Chapter 25 1808

JANUARY 8, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I now render to Congress the account of the fund established for
defraying the contingent expenses of Government for the year 1807.
Of the sum of $18,012.50, which remained unexpended at the close
of the year 1806, $8,731.11 have been placed in the hands of the
Attorney-General of the United States, to enable him to defray sundry
expenses incident to the prosecution of Aaron Burr and his accomplices
for treasons and misdemeanors alleged to have been committed by them,
and the unexpended balance of $9,275.39 is now carried according to
law to the credit of the surplus fund.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 15, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

The posts of Detroit and Mackinac having been originally intended by the
Governments which established and held them as mere depots for commerce
with the Indians, very small cessions of land around them were obtained
or asked from the native proprietors, and these posts depended for
protection on the strength of their garrisons. The principles of our
Government leading us to the employment of such moderate garrisons in
time of peace as may merely take care of the post, and to a reliance on
the neighboring militia for its support in the first moments of war,
I have thought it would be important to obtain from the Indians such a
cession in the neighborhood of these posts as might maintain a militia
proportioned to this object; and I have particularly contemplated, with
this view, the acquisition of the eastern moiety of the peninsula
between lakes Michigan and Huron, comprehending the waters of the latter
and of Detroit River, so soon as it could be effected with the perfect
good will of the natives. Governor Hull was therefore appointed a
commissioner to treat with them on this subject, but was instructed to
confine his propositions for the present to so much of the tract before
described as lay south of Saguina Bay and round to the Connecticut
Reserve, so as to consolidate the new with the present settled country.
The result has been an acquisition of so much only of what would have
been acceptable as extends from the neighborhood of Saguina Bay to the
Miami of the Lakes, with a prospect of soon obtaining a breadth of 2
miles for a communication from the Miami to the Connecticut Reserve.
The treaty for this purpose entered into with the Ottoways, Chippeways,
Wyandots, and Pottawattamies at Detroit on the 17th of November last is
now transmitted to the Senate, and I ask their advice and consent as to
its ratification.

I communicate herewith such papers as bear any material relation to
the subject.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 15, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

Although it is deemed very desirable that the United States should
obtain from the native proprietors the whole left bank of the
Mississippi to a certain breadth, yet to obliterate from the Indian
mind an impression deeply made in it that we are constantly forming
designs on their lands I have thought it best where urged by no
peculiar necessity to leave to themselves and to the pressure of
their own convenience only to come forward with offers of sale to
the United States.

The Choctaws, being indebted to certain mercantile characters beyond
what could be discharged by the ordinary proceeds of their huntings, and
pressed for payment by those creditors, proposed at length to the United
States to cede lands to the amount of their debts, and designated them
in two different portions of their country. These designations not at
all suiting us, their proposals were declined for that reason, and with
an intimation that if their own convenience should ever dispose them to
cede their lands on the Mississippi we should be willing to purchase.
Still urged by their creditors, as well as by their own desire to be
liberated from debt, they at length proposed to make a cession which
should be to our convenience. James Robertson, of Tennessee, and Silas
Dinsmore were thereupon appointed commissioners to treat with them on
that subject, with instructions to purchase only on the Mississippi. On
meeting their chiefs, however, it was found that such was the attachment
of the nation to their lands on the Mississippi that their chiefs could
not undertake to cede them; but they offered all their lands south of
a line to be run from their and our boundary at the Omochita eastwardly
to their boundary with the Creeks, on the ridge between the Tombigbee
and Alabama, which would unite our possessions there from Natchez
to Tombigbee. A treaty to this effect was accordingly signed at
Pooshapekanuk on the 16th of November, 1805; but this being against
express instructions, and not according with the object then in view,
I was disinclined to its ratification, and therefore did not at the last
session of Congress lay it before the Senate for their advice, but have
suffered it to lie unacted on.

Progressive difficulties, however, in our foreign relations have brought
into view considerations other than those which then prevailed. It is
now, perhaps, become as interesting to obtain footing for a strong
settlement of militia along our southern frontier eastward of the
Mississippi as on the west of that river, and more so than higher up
the river itself. The consolidation of the Mississippi Territory and
the establishing a barrier of separation between the Indians and our
Southern neighbors are also important objects. The cession is supposed
to contain about 5,000,000 acres, of which the greater part is said to
be fit for cultivation, and no inconsiderable proportion of the first
quality, on the various waters it includes; and the Choctaws and their
creditors are still anxious for the sale.

I therefore now transmit the treaty for the consideration of the Senate,
and I ask their advice and consent as to its ratification. I communicate
at the same time such papers as bear any material relation to the
subject, together with a map on which is sketched the northern limit of
the cession, rather to give a general idea than with any pretension to
exactness, which our present knowledge of the country would not warrant.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 20, 1808.

 To the House of Representatives of the United States :

Some days previous to your resolutions of the 13th instant a court of
inquiry had been instituted at the request of General Wilkinson, charged
to make the inquiry into his conduct which the first resolution desires,
and had commenced their proceedings. To the judge-advocate of that court
the papers and information on that subject transmitted to me by the
House of Representatives have been delivered, to be used according to
the rules and powers of that court.

The request of a communication of any information which may have been
received at any time since the establishment of the present Government
touching combinations with foreign agents for dismembering the Union
or the corrupt receipt of money by any officer of the United States
from the agents of foreign governments can be complied with but in a
partial degree.

It is well understood that in the first or second year of the Presidency
of General Washington information was given to him relating to
certain combinations with the agents of a foreign government for the
dismemberment of the Union, which combinations had taken place before
the establishment of the present Federal Government. This information,
however, is believed never to have been deposited in any public office,
or left in that of the President's secretary, these having been duly
examined, but to have been considered as personally confidential, and
therefore retained among his private papers. A communication from the
governor of Virginia to President Washington is found in the office
of the President's secretary, which, although not strictly within the
terms of the request of the House of Representatives, is communicated,
inasmuch as it may throw some light on the subjects of the
correspondence of that time between certain foreign agents and citizens
of the United States.

In the first or second year of the Administration of President Adams
Andrew Ellicott, then employed in designating, in conjunction with the
Spanish authorities, the boundaries between the territories of the
United States and Spain, under the treaty with that nation, communicated
to the Executive of the United States papers and information respecting
the subjects of the present inquiry, which were deposited in the
Office of State. Copies of these are now transmitted to the House of
Representatives, except of a single letter and a reference from the
said Andrew Ellicott, which, being expressly desired to be kept secret,
is therefore not communicated, but its contents can be obtained from
himself in a more legal form, and directions have been given to summon
him to appear as a witness before the court of inquiry.

A paper on "The Commerce of Louisiana," bearing date the 18th of
April, 1798, is found in the Office of State, supposed to have been
communicated by Mr. Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, then a subject of
Spain, and now of the House of Representatives of the United States,
stating certain commercial transactions of General Wilkinson in New
Orleans. An extract from this is now communicated, because it contains
facts which may have some bearing on the questions relating to him.

The destruction of the War Office by fire in the close of 1800 involved
all information it contained at that date.

The papers already described therefore constitute the whole of the
information on the subjects deposited in the public offices during the
preceding Administrations, as far as has yet been found; but it can
not be affirmed that there may be no other, because, the papers of the
office being filed for the most part alphabetically, unless aided by the
suggestion of any particular name which may have given such information,
nothing short of a careful examination of the papers in the offices
generally could authorize such an affirmation.

About a twelvemonth after I came to the administration of the Government
Mr. Clark gave some verbal information to myself, as well as to the
Secretary of State, relating to the same combinations for the
dismemberment of the Union. He was listened to freely, and he then
delivered the letter of Governor Gayoso, addressed to himself, of which
a copy is now communicated. After his return to New Orleans he forwarded
to the Secretary of State other papers, with a request that after
perusal they should be burnt. This, however, was not done, and he was so
informed by the Secretary of State, and that they would be held subject
to his orders. These papers have not yet been found in the office.
A letter, therefore, has been addressed to the former chief clerk, who
may perhaps give information respecting them. As far as our memories
enable us to say, they related only to the combinations before spoken
of, and not at all to the corrupt receipt of money by any officer of
the United States; consequently they respected what was considered as
a dead matter, known to the preceding Administrations, and offering
nothing new to call for investigations, which those nearest the dates
of the transactions had not thought proper to institute.

In the course of the communications made to me on the subject of the
conspiracy of Aaron Burr I sometimes received letters, some of them
anonymous, some under names true or false, expressing suspicions and
insinuations against General Wilkinson; but one only of them, and that
anonymous, specified any particular fact, and that fact was one of those
which had been already communicated to a former Administration.

No other information within the purview of the request of the House is
known to have been received by any department of the Government from the
establishment of the present Federal Government. That which has been
recently communicated to the House of Representatives, and by them
to me, is the first direct testimony ever made known to me charging
General Wilkinson with the corrupt receipt of money, and the House of
Representatives may be assured that the duties which this information
devolves on me shall be exercised with rigorous impartiality. Should any
want of power in the court to compel the rendering of testimony obstruct
that full and impartial inquiry which alone can establish guilt or
innocence and satisfy justice, the legislative authority only will be
competent to the remedy.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 30, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

The Choctaws, being indebted to their merchants beyond what could be
discharged by the ordinary proceeds of their buntings, and pressed for
payment, proposed to the United States to cede lands to the amount of
their debts, and designated them in two different portions of their
country. These designations, not at all suiting us, were declined. Still
urged by their creditors, as well as by their own desire to be liberated
from debt, they at length proposed to make a cession which should be to
our convenience. By a treaty signed at Pooshapuckanuck on the 16th of
November, 1805, they accordingly ceded all their lands south of a line
to be run from their and our boundary at the Omochita eastwardly to
their boundary with the Creeks, on the ridge between the Tombigbee and
Alabama, as is more particularly described in the treaty, containing
about 5,000,000 acres, as is supposed, and uniting our possessions there
from Adams to Washington County.

The location contemplated in the instructions to the commissioners was
on the Mississippi. That in the treaty being entirely different, I was
at that time disinclined to its ratification, and I have suffered it to
lie unacted on. But progressive difficulties in our foreign relations
have brought into view considerations other than those which then
prevailed. It is now, perhaps, as interesting to obtain footing for a
strong settlement of militia along our southern frontier eastward of the
Mississippi as on the west of that river, and more so than higher up the
river itself. The consolidation of the Mississippi Territory and the
establishment of a barrier of separation between the Indians and our
Southern neighbors are also important objects; and the Choctaws and
their creditors being still anxious that the sale should be made, I
submitted the treaty to the Senate, who have advised and consented to
its ratification. I therefore now lay it before both Houses of Congress
for the exercise of their constitutional powers as to the means of
fulfilling it.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 30, 1808.

 To the House of Representatives of the United States :

The posts of Detroit and Mackinac having been originally intended by the
Governments which established and held them as mere depots for commerce
with the Indians, very small cessions of land around them were obtained
or asked from the native proprietors, and these posts depended for
protection on the strength of their garrisons. The principles of our
Government leading us to the employment of such moderate garrisons in
time of peace as may merely take care of the post, and to a reliance on
the neighboring militia for its support in the first moments of war,
I have thought it would be important to obtain from the Indians such a
cession in the neighborhood of these posts as might maintain a militia
proportioned to this object; and I have particularly contemplated,
with this view, the acquisition of the eastern moiety of the peninsula
between the lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie, extending it to the
Connecticut Reserve so soon as it could be effected with the perfect
good will of the natives.

By a treaty concluded at Detroit on the 17th of November last with the
Ottoways, Chippeways, Wyandots, and Pattawatimas so much of this country
has been obtained as extends from about Saguina Bay southwardly to the
Miami of the Lakes, supposed to contain upward of 5,000,000 acres, with
a prospect of obtaining for the present a breadth of 2 miles for a
communication from the Miami to the Connecticut Reserve.

The Senate having advised and consented to the ratification of this
treaty, I now lay it before both Houses of Congress for the exercise
of their constitutional powers as to the means of fulfilling it.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 2, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

Having received an official communication of certain orders of the
British Government against the maritime rights of neutrals, bearing date
the 11th of November, 1807, I transmit them to Congress, as a further
proof of the increasing dangers to our navigation and commerce, which
led to the provident measure of the act of the present session laying an
embargo on our own vessels,

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 4, 1808.

 To the House of Representatives of the United States :

In my message of January 20 I stated that some papers forwarded by Mr.
Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, to the Secretary of State in 1803 had not
then been found in the Office of State, and that a letter had been
addressed to the former chief clerk, in the hope that he might advise
where they should be sought for. By indications received from him they
are now found. Among them are two letters from the Baron de Carondelet
to an officer serving under him at a separate post, in which his views
of a dismemberment of our Union are expressed. Extracts of so much of
these letters as are within the scope of the resolution of the House are
now communicated. With these were found the letters written by Mr. Clark
to the Secretary of State in 1803. A part of one only of these relates
to this subject, and is extracted and inclosed for the information of
the House. In no part of the papers communicated by Mr. Clark, which are
voluminous and in different languages, nor in his letters, have we found
any intimation of the corrupt receipt of money by any officer of the
United States from any foreign agent. As to the combinations with
foreign agents for dismembering the Union, these papers and letters
offer nothing which was not probably known to my predecessors, or which
could call anew for inquiries, which they had not thought necessary to
institute, when the facts were recent and could be better proved. They
probably believed it best to let pass into oblivion transactions which,
however culpable, had commenced before this Government existed, and had
been finally extinguished by the treaty of 1795.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 9, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I communicate to Congress, for their information, a letter from the
person acting in the absence of our consul at Naples, giving reason
to believe, on the affidavit of a Captain Sheffield, of the American
schooner  Mary Ann , that the Dey of Algiers has commenced war
against the United States. For this no just cause has been given on
our part within my knowledge. We may daily expect more authentic and
particular information on the subject from Mr. Lear, who was residing
as our consul at Algiers.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 15, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I communicate for the information of Congress a letter from the consul
of the United States at Malaga to the Secretary of State, covering one
from Mr. Lear, our consul at Algiers, which gives information that the
rupture threatened on the part of the Dey of Algiers has been amicably
settled, and the vessels seized by him are liberated.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 19, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

The States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia having by their
several acts consented that the road from Cumberland to the State of
Ohio, authorized by the act of Congress of the 29th of March, 1806,
should pass through those States, and the report of the commissioners,
communicated to Congress with my message of the 31st January, 1807,
having been duly considered, I have approved of the route therein
proposed for the said road as far as Brownsville, with a single
deviation, since located, which carries it through Uniontown.

From thence the course to the Ohio and the point within the legal limits
at which it shall strike that river is still to be decided. In forming
this decision I shall pay material regard to the interests and wishes of
the populous parts of the State of Ohio and to a future and convenient
connection with the road which is to lead from the Indian boundary near
Cincinnati by Vincennes to the Mississippi at Saint Louis, under authority
of the act of the 21st April, 1806. In this way we may accomplish a
continued and advantageous line of communication from the seat of the
General Government to Saint Louis, passing through several very
interesting points of the Western country.

I have thought it advisable also to secure from obliteration the trace
of the road so far as it has been approved, which has been executed at
such considerable expense, by opening one-half of its breadth through
its whole length.

The report of the commissioners, herewith transmitted, will give
particular information of their proceedings under the act of the 29th
March, 1806, since the date of my message of the 31st January, 1807, and
will enable Congress to adopt such further measures relative thereto as
they may deem proper under existing circumstances.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 25, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

The dangers to our country arising from the contests of other nations
and the urgency of making preparation for whatever events might affect
our relations with them have been intimated in preceding messages to
Congress. To secure ourselves by due precautions an augmentation of our
military force, as well regular as of volunteer militia, seems to be
expedient. The precise extent of that augmentation can not as yet be
satisfactorily suggested, but that no time may be lost, and especially
at a season deemed favorable to the object, I submit to the wisdom of
the Legislature whether they will authorize a commencement of this
precautionary work by a present provision for raising and organizing
some additional force, reserving to themselves to decide its ultimate
extent on such views of our situation as I may be enabled to present
at a future day of the session.

If an increase of force be now approved, I submit to their consideration
the outlines of a plan proposed in the inclosed letter from the
Secretary of War.

I recommend also to the attention of Congress the term at which the act
of April 18, 1806, concerning the militia, will expire, and the effect
of that expiration.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 26, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I inclose, for the information of Congress, letters recently received
from our ministers at Paris and London, communicating their
representations against the late decrees and orders of France and Great
Britain, heretofore transmitted to Congress. These documents will
contribute to the information of Congress as to the dispositions of
those powers and the probable course of their proceedings toward
neutrals, and will doubtless have their due influence in adopting
the measures of the Legislature to the actual crisis.

Although nothing forbids the general matter of these letters from being
spoken of without reserve, yet as the publication of papers of this
description would restrain injuriously the freedom of our foreign
correspondence, they are communicated so far confidentially and with
a request that after being read to the satisfaction of both Houses
they may be returned.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 1, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of February 26, I
now lay before them such memorials and petitions for the district of
Detroit, and such other information as is in my possession, in relation
to the conduct of William Hull, governor of the Territory of Michigan,
and Stanley Griswold, esq., while acting as secretary of that Territory.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 2, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of November 30, 1807,
I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State on the subject of
impressments, as requested in that resolution. The great volume of the
documents and the time necessary for the investigation will explain to
the Senate the causes of the delay which has intervened.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 7, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

In the city of New Orleans and adjacent to it are sundry parcels of
ground, some of them with buildings and other improvements on them,
which it is my duty to present to the attention of the Legislature.
The title to these grounds appears to have been retained in the former
sovereigns of the Province of Louisiana as public fiduciaries and for
the purposes of the Province. Some of them were used for the residence
of the governor, for public offices, hospitals, barracks, magazines,
fortifications, levees, etc., others for the townhouse, schools,
markets, landings, and other purposes of the city of New Orleans; some
were held by religious corporations or persons, others seem to have
been reserved for future disposition. To these must be added a parcel
called the Batture, which requires more particular description. It is
understood to have been a shoal or elevation of the bottom of the river
adjacent to the bank of the suburbs of Saint Mary, produced by the
successive depositions of mud during the annual inundations of the
river, and covered with water only during those inundations. At all
other seasons it has been used by the city immemorially to furnish
earth for raising their streets and courtyards, for mortar, and other
necessary purposes, and as a landing or quay for unlading firewood,
lumber, and other articles brought by water. This having been lately
claimed, by a private individual, the city opposed the claim on a
supposed legal title in itself; but it has been adjudged that the legal
title was not in the city. It is, however, alleged that that title,
originally in the former sovereigns, was never parted with by them,
but was retained in them for the uses of the city and Province, and
consequently has now passed over to the United States. Until this
question can be decided under legislative authority, measures have been
taken according to law to prevent any change in the state of things and
to keep the grounds clear of intruders. The settlement of this title,
the appropriation of the grounds and improvements formerly occupied for
provincial purposes to the same or such other objects as may be better
suited to present circumstances, the confirmation of the uses in other
parcels to such bodies, corporate or private, as may of right or on
other reasonable considerations expect them, are matters now submitted
to the determination of the legislature.

The papers and plans now transmitted will give them such information on
the subject as I possess, and being mostly originals, I must request
that they may be communicated from the one to the other House, to answer
the purposes of both.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 10, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

A purchase having lately been made from the Cherokee Indians of a
tract of land 6 miles square at the mouth of the Chickamogga, on the
Tennessee, I now lay the treaty and papers relating to it before the
Senate, with an explanation of the views which have led to it.

It was represented that there was within that tract a great abundance of
iron ore of excellent quality, with a stream and fall of water suitable
for iron works; that the Cherokees were anxious to have works
established there, in the hope of having a better supply of those
implements of household and agriculture of which they have learned the
use and necessity, but on the condition that they should be under the
authority and control of the United States.

As such an establishment would occasion a considerable and certain
demand for corn and other provisions and necessaries, it seemed
probable that it would immediately draw around it a close settlement
of the Cherokees, would encourage them to enter on a regular life of
agriculture, familiarize them with the practice and value of the arts,
attach them to property, lead them of necessity and without delay to
the establishment of laws and government, and thus make a great and
important advance toward assimilating their condition to ours. At the
same time it offers considerable accommodation to the Government by
enabling it to obtain more conveniently than it now can the necessary
supplies of cast and wrought iron for all the Indians south of the
Tennessee, and for those also to whom Saint Louis is a convenient deposit,
and will benefit such of our own citizens likewise as shall be within
its reach. Under these views the purchase has been made, with the
consent and desire of the great body of the nation, although not without
some dissenting members, as must be the case will all collections of
men. But it is represented that the dissentients are few, and under
the influence of one or two interested individuals. It is by no means
proposed that these works should be conducted on account of the United
States. It is understood that there are private individuals ready
to erect them, subject to such reasonable rent as may secure a
reimbursement to the United States, and to such other conditions as
shall secure to the Indians their rights and tranquillity.

The instrument is now submitted to the Senate, with a request of their
advice and consent as to its ratification.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 17, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I have heretofore communicated to Congress the decrees of the Government
of France of November 21, 1806, and of Spain of February 19, 1807, with
the orders of the British Government of January and November, 1807.

I now transmit a decree of the Emperor of France of December 17,1807,
and a similar decree of the 3d of January last by His Catholic Majesty.
Although the decree of France has not been received by official
communication, yet the different channels of promulgation through which
the public are possessed of it, with the formal testimony furnished by
the Government of Spain in their decree, leave us without a doubt that
such a one has been issued. These decrees and orders, taken together,
want little of amounting to a declaration that every neutral vessel
found on the high seas, whatsoever be her cargo and whatsoever foreign
port be that of her departure or destination, shall be deemed lawful
prize; and they prove more and more the expediency of retaining our
vessels, our seamen, and property within our own harbors until the
dangers to which they are exposed can be removed or lessened.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 18, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

The scale on which the Military Academy at West Point was
originally established is become too limited to furnish the number
of well-instructed subjects in the different branches of artillery
and engineering which the public service calls for. The want of such
characters is already sensibly felt, and will be increased with the
enlargement of our plans of military preparation. The chief engineer,
having been instructed to consider the subject and to propose an
augmentation which might render the establishment commensurate with
the present circumstances of our country, has made the report which
I now transmit for the consideration of Congress.

The idea suggested by him of removing the institution to this place is
also worthy of attention. Besides the advantage of placing it under the
immediate eye of the Government, it may render its benefits common to
the Naval Department, and will furnish opportunities of selecting on
better information the characters most qualified to fulfill the duties
which the public service may call for.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 22, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

At the opening of the present session I informed the Legislature that
the measures which had been taken with the Government of Great Britain
for the settlement of our neutral and national rights and of the
conditions of commercial intercourse with that nation had resulted in
articles of a treaty which could not be acceded to on our part; that
instructions had been consequently sent to our ministers there to resume
the negotiations, and to endeavor to obtain certain alterations,
and that this was interrupted by the transaction which took place
betweenthe frigates  Leopard  and  Chesapeake . The call on that
Government for reparation of this wrong produced, as Congress has been
already informed, the mission of a special minister to this country,
and the occasion is now arrived when the public interest permits and
requires that the whole of these proceedings should be made known to
you.

I therefore now communicate the instructions given to our minister
resident at London and his communications with that Government on
the subject of the  Chesapeake , with the correspondence which has
taken place here between the Secretary of State and Mr. Rose, the
special minister charged with the adjustment of that difference; the
instructions to our ministers for the formation of a treaty; their
correspondence with the British commissioners and with their own
Government on that subject; the treaty itself and written declaration of
the British commissioners accompanying it, and the instructions given by
us for resuming the negotiation, with the proceedings and correspondence
subsequent thereto. To these I have added a letter lately addressed to
the Secretary of State from one of our late ministers, which, though
not strictly written in an official character, I think it my duty to
communicate, in order that his views of the proposed treaty and of its
several articles may be fairly presented and understood.

Although I have heretofore and from time to time made such
communications to Congress as to keep them possessed of a general and
just view of the proceedings and dispositions of the Government of
France toward this country, yet in our present critical situation, when
we find that no conduct on our part, however impartial and friendly, has
been sufficient to insure from either belligerent a just respect for our
rights, I am desirous that nothing shall be omitted on my part which may
add to your information on this subject or contribute to the correctness
of the views which should be formed. The papers which for these reasons
I now lay before you embrace all the communications, official or verbal,
from the French Government respecting the general relations between the
two countries which have been transmitted through our minister there,
or through any other accredited channel, since the last session of
Congress, to which time all information of the same kind had from
time to time been given them. Some of these papers have already been
submitted to Congress, but it is thought better to offer them again in
order that the chain of communications of which they make a part may be
presented unbroken.

When, on the 26th of February, I communicated to both Houses the letter
of General Armstrong to M. Champagny, I desired it might not be
published because of the tendency of that practice to restrain
injuriously the freedom of our foreign correspondence. But perceiving
that this caution, proceeding purely from a regard to the public good,
has furnished occasion for disseminating unfounded suspicions and
insinuations, I am induced to believe that the good which will now
result from its publication, by confirming the confidence and union of
our fellow-citizens, will more than countervail the ordinary objection
to such publications. It is my wish, therefore, that it may be now
published.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 22, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

In a separate message of this date I have communicated to Congress
so much as may be made public of papers which give a full view of
the present state of our relations with the two contending powers,
France and England. Everyone must be sensible that in the details of
instructions for negotiating a treaty and in the correspondence and
conferences respecting it matters will occur which interest sometimes
and sometimes respect or other proper motives forbid to be made public.
To reconcile my duty in this particular with my desire of letting
Congress know everything which can give them a full understanding of the
subjects on which they are to act, I have suppressed in the documents
of the other message the parts which ought not to be made public and
have given them in the supplementary and confidential papers herewith
inclosed, with such references as that they may be read in their
original places as if still standing in them; and when these
confidential papers shall have been read to the satisfaction of the
House, I request their return, and that their contents may not be made
public.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 25, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

In proceeding to carry into execution the act for fortifying our forts
and harbors it is found that the sites most advantageous for their
defense, and sometimes the only sites competent to that defense, are in
some cases the property of minors incapable of giving a valid consent to
their alienation; in others belong to persons who may refuse altogether
to alienate, or demand a compensation far beyond the liberal justice
allowable in such cases. From these causes the defense of our seaboard,
so necessary to be pressed during the present season, will in various
parts be defeated unless a remedy can be applied. With a view to this
I submit the case to the consideration of Congress, who, estimating its
importance and reviewing the powers vested in them by the Constitution,
combined with the amendment providing that private property shall not
be taken for public use without just compensation, will decide on the
course most proper to be pursued.

I am aware that as the consent of the legislature of the State to the
purchase of the site may not in some instances have been previously
obtained, exclusive legislation can not be exercised therein by Congress
until that consent is given. But in the meantime it will be held under
the same laws which protect the property of individuals and other
property of the United States in the same State, and the legislatures
at their next meetings will have opportunities of doing what will be
so evidently called for by the particular interest of their own State.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 25, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I now lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United
States according to the latest returns received by the Department of
War. From the State of Delaware alone no return has been made.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 25, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I transmit to both Houses of Congress a report from the surveyor on the
public buildings of the progress made on them during the last session,
of their present state, and of that of the funds appropriated to them.
These have been much exceeded by the cost of the work done, a fact not
known to me till the close of the season. The circumstances from which
it arose are stated in the report of the surveyor.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 29, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

When the convention of the 7th of January, 1806, was entered into with
the Cherokees for the purchase of certain lands, it was believed
by both parties that the eastern limit, when run in the direction
therein prescribed, would have included all the waters of Elk River.
On proceeding to run that line, however, it was found to omit a
considerable extent of those waters, on which were already settled
about 200 families. The Cherokees readily consented, for a moderate
compensation, that the line should be so run as to include all the
waters of that river. Our commissioners accordingly entered into an
explanatory convention for that purpose, which I now lay before the
Senate for consideration whether they will advise and consent to its
ratification. A letter from one of the commissioners, now also inclosed,
will more fully explain the circumstances which led to it.

Lieutenant Pike on his journey up the Mississippi in 1805-6, being at
the village of the Sioux, between the rivers Saint Croix and Saint Peters,
conceived that the position was favorable for a military and commercial
post for the United States whenever it should be thought expedient to
advance in that quarter. He therefore proposed to the chiefs a cession
of lands for that purpose. Their desire of entering into connection
with the United States and of getting a trading house established there
induced a ready consent to the proposition, and they made, by articles
of agreement now inclosed, a voluntary donation to the United States of
two portions of land, the one of 9 miles square at the mouth of the Saint
Croix, the other from below the mouth of Saint Peters up the Mississippi
to Saint Anthonys Falls, extending 9 miles in width on each side of the
Mississippi. These portions of land are designated on the map now
inclosed. Lieutenant Pike on his part made presents to the Indians to
some amount. This convention, though dated the 23d of September, 1805,
is but lately received, and although we have no immediate view of
establishing a trading post at that place, I submit it to the Senate for
the sanction of their advice and consent to its ratification, in order
to give to our title a full validity on the part of the United States,
whenever it may be wanting, for the special purpose which constituted
in the mind of the donors the sole consideration and inducement to the
cession.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 30, 1808,

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

Since my message of the 22d instant letters have been received from our
ministers at Paris and London, extracts from which, with a letter to
General Armstrong from the French minister of foreign relations, and a
letter from the British envoy residing here to the Secretary of State,
I now communicate to Congress. They add to the materials for estimating
the dispositions of those Governments toward this country.

The proceedings of both indicate designs of drawing us, if possible,
into the vortex of their contests; but every new information confirms
the prudence of guarding against these designs as it does of adhering
to the precautionary system hitherto contemplated.

TH. JEFFERSON.

APRIL 2, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

Believing that the confidence and union of our fellow-citizens at the
present crisis will be still further confirmed by the publication of the
letter of Mr. Champagny to General Armstrong and that of Mr. Erskine to
the Secretary of State, communicated with my message of the 30th ultimo,
and therefore that it may be useful to except them from the confidential
character of the other documents accompanying that message, I leave to
the consideration of Congress the expediency of making them public.

TH. JEFFERSON.

APRIL 8, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

Agreeably to the request of the Senate in their resolution of yesterday,
I have examined my papers and find no letter from Matthew Nimmo of
the date of November 28, 1806, nor any other from him of any date but
that of January 23, 1807, now transmitted, with all the papers in my
possession which accompanied it. Nor do I find any letter from John
Smith, of Ohio, bearing date at any time in the month of January, 1807.

Having delivered to the Attorney-General all the papers respecting the
conspiracy of Aaron Burr which came to my hands during or before his
prosecution, I might suppose the letters above requested had been
delivered to him; but I must add my belief that I never received such
letters, and the ground of it. I am in the habit of noting daily in the
list kept for that purpose the letters I receive daily by the names of
the writers, and dates of time, and place, and this has been done with
such exactness that I do not recollect ever to have detected a single
omission. I have carefully examined that list from the 1st of November,
1806, to the last of June, 1807, and I find no note within that
period of the receipt of any letter from Matthew Nimmo but that now
transmitted, nor of any one of the date of January, 1807, from John
Smith, of Ohio. The letters noted as received from him within that
period are dated at Washington, February 2, 2, 7, and 21, which I have
examined, and find relating to subjects entirely foreign to the objects
of the resolution of the 7th instant; and others, dated at Cincinnati,
March 27, April 6, 13, and 17, which, not being now in my possession,
I presume have related to Burr's conspiracy, and have been delivered to
the Attorney-General. I recollect nothing of their particular contents.
I must repeat, therefore, my firm belief that the letters of Nimmo of
November 28, 1806, and of John Smith of January, 1807, never came to
my hands, and that if such were written (and Nimmo's letter expressly
mentions his of November 28), they have been intercepted or otherwise
miscarried.

TH. JEFFERSON.

APRIL 22, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I transmit to both Houses of Congress a letter from the envoy of His
Britannic Majesty at this place to the Secretary of State on the subject
of certain British claims to lands in the Territory of Mississippi,
relative to which several acts have been heretofore passed by the
Legislature.

TH. JEFFERSON.

PROCLAMATION.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas information has been received that sundry persons are combined
or combining and confederating together on Lake Champlain and the
country thereto adjacent for the purposes of forming insurrections
against the authority of the laws of the United States, for opposing the
same and obstructing their execution, and that such combinations are too
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings
or by the powers vested in the marshals by the laws of the United
States:

Now, therefore, to the end that the authority of the laws may be
maintained, and that those concerned, directly or indirectly, in any
insurrection or combination against the same may be duly warned, I have
issued this my proclamation, hereby commanding such insurgents and all
concerned in such combination instantly and without delay to disperse
and retire peaceably to their respective abodes. And I do hereby further
require and command all officers having authority, civil or military,
and all other persons, civil or military, who shall be found within
the vicinage of such insurrections or combinations to be aiding
and assisting by all the means in their power, by force of arms or
otherwise, to quell and subdue such insurrections or combinations,
to seize upon all those therein concerned who shall not instantly and
without delay disperse and retire to their respective abodes, and to
deliver them over to the civil authority of the place, to be proceeded
against according to law.

 (SEAL.)

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to
be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.

Given at the city of Washington, the 19th day of April, 1808, and in
the year of the Sovereignty and Independence of the United States the
thirty-second.

TH. JEFFERSON.

By the President:
  JAMES MADISON,
     Secretary of State .

EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

NOVEMBER 8, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

It would have been a source, fellow-citizens, of much gratification if
our last communications from Europe had enabled me to inform you that
the belligerent nations, whose disregard of neutral rights has been so
destructive to our commerce, had become awakened to the duty and true
policy of revoking their unrighteous edicts. That no means might be
omitted to produce this salutary effect, I lost no time in availing
myself of the act authorizing a suspension, in whole or in part, of the
several embargo laws. Our ministers at London and Paris were instructed
to explain to the respective Governments there our disposition to
exercise the authority in such manner as would withdraw the pretext on
of which the aggressions were originally founded and open the way for
a renewal of that commercial intercourse which it was alleged on all
sides had been reluctantly obstructed. As each of those Governments had
pledged its readiness to concur in renouncing a measure which reached
its adversary through the incontestable rights of neutrals only, and as
the measure had been assumed by each as a retaliation for an asserted
acquiescence in the aggressions of the other, it was reasonably expected
that the occasion would have been seized by both for evincing the
sincerity of their professions, and for restoring to the commerce of the
United States its legitimate freedom. The instructions to our ministers
with respect to the different belligerents were necessarily modified
with a reference to their different circumstances, and to the condition
annexed by law to the Executive power of suspension, requiring a decree
of security to our commerce which would not result from a repeal of the
decrees of France. Instead of a pledge, therefore, of a suspension of
the embargo as to her in case of such a repeal, it was presumed that
a sufficient inducement might be found in other considerations, and
particularly in the change produced by a compliance with our just
demands by one belligerent and a refusal by the other in the relations
between the other and the United States. To Great Britain, whose power
on the ocean is so ascendant, it was deemed not inconsistent with that
condition to state explicitly that on her rescinding her orders in
relation to the United States their trade would be opened with her, and
remain shut to her enemy in case of his failure to rescind his decrees
also. From France no answer has been received, nor any indication that
the requisite change in her decrees is contemplated. The favorable
reception of the proposition to Great Britain was the less to be
doubted, as her orders of council had not only been referred for
their vindication to an acquiescence on the part of the United States
no longer to be pretended, but as the arrangement proposed, whilst
it resisted the illegal decrees of France, involved, moreover,
substantially the precise advantages professedly aimed at by the
British orders. The arrangement has nevertheless been rejected.

This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and no other
event having occurred on which a suspension of the embargo by the
Executive was authorized, it necessarily remains in the extent
originally given to it. We have the satisfaction, however, to reflect
that in return for the privations imposed by the measure, and which
our fellow-citizens in general have borne with patriotism, it has had
the important effects of saving our mariners and our vast mercantile
property, as well as of affording time for prosecuting the defensive and
provisional measures called for by the occasion. It has demonstrated to
foreign nations the moderation and firmness which govern our councils,
and to our citizens the necessity of uniting in support of the laws
and the rights of their country, and has thus long frustrated those
usurpations and spoliations which, if resisted, involved war; if
submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our national independence.

Under a continuance of the belligerent measures which, in defiance of
laws which consecrate the rights of neutrals, overspread the ocean with
danger, it will rest with the wisdom of Congress to decide on the course
best adapted to such a state of things; and bringing with them, as they
do, from every part of the Union the sentiments of our constituents, my
confidence is strengthened that in forming this decision they will, with
an unerring regard to the essential rights and interests of the nation,
weigh and compare the painful alternatives out of which a choice is to
be made. Nor should I do justice to the virtues which on other occasions
have marked the character of our fellow-citizens if I did not cherish an
equal confidence that the alternative chosen, whatever it may be, will
be maintained with all the fortitude and patriotism which the crisis
ought to inspire.

The documents containing the correspondences on the subject of the
foreign edicts against our commerce, with the instructions given to
our ministers at London and Paris, are now laid before you.

The communications made to Congress at their last session explained the
posture in which the close of the discussions relating to the attack
by a British ship of war on the frigate  Chesapeake  left a subject on
which the nation had manifested so honorable a sensibility. Every view
of what had passed authorized a belief that immediate steps would be
taken by the British Government for redressing a wrong which the more it
was investigated appeared the more clearly to require what had not been
provided for in the special mission. It is found that no steps have been
taken for the purpose. On the contrary, it will be seen in the documents
laid before you that the inadmissible preliminary which obstructed the
adjustment is still adhered to, and, moreover, that it is now brought
into connection with the distinct and irrelative case of the orders in
council. The instructions which had been given to our minister at London
with a view to facilitate, if necessary, the reparation claimed by the
United States are included in the documents communicated.

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone no material
changes since your last session. The important negotiations with Spain
which had been alternately suspended and resumed necessarily experience
a pause under the extraordinary and interesting crisis which
distinguishes her internal situation.

With the Barbary Powers we continue in harmony, with the exception of an
unjustifiable proceeding of the Dey of Algiers toward our consul to that
Regency. Its character and circumstances are now laid before you, and
will enable you to decide how far it may, either now or hereafter, call
for any measures not within the limits of the Executive authority.

With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily maintained.
Some instances of individual wrong have, as at other times, taken
place, but in no wise implicating the will of the nation. Beyond the
Mississippi the loways, the Sacs, and the Alabamas have delivered up
for trial and punishment individuals from among themselves accused of
murdering citizens of the United States. On this side of the Mississippi
the Creeks are exerting themselves to arrest offenders of the same kind,
and the Choctaws have manifested their readiness and desire for amicable
and just arrangements respecting depredations committed by disorderly
persons of their tribe. And, generally, from a conviction that we
consider them as a part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their
rights and interests, the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining
strength daily  is extending from the nearer to the more remote, and
will amply requite us for the justice and friendship practiced toward
them. Husbandry and household manufacture are advancing among them more
rapidly with the Southern than Northern tribes, from circumstances of
soil and climate, and one of the two great divisions of the Cherokee
Nation have now under consideration to solicit the citizenship of the
United States, and to be identified with us in laws and government in
such progressive manner as we shall think best.

In consequence of the appropriations of the last session of Congress for
the security of our seaport towns and harbors, such works of defense
have been erected as seemed to be called for by the situation of the
several places, their relative importance, and the scale of expense
indicated by the amount of the appropriation. These works will chiefly
be finished in the course of the present season, except at New York and
New Orleans, where most was to be done; and although a great proportion
of the last appropriation has been expended on the former place, yet
some further views will be submitted to Congress for rendering its
security entirely adequate against naval enterprise. A view of what has
been done at the several places, and of what is proposed to be done,
shall be communicated as soon as the several reports are received.

Of the gunboats authorized by the act of December last, it has been
thought necessary to build only 103 in the present year. These, with
those before possessed, are sufficient for the harbors and waters most
exposed, and the residue will require little time for their construction
when it shall be deemed necessary.

Under the act of the last session for raising an additional military
force so many officers were immediately appointed as were necessary for
carrying on the business of recruiting, and in proportion as it advanced
others have been added. We have reason to believe their success has been
satisfactory, although such returns have not yet been received as enable
me to present you a statement of the numbers engaged.

I have not thought it necessary in the course of the last season to call
for any general detachments of militia or of volunteers under the laws
passed for that purpose. For the ensuing season, however, they will be
required to be in readiness should their service be wanted, Some small
and special detachments have been necessary to maintain trie laws of
embargo on that portion of our northern frontier which offered peculiar
facilities for evasion, but these were replaced as soon as it could be
done by bodies of new recruits. By the aid of these and of the armed
vessels called into service in other quarters the spirit of disobedience
and abuse, which manifested itself early and with sensible effect while
we were unprepared to meet it, has been considerably repressed.

Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live,
our attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our
country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well
organized and armed militia is their best security. It is therefore
incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia,
and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at
every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States
have paid a laudable attention to this object, but every degree of
neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone having the power to
produce an uniform state of preparation in this great organ of defense,
the interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country's
security will present this as among the most important objects of their
deliberation.

Under the acts of March 11 and April 23 respecting arms, the difficulty
of procuring them from abroad during the present situation and
dispositions of Europe induced us to direct our whole efforts to the
means of internal supply. The public factories have therefore been
enlarged, additional machineries erected, and, in proportion as
artificers can be found or formed, their effect, already more than
doubled, may be increased so as to keep pace with the yearly increase
of the militia. The annual sums appropriated by the latter act have
been directed to the encouragement of private factories of arms, and
contracts have been entered into with individual undertakers to nearly
the amount of the first year's appropriation.

The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice of
the belligerent powers, and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our
citizens are subjects of just concern. The situation into which we have
thus been forced has impelled us to apply a pbrtion of our industry and
capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this
conversion is daily increasing, and little doubt remains that the
establishments formed and forming will, under the auspices of cheaper
materials and subsistence, the freedom of labor from taxation with us,
and of protecting duties and prohibitions, become permanent. The
commerce with the Indians, too, within our own boundaries is likely to
receive abundant aliment from the same internal source, and will secure
to them peace and the progress of civilization, undisturbed by practices
hostile to both.

The accounts of the receipts and expenditures during the year ending
the 30th of September last being not yet made up, a correct statement
will hereafter be transmitted from the Treasury. In the meantime it is
ascertained that the receipts have amounted to near $18,000,000, which,
with the eight millions and a half in the Treasury at the beginning
of the year, have enabled us, after meeting the current demands and
interest incurred, to pay $2,300,000 of the principal of our funded
debt, and left us in the Treasury on that day near $14,000,000. Of
these, $5,350,000 will be necessary to pay what will be clue on the 1st
day of January next, which will complete the reimbursement of the 8 per
cent stock. These payments, with those made in the six years and a half
preceding, will have extinguished $33,580,000 of the principal of the
funded debt, being the whole which could be paid or purchased within the
limits of the law and of our contracts, and the amount of principal thus
discharged will have liberated the revenue from about $2,000,000 of
interest and added that sum annually to the disposable surplus. The
probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be
applied to the payment of the public debt whenever the freedom and
safety of our commerce shall be restored merits the consideration of
Congress. Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults? Shall the
revenue be reduced? Or shall it not rather be appropriated to the
improvements of roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great
foundations of prosperity and union under the powers which Congress may
already possess or such amendment of the Constitution as may be approved
by the States? While uncertain of the course of things, the time may be
advantageously employed in obtaining the powers necessary for a system
of improvement, should that be thought best.

Availing myself of this the last occasion which will occur of addressing
the two Houses of the Legislature at their meeting, I can not omit the
expression of my sincere gratitude for the repeated proofs of confidence
manifested to me by themselves and their predecessors since my call to
the administration and the many indulgences experienced at their hands.
The same grateful acknowledgments are due to my fellow-citizens
generally, whose support has been my great encouragement under all
embarrassments. In the transaction of their business I can not have
escaped error. It is incident to out imperfect nature. But I may say
with truth my errors have been of the understanding, not of intention,
and that the advancement of their rights and interests has been the
constant motive for every measure. On these considerations I solicit
their indulgence. Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies,
I trust that in their steady character, unshaken by difficulties, in
their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the public
authorities I see a sure guaranty of the permanence of our Republic;
and, retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the
consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for our
beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.

TH. JEFFERSON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

NOVEMBER 8, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

The documents communicated with my public message of this day contain
such portions of the correspondences therein referred to, of the
ministers of the United States at Paris and London, as relate to the
present state of affairs between those Governments and the United
States, and as may be made public. I now communicate, confidentially,
such supplementary portions of the same correspondences as I deem
improper for publication, yet necessary to convey to Congress full
information on a subject of their deliberations so interesting to
our country.

TH. JEFFERSON.

NOVEMBER 11, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

       *       *       *       *       *

The governor of the Mississippi Territory having thought it expedient
to dissolve the general assembly of that Territory, according to the
authority vested in him by the ordinance of July 13, 1787, and having
declared it dissolved accordingly, some doubt was suggested whether that
declaration effected the dissolution of the legislative council. On
mature consideration and advice I approved of the proceeding of the
governor. The house of representatives of the Territory, since chosen,
have consequently nominated ten persons out of whom a legislative
council should be appointed. I do accordingly nominate and, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint John Flood McGrew,
Thomas Calvit, James Lea, Alexander Montgomery, and Daniel Burnet, being
five of the said ten persons, to serve as a legislative council for the
said Territory, to continue in office five years, unless sooner removed
according to law.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 13, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I now transmit to both Houses of Congress a report of the commissioners
appointed under the act of March 29, 1806, concerning a road from
Cumberland to Ohio, being a statement of the proceedings under the said
act since their last report communicated to Congress, in order that
Congress may be enabled to adopt such further measures as may be proper
under existing circumstances.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 23, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

According to the request of the Senate in their resolution of November
14, that copies should be laid before them of all the orders and decrees
of the belligerent powers of Europe, passed since 1791, affecting the
commercial rights of the United States, I now transmit them a report of
the Secretary of State of such of them as have been attainable in the
Department of State and are supposed to have entered into the views of
the Senate.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 27, 1808.

 To the Senate of the United States :

According to the request expressed by the Senate in their resolution of
November 14, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury
and statement showing, as far as returns have been received from the
collectors, the number of vessels which have departed from the United
States with permission, and specifying the other particulars
contemplated by that resolution.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 30, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

At the request of the governor, the senate, and house of representatives
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I communicate certain resolutions
entered into by the said senate and house of representatives, and
approved by the governor, on the 23d instant. It can not but be
encouraging to those whom the nation has placed in the direction of
their affairs to see that their fellow-citizens will press forward
in support of their country in proportion as it is threatened by the
disorganizing conflicts of the other hemisphere.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 30, 1808.

 To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :

I lay before the Legislature a letter from Governor Claiborne on the
subject of a small tribe of Alabama Indians on the western side of the
Mississippi, consisting of about a dozen families. Like other erratic
tribes in that country, it is understood that they have hitherto
moved from place to place according to their convenience, without
appropriating to themselves exclusively any particular territory; but
having now become habituated to some of the occupations of civilized
life, they wish for a fixed residence. I suppose it will be the interest
of the United States to encourage the wandering tribes of that country
to reduce themselves to fixed habitations whenever they are so disposed.
The establishment of towns and growing attachments to them will furnish
in some degree pledges of their peaceable and friendly conduct. The case
of this particular tribe is now submitted to the consideration of
Congress.

TH. JEFFERSON.