and sacrifices of a former age; and a more than equal sum, invested in fortifications, or for the preparations of internal improvement, provides for the quiet, the comfort, and the happier existence of the ages to come. The appropriations to indemnify those unfortunate remnants of another race, unable alike to share in the enjoyments, and to exist in the presence of civilization, though swelling in recent years to a magnitude burdensome to the Treasury, are generally not without their equivalent, in profitable value; or serve to discharge the Union from engagements more burdensome than debt. In like manner, the estimate of appropriations for the Navy Department will present an aggregate sum of upwards of three millions of dollars. About one half of these, however, cover the current expenditures of the Navy in actual service, and one half constitutes a fund of national property, the pledge of our future glory and defence. It was scarcely one short year after the close of the late war, and when the burthen of its expenses and charges was weighing heaviest upon the country, that Congress, by the act of 29th April, 1816, appropriated one million of dollars annually, for eight years, to the gradual increase of the Navy. At a subsequent period, this annual appropriation was reduced to half a million for six years, of which the present year is the last. A yet more recent appropriation the last two years for building ten Sloops of War, has nearly restored the original appropriation of 1816, of a million for every year. The re sult is before us all. We have twelve line of battle Ships, twenty Frigates, and Sloops of War in proportion; which, with a few months of preparation, may present a line of floating fortifications along the whole range of our coast, ready to meet any invader who might attempt to set foot apon our shores. Combining with a system of fortifications upon the shores themselves, commenced about the same time under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, and hitherto systematically pursued, it has placed in our possession the most effective sinews of war, and has left us at once an example and a lesson, from which our own duties may be inferred. The gradual increase of the Navy was the principle of which the act of 29th April, 1816, was the first development. It was the introduction of a system to act upon the character and history of our country for an indefinite series of ages. It was a declaration of that Congress to their constituents and to posterity, that it was the destiny and the duty of these Confederated States, to become, in regular process of time, and by no petty advances, a great Naval Power. That, which they proposed to accomplish in eight years, is rather to be considered as the measure of their means, than the limitation of their design. They looked forward for a term of years, sufficient for the accomplishment of a definite portion of their purpose; and they left to their successors to fill up the canvass of which they had traced the large and prophetic outline. The ships of the line, and frigates which they had in contemplation, will be shortly completed. The time which they had allotted for the accomplishment of the work has more than elapsed. It remains for your consideration, how their successors may contribute their portion of toil and of treasure for the benefit of the succeeding age, in the gradual increase of our Navy. There is, perhaps, no part of the exercise of the Constitutional Powers of the Federal Government, which has given more general satisfaction to the people of the Union, than this. The system has not been thus vigorously introduced, and hitherto sustained, to be now departed from, or abandoned. In continuing to provide for the gradual increase of the Navy, it may not be necessary or expedient to add for the present any more to the number of our ships; but should you deem it advisable to continue the yearly appropriation of half a million to the same objects, it may be profitably expended, in providing a supply of timber to be seasoned, and other materials for future use; in the construction of docks, or in laying the foundations of a School for Naval Education, as to the wisdom of Congress either of those measures may appear to claim the preference. Of the small portion of this Navy engaged in actual service during the peace, squadrons have continued to be maintained in the Pacific Ocean, in the West India Seas, and in the Mediterranean; to which has been added a small armament, to cruise on the Eastern coast of South America. In all they have afforded protection to our commerce, have contributed to make our country advantage ously known to foreign nations, have honourably employed multitudes of our seamen in the service of their country, and have inured numbers of youths of the rising generation to lives of manly hardihood and of nautical experience and skill. The piracies with which the West India Seas were for several years infested, have been totally suppressed. But, in the Mediterranean, they have increased in a manner afflictive to other nations, and but for the continual presence of our squadron, would probably have been distressing to our own. The war which has unfortunately broken out between the Republic of Buenos Ayres and the Brazilian Government, has given rise to very great irregularities among the Naval officers of the latter, by whom principles in relation to blockades, and to neutral navigation, have been brought forward, to which we cannot subscribe, and which our own commanders have found it necessary to resist. From the friendly disposition towards the United States constantly manifested by the Emperor of Brazil, and the very useful and friendly commercial intercourse between the United States and his dominions, we have reason to believe that the just reparation demanded for the injuries sustained by several of our citizens from some of his officers, will not be withheld. Abstracts from the recent despatches of the Commanders of our several squadrons, are communicated with the Report of the Secretary of the Navy to Congress. A Report from the Postmaster General is likewise communicated, presenting in a highly satis factory manner the result of a vigorous, efficient and economical administration of that Department. The revenue of the office, even of the year including the latter half of 1824, and the first half of 1825, had exceeded its expenditures by a sum of more than forty-five thousand dollars. That of the succeeding year has been still more productive. The increase of the receipts, in the year preceding the first of July last, over that of the year before, exceeds one hundred and thirty-six thousand dollars, and the excess of the receipts over the expenditures of the year has swollen from forty-five thousand to nearly eighty thousand dollars. During the same period, contracts for additional transportation of the mail, in stages, for about two hundred and sixty thousand miles, have been made, and for seventy thousand miles, annually, on horseback. Seven hundred and fourteen new Post Offices have been established within the year; and the increase of revenue within the last three years, as well as the augmentation of the transportation by mail, is more than equal to the whole amount of receipts, and of mail conveyance, at the commencement of the present century, when the seat of the General Government was removed to this place. When we reflect that the objects effected by the transportation of the mail are among the choicest comforts and enjoyments of social life, it is pleasing to observe, that the dissemination of them to every corner of our country has outstripped in their increase even the rapid march of our population. By the Treaties with France and Spain, respectively ceding Lousiana and the Floridas to the United States, provision was made for the security of land titles derived from the Governments of those nations. Some progress has been made, under the authority of various Acts of Congress, in the ascertainment and establishment of those titles: but claims to a very large extent remained unadjusted. The public faith, no less than the just rights of individuals, and the interest of the community itself, appears to require further provision for the speedy settlement of these claims, which I therefore recommend to the care and attention of the Legislature. In conformity with the provisions of the act of 20th May last, to provide for Erecting a Penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes, three Commissioners were appointed to select a site for the erection of a Penitentiary for the District, and also a site in the county of Alexandria for a county Jail: both of which objects have been effected. The building of the Penitentiary has been commenced, and is in such a degree of forwardness as to promise that it will be completed before the meeting of the next Congress. This consideration points to the expediency of maturing, at the present session, a system for the regulation and government of the Penitentiary, and of defining the class of offences which shall be punishable by confinement in this edifice. In closing this communication, I trust that it will not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion and purposes upon which we are here assembled, to indulge a momentary retrospect, combining, in a single glance, the period of our origin as a National Confedera tion with that of our present existence, at the precise interval of half a century from each other. Since your last meeting at this place, the Fiftieth Anniversary of the day when our Independence was declared, has been celebrated throughout our land; and on that day, when every heart was bounding with joy, and every voice was tuned to gratulation, amid the blessings of Freedom and Independence, which the sires of a former age had handed down to their children, two of the principal actors in that solemn scene, the hand that penned the ever-memorable declaration, and the voice that sustained it in debate, were, by one summons, at the distance of seven hundred miles from each other, called before the Judge of all, to account for their deeds done upon earth. They departed cheered by the benedictions of their country, to whom they left the inheritance of their fame, and the memory of their bright exam ple. If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in the contrast of the first and last day of that half century, how resplendent and sublime is the tran sition from gloom to glory. Then glancing through the same lapse of time, in the condition of the individuals, we see the first day marked with the fulness and vigour of youth, in the pledge of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honour, to the cause of freedom and of mankind. And on the last, extended on the bed of death, with but sense and sensibility left to breathe a last aspiration to Heaven of blessing upon their country; may we not humbly hope that to them, too, it was a pledge of transition from gloom to glory; and that while their mortal vestments were sinking into the clod of the valley, their emancipated spirits were ascending to the bosom of their God. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Washington, Dec. 5, 1826. Convention between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Concluded November 13, 1826. ARTICLE I.-His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland agrees to pay, and the United States of America agree to receive, for the use of the persons entitled to indemnification and compensation by virtue of the said decision and Convention the sum of twelve hundred and four thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars, current money of the United States, in lieu of, and in full and com plete satisfaction for, all sums claimed or claimable from Great Britain, by any person or pers ons whatsoever, under the said decision and Convention. ARTICLE II.-The object of the said Convention being thus fulfilled, that Convention is hereby declared to be cancelled and annulled, save and except the second article of the same, which has already been carried into execution by the Commissioners appointed under the said Convention; and save and except so much of the third article of the same, as relates to the definitive list of claims, and has already likewise been carried into execution by the said Commissioners. ARTICLE III.-The said sum of twelve hundred and four thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars shall be paid at Washington, to such person or persons as shall be duly authorized, on the part of the United States, to receive the same, in two equal payments as follows: The payment of the first half to be made twenty days after official notification shall have been made, by the Government of the United States, to his Britannic Majesty's Minister in the said United States, of the ratification of the present Convention by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof. And the payment of the second half to be made on the first day of August, 1827. ARTICLE IV.-The above sums being taken as a full and final liquidation of all claims whatsoever arising under the said decision and Convention, both the final adjustment of those claims, and the distribution of the sums so paid by Great Britain to the United States, shall be made in such manner as the United States alone shall determine; and the Government of Great Britain shall have no further concern or liability . the ratifications of the present Convention, the Joint Commission appointed under the said Convention of St. Petersburgh, of the twelfth of July, 1822, shall be dissolved; and, upon the dissolution thereof, all the documents and papers in possession of the said Commission, relating to claims under that Convention, shall be delivered over to such person or persons as shall be duly authorized, on the part of the United States, to receive the same. And the British Commissioner shall make over to such person or persons, so authorized, all the documents and papers, (or authenticated copies of the same, where the original cannot conveniently be made over,) relating to claims under the said Convention, which he may have received from his Government for the use of the said Commission, conformably to the stipulations contained in the third article of the said Convention. ARTICLE VI.-The present Convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in London, in six months from this date, or sooner, if possible. In witness whereof, the Plenipotentiaries aforesaid, by virtue of their respective full powers, have signed the same, and have affixed thereunto the seals of their arms. Done at London, this thirteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty six. [L. s.] Albert Gallatin, [L. S. ] William Huskisson, [L. s.] Henry 'Unwin Addington. |