action I would particularly notice the suggestion
of the Secretary of War for the revision of the pay of the Army as entitled
to your favorable regard.

The national policy, founded alike in interest and in humanity, so long and
so steadily pursued by this Government for the removal of the Indian tribes
originally settled on this side of the Mississippi to the W of that river,
may be said to have been consummated by the conclusion of the late treaty
with the Cherokees. The measures taken in the execution of that treaty and
in relation to our Indian affairs generally will fully appear by referring
to the accompanying papers. Without dwelling on the numerous and important
topics embraced in them, I again invite your attention to the importance of
providing a well-digested and comprehensive system for the protection,
supervision, and improvement of the various tribes now planted in the
Indian country.

The suggestions submitted by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and
enforced by the Secretary, on this subject, and also in regard to the
establishment of additional military posts in the Indian country, are
entitled to your profound consideration. Both measures are necessary, for
the double purpose of protecting the Indians from intestine war, and in
other respects complying with our engagements with them, and of securing
our western frontier against incursions which otherwise will assuredly be
made on it. The best hopes of humanity in regard to the aboriginal race,
the welfare of our rapidly extending settlements, and the honor of the
United States are all deeply involved in the relations existing between
this Government and the emigrating tribes. I trust, therefore, that the
various matters submitted in the accompanying documents in respect to those
relations will receive your early and mature deliberation, and that it may
issue in the adoption of legislative measures adapted to the circumstances
and duties of the present crisis.

You are referred to the report of the Secretary of the Navy for a
satisfactory view of the operations of the Department under his charge
during the present year. In the construction of vessels at the different
navy yards and in the employment of our ships and squadrons at sea that
branch of the service has been actively and usefully employed. While the
situation of our commercial interests in the West Indies required a greater
number than usual of armed vessels to be kept on that station, it is
gratifying to perceive that the protection due to our commerce in other
quarters of the world has not proved insufficient. Every effort has been
made to facilitate the equipment of the exploring expedition authorized by
the act of the last session, but all the preparation necessary to enable it
to sail has not yet been completed. No means will be spared by the
Government to fit out the expedition on a scale corresponding with the
liberal appropriations for the purpose and with the elevated character of
the objects which are to be effected by it.

I beg leave to renew the recommendation made in my last annual message
respecting the enlistment of boys in our naval service, and to urge upon
your attention the necessity of further appropriations to increase the
number of ships afloat and to enlarge generally the capacity and force of
the Navy. The increase of our commerce and our position in regard to the
other powers of the world will always make it our policy and interest to
cherish the great naval resources of our country.

The report of the PostMaster General presents a gratifying picture of the
condition of the Post Office Department. Its revenues for the year ending
the 30th June last were $3,398,455.19, showing an increase of revenue over
that of the preceding year of $404,878.53, or more than 13%. The
expenditures for the same year were $2,755,623.76, exhibiting a surplus of
$642,831.43. The Department has been redeemed from embarrassment and debt,
has accumulated a surplus exceeding half a million dollars, has largely
extended and is preparing still further to extend the mail service, and
recommends a reduction of postages equal to about 20%. It is practicing
upon the great principle which should control every branch of our
Government of rendering to the public the greatest good possible with the
least possible taxation to the people.

The scale of postages suggested by the PostMaster General recommends
itself, not only by the reduction it proposes, but by the simplicity of its
arrangement, its conformity with the Federal currency, and the improvement
it will introduce into the accounts of the Department and its agents.

Your particular attention is invited to the subject of mail contracts with
railroad companies. The present laws providing for the making of contracts
are based upon the presumption that competition among bidders will secure
the service at a fair price; but on most of the railroad lines there is no
competition in that kind of transportation, and advertising is therefore
useless. No contract can now be made with them except such as shall be
negotiated before the time of offering or afterwards, and the power of the
PostMaster General to pay them high prices is practically without
limitation. It would be a relief to him and no doubt would conduce to the
public interest to prescribe by law some equitable basis upon which such
contracts shall rest, and restrict him by a fixed rule of allowance. Under
a liberal act of that sort he would undoubtedly be able to secure the
services of most of the railroad companies, and the interest of the
Department would be thus advanced.

The correspondence between the people of the United States and the European
nations, and particularly with the British Islands, has become very
extensive, and requires the interposition of Congress to give it security.
No obstacle is perceived to an interchange of mails between New York and
Liverpool or other foreign ports, as proposed by the PostMaster General. On
the contrary, it promises, by the security it will afford, to facilitate
commercial transactions and give rise to an enlarged intercourse among the
people of different nations, which can not but have a happy effect. Through
the city of New York most of the correspondence between the Canadas and
Europe is now carried on, and urgent representations have been received
from the head of the provincial post office asking the interposition of the
United States to guard it from the accidents and losses to which it is now
subjected. Some legislation appears to be called for as well by our own
interest as by comity to the adjoining British provinces.

The expediency of providing a fire-proof building for the important books
and papers of the Post Office Department is worthy of consideration. In the
present condition of our Treasury it is neither necessary nor wise to leave
essential public interests exposed to so much danger when they can so
readily be made secure. There are weighty considerations in the location of
a new building for that Department in favor of placing it near the other
executive buildings.

The important subjects of a survey of the coast and the manufacture of a
standard of weights and measures for the different custom houses have been
in progress for some years under the general direction of the Executive and
the immediate superintendence of a gentleman possessing high scientific
attainments. At the last session of Congress the making of a set of weights
and measures for each State in the Union was added to the others by a joint
resolution.

The care and correspondence as to all these subjects have been devolved on
the Treasury Department during the last year. A special report from the
Secretary of the Treasury will soon be communicated to Congress, which will
show what has been accomplished as to the whole, the number and
compensation of the persons now employed in these duties, and the progress
expected to be made during the ensuing year, with a copy of the various
correspondence deemed necessary to throw light on the subjects which seem
to require additional legislation.

Claims have been made for retrospective allowances in behalf of the
superintendent and some of his assistants, which I did not feel justified
in granting. Other claims have been made for large increases in
compensation, which, under the circumstances of the several cases, I
declined making without the express sanction of Congress. In order to
obtain that sanction the subject was at the last session, on my suggestion
and by request of the immediate superintendent, submitted by the Treasury
Department to the Committee on Commerce of the House of Representatives.
But no legislative action having taken place, the early attention of
Congress is now invited to the enactment of some express and detailed
provisions in relation to the various claims made for the past, and to the
compensation and allowances deemed proper for the future.

It is further respectfully recommended that, such being the inconvenience
of attention to these duties by the Chief Magistrate, and such the great
pressure of business on the Treasury Department, the general supervision of
the coast survey and the completion of the weights and measures, if the
works are kept united, should be devolved on a board of officers organized
specially for that purpose, or on the Navy Board attached to the Navy
Department.

All my experience and reflection confirm the conviction I have so often
expressed to Congress in favor of an amendment of the Constitution which
will prevent in any event the election of the President and Vice President
of the United States devolving on the House of Representatives and the
Senate, and I therefore beg leave again to solicit your attention to the
subject. There were various other suggestions in my last annual message not
acted upon, particularly that relating to the want of uniformity in the
laws of the District of Columbia, that are deemed worthy of your favorable
consideration.

Before concluding this paper I think it due to the various Executive
Departments to bear testimony to their prosperous condition and to the
ability and integrity with which they have been conducted. It has been my
aim to enforce in all of them a vigilant and faithful discharge of the
public business, and it is gratifying to me to believe that there is no
just cause of complaint from any quarter at the manner in which they have
fulfilled the objects of their creation.

Having now finished the observations deemed proper on this the last
occasion I shall have of communicating with the two Houses of Congress at
their meeting, I can not omit an expression of the gratitude which is due
to the great body of my fellow citizens, in whose partiality and indulgence
I have found encouragement and support in the many difficult and trying
scenes through which it has been my lot to pass during my public career.
Though deeply sensible that my exertions have not been crowned with a
success corresponding to the degree of favor bestowed upon me, I am sure
that they will be considered as having been directed by an earnest desire
to promote the good of my country, and I am consoled by the persuasion that
what ever errors have been committed will find a corrective in the
intelligence and patriotism of those who will succeed us. All that has
occurred during my Administration is calculated to inspire me with
increased confidence in the stability of our institutions; and should I be
spared to enter upon that retirement which is so suitable to my age and
infirm health and so much desired by me in other respects, I shall not
cease to invoke that beneficent Being to whose providence we are already so
signally indebted for the continuance of His blessings on our beloved
country.



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