Chapter 28 1810

JANUARY 3, 1810.

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

The act authorizing a detachment of 100,000 men from the militia will
expire on the 30th of March next. Its early revival is recommended, in
order that timely steps may be taken for arrangements such as the act
contemplated.

Without interfering with the modifications rendered necessary by the
defects or the inefficacy of the laws restrictive of commerce and
navigation, or with the policy of disallowing to foreign armed vessels
the use of our waters, it falls within my duty to recommend also that,
in addition to the precautionary measure authorized by that act and to
the regular troops for completing the legal establishment of which
enlistments are renewed, every necessary provision may be made for a
volunteer force of 20,000 men, to be enlisted for a short period and
held in a state of organization and readiness for actual service at the
shortest warning.

I submit to the consideration of Congress, moreover, the expediency of
such a classification and organization of the militia as will best
insure prompt and successive aids from that source, adequate to
emergencies which may call for them.

It will rest with them also to determine how far further provision may
be expedient for putting into actual service, if necessary, any part of
the naval armament not now employed.

At a period presenting features in the conduct of foreign powers toward
the United States which impose on them the necessity of precautionary
measures involving expense, it is a happy consideration that such is the
solid state of the public credit that reliance may be justly placed on
any legal provision that may be made for resorting to it in a convenient
form and to an adequate amount,

JAMES MADISON.

JANUARY 9, 1810.

 To the Senate of the United States :

I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded on
the 9th day of December last with the Kickapoo tribe of Indians,
accompanied by explanations in an extract of a letter from the governor
of the Indiana Territory,

JAMES MADISON.

JANUARY 15, 1810.

 To the Senate of the United States :

I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will
advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded with
the Great and Little Osage Indians on the 10th day of November, 1808,
and the 31st day of August, 1809.

JAMES MADISON.

JANUARY 22, 1810.

 To the Senate of the United States :

I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the Treasury,
complying with their resolution of the 27th of December, on the subject
of disbursements in the intercourse with the Barbary Powers.

JAMES MADISON.

FEBRUARY 28, 1810.

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

I now lay before you copies of the treaties concluded with the Delaware,
Pottawatamie, Miami, Eel River, and Wea tribes of Indians for the
extinguishment of their title to the lands therein described, and I
recommend to the consideration of Congress the making provision by law
for carrying them into execution.

JAMES MADISON.

MARCH 15, 1810.

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

A treaty having been entered into and duly ratified with the Kickapoo
tribe of Indians for the extinguishment of their title to certain lands
within the Indiana Territory, involving conditions which require
legislative provision, I submit copies thereof to both branches for
consideration.

JAMES MADISON.

MARCH 27, 1810,

 To the House of Representatives of the United States :

In consequence of your resolution of the 26th instant, an inquiry has
been made into the correspondence of our minister at the Court of London
with the Department of State, from which it appears that no official
communication has been received from him since his receipt of the letter
of November 23 last from the Secretary of State. A letter of January 4,
1810, has been received from that minister by Mr. Smith, but being
stated to be private and unofficial, and involving, moreover, personal
considerations of a delicate nature, a copy is considered as not within
the purview of the call of the House.

JAMES MADISON.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the territory south of the Mississippi Territory and eastward of
the river Mississippi, and extending to the river Perdido, of which
possession was not delivered to the United States in pursuance of the
treaty concluded at Paris on the 30th April, 1803, has at all times, as
is well known, been considered and claimed by them as being within the
colony of Louisiana conveyed by the said treaty in the same extent that
it had in the hands of Spain and that it had when France originally
possessed it; and

Whereas the acquiescence of the United States in the temporary
continuance of the said territory under the Spanish authority was not
the result of any distrust of their title, as has been particularly
evinced by the general tenor of their laws and by the distinction made
in the application of those laws between that territory and foreign
countries, but was occasioned by their conciliatory views and by a
confidence in the justice of their cause and in the success of candid
discussion and amicable negotiation with a just and friendly power; and

Whereas a satisfactory adjustment, too long delayed, without the fault
of the United States, has for some time been entirely suspended by
events over which they had no control; and

Whereas a crisis has at length arrived subversive of the order of things
under the Spanish authorities, whereby a failure of the United States
to take the said territory into its possession may lead to events
ultimately contravening the views of both parties, whilst in the
meantime the tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories are
endangered and new facilities given to violations of our revenue and
commercial laws and of those prohibiting the introduction of slaves;

Considering, moreover, that under these peculiar and imperative
circumstances a forbearance on the part of the United States to occupy
the territory in question, and thereby guard against the confusions and
contingencies which threaten it, might be construed into a dereliction
of their title or an insensibility to the importance of the stake;
considering that in the hands of the United States it will not cease
to be a subject of fair and friendly negotiation and adjustment;
considering, finally, that the acts of Congress, though contemplating a
present possession by a foreign authority, have contemplated also an
eventual possession of the said territory by the United States, and are
accordingly so framed as in that case to extend in their operation to
the same:

Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the United States of
America, in pursuance of these weighty and urgent considerations, have
deemed it right and requisite that possession should be taken of the
said territory in the name and behalf of the United States. William
C.C. Claiborne, governor of the Orleans Territory, of which the said
Territory is to be taken as part, will accordingly proceed to execute
the same and to exercise over the said Territory the authorities and
functions legally appertaining to his office; and the good people
inhabiting the same are invited and enjoined to pay due respect to him
in that character, to be obedient to the laws, to maintain order, to
cherish harmony, and in every manner to conduct themselves as peaceable
citizens, under full assurance that they will be protected in the
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.

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

 (SEAL.)

Done at the city of Washington, the 27th day of October, A.D. 1810, and
in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the said United States.

JAMES MADISON.

By the President:
  R. SMITH,
     Secretary of State .

 (From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, third session, 1248.)

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress passed on the 1st
day of May, 1810, entitled "An act concerning the commercial intercourse
between the United States and Great Britain and France and their
dependencies, and for other purposes," it is provided "that in case
either Great Britain or France shall before the 3d day of March next
so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the
neutral commerce of the United States, which fact the President of the
United States shall declare by proclamation, and if the other nation
shall not within three months thereafter so revoke or modify her edicts
in like manner, then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth,
ninth, tenth, and eighteenth sections of the act entitled 'An act to
interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great
Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes,'
shall from and after the expiration of three months from the date of the
proclamation aforesaid be revived and have full force and effect so far
as relates to the dominions, colonies, and dependencies, and to the
articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of the dominions, colonies,
and dependencies, of the nation thus refusing or neglecting to revoke or
modify her edicts in the manner aforesaid. And the restrictions imposed
by this act shall, from the date of such proclamation cease and be
discontinued in relation to the nation revoking or modifying her decrees
in the manner aforesaid;" and

Whereas it has been officially made known to this Government that the
edicts of France violating the neutral commerce of the United States
have been so revoked as to cease to have effect on the 1st of the
present month:

Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do
hereby proclaim that the said edicts of France have been so revoked as
that they ceased on the said 1st day of the present month to violate the
neutral commerce of the United States, and that from the date of these
presents all the restrictions imposed by the aforesaid act shall cease
and be discontinued in relation to France and their dependencies.

 (SEAL.)

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, at the city of
Washington, this 2d day of November, A.D. 1810, and of the Independence
of the United States the thirty-fifth.

JAMES MADISON.

By the President:
  R. SMITH,
     Secretary of State .

SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON,  December 5, 1810 .

 Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives :

The embarrassments which have prevailed in our foreign relations, and so
much employed the deliberations of Congress, make it a primary duty in
meeting you to communicate whatever may have occurred in that branch of
our national affairs.

The act of the last session of Congress concerning the commercial
intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and
their dependencies having invited in a new form a termination of their
edicts against our neutral commerce, copies of the act were immediately
forwarded to our ministers at London and Paris, with a view that its
object might be within the early attention of the French and British
Governments.

By the communication received through our minister at Paris it appeared
that a knowledge of the act by the French Government was followed by a
declaration that the Berlin and Milan decrees were revoked, and would
cease to have effect on the 1st day of November ensuing. These being the
only known edicts of France within the description of the act, and the
revocation of them being such that they ceased at that date to violate
our neutral commerce, the fact, as prescribed by law, was announced by a
proclamation bearing date the 2d day of November.

It would have well accorded with the conciliatory views indicated by
this proceeding on the part of France to have extended them to all the
grounds of just complaint which now remain unadjusted with the United
States. It was particularly anticipated that, as a further evidence of
just dispositions toward them, restoration would have been immediately
made of the property of our citizens seized under a misapplication of
the principle of reprisals combined with a misconstruction of a law of
the United States. This expectation has not been fulfilled.

From the British Government no communication on the subject of the act
has been received. To a communication from our minister at London of a
revocation by the French Government of its Berlin and Milan decrees it
was answered that the British system would be relinquished as soon as
the repeal of the French decrees should have actually taken effect and
the commerce of neutral nations have been restored to the condition in
which it stood previously to the promulgation of those decrees. This
pledge, although it does not necessarily import, does not exclude the
intention of relinquishing, along with the orders in council, the
practice of those novel blockades which have a like effect of
interrupting our neutral commerce, and this further justice to the
United States is the rather to be looked for, inasmuch as the blockades
in question, being not more contrary to the established law of nations
than inconsistent with the rules of blockade formally recognized by
Great Britain herself, could have no alleged basis other than the plea
of retaliation alleged as the basis of the orders in council. Under the
modification of the original orders of November, 1807, into the orders
of April, 1809, there is, indeed, scarcely a nominal distinction between
the orders and the blockades. One of those illegitimate blockades,
bearing date in May, 1806, having been expressly avowed to be still
unrescinded, and to be in effect comprehended in the orders in council,
was too distinctly brought within the purview of the act of Congress not
to be comprehended in the explanation of the requisites to a compliance
with it. The British Government was accordingly apprised by our minister
near it that such was the light in which the subject was to be regarded.

On the other important subjects depending between the United States and
that Government no progress has been made from which an early and
satisfactory result can be relied on.

In this new posture of our relations with those powers the consideration
of Congress will be properly turned to a removal of doubts which may
occur in the exposition and of difficulties in the execution of the act
above cited.

The commerce of the United States with the north of Europe, heretofore
much vexed by licentious cruisers, particularly under the Danish flag,
has latterly been visited with fresh and extensive depredations. The
measures pursued in behalf of our injured citizens not having obtained
justice for them, a further and more formal interposition with the
Danish Government is contemplated. The principles which have been
maintained by that Government in relation to neutral commerce, and the
friendly professions of His Danish Majesty toward the United States, are
valuable pledges in favor of a successful issue.

Among the events growing out of the state of the Spanish Monarchy, our
attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in
that portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the
United States, had remained in the possession of Spain awaiting the
result of negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish
authority was subverted and a situation produced exposing the country to
ulterior events which might essentially affect the rights and welfare of
the Union. In such a conjuncture I did not delay the interposition
required for the occupancy of the territory west of the river Perdido,
to which the title of the United States extends, and to which the laws
provided for the Territory of Orleans are applicable. With this view,
the proclamation of which a copy is laid before you was confided to the
governor of that Territory to be carried into effect. The legality and
necessity of the course pursued assure me of the favorable light in
which it will present itself to the Legislature, and of the promptitude
with which they will supply whatever provisions may be due to the
essential rights and equitable interests of the people thus brought into
the bosom of the American family.

Our amity with the powers of Barbary, with the exception of a recent
occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just received, appears
to have been uninterrupted and to have become more firmly established.

With the Indian tribes also the peace and friendship of the United
States are found to be so eligible that the general disposition to
preserve both continues to gain strength.

I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior view of our
country presents us with grateful proofs of its substantial and
increasing prosperity. To a thriving agriculture and the improvements
related to it is added a highly interesting extension of useful
manufactures, the combined product of professional occupations and of
household industry. Such indeed is the experience of economy as well as
of policy in these substitutes for supplies heretofore obtained by
foreign commerce that in a national view the change is justly regarded
as of itself more than a recompense for those privations and losses
resulting from foreign injustice which furnished the general impulse
required for its accomplishment. How far it may be expedient to guard
the infancy of this improvement in the distribution of labor by
regulations of the commercial tariff is a subject which can not fail to
suggest itself to your patriotic reflections.

It will rest with the consideration of Congress also whether a provident
as well as fair encouragement would not be given to our navigation by
such regulations as would place it on a level of competition with
foreign vessels, particularly in transporting the important and bulky
productions of our own soil. The failure of equality and reciprocity in
the existing regulations on this subject operates in our ports as a
premium to foreign competitors, and the inconvenience must increase as
these may be multiplied under more favorable circumstances by the more
than countervailing encouragements now given them by the laws of their
respective countries.

Whilst it is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone
can be permanently a free people, and whilst it is evident that the
means of diffusing and improving useful knowledge form so small a
proportion of the expenditures for national purposes, I can not presume
it to be unseasonable to invite your attention to the advantages of
superadding to the means of education provided by the several States a
seminary of learning instituted by the National Legislature within the
limits of their exclusive jurisdiction, the expense of which might be
defrayed or reimbursed out of the vacant grounds which have accrued to
the nation within those limits.

Such an institution, though local in its legal character, would be
universal in its beneficial effects. By enlightening the opinions, by
expanding the patriotism, and by assimilating the principles, the
sentiments, and the manners of those who might resort to this temple of
science, to be redistributed in due time through every part of the
community, sources of jealousy and prejudice would be diminished, the
features of national character would be multiplied, and greater extent
given to social harmony. But, above all, a well-constituted seminary in
the center of the nation is recommended by the consideration that the
additional instruction emanating from it would contribute not less to
strengthen the foundations than to adorn the structure of our free and
happy system of government.

Among the commercial abuses still committed under the American flag, and
leaving in force my former reference to that subject, it appears that
American citizens are instrumental in carrying on a traffic in enslaved
Africans, equally in violation of the laws of humanity and in defiance
of those of their own country. The same just and benevolent motives
which produced the interdiction in force against this criminal conduct
will doubtless be felt by Congress in devising further means of
suppressing the evil.

In the midst of uncertainties necessarily connected with the great
interests of the United States, prudence requires a continuance of our
defensive and precautionary arrangement. The Secretary of War and
Secretary of the Navy will submit the statements and estimates which may
aid Congress in their ensuing provisions for the land and naval forces.
The statements of the latter will include a view of the transfers of
appropriations in the naval expenditures and the grounds on which they
were made.

The fortifications for the defense of our maritime frontier have been
prosecuted according to the plan laid down in 1808. The works, with some
exceptions, are completed and furnished with ordnance. Those for the
security of the city of New York, though far advanced toward completion,
will require a further time and appropriation. This is the case with a
few others, either not completed or in need of repairs.

The improvements in quality and quantity made in the manufacture of
cannon and small arms, both at the public armories and private
factories, warrant additional confidence in the competency of these
resources for supplying the public exigencies.

These preparations for arming the militia having thus far provided for
one of the objects contemplated by the power vested in Congress with
respect to that great bulwark of the public safety, it is for their
consideration whether further provisions are not requisite for the other
contemplated objects of organization and discipline. To give to this
great mass of physical and moral force the efficiency which it merits,
and is capable of receiving, it is indispensable that they should be
instructed and practiced in the rules by which they are to be governed.
Toward an accomplishment of this important work I recommend for the
consideration of Congress the expediency of instituting a system which
shall in the first instance call into the field at the public expense
and for a given time certain portions of the commissioned and
noncommissioned officers. The instruction and discipline thus acquired
would gradually diffuse through the entire body of the militia that
practical knowledge and promptitude for active service which are the
great ends to be pursued. Experience has left no doubt either of the
necessity or of the efficacy of competent military skill in those
portions of an army in fitting it for the final duties which it may have
to perform.

The Corps of Engineers, with the Military Academy, are entitled to the
early attention of Congress. The buildings at the seat fixed by law for
the present Academy are so far in decay as not to afford the necessary
accommodation. But a revision of the law is recommended, principally
with a view to a more enlarged cultivation and diffusion of the
advantages of such institutions, by providing professorships for all the
necessary branches of military instruction, and by the establishment of
an additional academy at the seat of Government or elsewhere. The means
by which war, as well for defense as for offense, are now carried on
render these schools of the more scientific operations an indispensable
part of every adequate system. Even among nations whose large standing
armies and frequent wars afford every other opportunity of instruction
these establishments are found to be indispensable for the due
attainment of the branches of military science which require a regular
course of study and experiment. In a government happily without the
other opportunities seminaries where the elementary principles of the
art of war can be taught without actual war, and without the expense of
extensive and standing armies, have the precious advantage of uniting an
essential preparation against external danger with a scrupulous regard
to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a provision of equal
efficacy for the public defense be made at so little expense or more
consistently with the public liberty.

The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
September last (and amounting to more than $8,500,000) have exceeded the
current expenses of the Government, including the interest on the public
debt. For the purpose of reimbursing at the end of the year $3,750,000
of the principal, a loan, as authorized by law, had been negotiated to
that amount, but has since been reduced to $2,750,000, the reduction
being permitted by the state of the Treasury, in which there will be a
balance remaining at the end of the year estimated at $2,000,000. For
the probable receipts of the next year and other details I refer to
statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury, and which will
enable you to judge what further provisions may be necessary for the
ensuing years.

Reserving for future occasions in the course of the session whatever
other communications may claim your attention, I close the present by
expressing my reliance, under the blessing of Divine Providence, on the
judgment and patriotism which will guide your measures at a period
particularly calling for united councils and inflexible exertions for
the welfare of our country, and by assuring you of the fidelity and
alacrity with which my cooperation will be afforded.

JAMES MADISON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

DECEMBER 12, 1810.

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

I lay before Congress, and recommend to their early attention, a report
of the Secretary of State, from which it will be seen that a very
considerable demand beyond the legal appropriations has been incurred
for the support of seamen distressed by seizures, in different parts of
Europe, of the vessels to which they belonged.

JAMES MADISON.