been the object of the executive, in transactions with other powers, to meet the propositions of each with a liberal spirit, believing that thereby the interest of our country would be most effectually promoted. This course has been systematically pursued in the late occurrences with France and Great Britain, and in strict accord with the views of the legislature. A confident hope is entertained that, by the arrangement thus commenced with each, all differences respecting navigation and commerce with the dominions in question will be adjusted, and a solid foundation laid for an active and permanent intercourse which will prove equally advantageous to both parties."

The decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, on the question submitted to him by the United States and Great Britain, concerning the construction of the first article of the treaty of Ghent, has been received. A convention has since been concluded between the parties, under the mediation of His Imperial Majesty, to prescribe the mode by which that article shall be carried into effect in conformity with that decision. I shall submit this convention to the Senate for its advice and consent as to the ratification, and if obtained, shall immediately bring the subject before Congress for such provisions as may require the interposition of the legislature.

In compliance with an act of the last session, a territorial government has been established in Florida on the principles of our system. By this act, the inhabitants are secured in the full enjoyment of their rights and liberties, and to admission into the Union, with equal participation in the government with the original states, on the conditions heretofore prescribed to other territories. By a clause in the ninth article of the treaty with Spain, by which that territory was ceded to the United States, it is stipulated that satisfaction shall be made for the injuries, if any, which by process of law shall be established to have been suffered by the Spanish officers and individual Spanish inhabitants by the late operations of our troops in Florida. No provision having yet been made to carry that stipulation into effect, it is submitted to the consideration of Congress whether it will not be proper to vest the competent power in the district court at Pensacola, or in some tribunal to be specially organized for that purpose.

The fiscal operations of the year have been more successful than had been anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.

The receipts into the treasury during the first three quarters of the year have exceeded the sum of fourteen millions seven hundred and forty-five thousand dollars. The payments made at the treasury, during the same period, have exceeded twelve millions two hundred and seventy-nine thousand dollars, leaving in the treasury on the 30th day of September last, (including one million one hundred and sixty-eight thousand five hundred and ninety-two dollars twenty-four cents, which were in the treasury on the first day of January last,) a sum exceeding four millions one hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars.

Besides discharging all demands for the current service of the year, including the interest and the reimbursement of the public debt, the six per cent. stock of 1796, amounting to eighty thousand dollars, has been redeemed. It is estimated that, after defraying the current expenses of the present quarter and redeeming the two millions of six per cent. stock of 1820, there will remain in the treasury, on the first day of January next, nearly three millions of dollars. It is estimated that the gross amount of duties which have been secured, from the 1st of January to the 30th of September last, has

exceeded nineteen millions five hundred thousand dollars, and the amount for the whole year will probably not fall short of twenty-three millions of dollars.

Of the actual force in service under the present military establishment, the posts at which it is stationed, and the condition of each post, a report from the secretary of war, which is now communicated, will give a distinct idea. By like reports, the state of the academy at West Point will be seen, as will be the progress which has been made on the fortifications along the coasts, and at the public armories and arsenals.

The position on the Red river, and that at the Sault of St. Marie, are the only new posts that have been taken. These posts, with those already occupied in the interior, are thought to be well adapted to the protection of our frontiers. All the force not placed in the garrisons along the coast and in the ordnance depots, and indispensably necessary there, is placed on the frontiers.

The organization of the several corps composing the army is such as to admit its expansion to a great extent in case of emergency, the officers carrying with them all the light which they possess to the new corps to which they might be appointed.

With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be satisfied. By the concentration of every branch with its chief in this city, in the presence of the department, and with a grade in the chief military station to keep alive and cherish a military spirit, the greatest promptitude in the execution of orders, with the greatest economy and efficiency, are secured. The same view is taken of the military academy. Good order is preserved in it, and the youth are well instructed in every science connected with the great objects of the institution. They are also well trained and disciplined in the practical parts of the profession. It has always been found difficult to control the ardor inseparable from that early age in such manner as to give it a proper direction. The rights of manhood are too often claimed prematurely, in pressing which too far, the respect which is due to age and the obedience necessary to a course of study and instruction in every such institution, are sometimes lost sight of. The great object to be accomplished is the restraint of that ardor by such wise regulations and government as, by directing all the energies of the youthful mind to the attainment of useful knowledge, will keep it within a just subordination and at the same time elevate it to the highest purposes. This object seems to be essentially obtained in this institution, and with great advantage to the Union.

The military academy forms the basis, in regard to science, on which the military establishment rests. It furnishes annually, after due examination, and on the report of the academic staff, many well-informed youths to fill the vacancies which occur in the several corps of the army, while others, who retire to private life, carry with them such attainments as, under the right reserved to the several states to appoint the officers and to train the militia, will enable them, by affording a wider field for selection, to promote the great object of the power vested in Congress of providing for the organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia. Thus, by the mutual and harmonious co-operation of the two governments, in the execution of a power divided between them, an object always to be cherished, the attainment of a great result, on which our liberties may depend, cannot fail to be secured. I have to add, that in proportion as our regular force is small, should the instruction and discipline of the militia, the great

resource on which we rely, be pushed to the utmost extent that circumstances will admit.

A report from the secretary of the navy will communicate the progress which has been made in the construction of vessels of war, with other interesting details respecting the actual state of the affairs of that department. It has been found necessary, for the protection of our commerce, to maintain the usual squadrons in the Mediterranean, the Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast, extending the cruises of he latter into the West Indies, where piracy, organized into a system, has preyed on the commerce of every country trading thither. A cruise has also been maintained on the coast of Africa, when the season would permit, for the suppression of the slave trade; and orders have been given to the commanders of all our public ships to seize our own vessels, should they find any engaged in that trade, and to bring them in for adjudication.

In the West Indies piracy is of a recent date, which may explain the cause why other powers have not combined against it. By the documents communicated, it will be seen that the efforts of the United States to suppress it have had a very salutary effect. The benevolent provision of the act, under which the protection has been extended alike to the commerce of other nations, cannot fail to be duly appreciated by them.

In compliance with the act of last session, entitled "An act to abolish the United States' trading establishments," agents were immediately appointed, and instructed, under the direction of the secretary of the treasury, to close the business of the trading houses among the Indian tribes and to settle the accounts of the factors and sub-factors engaged in that trade, and to execute, in all other respects, the injunctions of that act in the mode prescribed therein. A final report of their proceedings shall be communicated to Congress as soon as it is received.

pros

It is with regret I have to state that a serious malady has deprived us of many valuable citizens at Pensacola, and checked the progress of some of those arrangements which are important to the territory. This effect has been sensibly felt in respect to the Indians who inhabit that territory, consisting of the remnants of several tribes who occupy the middle ground between St. Augustine and Pensacola, with extensive claims but undefined boundaries. Although peace is preserved with those Indians, yet their position and claims tend essentially to interrupt the intercourse between the eastern and western parts of the territory, on which our inhabitants are principally settled. It is essential to the growth and perity of the territory, as well as to the interests of the Union, that these Indians should be removed, by special compact with them, to some other position, or concentrated within narrower limits where they are. With the limited means in the power of the executive, instructions were given to the governor to accomplish this object, so far as it might be practicable, which was prevented by the distressing malady referred to. To carry it fully into effect, in either mode, additional funds will be necessary, to the provision of which, the powers of Congress alone are competent. With a view to such provisions as may be deemed proper, the subject is submitted to your consideration, and in the interim farther proceedings are suspended.

It appearing that so much of the act entitled "An act regulating the staff of the army," which passed on the 14th of April, 1818, as relates to the commissariat, will expire in April next, and the practical operation of that

department having evinced its great utility, the propriety of its renewal is submitted to your consideration.

The view which has been taken of the probable productiveness of the lead mines, connected with the importance of the material to the public defence, makes it expedient that they should be managed with peculiar care. It is therefore suggested, whether it will not comport with the public interest to provide by law for the appointment of an agent skilled in mineralogy to superintend them, under the direction of the proper department.

It is understood that the Cumberland road, which was constructed at a great expense, has already suffered from the want of that regular superintendence, and of those repairs which are indispensable to the preservation of such a work. This road is of incalculable advantage in facilitating the intercourse between the western and the Atlantic states. Through it, the whole country, from the northern extremity of Lake Erie to the Mississippi, and from all the waters which empty into each, finds an easy and direct communication to the seat of government, and thence to the Atlantic. The facility which it affords to all military and commercial operations, and also to those of the post-office department, cannot be estimated too highly. This great work is likewise an ornament and an honor to the nation. Believing that a competent power to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement has not been granted to Congress, but that such a power, confined to great national purposes, and with proper limitations, would be productive of eminent advantage to our Union, I have thought it advisable that an amendment of the constitution to that effect should be recommended to the several states. A bill which assumed the right to adopt and execute such a system, having been presented for my signature at the last session, I was compelled, from the view which I had taken of the powers of the general government, to negative it, on which occasion I thought it proper to communicate the sentiments which I had formed, on mature consideration, on the whole subject. To that communication, in all the views in which the great interest to which it relates may be supposed to merit your attention, I have now to refer. Should Congress, however, deem it improper to recommend such an amendment, they have, according to my judgment, the right to keep the road in repair, by providing for the superintendence of it, and appropriating the money necessary for repairs. Surely, if they had a right to appropriate money to make the road, they have a right to appropriate it to preserve the road from ruin. From the exercise of this power no danger is to be apprehended. Under our happy system, the people are the sole and exclusive fountain of power. Each government originates from them, and to them alone, each to its proper constituents, are they respectively and solely responsible for the faithful discharge of their duty, within their constitutional limits. And that the people will confine their public agents, of every station, to the strict line of their constitutional duties, there is no cause to doubt. Having, however, commnnicated my sentiments to Congress at the last session fully, in the document to which I have referred, respecting the right of appropriation as distinct from the right of jurisdiction and sovereignty over the territory in question, I deem it improper to enlarge on the subject here.

From the best information that I have been able to obtain, it appears that our manufactures, though depressed immediately after the peace, have considerably increased, and are still increasing, under the encouragement given them by the tariff of 1816, and by subsequent laws. Satisfied I am, what

ever may be the abstract doctrine in favor of unrestricted commerce, provided all nations would concur in it and it was not liable to be interrupted by war, which has never occurred and cannot be expected, that there are other strong reasons applicable to our situation and relations with other countries, which impose on us the obligation to cherish and sustain our manufactures. Satisfied, however, I am, likewise, that the interest of every part of our Union, even of those most benefited by manufactures, requires that this subject should be touched with the greatest caution, and a critical knowledge of the effect to be produced by the slightest change. On full consideration of the subject, in all its relations, I am persuaded that a farther augmentation may now be made of the duties on certain foreign articles, in favor of our own, and without affecting injuriously any other interest. For more precise details, I refer you to the communications which were made to Congress during the last session.

So great was the amount of accounts for moneys advanced during the late war, in addition to others of a previous date, which in the regular operations of the government necessarily remained unsettled, that it requires a considerable length of time for their adjustment. By a report from the first comptroller of the treasury it appears that, on the 4th of March, 1817, the accounts then unsettled amounted to one hundred and three millions sixtyeight thousand eight hundred and seventy-six dollars and forty-one cents, of which, on the 30th of September of the present year, ninety-three mil lions one hundred and seventy-five thousand three hundred and ninety-six dollars and fifty-six cents had been settled; leaving on that day a balance unsettled of nine millions eight hundred and ninety-three thousand four hundred and seventy-nine dollars and eighty-five cents. That there have been drawn from the treasury, in paying the public debt and sustaining the gov ernment in all its operations and disbursements, since the 4th of March, 1817, one hundred and fifty-seven millions one hundred and ninety thousand three hundred and eighty dollars and ninety-six cents, the accounts for which have been settled to the amount of one hundred and thirty-seven millions five hundred and one thousand four hundred and fifty-one dollars and twelve cents; leaving a balance unsettled of nineteen millions six hundred and ninety-seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine dollars and eightyfour cents. For precise details respecting each of these balances, I refer to the report of the comptroller, and the documents which accompany it. From this view, it appears that our commercial differences with France and Great Britain have been placed in a train of amicable arrangement, on conditions fair and honorable, in both instances, to each party; that our finances are in a very productive state, our revenue being at present fully competent to all demands upon it; that our military force is well organized in all its branches, and capable of rendering the most important service in case of emergency that its number will admit of; that due progress has been made, under existing appropriations, in the construction of fortifications and in the operation of the ordnance department; that due progress has in like manner been made in the construction of ships of war; that our navy is in the best condition, felt and respected in every sea in which it is employed for the protection of our commerce; that our manufactures have augmented in amount and improved in quality; that great progress has been made in the settlement of accounts, and in the recovery of the balances due by individuals; and that the utmost economy is secured and observed in every department of the administration.