MESSAGE.

Felin-citizens of the Senate

and House of Representatives:

In the discharge of my official duty, the task 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 giv en 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 freecom 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 dif henit task of properly adjusting their own internal organization, and thus gave way the great principle of self-government. Let us trust that this ad nonition will never be forgotten by the Government or the People of the Cited States; and that the testimony which our experience thus far holds out to the great human family, of the practicability and the blessings of f government, will be confirmed in all time to come.

We have but to look at the state of our agriculture, manufactures, and merce, and the unexampled increase of our population, to feel the mag de of the trust committed to us. Never, in any former period of our story, have we had greater reason than we now have, to be thankful to We Providence for the blessings of health and general prosperity. Evanch of labor we see crowned with the most abundant rewards: in y element of national resources and wealth, and of individual comfort, thess the most rapid and solid improvements. With no interruptions s pleasing prospect at home which will not yield to the spirit of harmy and good will that so strikingly pervades the mass of the people in quarter, amidst all the diversity of interests and pursuits to which afe attached: and with no cause of solicitude in regard to our exter

nal affairs, which will not, it is hoped, disappear before the principles of simple justice and the forbearance that marks 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 Northeastern 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 pacific policy of all the parties to it. Events are frequently occurring on the Northeastern 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 instalments duc 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, nevertheless, 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 pos -session 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 on this subject, and the lamented death of our recently appointed minister, on his way to Spain, with the pressure of their affairs at home, render 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 be a right to claim.

Nations have been opened at Madrid for the establishment of a lastace between Spain and such of the Spanish American Governments eras hemisphere as have availed themselves of the intimation given to all them, of the disposition of Spain to treat upon the basis of their entire zdependence. It is to be regretted, that simultaneous appointments, by all, € 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 Northwest 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 of the nineteenth 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 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 shown to them in the ports of Holland, upon whose vessels no discrimination is made in the ports of the United States. Giving 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, nevertheless, 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 a 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 Barbayour relations continue to be friendly. The proper steps have been taken rew 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 apprize 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 towards 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 seif-tormented by domestic dissensions. Revolution succeeds revolution; injuries are committed upon foreigners engaged in lawful pursuits; much time elapses before a Government sufficiently stable is erected to justify expecta tion 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 show 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 ten years and upwards, our commerce was,

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with but little interruption, the subject of constant aggressions on the part of Franc-ressions, the ordinary features of which were condemnations of vessels and cargoes under arbitrary decrees, adopted in contravention, as well the laws of nations as of treaty stipulations; burnings on the high seas and seizures and confiscations, under special imperial rescripts, in the pos of other nations occupied by the armies, or under the control of Fance. Such, it is now conceded, is the character of the wrongs we sufFed-wrongs, in many cases, so flagrant, that even their authors never nied our right to reparation. Of the extent of these injuries, some conption 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 upwards of twenty-four millious of francs, besides large custom-house duties.

The subject had already been an affair of twenty years' uninterrupted negotiation, except for a short time, when France was overwhelmed by the mulitary 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 of peril. The bad effects of these protracted and unavailing discussions, as well upon our relations with France as upon our national character, 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 containing a menace, under which 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 er joined 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 incumbent 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 what was due from him in a frank communication with another branch 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 continned. It terminated in the treaty of July 4, 1831, recognizing the justice of our claims, in part, and promising payment to the amount of twenty-five millions of francs, in six annual instalments.