Chapter 17 1801

UNITED STATES,  January 7, 1801 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I transmit to both Houses of Congress, for their information and
consideration, copies of laws enacted by the governor and judges of the
Mississippi Territory from the 30th of June until the 31st of December,
A.D. 1799.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  January 17, 1801 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I have received from Elias Boudinot, esq., Director of the Mint of
the United States, a report of the 2d of January, representing the
state of it, together with an abstract of the coins struck at the
Mint from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 1800; an abstract
of the expenditures of the Mint from the 1st of January to the 31st of
December, inclusive; a statement of gain on copper coined at the Mint
from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 1800, and a certificate
from Joseph Richardson, assayer of the Mint, ascertaining the value of
Spanish milled doubloons in proportion to the gold coins of the United
States to be no more than 84 cents and 424/500 parts of a cent for 1
pennyweight, or 28 grains and 24256/84848 parts of a grain to one
dollar. These papers I transmit to Congress for their consideration,

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  January 21, 1801 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

In compliance with your request, signified in your resolution of the
20th day of this month, I transmit you a report made to me by the
Secretary of State on the same day, a letter of our late envoys to him
of the 4th of October last, an extract of a letter from our minister
plenipotentiary in London to him of the 22d of November last, and an
extract of another letter from the minister to the Secretary of the 31st
of October last.

The reasoning in the letter of our late envoys to France is so fully
supported by the writers on the law of nations, particularly by Vattel,
as well as by his great masters, Grotius and Puffendorf, that nothing is
left to be desired to settle the point that if there be a collision
between two treaties made with two different powers the more ancient has
the advantage, for no engagement contrary to it can be entered into in
the treaty afterwards made; and if this last be found in any case
incompatible with the more ancient one its execution is considered as
impossible, because the person promising had not the power of acting
contrary to his antecedent engagement. Although our right is very clear
to negotiate treaties according to our own ideas of right and justice,
honor and good faith, yet it must always be a satisfaction to know that
the judgment of other nations with whom we have connection coincides
with ours, and that we have no reason to apprehend that any disagreeable
questions and discussions are likely to arise. The letters from Mr. King
will therefore be read by the Senate with particular satisfaction.

The inconveniences to public officers and the mischiefs to the public
arising from the publication of the dispatches of ministers abroad are
so numerous and so obvious that I request of the Senate that these
papers, especially the letters from Mr. King, be considered in close
confidence.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  January 30, 1801 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I transmit to Congress for their consideration a letter from William
Thornton, Alexander White, and William Cranch, esquires, commissioners
of the city of Washington, with a representation of the affairs of the
city made by them to the President of the United States, dated 28th of
January, 1801, accompanied with a series of documents marked from A to
H, inclusively.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  February 16, 1801 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I wish to know the pleasure of Congress and request their direction
concerning the disposition of the property of the United States now in
my possession; whether I shall deliver it into the hands of the heads of
Departments, or of the commissioners of the city of Washington, or of a
committee of Congress, or to any other persons Congress may appoint, to
be delivered into the hands of my successor, or whether I shall present
it myself to the President of the United States on the 4th of March
next. Any of these modes will be agreeable to me.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  February 20, 1801 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I transmit to Congress a report received this morning from Elias
Boudinot, esq., Director of the Mint, dated February 13, 1801, which
will require the attention and decision of Congress before the close of
the session.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES,  March 2, 1801 .

 Gentlemen of the Senate :

I have considered the advice and consent of the Senate to the
ratification of the convention with France under certain conditions.
Although it would have been more conformable to my own judgment and
inclination to have agreed to that instrument unconditionally, yet as
in this point I found I had the misfortune to differ in opinion from
so high a constitutional authority as the Senate, I judged it more
consistent with the honor and interest of the United States to ratify it
under the conditions prescribed than not at all. I accordingly nominated
Mr. Bayard minister plenipotentiary to the French Republic, that he
might proceed without delay to Paris to negotiate the exchange of
ratifications; but as that gentleman has declined his appointment,
for reasons equally applicable to every other person suitable for the
service, I shall take no further measures relative to this business,
and leave the convention, with all the documents, in the Office of
State, that my successor may proceed with them according to his wisdom.

JOHN ADAMS.

PROCLAMATION.

JANUARY 30, 1801.

 To the Senators of the United States, respectively .

SIR: It appearing to me proper and necessary for the public service that
the Senate of the United States should be convened on Wednesday, the 4th
of March next, you are desired to attend in the Chamber of the Senate on
that day, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, to receive and act upon any
communications which the President of the United States may then lay
before you touching their interests, and to do and consider all other
things which may be proper and necessary for the public service for the
Senate to do and consider.

 JOHN ADAMS,
 President of the United States .