Chapter 29 1811

WASHINGTON,  January 3, 1811 .

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

I communicate to Congress, in confidence, a letter of the 2d of December
from Governor Folch, of West Florida, to the Secretary of State, and
another of the same date from the same to John McKee.

I communicate in like manner a letter from the British charge d'affaires
to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the latter. Although the
letter can not have been written in consequence of any instruction from
the British Government founded on the late order for taking possession
of the portion of West Florida well known to be claimed by the United
States; although no communication has ever been made by that Government
to this of any stipulation with Spain contemplating an interposition
which might so materially affect the United States, and although no call
can have been made by Spain in the present instance for the fulfillment
of any such subsisting engagement, yet the spirit and scope of the
document, with the accredited source from which it proceeds, required
that it should not be withheld from the consideration of Congress.

Taking into view the tenor of these several communications, the posture
of things with which they are connected, the intimate relation of the
country adjoining the United States eastward of the river Perdido to
their security and tranquillity, and the peculiar interest they
otherwise have in its destiny, I recommend to the consideration of
Congress the seasonableness of a declaration that the United States
could not see without serious inquietude any part of a neighboring
territory in which they have in different respects so deep and so just a
concern pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other foreign
power.

I recommend to their consideration also the expediency of authorizing
the Executive to take temporary possession of any part or parts of the
said Territory, in pursuance of arrangements which may be desired by the
Spanish authorities, and for making provision for the government of the
same during such possession.

The wisdom of Congress will at the same time determine how far it may be
expedient to provide for the event of a subversion of the Spanish
authorities within the Territory in question, and an apprehended
occupancy thereof by any other foreign power.

JAMES MADISON.

JANUARY 10, 1811.

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

I communicate to Congress, in confidence, the translation of a letter
from Louis de Onis to the captain general of Caraccas.

The tendency of misrepresentations and suggestions which it may be
inferred from this specimen enter into more important correspondences of
the writer to promote in foreign councils at a critical period views
adverse to the peace and to the best interests of our country renders
the contents of the letter of sufficient moment to be made known to the
legislature,

JAMES MADISON.

JANUARY 30, 1811.

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

I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the Secretary of the
Treasury, accompanied by copies of the Laws, Treaties, and other
Documents Relative to the Public Lands, as collected and arranged
pursuant to the act passed April 27, 1810.

JAMES MADISON.

JANUARY 31, 1811.

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

I lay before Congress a letter from the charge d'affaires of the United
States at Paris to the Secretary of State, and another from the same to
the French minister of foreign relations; also two letters from the
agent of the American consul at Bordeaux to the Secretary of State.

JAMES MADISON.

FEBRUARY 16, 1811.

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

I now lay before Congress the treaty concluded on the 10th of November,
1808, on the part of the United States with the Great and Little Osage
tribes of Indians, with a view to such legal provisions as may be deemed
proper for fulfilling its stipulations.

JAMES MADISON.

VETO MESSAGES.

FEBRUARY 21, 1811.

 To the House of Representatives of the United States :

Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act incorporating
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the
District of Columbia," I now return the bill to the House of
Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections:

 Because  the bill exceeds the rightful authority to which
governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and
religious functions, and violates in particular the article of the
Constitution of the United States which declares that "Congress shall
make no law respecting a religious establishment." The bill enacts into
and establishes by law sundry rules and proceedings relative purely to
the organization and polity of the church incorporated, and
comprehending even the election and removal of the minister of the same,
so that no change could be made therein by the particular society or by
the general church of which it is a member, and whose authority it
recognizes. This particular church, therefore, would so far be a
religious establishment by law, a legal force and sanction being given
to certain articles in its constitution and administration. Nor can it
be considered that the articles thus established are to be taken as the
descriptive criteria only of the corporate identity of the society,
inasmuch as this identity must depend on other characteristics, as the
regulations established are generally unessential and alterable
according to the principles and canons by which churches of that
denomination govern themselves, and as the injunctions and prohibitions
contained in the regulations would be enforced by the penal consequences
applicable to a violation of them according to the local law.

 Because  the bill vests in the said incorporated church an
authority to provide for the support of the poor and the education of
poor children of the same, an authority which, being altogether
superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would
be a precedent for giving to religious societies as such a legal agency
in carrying into effect a public and civil duty.

JAMES MADISON.

FEBRUARY 28, 1811.

 To the House of Representatives of the United States :

Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act for the relief
of Richard Tervin, William Coleman, Edwin Lewis, Samuel Mims, Joseph
Wilson, and the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, in the
Mississippi Territory," I now return the same to the House of
Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objection:

 Because  the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land of the
United States for the use of said Baptist Church comprises a principle
and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for
the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of
the Constitution which declares that "Congress shall make no law
respecting a religious establishment."

JAMES MADISON.

PROCLAMATION.

 (From the National Intelligencer, July 25, 1811)

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the
Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for
convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 4th day of
November next, for their meeting at the city of Washington, hereby
requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to
assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may
then be made to them, and to consult and determine on such measures as
in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States.

 (SEAL.)

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, Done at the city of
Washington, the 24th day of July, A.D. 1811, and of the Independence of
the United States the thirty-sixth.

JAMES MADISON.

By the President:
  JAMES MONROE,
     Secretary of State .

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON,  November 5, 1811 .

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

In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would
otherwise have been required I yielded to considerations drawn from the
posture of our foreign affairs, and in fixing the present for the time
of your meeting regard was had to the probability of further
developments of the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country
which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be
pursued.

At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped that the
successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far
as they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the Government
of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council, and thereby authorize
a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United
States.

Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friendship
between the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least to have
been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated
through the British envoy just arrived that whilst the revocation of the
edicts of France, as officially made known to the British Government,
was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition of the
repeal of the British orders that commerce should be restored to a
footing that would admit the productions and manufactures of Great
Britain, when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her
enemy, the United States being given to understand that in the meantime
a continuance of their non importation act would lead to measures of
retaliation.

At a later date it has indeed appeared that a communication to the
British Government of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees
against our neutral trade was followed by an intimation that it had been
transmitted to the British plenipotentiary here in order that it might
receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This
communication appears not to have been received; but the transmission of
it hither, instead of founding on it an actual repeal of the orders or
assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on
any effective change in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with
cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to proceed in the
meantime in adapting our measures to the views which have been disclosed
through that minister will best consult our whole duty.

In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures indemnity and redress for
other wrongs have continued to be withheld, and our coasts and the
mouths of our harbors have again witnessed scenes not less derogatory to
the dearest of our national rights than vexatious to the regular course
of our trade.

Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships of war
hovering on our coasts was an encounter between one of them and the
American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on
the part of the latter by a fire commenced without cause by the former,
whose commander is therefore alone chargeable with the blood
unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The
proceedings of a court of inquiry requested by Captain Rodgers are
communicated, together with the correspondence relating to the
occurrence, between the Secretary of State and His Britannic Majesty's
envoy. To these are added the several correspondences which have passed
on the subject of the British orders in council, and to both the
correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made
acquainted with the interposition which the Government of Great Britain
has thought proper to make against the proceeding of the United States.

The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of the
United States toward France, both before and since the revocation of her
decrees, authorized an expectation that her Government would have
followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our
reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No
proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs
done to the United States, and particularly to restore the great amount
of American property seized and condemned under edicts which, though not
affecting our neutral relations, and therefore not entering into
questions between the United States and other belligerents, were
nevertheless founded in such unjust principles that the reparation ought
to have been prompt and ample.

In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation,
the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous
and unexpected restrictions to which their trade with the French
dominions has been subjected, and which, if not discontinued, will
require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from France
into the United States.

On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately sent to Paris
has carried with him the necessary instructions, the result of which
will be communicated to you, and, by ascertaining the ulterior policy of
the French Government toward the United States, Will enable you to adapt
to it that of the United States toward France.

Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes. With
Russia they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports of Sweden
have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions toward our commerce in the
councils of that nation also, and the information from our special
minister to Denmark shews that the mission had been attended with
valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had been so extensively
violated and endangered by cruisers under the Danish flag.

Under the ominous indications which commanded attention it became a duty
to exert the means committed to the executive department in providing
for the general security. The works of defense on our maritime frontier
have accordingly been prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be
added for the completion of the most important ones, and, as
particularly suited for cooperation in emergencies, a portion of the
gunboats have in particular harbors been ordered into use. The ships of
war before in commission, with the addition of a frigate, have been
chiefly employed as a cruising guard to the rights of our coast, and
such a disposition has been made of our land forces as was thought to
promise the services most appropriate and important. In this disposition
is included a force consisting of regulars and militia, embodied in the
Indiana Territory and marched toward our northwestern frontier. This
measure was made requisite by several murders and depredations committed
by Indians, but more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect
of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence and
direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these exceptions the
Indian tribes retain their peaceable dispositions toward us, and their
usual pursuits.

I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the
legislative guardians of the national rights a system of more ample
provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous justice,
the protracted moderation, and the multiplied efforts on the part of the
United States to substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of
the two countries all the mutual advantages of reestablished friendship
and confidence, we have seen that the British cabinet perseveres not
only in withholding a remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly
calling for it, but in the execution, brought home to the threshold of
our territory, of measures which under existing circumstances have the
character as well as the effect of war on our lawful commerce.

With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on rights which
no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of
putting the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the
crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations.

I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made for filling
the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the regular troops; for an
auxiliary force to be engaged for a more limited term; for the
acceptance of volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a
participation in urgent services; for detachments as they may be wanted
of other portions of the militia, and for such a preparation of the
great body as will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic
capacities. Nor can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of
those military seminaries which in every event will form a valuable and
frugal part of our military establishment.

The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with due success,
and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions are adequate
to emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to
authorize an enlargement of them.

Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions on the subject
of our naval force as may be required for the services to which it may
be best adapted. I submit to Congress the seasonableness also of an
authority to augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in
their nature, or may not at once be attainable.

In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous epoch, and
estimating their claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook
those developing themselves among the great communities which occupy the
southern portion of our own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood.
An enlarged philanthropy and an enlightened forecast concur in imposing
on the national councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their
destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good will, to regard the
progress of events, and not to be unprepared for whatever order of
things may be ultimately established.

Under another aspect of our situation the early attention of Congress
will be due to the expediency of further guards against evasions and
infractions of our commercial laws. The practice of smuggling, which is
odious everywhere, and particularly criminal in free governments, where,
the laws being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on
every individual as well as on the state, attains its utmost guilt when
it blends with a pursuit of ignominious gain a treacherous subserviency,
in the transgressors, to a foreign policy adverse to that of their own
country. It is then that the virtuous indignation of the public should
be enabled to manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the
most competent laws.

To secure greater respect to our-mercantile flag, and to the honest
interests which it covers, it is expedient also that it be made
punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from foreign governments
for a trade unlawfully interdicted by them to other American citizens,
or to trade under false colors or papers of any sort.

A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance by our
citizens of special licenses to be used in a trade with the United
States, and against the admission into particular ports of the United
States of vessels from foreign countries authorized to trade with
particular ports only.

Although other subjects will press more immediately on your
deliberations, a portion of them can not but be well bestowed on the
just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the success they
have attained, and are still attaining, in some degree, under the
impulse of causes not permanent, and to our navigation, the fair extent
of which is at present abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign
governments.

Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufactures from sacrifices
which a change of circumstances might bring on them, the national
interest requires that, with respect to such articles at least as belong
to our defense and our primary wants, we should not be left in
unnecessary dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign
governments adhere to the existing discriminations in their ports
against our navigation, and an equality or lesser discrimination is
enjoyed by their navigation in our ports, the effect can not be
mistaken, because it has been seriously felt by our shipping interests;
and in proportion as this takes place the advantages of an independent
conveyance of our products to foreign markets and of a growing body of
mariners trained by their occupations for the service of their country
in times of danger must be diminished.

The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of
September last have exceeded $13,500,000, and have enabled us to defray
the current expenses, including the interest on the public debt, and to
reimburse more than $5,000,000 of the principal without recurring to the
loan authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary loan
obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also been reimbursed,
and is not included in that amount.

The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our commerce, and
the extraordinary expenses which have and may become necessary, must be
taken into view in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year;
and I recommend to your consideration the propriety of insuring a
sufficiency of annual revenue at least to defray the ordinary expenses
of Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt, including
that on new loans which may be authorized.

I can not close this communication without expressing my deep sense of
the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and
honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful
zeal with which my cooperating duties will be discharged, invoking at
the same time the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country and on all
the means that may be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing
its welfare.

JAMES MADISON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON,  November 13, 1811 .

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

I communicate to Congress copies of a correspondence between the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the
Secretary of State relative to the aggression committed by a British
ship of war on the United States frigate  Chesapeake , by which it
will be seen that that subject of difference between the two countries
is terminated by an offer of reparation, which has been acceded to.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON,  December 18, 1811 .

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

I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor Harrison, of
the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars and the issue of the
expedition under his command, of which notice was taken in my
communication of November 5.

While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have been lost
in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo, Congress will see with
satisfaction the dauntless spirit and fortitude victoriously displayed
by every description of the troops engaged, as well as the collected
firmness which distinguished their commander on an occasion requiring
the utmost exertions of valor and discipline.

It may reasonably be expected that the good effects of this critical
defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages, which appears to have
been spreading to a greater extent, will be experienced not only in a
cessation of the murders and depredations committed on our frontier, but
in the prevention of any hostile incursions otherwise to have been
apprehended.

The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have fallen in
this severe conflict will doubtless engage the favorable attention of
Congress.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON,  December 23, 1811 .

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

I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the legislature of New
York relating to a canal from the Great Lakes to Hudson River. In making
the communication I consult the respect due to that State, in whose
behalf the commissioners appointed by the act have placed it in my hands
for the purpose.

The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It is no less
certain that scarcely any country offers more extensive opportunities
for that branch of improvements than the United States, and none,
perhaps, inducements equally persuasive to make the most of them. The
particular undertaking contemplated by the State of New York, which
marks an honorable spirit of enterprise and comprises objects of
national as well as more limited importance, will recall the attention
of Congress to the signal advantages to be derived to the United States
from a general system of internal communication and conveyance, and
suggest to their consideration whatever steps may be proper on their
part toward its introduction and accomplishment. As some of those
advantages have an intimate connection with the arrangements and
exertions for the general security, it is at a period calling for those
that the merits of such a system will be seen in the strongest lights.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON,  December 27, 1811 .

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

I lay before Congress copies of resolutions entered into by the
legislature of Pennsylvania, which have been transmitted to me with that
view by the governor of that State, in pursuance of one of the said
resolutions.

JAMES MADISON.