HE new President, in his inaugural address, remarks, "had the people of the United States been educated in different principles, had they been less intelligent or less virtuous, can it be believed that we should have maintained the same steady and consistent career, or been blessed with the same success? While,

then, the constituent body retains its present sound and healthful state, everything will be safe. They will choose competent and faithful representatives for every department. It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavour to preserve it in its full force. Let us, by all wise and constitutional measures, promote intelligence among the people, as the best means of preserving our liberties. It is particularly

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MONROE'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

gratifying to me to enter on the discharge of these duties at a time when the United States are blessed with peace. It is a state most consistent with their prosperity and happiness. It will be my sincere desire to preserve it, so far as depends on the executive, on just principles, with all nations-claiming nothing unreasonable of any, and rendering to each what is its due."

In concluding his address, the President observes, "In the administrations of the illustrious men who have preceded me in this high station, with some of whom I have been connected by the closest ties of early life, examples are presented which will always be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these I shall endeavour to derive all the advantages which they may afford. Of my immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of this great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for expressing my earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted talents, and the most faithful and meritorious services. Relying on the aid to be derived from the other departments of government, I enter on the trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow-citizens, with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that he will be graciously pleased to continue to us that protection which he has already so conspicuously displayed in our favour."

During the year 1817, the Territory of Mississippi was erected into a State, and admitted into the Union; and in the following year, Illinois also joined the older states. In 1819, another accession was received in the State of Alabama, and Congress erected Arkansas into a territorial government. In 1820, Maine was separated from Massachusetts, erected into a State, and admitted into the Union.

In the summer of the year 1817, whilst the President was on a tour through the Northern States, several persons, claiming to act under the authority of the revolted Spanish colonies, undertook an expedition against East Florida. This expedition, headed by a man, calling himself "Citizen Gregor

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M'Gregor, Brigadier-General of the armies of the United Provinces of New Grenada and Venezuela, and General-in-chief, employed to liberate the provinces of both the Floridas, commissioned by the supreme governments of Mexico and South America," took possession of Amelia island, at the mouth of St. Mary's river, near the boundary of the State of Georgia. The President, in his message to Congress, stated that as the province lay eastward of the Mississippi, and was bounded by the United States and the ocean on every side, and had been a subject of negotiation with the government of Spain, as an indemnity for losses by spoliation, or in exchange for territory of equal value, westward of the Mississippi, a fact well known to the world, it excited surprise, that any countenance should have been given to this measure by any of the colonies. He went on to state that the course of the people on the island had plainly shown the enterprise to be a mere private unauthorized adventure. As their resources failed, the island was made a channel for the illicit introduction of slaves from Africa into the United States, an asylum for fugitive slaves from the neighbouring states, and a port for all kinds of smuggling.

In connection with this subject, the President also stated the formation of a similar establishment on an island in the Gulf of Mexico, on the Texan coast. It was contended by the administration that this place was within the limits of Louisiana, as ceded by the French. The latter establishment was much more considerable than that on Amelia island, as well on account of numbers, as for the greater facilities of piracy and smuggling. An adventurer named Aury was at the head of this establishment, and he called around him a regular civil government. Finding his proceedings noticed by the American government, he left his first rendezvous, and removed to Matagorda, some ninety miles west of his first station. The Lafittes and others of the Barratarian pirates were conspicuous in his company, and took several prizes. Some of these were sent to New Orleans for sale, where they were claimed by the Spanish consul and delivered into his charge.