Chapter 31 1813

JANUARY 22, 1813.

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

I transmit, for the information of Congress, copies of a correspondence
between John Mitchell, agent for American prisoners of war at Halifax,
and the British admiral commanding at that station.

I transmit, for the like purpose, copies of a letter from Commodore
Rodgers to the Secretary of the Navy,

JAMES MADISON.

FEBRUARY 22, 1813.

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

I lay before Congress a letter, with accompanying documents, from
Captain Bainbridge, now commanding the United States frigate the
 Constitution , reporting his capture and destruction of the
British frigate the  Java . The circumstances and the issue of this
combat afford another example of the professional skill and heroic
spirit which prevail in our naval service. The signal display of both by
Captain Bainbridge, his officers and crew, commands the highest praise.

This being a second instance in which the condition of the captured
ship, by rendering it impossible to get her into port, has barred
a contemplated reward of successful valor, I recommend to the
consideration of Congress the equity and propriety of a general
provision allowing in such cases, both past and future, a fair
proportion of the value which would accrue to the captors on the
safe arrival and sale of the prize.

JAMES MADISON.

FEBRUARY 24, 1813.

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

I lay before Congress copies of a proclamation of the British
lieutenant-governor of the island of Bermuda, which has appeared under
circumstances leaving no doubt of its authenticity. It recites a British
order in council of the 26th of October last, providing for the supply
of the British West Indies and other colonial possessions by a trade
under special licenses, and is accompanied by a circular instruction to
the colonial governors which confines licensed importations from ports
of the United States to the ports of the Eastern States exclusively.

The Government of Great Britain had already introduced into her commerce
during war a system which, at once violating the rights of other nations
and resting on a mass of forgery and perjury unknown to other times,
was making an unfortunate progress in undermining those principles
of morality and religion which are the best foundation of national
happiness.

The policy now proclaimed to the world introduces into her modes of
warfare a system equally distinguished by the deformity of its features
and the depravity of its character, having for its object to dissolve
the ties of allegiance and the sentiments of loyalty in the adversary
nation, and to seduce and separate its component parts the one from the
other.

The general tendency of these demoralizing and disorganizing
contrivances will be reprobated by the civilized and Christian world,
and the insulting attempt on the virtue, the honor, the patriotism, and
the fidelity of our brethren of the Eastern States will not fail to call
forth all their indignation and resentment, and to attach more and more
all the States to that happy Union and Constitution against which such
insidious and malignant artifices are directed.

The better to guard, nevertheless, against the effect of individual
cupidity and treachery and to turn the corrupt projects of the enemy
against himself, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the
expediency of an effectual prohibition of any trade whatever by citizens
or inhabitants of the United States under special licenses, whether
relating to persons or ports, and in aid thereof a prohibition of all
exportations from the United States in foreign bottoms, few of which are
actually employed, whilst multiplying counterfeits of their flags and
papers are covering and encouraging the navigation of the enemy.

JAMES MADISON.

MARCH 3, 1813.

 To the House of Representatives of the United States :

Conformably to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the
27th of January last, I transmit "rolls of the persons having office or
employment of a public nature under the United States,"

JAMES MADISON.

VETO MESSAGE.

NOVEMBER 5, 1812.

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

The bill entitled "An act supplementary to the acts heretofore passed on
the subject of an uniform rule of naturalization," which passed the two
Houses at the last session of Congress, having appeared to me liable to
abuse by aliens having no real purpose of effectuating a naturalization,
and therefore not been signed, and having been presented at an hour
too near the close of the session to be returned with objections for
reconsideration, the bill failed to become a law. I also recommend that
provision be now made in favor of aliens entitled to the contemplated
benefit, under such regulations as will prevent advantage being taken
of it for improper purposes.

JAMES MADISON.

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

About to add the solemnity of an oath to the obligations imposed by a
second call to the station in which my country heretofore placed me,
I find in the presence of this respectable assembly an opportunity of
publicly repeating my profound sense of so distinguished a confidence
and of the responsibility united with it. The impressions on me are
strengthened by such an evidence that my faithful endeavors to discharge
my arduous duties have been favorably estimated, and by a consideration
of the momentous period at which the trust has been renewed. From the
weight and magnitude now belonging to it I should be compelled to shrink
if I had less reliance on the support of an enlightened and generous
people, and felt less deeply a conviction that the war with a powerful
nation, which forms so prominent a feature in our situation, is stamped
with that justice which invites the smiles of Heaven on the means of
conducting it to a successful termination.

May we not cherish this sentiment without presumption when we reflect
on the characters by which this war is distinguished?

It was not declared on the part of the United States until it had been
long made on them, in reality though not in name; until arguments and
expostulations had been exhausted; until a positive declaration had been
received that the wrongs provoking it would not be discontinued; nor
until this last appeal could no longer be delayed without breaking down
the spirit of the nation, destroying all confidence in itself and in its
political institutions, and either perpetuating a state of disgraceful
suffering or regaining by more costly sacrifices and more severe
struggles our lost rank and respect among independent powers.

On the issue of the war are staked our national sovereignty on the
high seas and the security of an important class of citizens, whose
occupations give the proper value to those of every other class. Not to
contend for such a stake is to surrender our equality with other powers
on the element common to all and to violate the sacred title which every
member of the society has to its protection. I need not call into view
the unlawfulness of the practice by which our mariners are forced at the
will of every cruising officer from their own vessels into foreign
ones, nor paint the outrages inseparable from it. The proofs are in the
records of each successive Administration of our Government, and the
cruel sufferings of that portion of the American people have found their
way to every bosom not dead to the sympathies of human nature.

As the war was just in its origin and necessary and noble in its
objects, we can reflect with a proud satisfaction that in carrying it
on no principle of justice or honor, no usage of civilized nations, no
precept of courtesy or humanity, have been infringed, The war has been
waged on our part with scrupulous regard to all these obligations, and
in a spirit of liberality which was never surpassed.

How little has been the effect of this example on the conduct of the
enemy!

They have retained as prisoners of war citizens of the United States
not liable to be so considered under the usages of war.

They have refused to consider as prisoners of war, and threatened to
punish as traitors and deserters, persons emigrating without restraint
to the United States, incorporated by naturalization into our political
family, and fighting under the authority of their adopted country in
open and honorable war for the maintenance of its rights and safety.
Such is the avowed purpose of a Government which is in the practice of
naturalizing by thousands citizens of other countries, and not only of
permitting but compelling them to fight its battles against their native
country.

They have not, it is true, taken into their own hands the hatchet and
the knife, devoted to indiscriminate massacre, but they have let loose
the savages armed with these cruel instruments; have allured them into
their service, and carried them to battle by their sides, eager to glut
their savage thirst with the blood of the vanquished and to finish the
work of torture and death on maimed and defenseless captives. And, what
was never before seen, British commanders have extorted victory over the
unconquerable valor of our troops by presenting to the sympathy of their
chief captives awaiting massacre from their savage associates. And now
we find them, in further contempt of the modes of honorable warfare,
supplying the place of a conquering force by attempts to disorganize our
political society, to dismember our confederated Republic. Happily, like
others, these will recoil on the authors; but they mark the degenerate
counsels from which they emanate, and if they did not belong to a
series of unexampled inconsistencies might excite the greater wonder as
proceeding from a Government which founded the very war in which it has
been so long engaged on a charge against the disorganizing and
insurrectional policy of its adversary.

To render the justice of the war on our part the more conspicuous, the
reluctance to commence it was followed by the earliest and strongest
manifestations of a disposition to arrest its progress. The sword was
scarcely out of the scabbard before the enemy was apprised of the
reasonable terms on which it would be resheathed. Still more precise
advances were repeated, and have been received in a spirit forbidding
every reliance not placed on the military resources of the nation.

These resources are amply sufficient to bring the war to an honorable
issue. Our nation is in number more than half that of the British Isles.
It is composed of a brave, a free, a virtuous, and an intelligent
people. Our country abounds in the necessaries, the arts, and the
comforts of life. A general prosperity is visible in the public
countenance. The means employed by the British cabinet to undermine it
have recoiled on themselves; have given to our national faculties a more
rapid development, and, draining or diverting the precious metals from
British circulation and British vaults, have poured them into those of
the United States. It is a propitious consideration that an unavoidable
war should have found this seasonable facility for the contributions
required to support it. When the public voice called for war, all knew,
and still know, that without them it could not be carried on through the
period which it might last, and the patriotism, the good sense, and the
manly spirit of our fellow-citizens are pledges for the cheerfulness
with which they will bear each his share of the common burden. To render
the war short and its success sure, animated and systematic exertions
alone are necessary, and the success of our arms now may long preserve
our country from the necessity of another resort to them. Already
have the gallant exploits of our naval heroes proved to the world
our inherent capacity to maintain our rights on one element. If the
reputation of our arms has been thrown under clouds on the other,
presaging flashes of heroic enterprise assure us that nothing is wanting
to correspondent triumphs there also but die discipline and habits which
are in daily progress.

MARCH 4, 1813.

SPECIAL SESSION MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON,  May 25, 1813 .

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

At an early day after the close of the last session of Congress an offer
was formally communicated from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
Russia of his mediation, as the common friend of the United States and
Great Britain, for the purpose of facilitating a peace between them. The
high character of the Emperor Alexander being a satisfactory pledge for
the sincerity and impartiality of his offer, it was immediately
accepted, and as a further proof of the disposition on the part of the
United States, to meet their adversary in honorable experiments for
terminating the war it was determined to avoid intermediate delays
incident to the distance of the parties by a definitive provision for
the contemplated negotiation. Three of our eminent citizens were
accordingly commissioned with the requisite powers to conclude a treaty
of peace with persons clothed with like powers on the part of Great
Britain. They are authorized also to enter into such conventional
regulations of the commerce between the two countries as may be mutually
advantageous. The two envoys who, were in the United States at the time
of their appointment have proceeded to join their colleague already at
St. Petersburg.

The envoys have received another commission authorizing them to conclude
with Russia a treaty of commerce with a view to strengthen the amicable
relations and improve the beneficial intercourse between the two
countries.

The issue of this friendly interposition of the Russian Emperor and this
pacific manifestation on the part of the United States time only can
decide. That the sentiments of Great Britain toward that Sovereign will
have produced an acceptance of his offered mediation must be presumed.
That no adequate motives exist to prefer a continuance of war with the
United States to the terms on which they are willing to close it is
certain. The British cabinet also must be sensible that, with respect to
the important question of impressment, on which the war so essentially
turns, a search for or seizure of British persons or property on board
neutral vessels on the high seas is not a belligerent right derived from
the law of nations, and it is obvious that no visit or search or use of
force for any purpose on board the vessels of one independent power on
the high seas can in war or peace be sanctioned by the laws or authority
of another power. It is equally obvious that, for the purpose of
preserving to each State its seafaring members, by excluding them from
the vessels of the other, the mode heretofore proposed by the United
States and now enacted by them as an article of municipal policy, can
not for a moment be compared with the mode practiced by Great Britain
without a conviction of its title to preference, inasmuch as the latter
leaves the discrimination between the mariners of the two nations to
officers exposed by unavoidable bias as well as by a defect of evidence
to a wrong decision, under circumstances precluding for the most part
the enforcement of controlling penalties, and where a wrong decision,
besides the irreparable violation of the sacred rights of persons, might
frustrate the plans and profits of entire voyages; whereas the mode
assumed by the United States guards with studied fairness and efficacy
against errors in such cases and avoids the effect of casual errors on
the safety of navigation and the success of mercantile expeditions.

If the reasonableness of expectations drawn from these considerations
could guarantee their fulfillment a just peace would not be distant. But
it becomes the wisdom of the National Legislature to keep in mind the
true policy, or rather the indispensable obligation, of adapting its
measures to the supposition that the only course to that happy event is
in the vigorous employment of the resources of war. And painful as the
reflection is, this duty is particularly enforced by the spirit and
manner in which the war continues to be waged by the enemy, who,
uninfluenced by the unvaried examples of humanity set them, are adding
to the savage fury of it on one frontier a system of plunder and
conflagration on the other, equally forbidden by respect for national
character and by the established rules of civilized warfare.

As an encouragement to persevering and invigorated exertions to bring
the contest to a happy result, I have the satisfaction of being able to
appeal to the auspicious progress of our arms both by land and on the
water.

In continuation of the brilliant achievements of our infant Navy, a
signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence and his companions in
the  Hornet  sloop of war, which destroyed a British sloop of war
with a celerity so unexampled and with a slaughter of the enemy so
disproportionate to the loss in the  Hornet  as to claim for the
conquerors the highest praise and the full recompense provided by
Congress in preceding cases. Our public ships of war in general, as well
as the private armed vessels, have continued also their activity and
success against the commerce of the enemy, and by their vigilance and
address have greatly frustrated the efforts of the hostile squadrons
distributed along our coasts to intercept them in returning into port
and resuming their cruises.

The augmentation of our naval force, as authorized at the last session
of Congress, is in progress. On the Lakes our superiority is near at
hand where it is not already established.

The events of the campaign, so far as they are known to us, furnish
matter of congratulation, and show that under a wise organization and
efficient direction the Army is destined to a glory not less brilliant
than that which already encircles the Navy. The attack and capture of
York is in that quarter a presage of future and greater victories, while
on the western frontier the issue of the late siege of Fort Meigs leaves
us nothing to regret but a single act of inconsiderate valor.

The provisions last made for filling the ranks and enlarging the staff
of the Army have had the best effects. It will be for the consideration
of Congress whether other provisions depending on their authority may
not still further improve the military establishment and the means of
defense.

The sudden death of the distinguished citizen who represented the United
States in France, without any special arrangements by him for such a
contingency, has left us without the expected sequel to his last
communications, nor has the French Government taken any measures for
bringing the depending negotiations to a conclusion through its
representative in the United States. This failure adds to delays before
so unreasonably spun out. A successor to our deceased minister has been
appointed and is ready to proceed on his mission. The course which he
will pursue in fulfilling it is that prescribed by a steady regard to
the true interests of the United States, which equally avoids an
abandonment of their just demands and a connection of their fortunes
with the systems of other powers.

The receipts in the Treasury from the 1st of October to the 31st day of
March last, including the sums received on account of Treasury notes and
of the loans authorized by the acts of the last and the preceding
sessions of Congress, have amounted to $15,412,000. The expenditures
during the same period amounted to $15,920,000, and left in the Treasury
on the 1st of April the sum of $1,857,000. The loan of $16,000,000,
authorized by the act of the 8th of February last, has been contracted
for. Of that sum more than $1,000,000 had been paid into the Treasury
prior to the 1st of April, and formed a part of the receipts as above
stated. The remainder of that loan, amounting to near $15,000,000, with
the sum of $5,000,000 authorized to be issued in Treasury notes, and the
estimated receipts from the customs and the sales of public lands,
amounting to $9,300,000, and making, in the whole, $29,300,000, to
be received during the last nine months of the present year, will
be necessary to meet the expenditures already authorized and the
engagements contracted in relation to the public debt. These engagements
amount during that period to $10,500,000, which, with near one million
for the civil, miscellaneous, and diplomatic expenses, both foreign and
domestic, and $17,800,000 for the military and naval expenditures,
including the ships of war building and to be built, will leave a sum
in the Treasury at the end of the present year equal to that on the 1st
of April last. A part of this sum may be considered as a resource for
defraying any extraordinary expenses already authorized by law beyond
the sums above estimated, and a further resource for any emergency may
be found in the sum of $1,000,000, the loan of which to the United
States has been authorized by the State of Pennsylvania, but which has
not yet been brought into effect.

This view of our finances, whilst it shows that due provision has been
made for the expenses of the current year, shows at the same time, by
the limited amount of the actual revenue and the dependence on loans,
the necessity of providing more adequately for the future supplies
of the Treasury. This can be best done by a well-digested system of
internal revenue in aid of existing sources, which will have the effect
both of abridging the amount of necessary loans and, on that account, as
well as by placing the public credit on a more satisfactory basis, of
improving the terms on which loans may be obtained. The loan of sixteen
millions was not contracted for at a less interest than about 7 1/2 per
cent, and, although other causes may have had an agency, it can not be
doubted that, with the advantage of a more extended and less precarious
revenue, a lower rate of interest might have sufficed. A longer
postponement of this advantage could not fail to have a still greater
influence on future loans.

In recommending to the National Legislature this resort to additional
taxes I feel great satisfaction in the assurance that our constituents,
who have already displayed so much zeal and firmness in the cause of
their country, will cheerfully give any other proof of their patriotism
which it calls for. Happily no people, with local and transitory
exceptions never to be wholly avoided, are more able than the people
of the United States to spare for the public wants a portion of their
private means, whether regard be had to the ordinary profits of industry
or the ordinary price of subsistence in our country compared with those
in any other. And in no case could stronger reasons be felt for yielding
the requisite contributions. By rendering the public resources certain
and commensurate to the public exigencies, the constituted authorities
will be able to prosecute the war the more rapidly to its proper issue;
every hostile hope founded on a calculated failure of our resources
will be cut off, and by adding to the evidence of bravery and skill
in combats on the ocean and the land, and alacrity in supplying the
treasure necessary to give them their fullest effect, and demonstrating
to the world the public energy which our political institutions combine,
with the personal liberty distinguishing them, the best security will be
provided against future enterprises on the rights or the peace of the
nation.

The contest in which the United States are engaged appeals for its
support to every motive that can animate an uncorrupted and enlightened
people  to the love of country; to the pride of liberty; to an emulation
of the glorious founders of their independence by a successful
vindication of its violated attributes; to the gratitude and sympathy
which demand security from the most degrading wrongs of a class of
citizens who have proved themselves so worthy the protection of their
country by their heroic zeal in its defense; and, finally, to the sacred
obligation of transmitting entire to future generations that precious
patrimony of national rights and independence which is held in trust by
the present from the goodness of Divine Providence.

Being aware of the inconveniences to which a protracted session at this
season would be liable, I limit the present communication to objects of
primary importance. In special messages which may ensue regard will be
had to the same consideration.

JAMES MADISON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

MAY 29, 1813.

 To the Senate of the United States :

The Swedish Government having repeatedly manifested a desire to
interchange a public minister with the United States, and having lately
appointed one with that view, and other considerations concurring to
render it advisable at this period to make a correspondent appointment,
I nominate Jonathan Russell, of Rhode Island, to be minister
plenipotentiary of the United States to Sweden.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON,  July 6, 1813 .

 To the Senate of the United States :

I have received from the committee appointed by the resolution of the
Senate of the 14th day of June a copy of that resolution, which
authorizes the committee to confer with the President on the subject of
the nomination made by him of a minister plenipotentiary to Sweden.

Conceiving it to be my duty to decline the proposed conference with the
committee, and it being uncertain when it may be convenient to explain
to the committee, and through them to the Senate, the grounds of my so
doing, I think it proper to address the explanation directly to the
Senate. Without entering into a general review of the relations in which
the Constitution has placed the several departments of the Government to
each other, it will suffice to remark that the Executive and Senate, in
the cases of appointments to office and of treaties, are to be
considered as independent of and coordinate with each other. If they
agree, the appointments or treaties are made; if the Senate disagree,
they fail. If the Senate wish information previous to their final
decision, the practice, keeping in view the constitutional relations of
the Senate and the Executive, has been either to request the Executive
to furnish it or to refer the subject to a committee of their body to
communicate, either formally or informally, with the head of the proper
department. The appointment of a committee of the Senate to confer
immediately with the Executive himself appears to lose sight of the
coordinate relation between the Executive and the Senate which the
Constitution has established, and which ought therefore to be
maintained.

The relation between the Senate and House of Representatives, in whom
legislative power is concurrently vested, is sufficiently analogous to
illustrate that between the Executive and Senate in making appointments
and treaties. The two Houses are in like manner independent of and
coordinate with each other, and the invariable practice of each in
appointing committees of conference and consultation is to commission
them to confer not with the coordinate body itself, but with a committee
of that body; and although both branches of the Legislature may be too
numerous to hold conveniently a conference with committees, were they to
be appointed by either to confer with the entire body of the other, it
may be fairly presumed that if the whole number of either branch were
not too large for the purpose the objection to such a conference, being
against the principle as derogating from the coordinate relations of the
two Houses, would retain all its force.

I add only that I am entirely persuaded of the purity of the intentions
of the Senate in the course they have pursued on this occasion, and with
which my view of the subject makes it my duty not to accord, and that
they will be cheerfully furnished with all the suitable information in
possession of the Executive in any mode deemed consistent with the
principles of the Constitution and the settled practice under it.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON,  July 20, 1813 .

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

There being sufficient ground to infer that it is the purpose of the
enemy to combine with the blockade of our ports special licenses to
neutral vessels or to British vessels in neutral disguises, whereby
they may draw from our country the precise kind and quantity of
exports essential to their wants, whilst its general commerce remains
obstructed, keeping in view also the insidious discrimination between
the different ports of the United States; and as such a system, if not
counteracted, will have the effect of diminishing very materially the
pressure of the war on the enemy, and encouraging a perseverance in it,
at the same time that it will leave the general commerce of the United
States under all the pressure the enemy can impose, thus subjecting
the whole to British regulation in subserviency to British monopoly,
I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of an
immediate and effectual prohibition of exports limited to a convenient
day in their next session, and removable in the meantime in the event
of a cessation of the blockade of our ports.

JAMES MADISON.

PROCLAMATION.

 (From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 4, p. 345.)

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be
observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as
a day of public humiliation and prayer; and

Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought on
the United States by the injustice of a foreign government it is
especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the
same and the eyes of all be turned to that Almighty Power in whose hand
are the welfare and the destiny of nations:

I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall
be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at
one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and
Sovereign of the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of
September next in their respective religious congregations to render Him
thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the
United States; that He has blessed them with a land capable of yielding
all the necessaries and requisites of human life, with ample means for
convenient exchanges with foreign countries; that He has blessed the
labors employed in its cultivation and improvement; that He is now
blessing the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures
which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to remain
dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable dispositions of
other nations, and particularly that He has blessed the United States
with a political Constitution founded on the will and authority of the
whole people and guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of
his person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience so
essential to his present happiness and so dear to his future hopes; that
with those expressions of devout thankfulness be joined supplications to
the same Almighty Power that He would look down with compassion on our
infirmities; that He would pardon our manifold transgressions and
awaken and strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of repentance and
amendment; that in this season of trial and calamity He would preside in
a particular manner over our public councils and inspire all citizens
with a love of their country and with those fraternal affections and
that mutual confidence which have so happy a tendency to make us safe
at home and respected abroad; and that as He was graciously pleased
heretofore to smile on our struggles against the attempts of the
Government of the Empire of which these States then made a part to wrest
from them the rights and privileges to which they were entitled in
common with every other part and to raise them to the station of an
independent and sovereign people, so He would now be pleased in like
manner to bestow His blessing on our arms in resisting the hostile and
persevering efforts of the same power to degrade us on the ocean, the
common inheritance of all, from rights and immunities belonging and
essential to the American people as a coequal member of the great
community of independent nations; and that, inspiring our enemies
with moderation, with justice, and with that spirit of reasonable
accommodation which our country has continued to manifest, we may be
enabled to beat our swords into plowshares and to enjoy in peace every
man the fruits of his honest industry and the rewards of his lawful
enterprise.

If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the favorable regard
of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed, it must be
that in which those who join in it are guided only by their free choice,
by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences;
and such a spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as
proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, freed
from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection with the
powers of this world which corrupts religion into an instrument or an
usurper of the policy of the state, and making no appeal but to reason,
to the heart, and to the conscience, can spread its benign influence
everywhere and can attract to the divine altar those freewill offerings
of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise which alone can be
acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can deceive and no forced sacrifices
propitiate.

Upon these principles and with these views the good people of the United
States are invited, in conformity with the resolution aforesaid, to
dedicate the day above named to the religious solemnities therein
recommended.

 (SEAL.)

Given at Washington, this 23d day of July, A.D. 1813.

JAMES MADISON.

FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON,  December 7, 1813 .

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

In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture it would have been
highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result to
the mission charged with negotiations for restoring peace. It was a just
expectation, from the respect due to the distinguished Sovereign who had
invited them by his offer of mediation, from the readiness with which
the invitation was accepted on the part of the United States, and from
the pledge to be found in an act of their Legislature for the liberality
which their plenipotentiaries would carry into the negotiations, that no
time would be lost by the British Government in embracing the experiment
for hastening a stop to the effusion of blood. A prompt and cordial
acceptance of the mediation on that side was the less to be doubted, as
it was of a nature not to submit rights or pretensions on either side
to the decision of an umpire, but to afford merely an opportunity,
honorable and desirable to both, for discussing and, if possible,
adjusting them for the interest of both.

The British cabinet, either mistaking our desire of peace for a dread
of British power or misled by other fallacious calculations, has
disappointed this reasonable anticipation. No communications from
our envoys having reached us, no information on the subject has been
received from that source; but it is known that the mediation was
declined in the first instance, and there is no evidence,
notwithstanding the lapse of time, that a change of disposition in the
British councils has taken place or is to be expected.

Under such circumstances a nation proud of its rights and conscious of
its strength has no choice but an exertion of the one in support of the
other.

To this determination the best encouragement is derived from the success
with which it has pleased the Almighty to bless our arms both on the
land and on the water.

Whilst proofs have been continued of the enterprise and skill of our
cruisers, public and private, on the ocean, and a new trophy gained in
the capture of a British by an American vessel of war, after an action
giving celebrity to the name of the victorious commander, the great
inland waters on which the enemy were also to be encountered have
presented achievements of our naval arms as brilliant in their character
as they have been important in their consequences.

On Lake Erie, the squadron under command of Captain Perry having met the
British squadron of superior force, a sanguinary conflict ended in the
capture of the whole. The conduct of that officer, adroit as it was
daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, justly entitles
them to the admiration and gratitude of their country, and will fill an
early page in its naval annals with a victory never surpassed in luster,
however much it may have been in magnitude.

On Lake Ontario the caution of the British commander, favored by
contingencies, frustrated the efforts of the American commander to bring
on a decisive action. Captain Chauncey was able, however, to establish
an ascendency on that important theater, and to prove by the manner
in which he effected everything possible that opportunities only were
wanted for a more shining display of his own talents and the gallantry
of those under his command.

The success on Lake Erie having opened a passage to the territory of the
enemy, the officer commanding the Northwestern army transferred the war
thither, and rapidly pursuing the hostile troops, fleeing with their
savage associates, forced a general action, which quickly terminated in
the capture of the British and dispersion of the savage force.

This result is signally honorable to Major General Harrison, by whose
military talents it was prepared; to Colonel Johnson and his mounted
volunteers, whose impetuous onset gave a decisive blow to the ranks of
the enemy, and to the spirit of the volunteer militia, equally brave and
patriotic, who bore an interesting part in the scene; more especially to
the chief magistrate of Kentucky, at the head of them, whose heroism
signalized in the war which established the independence of his country,
sought at an advanced age a share in hardships and battles for
maintaining its rights and its safety.

The effect of these successes has been to rescue the inhabitants of
Michigan from their oppressions, aggravated by gross infractions of
the capitulation which subjected them to a foreign power; to alienate
the savages of numerous tribes from the enemy, by whom they were
disappointed and abandoned, and to relieve an extensive region of
country from a merciless warfare which desolated its frontiers and
imposed on its citizens the most harassing services.

In consequence of our naval superiority on Lake Ontario and the
opportunity afforded by it for concentrating our forces by water,
operations which had been provisionally planned were set on foot against
the possessions of the enemy on the Saint Lawrence. Such, however, was the
delay produced in the first instance by adverse weather of unusual
violence and continuance and such the circumstances attending the final
movements of the army, that the prospect, at one time so favorable, was
not realized.

The cruelty of the enemy in enlisting the savages into a war with a
nation desirous of mutual emulation in mitigating its calamities has not
been confined to any one quarter. Wherever they could be turned against
us no exertions to effect it have been spared. On our southwestern
border the Creek tribes, who, yielding to our persevering endeavors,
were gradually acquiring more civilized habits, became the unfortunate
victims of seduction. A war in that quarter has been the consequence,
infuriated by a bloody fanaticism recently propagated among them. It
was necessary to crush such a war before it could spread among the
contiguous tribes and before it could favor enterprises of the enemy
into that vicinity. With this view a force was called into the service
of the United States from the States of Georgia and Tennessee, which,
with the nearest regular troops and other corps from the Mississippi
Territory, might not only chastise the savages into present peace but
make a lasting impression on their fears.

The progress of the expedition, as far as is yet known, corresponds with
the martial zeal with which it was espoused, and the best hopes of a
satisfactory issue are authorized by the complete success with which a
well-planned enterprise was executed against a body of hostile savages
by a detachment of the volunteer militia of Tennessee, under the gallant
command of General Coffee, and by a still more important victory over a
larger body of them, gained under the immediate command of Major General
Jackson, an officer equally distinguished for his patriotism and his
military talents.

The systematic perseverance of the enemy in courting the aid of the
savages in all quarters had the natural effect of kindling their
ordinary propensity to war into a passion, which, even among those
best disposed toward the United States, was ready, if not employed
on our side, to be turned against us. A departure from our protracted
forbearance to accept the services tendered by them has thus been forced
upon us. But in yielding to it the retaliation has been mitigated as
much as possible, both in its extent and in its character, stopping far
short of the example of the enemy, who owe the advantages they have
occasionally gained in battle chiefly to the number of their savage
associates, and who have not controlled them either from their usual
practice of indiscriminate massacre on defenseless inhabitants or from
scenes of carnage without a parallel on prisoners to the British arms,
guarded by all the laws of humanity and of honorable war. For these
enormities the enemy are equally responsible, whether with the power to
prevent them they want the will or with the knowledge of a want of power
they still avail themselves of such instruments.

In other respects the enemy are pursuing a course which threatens
consequences most afflicting to humanity.

A standing law of Great Britain naturalizes, as is well known, all
aliens complying with conditions limited to a shorter period than
those required by the United States, and naturalized subjects are
in war employed by her Government in common with native subjects.
In a contiguous British Province regulations promulgated since the
commencement of the war compel citizens of the United States being there
under certain circumstances to bear arms, whilst of the native emigrants
from the United States, who compose much of the population of the
Province, a number have actually borne arms against the United States
within their limits, some of whom, after having done so, have become
prisoners of war, and are now in our possession. The British commander
in that Province, nevertheless, with the sanction, as appears, of his
Government, thought proper to select from American prisoners of war and
send to Great Britain for trial as criminals a number of individuals who
had emigrated from the British dominions long prior to the state of war
between the two nations, who had incorporated themselves into our
political society in the modes recognized by the law and the practice of
Great Britain, and who were made prisoners of war under the banners of
their adopted country, fighting for its rights and its safety.

The protection due to these citizens requiring an effectual
interposition in their behalf, a like number of British prisoners of
war were put into confinement, with a notification that they would
experience whatever violence might be committed on the American
prisoners of war sent to Great Britain.

It was hoped that this necessary consequence of the step unadvisedly
taken on the part of Great Britain would have led her Government to
reflect on the inconsistencies of its conduct, and that a sympathy with
the British, if not with the American, sufferers would have arrested the
cruel career opened by its example.

This was unhappily not the case. In violation both of consistency and of
humanity, American officers and noncommissioned officers in double the
number of the British soldiers confined here were ordered into close
confinement, with formal notice that in the event of a retaliation for
the death which might be inflicted on the prisoners of war sent to Great
Britain for trial the officers so confined would be put to death also.
It was notified at the same time that the commanders of the British
fleets and armies on our coasts are instructed in the same event to
proceed with a destructive severity against our towns and their
inhabitants.

That no doubt might be left with the enemy of our adherence to the
retaliatory resort imposed on us, a correspondent number of British
officers, prisoners of war in our hands, were immediately put into close
confinement to abide the fate of those confined by the enemy, and the
British Government has been apprised of the determination of this
Government to retaliate any other proceedings against us contrary to
the legitimate modes of warfare.

It is as fortunate for the United States that they have it in their
power to meet the enemy in this deplorable contest as it is honorable
to them that they do not join in it but under the most imperious
obligations, and with the humane purpose of effectuating a return to
the established usages of war.

The views of the French Government on the subjects which have been so
long committed to negotiation have received no elucidation since the
close of your late session. The minister plenipotentiary of the United
States at Paris had not been enabled by proper opportunities to press
the objects of his mission as prescribed by his instructions.

The militia being always to be regarded as the great bulwark of defense
and security for free states, and the Constitution having wisely
committed to the national authority a use of that force as the best
provision against an unsafe military establishment, as well as a
resource peculiarly adapted to a country having the extent and the
exposure of the United States, I recommend to Congress a revision of the
militia laws for the purpose of securing more effectually the services
of all detachments called into the employment and placed under the
Government of the United States.

It will deserve the consideration of Congress also whether among other
improvements in the militia laws justice does not require a regulation,
under due precautions, for defraying the expense incident to the first
assembling as well as the subsequent movements of detachments called
into the national service.

To give to our vessels of war, public and private, the requisite
advantage in their cruises, it is of much importance that they should
have, both for themselves and their prizes, the use of the ports and
markets of friendly powers. With this view, I recommend to Congress the
expediency of such legal provisions as may supply the defects or remove
the doubts of the Executive authority, to allow to the cruisers of other
powers at war with enemies of the United States such use of the American
ports as may correspond with the privileges allowed by such powers to
American cruisers.

During the year ending on the 30th of September last the receipts into
the Treasury have exceeded $37,500,000, of which near twenty-four
millions were the produce of loans. After meeting all demands for
the public service there remained in the Treasury on that day near
$7,000,000. Under the authority contained in the act of the 2d of August
last for borrowing $7,500,000, that sum has been obtained on terms more
favorable to the United States than those of the preceding loan made
during the present year. Further sums to a considerable amount will be
necessary to be obtained in the same way during the ensuing year, and
from the increased capital of the country, from the fidelity with which
the public engagements have been kept and the public credit maintained,
it may be expected on good grounds that the necessary pecuniary supplies
will not be wanting.

The expenses of the current year, from the multiplied operations falling
within it, have necessarily been extensive; but on a just estimate of
the campaign in which the mass of them has been incurred the cost will
not be found disproportionate to the advantages which have been gained.
The campaign has, indeed, in its latter stages in one quarter been less
favorable than was expected, but in addition to the importance of our
naval success the progress of the campaign has been filled with
incidents highly honorable to the American arms.

The attacks of the enemy on Craney Island, on Fort Meigs, on Sacketts
Harbor, and on Sandusky have been vigorously and successfully repulsed;
nor have they in any case succeeded on either frontier excepting when
directed against the peaceable dwellings of individuals or villages
unprepared or undefended.

On the other hand, the movements of the American Army have been followed
by the reduction of York, and of Forts George, Erie, and Maiden; by the
recovery of Detroit and the extinction of the Indian war in the West,
and by the occupancy or command of a large portion of Upper Canada.
Battles have also been fought on the borders of the Saint Lawrence, which,
though not accomplishing their entire objects, reflect honor on the
discipline and prowess of our soldiery, the best auguries of eventual
victory. In the same scale are to be placed the late successes in the
South over one of the most powerful, which had become one of the most
hostile also, of the Indian tribes.

It would be improper to close this communication without expressing a
thankfulness in which all ought to unite for the numerous blessings
with which our beloved country continues to be favored; for the
abundance which overspreads our land, and the prevailing health of its
inhabitants; for the preservation of our internal tranquillity, and
the stability of our free institutions, and, above all, for the light
of divine truth and the protection of every man's conscience in the
enjoyment of it. And although among our blessings we can not number an
exemption from the evils of war, yet these will never be regarded as
the greatest of evils by the friends of liberty and of the rights of
nations. Our country has before preferred them to the degraded condition
which was the alternative when the sword was drawn in the cause which
gave birth to our national independence, and none who contemplate the
magnitude and feel the value of that glorious event will shrink from a
struggle to maintain the high and happy ground on which it placed the
American people.

With all good citizens the justice and necessity of resisting wrongs
and usurpations no longer to be borne will sufficiently outweigh the
privations and sacrifices inseparable from a state of war. But it
is a reflection, moreover, peculiarly consoling, that, whilst wars
are generally aggravated by their baneful effects on the internal
improvements and permanent prosperity of the nations engaged in them,
such is the favored situation of the United States that the calamities
of the contest into which they have been compelled to enter are
mitigated by improvements and advantages of which the contest itself
is the source.

If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has at
the same time cherished and multiplied our manufactures so as to make us
independent of all other countries for the more essential branches for
which we ought to be dependent on none, and is even rapidly giving them
an extent which will create additional staples in our future intercourse
with foreign markets.

If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion of it has
been applied to objects durable in their value and necessary to our
permanent safety.

If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the ocean and to
predatory incursions on the land, it has developed the national means of
retaliating the former and of providing protection against the latter,
demonstrating to all that every blow aimed at our maritime independence
is an impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power.

By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of military
discipline and instruction; by augmenting and distributing warlike
preparations applicable to future use; by evincing the zeal and valor
with which they will be employed and the cheerfulness with which every
necessary burden will be borne, a greater respect for our rights and a
longer duration of our future peace are promised than could be expected
without these proofs of the national character and resources.

The war has proved moreover that our free Government, like other free
governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its
progress a force proportioned to its freedom, and that the union of
these States, the guardian of the freedom and safety of all and of each,
is strengthened by every occasion that puts it to the test.

In fine, the war, with all its vicissitudes, is illustrating the
capacity and the destiny of the United States to be a great, a
flourishing, and a powerful nation, worthy of the friendship which it
is disposed to cultivate with all others, and authorized by its own
example to require from all an observance of the laws of justice and
reciprocity. Beyond these their claims have never extended, and in
contending for these we behold a subject for our congratulations in the
daily testimonies of increasing harmony throughout the nation, and may
humbly repose our trust in the smiles of Heaven on so righteous a cause.

JAMES MADISON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

DECEMBER 9, 1813.

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

The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws in their present
state to favor the enemy and thereby prolong the war is more and more
developed by experience. Supplies of the most essential kinds And their
way not only to British ports and British armies at a distance, but the
armies in our neighborhood with which our own are contending derive from
our ports and outlets a subsistence attainable with difficulty, if at
all, from other sources. Even the fleets and troops infesting our coasts
and waters are by like supplies accommodated and encouraged in their
predatory and incursive warfare.

Abuses having a like tendency take place in our import trade. British
fabrics and products find their way into our ports under the name and
from the ports of other countries, and often in British vessels
disguised as neutrals by false colors and papers.

To these abuses it may be added that illegal importations are openly
made with advantage to the violators of the law, produced by
undervaluations or other circumstances involved in the course of the
judicial proceedings against them.

It is found also that the practice of ransoming is a cover for collusive
captures and a channel for intelligence advantageous to the enemy.

To remedy as much as possible these evils, I recommend:

That an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted.

That all articles known to be derived, either not at all or in any
immaterial degree only, from the productions of any other country than
Great Britain, and particularly the extensive articles made of wool and
cotton materials, and ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly
and absolutely prohibited, from whatever port or place or in whatever
vessels the same may be brought into the United States, and that all
violations of the nonimportation act be subjected to adequate penalties.

That among the proofs of the neutral and national character of
foreign vessels it be required that the masters and supercargoes and
three-fourths at least of the crews be citizens or subjects of the
country under whose flag the vessels sail.

That all persons concerned in collusive captures by the enemy or in
ransoming vessels or their cargoes from the enemy be subjected to
adequate penalties.

To shorten as much as possible the duration of the war it is
indispensable that the enemy should feel all the pressure that can be
given to it, and the restraints having that tendency will be borne with
the greater cheerfulness by all good citizens, as the restraints will
affect those most who are most ready to sacrifice the interest of their
country in pursuit of their own.

JAMES MADISON.