A NARRATIVE OF A TOUR OF OBSERVATION, MADE DURING THE SUMMER OF 1817, BY JAMES MONROE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THROUGH THE NORTH-EASTERN AND NORTH-WESTERN WITH A VIEW TO THE EXAMINATION OF THEIR SEVERAL MILITARY WITH AN APPENDIX. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY S. A. MITCHELL & H. AMES. Clark & Raser, Printers. District of Pennsylvania, to wit: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-ninth day of December, in the forty-second year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1817, Mitchell & Ames, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "A Narrative of a Tour of Observation, made during the summer of 1817, by James Monroe, President of the United States, through the north-eastern and north-western departments of the union: with a view to the examination of their several military defences. With an Appendix.” In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned."And also to the act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.” INTRODUCTION. A CONSIDERABLE degree of public interest having been excited by the late tour of the President of the United States, undertaken soon after his induction into office, and constituting one of the first important acts of his administration, the editor has thought himself warranted in the publication of the following account of its course, and of the events attending it. In the numerous addresses, delivered to him by the citizens, and in the replies which they received, the sentiments of the people, and the views of the executive, are constantly developed; and the preservation of these could in no way be more properly effected, than by collecting them under one general head, and blending them with intermediate descriptions of his journey, in the form and character of a Narrative. During the late war with Great Britain, a practical opportunity was afforded to the government of the United States, to discover the relative importance of the defences erected along the frontier, dividing the American and British possessions, and the strength and utility of the various fortified places on the marine exterior. The frequent and sometimes successful, incursions of the late enemy, enforced the necessity of selecting new points for the erection of strong and efficient batteries, to protect |