Chapter 52 1831 

January 3, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

Since my message of the 20th of December last, transmitting to the Senate a report from the Secretary of War, with information requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 14th December, in relation to the treaty concluded at Dancing Rabbit Creek with the Choctaw Indians, I have received the two letters which are herewith inclosed, containing further information on the subject.

ANDREW JACKSON.

Washington, January 3, 1831.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to Congress the papers relating to the recent arrangement with Great Britain with respect to the trade between her colonial possessions and the United States, to which reference was made in my message at the opening of the present session.

It will appear from those documents that owing to the omission in the act of the 29th of May last of a clause expressly restricting importations into the British colonies in American vessels to the productions of the United States, to the amendment engrafted upon that act in the House Of Representatives, providing that when the trade with the West India colonies should be opened the commercial intercourse of the United States with all other parts of the British dominions or possessions should be left on a footing not less favorable to the United States than it now is, and to the act not specifying the terms upon which British vessels coming from the northern colonies should be admitted to entry into the ports of the United States, an apprehension was entertained by the Government of Great Britain that under the contemplated arrangement claims might be set up on our part inconsistent with the propositions submitted by our minister and with the terms to which she was willing to agree, and that this circumstance led to explanations between Mr. McLane and the Earl of Aberdeen respecting the intentions of Congress and the true construction to be given to the act referred to.

To the interpretation given by them to that act I did not hesitate to agree. It was quite clear that in adopting the amendment referred to Congress could not have intended to preclude future alterations in the existing intercourse between the United States and other parts of the British dominions; and the supposition that the omission to restrict in terms the importations to the productions of the country to which the vessels respectively belong was intentional was precluded by the propositions previously made by this Government to that of Great Britain, and which were before Congress at the time of the passage of the act; by the principles which govern the maritime legislation of the two countries and by the provisions of the existing commercial treaty between them.

Actuated by this view of the subject, and convinced that it was in accordance with the real intentions of Congress, I felt it my duty to give effect to the arrangement by issuing the required proclamation, of which a copy is likewise herewith communicated.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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January 5, 1831.
To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th of December last, calling for information on the subject of internal improvement, I submit herewith a report from the Secretaries of War and Treasury, containing the information required.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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January 7, 1831.
To the House of Representatives:

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the accompanying report from the Navy Department, upon the state of the accounts of the Navy in the office of the Fourth Auditor, and to suggest the necessity of correcting the evils complained of by early legislation.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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Washington, January 11, 1831.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I transmit to Congress a report of the Secretary of State, with the report to him from the Patent Office which accompanied it, in relation to the concerns of that office, and recommend the whole subject to early and favorable consideration.

ANDREW JACKSON.

(The same message was sent to the Senate.)

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January 15, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 23d ultimo, requesting to be informed of the quantity of live-oak timber in the United States, where it is, and what means are employed to preserve it, I present herewith a report of the Secretary of the Navy, containing the information required,

ANDREW JACKSON.

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January 15, 1831.
To the House of Representatives:

I submit to the consideration of Congress the accompanying report and documents from the Navy Department, in relation to the capture of the Spanish slave vessel called The Fenix, and recommend that suitable legislative provision be made for the maintenance of the unfortunate captives pending the legislation which has grown out of the case.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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January 24, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, containing the information requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 21st instant, in relation to "the state of the British establishments in the valley of the Columbia and the state of the fur trade as carried on by the citizens of the United States and the Hudsons Bay Company."

ANDREW JACKSON.

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January 25, 1831.
To the House of Representatives:

I beg leave to call the attention of Congress to the inclosed communication from the Secretary of the Navy, in relation to the pay and other allowances of the officers of the Marine Corps, and to recommend the adoption of the legislative provisions suggested in it.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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Washington, D.C., January 26, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

In pursuance of the advice and consent of the Senate as expressed in their resolution of the 10th February, 1830, the treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and Austria concluded in this city on the 27th of August, 1829, was duly ratified by this Government on the 11th day of the same month of February; but the treaty itself containing a stipulation that the ratifications of the two parties to it should be exchanged within twelve months from the date of its signature, and that of the Austrian Government not having been received here till after the expiration of the time limited, I have not thought myself at liberty under these circumstances, without the additional advice and consent of the Senate, to authorize that ceremony on the part of this Government. Information having been received at the Department of State from the Austrian representative in the United States that he is prepared to proceed to the exchange of the ratifications of his Government for that of this, the question is therefore submitted to the Senate for their advice and consent upon the occasion.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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February 3, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

I respectfully submit to the Senate, in answer to their legislative resolution of the 20th ultimo, in relation to the sales of land at the Crawfordsville land office in November last, reports from the Secretary of the Treasury and the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Concurring with the Secretary of the Treasury in the views he has taken of the treaties and act of Congress touching the subject, I can not discover that the President is invested with any power under the Constitution or laws to withhold a patent from a purchaser who has given a fair and valuable consideration for land, and thereby acquired a vested right to the same; nor do I perceive that the sole legislative resolution of the Senate can confer such a power, or suspend the right of the citizens to enter the lands that have been offered for sale in said district and remain unsold, so long as the law authorizing the same remains unrepealed.

I beg leave, therefore, to present the subject to the reconsideration of the Senate.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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Washington, February 3, 1831.
To the House of Representatives:

I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Treasury Department, in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d ultimo, calling for the correspondence in relation to locating a cession of lands made or intended to be made by the Pottawattamie tribe of Indians for the benefit of the State of Indiana, etc.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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To the House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their resolution of the 29th of January last, calling for information and papers respecting the seizure of American vessels by the naval forces of Portugal forming the blockade of the island of Terceira, a report from the Secretary of State, which, with the documents accompanying it, contains the information in his Department upon that subject, and avail myself of the occasion further to inform the House of Representatives that orders had before the introduction of the resolution referred to been given to fit out a ship of war for the more effectual protection of our commerce in that quarter.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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Washington, February 19, 1831.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives:

I present for the consideration of Congress a report from the Secretary of War, relative to a compromise of title of the island on which Fort Delaware has been constructed.

ANDREW JACKSON.

(The same message was sent to the Senate.)

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February 22, 1831.
To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit to Congress a letter from Mr. Rhind, stating the circumstances under which he received the four Arabian horses that were brought by him to the United States from Turkey. His letter will enable Congress to decide what ought to be done with them.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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February 22, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

I have received your resolution of the 15th instant, requesting me "to inform the Senate whether the provisions of the act entitled 'An act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes and to preserve peace on the frontiers,' passed the 30th of March, 1802, have been fully complied with on the part of the United States Government, and if they have not that he inform the Senate of the reasons that have induced the Government to decline the enforcement of said act," and I now reply to the same.

According to my views of the act referred to, I am not aware of any omission to carry into effect its provisions in relation to trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes so far as their execution depended on the agency confided to the Executive.

The numerous provisions of that act designed to secure to the Indians the peaceable possession of their lands may be reduced, substantially, to the following: That citizens of the United States are restrained under sufficient penalties from entering upon the lands for the purpose of hunting thereon, or of settling them, or of giving their horses and cattle the benefit of a range upon them, or of traveling through them without a written permission; and that the President of the United States is authorized to employ the military force of the country to secure the observance of these provisions. The authority to the President, however, is not imperative. The language is:

It shall be lawful for the President to take such measures and to employ such military force as he may judge necessary to remove from lands belonging to or secured by treaty to any Indian tribe any citizen who shall make a settlement thereon.

By the nineteenth section of this act it is provided that nothing in it "shall be construed to prevent any trade or intercourse with Indians living on lands surrounded by settlements of citizens of the United States and being within the ordinary jurisdiction of any of the individual States." This provision I have interpreted as being prospective in its operation and as applicable not only to Indian tribes which at the date of its passage were subject to the jurisdiction of any State, but to such also as should thereafter become so. To this construction of its meaning I have endeavored to conform, and have taken no step inconsistent with it. As soon, therefore, as the sovereign power of the State of Georgia was exercised by an extension of her laws throughout her limits, and I had received information of the same, orders were given to withdraw from the State the troops which had been detailed to prevent intrusion upon the Indian lands within it, and these orders were executed. The reasons which dictated them shall be frankly communicated.

The principle recognized in the section last quoted was not for the first time then avowed. It is conformable to the uniform practice of the Government before the adoption of the Constitution, and amounts to a distinct recognition by Congress at that early day of the doctrine that that instrument had not varied the powers of the Federal Government over Indian affairs from what they were under the Articles of Confederation. It is not believed that there is a single instance in the legislation of the country in which the Indians have been regarded as possessing political rights independent of the control and authority of the States within the limits of which they resided. As early as the year 1782 the Journals of Congress will show that no claim of such a character was countenanced by that body. In that year the application of a tribe of Indians residing in South Carolina to have certain tracts of land which had been reserved for their use in that State secured to them free from intrusion, and without the right of alienating them even with their own consent, was brought to the consideration of Congress by a report from the Secretary of War. The resolution which was adopted on that occasion is as follows:

Resolved, That it be recommended to the legislature of South Carolina to take such measures for the satisfaction and security of said tribes as the said legislature in their wisdom may think fit.

Here is no assertion of the right of Congress under the Articles of Confederation to interfere with the jurisdiction of the States over Indians within their limits, but rather a negation of it. They refused to interfere with the subject, and referred it under a general recommendation back to the State, to be disposed of as her wisdom might decide.

If in addition to this act and the language of the Articles of Confederation anything further can be wanting to show the early views of the Government on the subject, it will be found in the proclamation issued by Congress in 1783. It contains this language:

The United States in Congress assembled have thought proper to issue their proclamation, and they do hereby prohibit and forbid all persons from making settlements on lands inhabited or claimed by Indians without the limits or jurisdiction of any particular State.

And again:

Resolved, That the preceding measures of Congress relative to Indian affairs shall not be construed to affect the territorial claims of any of the States or their legislative rights within their respective limits.

It was not then pretended that the General Government had the power in their relations with the Indians to control or oppose the internal polity of the individual States of this Union, and if such was the case under the Articles of Confederation the only question on the subject since must arise out of some more enlarged power or authority given to the General Government by the present Constitution. Does any such exist?

Amongst the enumerated grants of the Constitution that which relates to this subject is expressed in these words: "Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with the Indian tribes." In the interpretation of this power we ought certainly to be guided by what had been the practice of the Government and the meaning which had been generally attached to the resolves of the old Congress if the words used to convey it do not clearly import a different one, as far as it affects the question of jurisdiction in the individual States. The States ought not to be divested of any part of their antecedent jurisdiction by implication or doubtful construction. Tested by this rule it seems to me to be unquestionable that the jurisdiction of the States is left untouched by this clause of the Constitution, and that it was designed to give to the General Government complete control over the trade and intercourse of those Indians only who were not within the limits of any State.

From a view of the acts referred to and the uniform practice of the Government it is manifest that until recently it has never been maintained that the right of jurisdiction by a State over Indians within its territory was subordinate to the power of the Federal Government. That doctrine has not been enforced nor even asserted in any of the States of New England where tribes of Indians have resided, and where a few of them yet remain. These tribes have been left to the undisturbed control of the States in which they were found, in conformity with the view which has been taken of the opinions prevailing up to 1789 and the clear interpretation of the act of 1802. In the State of New York, where several tribes have resided, it has been the policy of the Government to avoid entering into quasi treaty engagements with them, barely appointing commissioners occasionally on the part of the United States to facilitate the objects of the State in its negotiations with them. The Southern States present an exception to this policy. As early as 1784 the settlements within the limits of North Carolina were advanced farther to the west than the authority of the State to enforce an obedience of its laws. Others were in a similar condition. The necessities, therefore, and not the acknowledged principles, of the Government must have suggested the policy of treating with the Indians in that quarter as the only practicable mode of conciliating their good will. The United States at that period had just emerged from a protracted war for the achievement of their independence. At the moment of its conclusion many of these tribes, as powerful as they were ferocious in their mode of warfare, remained in arms, desolating our frontier settlements. Under these circumstances the first treaties, in 1785 and 1790, with the Cherokees, were concluded by the Government of the United States, and were evidently sanctioned as measures of necessity adapted to the character of the Indians and indispensable to the peace and security of the western frontier. But they can not be understood as changing the political relations of the Indians to the States or to the Federal Government. To effect this would have required the operation of quite a different principle and the intervention of a tribunal higher than that of the treaty-making power.

To infer from the assent of the Government to this deviation from the practice which had before governed its intercourse with the Indians, and the accidental forbearance of the States to assert their right of jurisdiction over them, that they had surrendered this portion of their sovereignty, and that its assumption now is usurpation, is conceding too much to the necessity which dictated those treaties, and doing violence to the principles of the Government and the rights of the States without benefiting in the least degree the Indians. The Indians thus situated can not be regarded in any other light than as members of a foreign government or of that of the State within whose chartered limits they reside. If in the former, the ordinary legislation of Congress in relation to them is not warranted by the Constitution, which was established for the benefit of our own, not of a foreign people. If in the latter, then, like other citizens or people resident within the limits of the States, they are subject to their jurisdiction and control. To maintain a contrary doctrine and to require the Executive to enforce it by the employment of a military force would be to place in his hands a power to make war upon the rights of the States and the liberties of the country—a power which should be placed in the hands of no individual.

If, indeed, the Indians are to be regarded as people possessing rights which they can exercise independently of the States, much error has arisen in the intercourse of the Government with them. Why is it that they have been called upon to assist in our wars without the privilege of exercising their own discretion? If an independent people, they should as such be consulted and advised with; but they have not been. In an order which was issued to me from the War Department in September, 1814, this language is employed:

All the friendly Indians should be organized and prepared to cooperate with your other forces. There appears to be some dissatisfaction among the Choctaws; their friendship and services should be secured without delay. The friendly Indians must be fed and paid, and made to fight when and where their services may be required.

To an independent and foreign people this would seem to be assuming, I should suppose, rather too lofty a tone—one which the Government would not have assumed if they had considered them in that light. Again, by the Constitution the power of declaring war belongs exclusively to Congress. We have been often engaged in war with the Indian tribes within our limits, but when have these hostilities been preceded or accompanied by an act of Congress declaring war against the tribe which was the object of them? And was the prosecution of such hostilities an usurpation in each case by the Executive which conducted them of the constitutional power of Congress? It must have been so, I apprehend, if these tribes are to be considered as foreign and independent nations.

The steps taken to prevent intrusion upon Indian lands had their origin with the commencement of our Government, and became the subject of special legislation in 1802, with the reservations which have been mentioned in favor of the jurisdiction of the States. With the exception of South Carolina, who has uniformly regulated the Indians within her limits without the aid of the General Government, they have been felt within all the States of the South without being understood to affect their rights or prevent the exercise of their jurisdiction, whenever they were in a situation to assume and enforce it. Georgia, though materially concerned, has on this principle forborne to spread her legislation farther than the settlements of her own white citizens, until she has recently perceived within her limits a people claiming to be capable of self-government, sitting in legislative council, organizing courts and administering justice. To disarm such an anomalous invasion of her sovereignty she has declared her determination to execute her own laws throughout her limits—a step which seems to have been anticipated by the proclamation of 1783, and which is perfectly consistent with the nineteenth section of the act of 1802. According to the language and reasoning of that section, the tribes to the South and the Southwest are not only "surrounded by settlements of the citizens of the United States," but are now also "within the ordinary jurisdiction of the individual States." They became so from the moment the laws of the State were extended over them, and the same result follows the similar determination of Alabama and Mississippi. These States have each a right to claim in behalf of their position now on this question the same respect which is conceded to the other States of the Union.

Toward this race of people I entertain the kindest feelings, and am not sensible that the views which I have taken of their true interests are less favorable to them than those which oppose their emigration to the West. Years since I stated to them my belief that if the States chose to extend their laws over them it would not be in the power of the Federal Government to prevent it. My opinion remains the same, and I can see no alternative for them but that of their removal to the West or a quiet submission to the State laws. If they prefer to remove, the United States agree to defray their expenses, to supply them the means of transportation and a year's support after they reach their new homes—a provision too liberal and kind to deserve the stamp of injustice. Either course promises them peace and happiness, whilst an obstinate perseverance in the effort to maintain their possessions independent of the State authority can not fail to render their condition still more helpless and miserable. Such an effort ought, therefore, to be discountenanced by all who sincerely sympathize in the fortunes of this peculiar people, and especially by the political bodies of the Union, as calculated to disturb the harmony of the two Governments and to endanger the safety of the many blessings which they enable us to enjoy.

As connected with the subject of this inquiry, I beg leave to refer to the accompanying letter from the Secretary of War, inclosing the orders which proceeded from that Department, and a letter from the governor of Georgia.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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Washington, February 26, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

The inclosed report[11] of the Secretary of War is herewith inclosed in answer to the resolution of the Senate of yesterday's date.

ANDREW JACKSON.

[Footnote 11: Relative to the expenditure of appropriations for improving the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.]

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To the Senate of the United States:

I present for the consideration of the Senate articles of agreement entered into and concluded by commissioners duly appointed on the part of the United States and the chiefs of the Menominee tribe of Indians at Green Bay. Various attempts were made to reconcile the conflicting interests of the New York Indians, but without success, as will appear by the report made by the Secretary of War. No stipulation in their favor could be introduced into the agreement without the consent of the Menominees, and that consent could not be obtained to any greater extent than the articles show.

Congress only is competent now to adjust and arrange these differences and satisfy the demands of the New York Indians. The whole matter is respectfully submitted.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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To the Senate of the United States:

I submit to the consideration of the Senate of the United States articles of agreement and convention concluded this day between the United States, by a commissioner duly authorized, and the Seneca tribe of Indians resident in the State of Ohio.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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February 28, 1831.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States:

I lay before the House of Representatives a treaty recently concluded with the Choctaw tribe of Indians, that provision may be made for carrying the same into effect agreeably to the estimate heretofore presented by the Secretary of War to the Committee of Ways and Means. It is a printed copy as it passed the Senate, no amendment having been made except to strike out the preamble. I also communicate a letter from the Secretary of War on this subject.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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March 1, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith, for the use of the Senate, printed copies of the treaties which have been lately ratified between the United States and the Choctaw Indians and between the United States and the confederated tribes of the Sacs and Foxes and other tribes.

ANDREW JACKSON.

(The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.)

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WASHINGTON, March 2, 1831.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I communicate to Congress a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and the Emperor of Austria, concluded in this city on the 28th March, 1830, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 10th of February last.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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March 2, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

John H. Clack, a master commandant in the Navy of the United States, having rank as such from the 24th April, 1828, was on the sentence of a court-martial, which was approved by me, ordered to be dismissed from the service. On a reexamination of the record of the trial I am satisfied that the proceeding was illegal in substance, and therefore that the sentence was void.

To restore the party to the rights of which he was deprived by the enforcement of a sentence which was in law erroneous and void, I nominate the said John H. Clack to be a master commandant in the Navy of the United States, to take rank as such from the 24th April, 1828.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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PROCLAMATION.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas information has been transmitted to the President of the United States by the governor of the Territory of Arkansas that certain persons pretending to act under the authority of the Mexican Government, and without any lawful right or power derived from that of the United States, have attempted to and do survey, for sale and settlement, a portion of the public lands in said Territory, and particularly in the counties of Lafayette, Sevier, and Miller, and have presumed to and do administer to the citizens residing in said counties the oath of allegiance to the said Mexican Government; and

Whereas such acts and practices are contrary to the law of the land and the provisions of the act of Congress approved the 3d day of March, A.D. 1807, and are offenses against the peace and public tranquillity of the said Territory and the inhabitants thereof:

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me in and by the said act of Congress, do issue this my proclamation, commanding and strictly enjoining all persons who have unlawfully entered upon, taken possession of, or made any settlement on the public lands in the said counties of Lafayette, Sevier, or Miller, or who may be in the unlawful occupation or possession of the same, or any part thereof, forthwith to depart and remove therefrom; and I do hereby command and require the marshal of the said Territory of Arkansas, or other officer or officers acting as such marshal, from and after the 15th day of April next to remove or cause to be removed all persons who may then unlawfully be upon, in possession of, or who may unlawfully occupy any of the public lands in the said counties of Lafayette, Sevier, or Miller, or who may be surveying or attempting to survey the same without any authority therefor from the Government of the United States; and to execute and carry into effect this proclamation I do hereby authorize the employment of such military force as may be necessary pursuant to the act of Congress aforesaid, and warn all offenders in the premises that they will be prosecuted and punished in such other way and manner as may be consistent with the provisions and requisitions of the law in such case made and provided.

Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of February, A.D. 1831, and of the Independence of the United States of America the fifty-fifth.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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EXECUTIVE ORDER.
Washington, August 6, 1831.
Acting Secretary of War.

Sir: You will, after the receipt of this, report to the President for dismissal every clerk in your office who shall avail himself of the benefit of the insolvent debtors' act for debts contracted during my Administration.

Very respectfully, ANDREW JACKSON.

(The same order was addressed to the Secretary of the Navy.)

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THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
December 6, 1831.
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

The representation of the people has been renewed for the twenty-second time since the Constitution they formed has been in force. For near half a century the Chief Magistrates who have been successively chosen have made their annual communications of the state of the nation to its representatives. Generally these communications have been of the most gratifying nature, testifying an advance in all the improvements of social and all the securities of political life. But frequently and justly as you have been called on to be grateful for the bounties of Providence, at few periods have they been more abundantly or extensively bestowed than at the present; rarely, if ever, have we had greater reason to congratulate each other on the continued and increasing prosperity of our beloved country.

Agriculture, the first and most important occupation of man, has compensated the labors of the husbandman with plentiful crops of all the varied products of our extensive country. Manufactures have been established in which the funds of the capitalist find a profitable investment, and which give employment and subsistence to a numerous and increasing body of industrious and dexterous mechanics. The laborer is rewarded by high wages in the construction of works of internal improvement, which are extending with unprecedented rapidity. Science is steadily penetrating the recesses of nature and disclosing her secrets, while the ingenuity of free minds is subjecting the elements to the power of man and making each new conquest auxiliary to his comfort. By our mails, whose speed is regularly increased and whose routes are every year extended, the communication of public intelligence and private business is rendered frequent and safe; the intercourse between distant cities, which it formerly required weeks to accomplish, is now effected in a few days; and in the construction of railroads and the application of steam power we have a reasonable prospect that the extreme parts of our country will be so much approximated and those most isolated by the obstacles of nature rendered so accessible as to remove an apprehension sometimes entertained that the great extent of the Union would endanger its permanent existence.

If from the satisfactory view of our agriculture, manufactures, and internal improvements we turn to the state of our navigation and trade with foreign nations and between the States, we shall scarcely find less cause for gratulation. A beneficent Providence has provided for their exercise and encouragement an extensive coast, indented by capacious bays, noble rivers, inland seas; with a country productive of every material for shipbuilding and every commodity for gainful commerce, and filled with a population active, intelligent, well-informed, and fearless of danger. These advantages are not neglected, and an impulse has lately been given to commercial enterprise, which fills our shipyards with new constructions, encourages all the arts and branches of industry connected with them, crowds the wharves of our cities with vessels, and covers the most distant seas with our canvas.

Let us be grateful for these blessings to the beneficent Being who has conferred them, and who suffers us to indulge a reasonable hope of their continuance and extension, while we neglect not the means by which they may be preserved. If we may dare to judge of His future designs by the manner in which His past favors have been bestowed, He has made our national prosperity to depend on the preservation of our liberties, our national force on our Federal Union, and our individual happiness on the maintenance of our State rights and wise institutions. If we are prosperous at home and respected abroad, it is because we are free, united, industrious, and obedient to the laws. While we continue so we shall by the blessing of Heaven go on in the happy career we have begun, and which has brought us in the short period of our political existence from a population of three to thirteen millions; from thirteen separate colonies to twenty-four united States; from weakness to strength; from a rank scarcely marked in the scale of nations to a high place in their respect.

This last advantage is one that has resulted in a great degree from the principles which have guided our intercourse with foreign powers since we have assumed an equal station among them, and hence the annual account which the Executive renders to the country of the manner in which that branch of his duties has been fulfilled proves instructive and salutary.

The pacific and wise policy of our Government kept us in a state of neutrality during the wars that have at different periods since our political existence been carried on by other powers; but this policy, while it gave activity and extent to our commerce, exposed it in the same proportion to injuries from the belligerent nations. Hence have arisen claims of indemnity for those injuries. England, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and lately Portugal had all in a greater or less degree infringed our neutral rights. Demands for reparation were made upon all. They have had in all, and continue to have in some, cases a leading influence on the nature of our relations with the powers on whom they were made.

Of the claims upon England it is unnecessary to speak further than to say that the state of things to which their prosecution and denial gave rise has been succeeded by arrangements productive of mutual good feeling and amicable relations between the two countries, which it is hoped will not be interrupted. One of these arrangements is that relating to the colonial trade which was communicated to Congress at the last session; and although the short period during which it has been in force will not enable me to form an accurate judgment of its operation, there is every reason to believe that it will prove highly beneficial. The trade thereby authorized has employed to the 30th September last upward of 30,000 tons of American and 15,000 tons of foreign shipping in the outward voyages, and in the inward nearly an equal amount of American and 20,000 only of foreign tonnage. Advantages, too, have resulted to our agricultural interests from the state of the trade between Canada and our Territories and States bordering on the St. Lawrence and the Lakes which may prove more than equivalent to the loss sustained by the discrimination made to favor the trade of the northern colonies with the West Indies.

After our transition from the state of colonies to that of an independent nation many points were found necessary to be settled between us and Great Britain. Among them was the demarcation of boundaries not described with sufficient precision in the treaty of peace. Some of the lines that divide the States and Territories of the United States from the British Provinces have been definitively fixed. That, however, which separates us from the Provinces of Canada and New Brunswick to the north and the east was still in dispute when I came into office, but I found arrangements made for its settlement over which I had no control. The commissioners who had been appointed under the provisions of the treaty of Ghent having been unable to agree, a convention was made with Great Britain by my immediate predecessor in office, with the advice and consent of the Senate, by which it was agreed "that the points of difference which have arisen in the settlement of the boundary line between the American and British dominions, as described in the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, shall be referred, as therein provided, to some friendly sovereign or State, who shall be invited to investigate and make a decision upon such points of difference;" and the King of the Netherlands having by the late President and His Britannic Majesty been designated as such friendly sovereign, it became my duty to carry with good faith the agreement so made into full effect. To this end I caused all the measures to be taken which were necessary to a full exposition of our case to the sovereign arbiter, and nominated as minister plenipotentiary to his Court a distinguished citizen of the State most interested in the question, and who had been one of the agents previously employed for settling the controversy. On the 10th day of January last His Majesty the King of the Netherlands delivered to the plenipotentiaries of the United States and of Great Britain his written opinion on the case referred to him. The papers in relation to the subject will be communicated by a special message to the proper branch of the Government with the perfect confidence that its wisdom will adopt such measures as will secure an amicable settlement of the controversy without infringing any constitutional right of the States immediately interested.

It affords me satisfaction to inform you that suggestions made by my direction to the chargé d'affaires of His Britannic Majesty to this Government have had their desired effect in producing the release of certain American citizens who were imprisoned for setting up the authority of the State of Maine at a place in the disputed territory under the actual jurisdiction of His Britannic Majesty. From this and the assurances I have received of the desire of the local authorities to avoid any cause of collision I have the best hopes that a good understanding will be kept up until it is confirmed by the final disposition of the subject.

The amicable relations which now subsist between the United States and Great Britain, the increasing intercourse between their citizens, and the rapid obliteration of unfriendly prejudices to which former events naturally gave rise concurred to present this as a fit period for renewing our endeavors to provide against the recurrence of causes of irritation which in the event of war between Great Britain and any other power would inevitably endanger our peace. Animated by the sincerest desire to avoid such a state of things, and peacefully to secure under all possible circumstances the rights and honor of the country, I have given such instructions to the minister lately sent to the Court of London as will evince that desire, and if met by a correspondent disposition, which we can not doubt, will put an end to causes of collision which, without advantage to either, tend to estrange from each other two nations who have every motive to preserve not only peace, but an intercourse of the most amicable nature.

In my message at the opening of the last session of Congress I expressed a confident hope that the justice of our claims upon France, urged as they were with perseverance and signal ability by our minister there, would finally be acknowledged. This hope has been realized. A treaty has been signed which will immediately be laid before the Senate for its approbation, and which, containing stipulations that require legislative acts, must have the concurrence of both Houses before it can be carried into effect. By it the French Government engage to pay a sum which, if not quite equal to that which may be found due to our citizens, will yet, it is believed, under all circumstances, be deemed satisfactory by those interested. The offer of a gross sum instead of the satisfaction of each individual claim was accepted because the only alternatives were a rigorous exaction of the whole amount stated to be due on each claim, which might in some instances be exaggerated by design, in others overrated through error, and which, therefore, it would have been both ungracious and unjust to have insisted on; or a settlement by a mixed commission, to which the French negotiators were very averse, and which experience in other cases had shewn to be dilatory and often wholly inadequate to the end. A comparatively small sum is stipulated on our part to go to the extinction of all claims by French citizens on our Government, and a reduction of duties on our cotton and their wines has been agreed on as a consideration for the renunciation of an important claim for commercial privileges under the construction they gave to the treaty for the cession of Louisiana.

Should this treaty receive the proper sanction, a source of irritation will be stopped that has for so many years in some degree alienated from each other two nations who, from interest as well as the remembrance of early associations, ought to cherish the most friendly relations; an encouragement will be given for perseverance in the demands of justice by this new proof that if steadily pursued they will be listened to, and admonition will be offered to those powers, if any, which may be inclined to evade them that they will never be abandoned; above all, a just confidence will be inspired in our fellow-citizens that their Government will exert all the powers with which they have invested it in support of their just claims upon foreign nations; at the same time that the frank acknowledgment and provision for the payment of those which were addressed to our equity, although unsupported by legal proof, affords a practical illustration of our submission to the divine rule of doing to others what we desire they should do unto us.

Sweden and Denmark having made compensation for the irregularities committed by their vessels or in their ports to the perfect satisfaction of the parties concerned, and having renewed the treaties of commerce entered into with them, our political and commercial relations with those powers continue to be on the most friendly footing.

With Spain our differences up to the 22d of February, 1819, were settled by the treaty of Washington of that date, but at a subsequent period our commerce with the States formerly colonies of Spain on the continent of America was annoyed and frequently interrupted by her public and private armed ships. They captured many of our vessels prosecuting a lawful commerce and sold them and their cargoes, and at one time to our demands for restoration and indemnity opposed the allegation that they were taken in the violation of a blockade of all the ports of those States. This blockade was declaratory only, and the inadequacy of the force to maintain it was so manifest that this allegation was varied to a charge of trade in contraband of war. This, in its turn, was also found untenable, and the minister whom I sent with instructions to press for the reparation that was due to our injured fellow-citizens has transmitted an answer to his demand by which the captures are declared to have been legal, and are justified because the independence of the States of America never having been acknowledged by Spain she had a right to prohibit trade with them under her old colonial laws. This ground of defense was contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly alleged, but to the uniform practice and established laws of nations, and had been abandoned by Spain herself in the convention which granted indemnity to British subjects for captures made at the same time, under the same circumstances, and for the same allegations with those of which we complain.

I, however, indulge the hope that further reflection will lead to other views, and feel confident that when His Catholic Majesty shall be convinced of the justice of the claims his desire to preserve friendly relations between the two countries, which it is my earnest endeavor to maintain, will induce him to accede to our demand. I have therefore dispatched a special messenger with instructions to our minister to bring the case once more to his consideration, to the end that if (which I can not bring myself to believe) the same decision (that can not but be deemed an unfriendly denial of justice) should be persisted in the matter may before your adjournment be laid before you, the constitutional judges of what is proper to be done when negotiation for redress of injury fails.

The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France seemed to present a favorable opportunity to renew our claims of a similar nature on other powers, and particularly in the case of those upon Naples, more especially as in the course of former negotiations with that power our failure to induce France to render us justice was used as an argument against us. The desires of the merchants, who were the principal sufferers, have therefore been acceded to, and a mission has been instituted for the special purpose of obtaining for them a reparation already too long delayed. This measure having been resolved on, it was put in execution without waiting for the meeting of Congress, because the state of Europe created an apprehension of events that might have rendered our application ineffectual.

Our demands upon the Government of the Two Sicilies are of a peculiar nature. The injuries on which they are founded are not denied, nor are the atrocity and perfidy under which those injuries were perpetrated attempted to be extenuated. The sole ground on which indemnity has been refused is the alleged illegality of the tenure by which the monarch who made the seizures held his crown. This defense, always unfounded in any principle of the law of nations, now universally abandoned, even by those powers upon whom the responsibility for acts of past rulers bore the most heavily, will unquestionably be given up by His Sicilian Majesty, whose counsels will receive an impulse from that high sense of honor and regard to justice which are said to characterize him; and I feel the fullest confidence that the talents of the citizen commissioned for that purpose will place before him the just claims of our injured citizens in such a light as will enable me before your adjournment to announce that they have been adjusted and secured. Precise instructions to the effect of bringing the negotiation to a speedy issue have been given, and will be obeyed.

In the late blockade of Terceira some of the Portuguese fleet captured several of our vessels and committed other excesses, for which reparation was demanded, and I was on the point of dispatching an armed force to prevent any recurrence of a similar violence and protect our citizens in the prosecution of their lawful commerce when official assurances, on which I relied, made the sailing of the ships unnecessary. Since that period frequent promises have been made that full indemnity shall be given for the injuries inflicted and the losses sustained. In the performance there has been some, perhaps unavoidable, delay; but I have the fullest confidence that my earnest desire that this business may at once be closed, which our minister has been instructed strongly to express, will very soon be gratified. I have the better ground for this hope from the evidence of a friendly disposition which that Government has shown by an actual reduction in the duty on rice the produce of our Southern States, authorizing the anticipation that this important article of our export will soon be admitted on the same footing with that produced by the most favored nation.

With the other powers of Europe we have fortunately had no cause of discussions for the redress of injuries. With the Empire of the Russias our political connection is of the most friendly and our commercial of the most liberal kind. We enjoy the advantages of navigation and trade given to the most favored nation, but it has not yet suited their policy, or perhaps has not been found convenient from other considerations, to give stability and reciprocity to those privileges by a commercial treaty. The ill health of the minister last year charged with making a proposition for that arrangement did not permit him to remain at St. Petersburg, and the attention of that Government during the whole of the period since his departure having been occupied by the war in which it was engaged, we have been assured that nothing could have been effected by his presence. A minister will soon be nominated, as well to effect this important object as to keep up the relations of amity and good understanding of which we have received so many assurances and proofs from His Imperial Majesty and the Emperor his predecessor.

The treaty with Austria is opening to us an important trade with the hereditary dominions of the Emperor, the value of which has been hitherto little known, and of course not sufficiently appreciated. While our commerce finds an entrance into the south of Germany by means of this treaty, those we have formed with the Hanseatic towns and Prussia and others now in negotiation will open that vast country to the enterprising spirit of our merchants on the north—a country abounding in all the materials for a mutually beneficial commerce, filled with enlightened and industrious inhabitants, holding an important place in the politics of Europe, and to which we owe so many valuable citizens. The ratification of the treaty with the Porte was sent to be exchanged by the gentleman appointed our chargé d'affaires to that Court. Some difficulties occurred on his arrival, but at the date of his last official dispatch he supposed they had been obviated and that there was every prospect of the exchange being speedily effected.

This finishes the connected view I have thought it proper to give of our political and commercial relations in Europe. Every effort in my power will be continued to strengthen and extend them by treaties founded on principles of the most perfect reciprocity of interest, neither asking nor conceding any exclusive advantage, but liberating as far as it lies in my power the activity and industry of our fellow-citizens from the shackles which foreign restrictions may impose.

To China and the East Indies our commerce continues in its usual extent, and with increased facilities which the credit and capital of our merchants afford by substituting bills for payments in specie. A daring outrage having been committed in those seas by the plunder of one of our merchantmen engaged in the pepper trade at a port in Sumatra, and the piratical perpetrators belonging to tribes in such a state of society that the usual course of proceedings between civilized nations could not be pursued, I forthwith dispatched a frigate with orders to require immediate satisfaction for the injury and indemnity to the sufferers.

Few changes have taken place in our connections with the independent States of America since my last communication to Congress. The ratification of a commercial treaty with the United Republics of Mexico has been for some time under deliberation in their Congress, but was still undecided at the date of our last dispatches. The unhappy civil commotions that have prevailed there were undoubtedly the cause of the delay, but as the Government is now said to be tranquillized we may hope soon to receive the ratification of the treaty and an arrangement for the demarcation of the boundaries between us. In the meantime, an important trade has been opened with mutual benefit from St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, by caravans to the interior Provinces of Mexico. This commerce is protected in its progress through the Indian countries by the troops of the United States, which have been permitted to escort the caravans beyond our boundaries to the settled part of the Mexican territory.

From Central America I have received assurances of the most friendly kind and a gratifying application for our good offices to remove a supposed indisposition toward that Government in a neighboring State. This application was immediately and successfully complied with. They gave us also the pleasing intelligence that differences which had prevailed in their internal affairs had been peaceably adjusted. Our treaty with this Republic continues to be faithfully observed, and promises a great and beneficial commerce between the two countries—a commerce of the greatest importance if the magnificent project of a ship canal through the dominions of that State from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, now in serious contemplation, shall be executed.

I have great satisfaction in communicating the success which has attended the exertions of our minister in Colombia to procure a very considerable reduction in the duties on our flour in that Republic. Indemnity also has been stipulated for injuries received by our merchants from illegal seizures, and renewed assurances are given that the treaty between the two countries shall be faithfully observed.

Chili and Peru seem to be still threatened with civil commotions, and until they shall be settled disorders may naturally be apprehended, requiring the constant presence of a naval force in the Pacific Ocean to protect our fisheries and guard our commerce.

The disturbances that took place in the Empire of Brazil previously to and immediately consequent upon the abdication of the late Emperor necessarily suspended any effectual application for the redress of some past injuries suffered by our citizens from that Government, while they have been the cause of others, in which all foreigners seem to have participated. Instructions have been given to our minister there to press for indemnity due for losses occasioned by these irregularities, and to take care that our fellow-citizens shall enjoy all the privileges stipulated in their favor by the treaty lately made between the two powers, all which the good intelligence that prevails between our minister at Rio Janeiro and the Regency gives us the best reason to expect.

I should have placed Buenos Ayres in the list of South American powers in respect to which nothing of importance affecting us was to be communicated but for occurrences which have lately taken place at the Falkland Islands, in which the name of that Republic has been used to cover with a show of authority acts injurious to our commerce and to the property and liberty of our fellow-citizens. In the course of the present year one of our vessels, engaged in the pursuit of a trade which we have always enjoyed without molestation, has been captured by a band acting, as they pretend, under the authority of the Government of Buenos Ayres. I have therefore given orders for the dispatch of an armed vessel to join our squadron in those seas and aid in affording all lawful protection to our trade which shall be necessary, and shall without delay send a minister to inquire into the nature of the circumstances and also of the claim, if any, that is set up by that Government to those islands. In the meantime, I submit the case to the consideration of Congress, to the end that they may clothe the Executive with such authority and means as they may deem necessary for providing a force adequate to the complete protection of our fellow-citizens fishing and trading in those seas.

This rapid sketch of our foreign relations, it is hoped, fellow-citizens, may be of some use in so much of your legislation as may bear on that important subject, while it affords to the country at large a source of high gratification in the contemplation of our political and commercial connection with the rest of the world. At peace with all; having subjects of future difference with few, and those susceptible of easy adjustment; extending our commerce gradually on all sides and on none by any but the most liberal and mutually beneficial means, we may, by the blessing of Providence, hope for all that national prosperity which can be derived from an intercourse with foreign nations, guided by those eternal principles of justice and reciprocal good will which are binding as well upon States as the individuals of whom they are composed.

I have great satisfaction in making this statement of our affairs, because the course of our national policy enables me to do it without any indiscreet exposure of what in other governments is usually concealed from the people. Having none but a straightforward, open course to pursue, guided by a single principle that will bear the strongest light, we have happily no political combinations to form, no alliances to entangle us, no complicated interests to consult, and in subjecting all we have done to the consideration of our citizens and to the inspection of the world we give no advantage to other nations and lay ourselves open to no injury.

It may not be improper to add that to preserve this state of things and give confidence to the world in the integrity of our designs all our consular and diplomatic agents are strictly enjoined to examine well every cause of complaint preferred by our citizens, and while they urge with proper earnestness those that are well founded, to countenance none that are unreasonable or unjust, and to enjoin on our merchants and navigators the strictest obedience to the laws of the countries to which they resort, and a course of conduct in their dealings that may support the character of our nation and render us respected abroad.

Connected with this subject, I must recommend a revisal of our consular laws. Defects and omissions have been discovered in their operation that ought to be remedied and supplied. For your further information on this subject I have directed a report to be made by the Secretary of State, which I shall hereafter submit to your consideration.

The internal peace and security of our confederated States is the next principal object of the General Government. Time and experience have proved that the abode of the native Indian within their limits is dangerous to their peace and injurious to himself. In accordance with my recommendation at a former session of Congress, an appropriation of half a million of dollars was made to aid the voluntary removal of the various tribes beyond the limits of the States. At the last session I had the happiness to announce that the Chickasaws and Choctaws had accepted the generous offer of the Government and agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi River, by which the whole of the State of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama will be freed from Indian occupancy and opened to a civilized population. The treaties with these tribes are in a course of execution, and their removal, it is hoped, will be completed in the course of 1832.

At the request of the authorities of Georgia the registration of Cherokee Indians for emigration has been resumed, and it is confidently expected that one-half, if not two-thirds, of that tribe will follow the wise example of their more westerly brethren. Those who prefer remaining at their present homes will hereafter be governed by the laws of Georgia, as all her citizens are, and cease to be the objects of peculiar care on the part of the General Government.

During the present year the attention of the Government has been particularly directed to those tribes in the powerful and growing State of Ohio, where considerable tracts of the finest lands were still occupied by the aboriginal proprietors. Treaties, either absolute or conditional, have been made extinguishing the whole Indian title to the reservations in that State, and the time is not distant, it is hoped, when Ohio will be no longer embarrassed with the Indian population. The same measures will be extended to Indiana as soon as there is reason to anticipate success. It is confidently believed that perseverance for a few years in the present policy of the Government will extinguish the Indian title to all lands lying within the States composing our Federal Union, and remove beyond their limits every Indian who is not willing to submit to their laws. Thus will all conflicting claims to jurisdiction between the States and the Indian tribes be put to rest. It is pleasing to reflect that results so beneficial, not only to the States immediately concerned, but to the harmony of the Union, will have been accomplished by measures equally advantageous to the Indians. What the native savages become when surrounded by a dense population and by mixing with the whites may be seen in the miserable remnants of a few Eastern tribes, deprived of political and civil rights, forbidden to make contracts, and subjected to guardians, dragging out a wretched existence, without excitement, without hope, and almost without thought.

But the removal of the Indians beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the States does not place them beyond the reach of philanthropic aid and Christian instruction. On the contrary, those whom philanthropy or religion may induce to live among them in their new abode will be more free in the exercise of their benevolent functions than if they had remained within the limits of the States, embarrassed by their internal regulations. Now subject to no control but the superintending agency of the General Government, exercised with the sole view of preserving peace, they may proceed unmolested in the interesting experiment of gradually advancing a community of American Indians from barbarism to the habits and enjoyments of civilized life.

Among the happiest effects of the improved relations of our Republic has been an increase of trade, producing a corresponding increase of revenue beyond the most sanguine anticipations of the Treasury Department.

The state of the public finances will be fully shown by the Secretary of the Treasury in the report which he will presently lay before you. I will here, however, congratulate you upon their prosperous condition. The revenue received in the present year will not fall short of $27,700,000, and the expenditures for all objects other than the public debt will not exceed $14,700,000. The payment on account of the principal and interest of the debt during the year will exceed $16,500,000, a greater sum than has been applied to that object out of the revenue in any year since the enlargement of the sinking fund except the two years following immediately thereafter. The amount which will have been applied to the public debt from the 4th of March, 1829, to the 1st of January next, which is less than three years since the Administration has been placed in my hands, will exceed $40,000,000.

From the large importations of the present year it may be safely estimated that the revenue which will be received into the Treasury from that source during the next year, with the aid of that received from the public lands, will considerably exceed the amount of the receipts of the present year; and it is believed that with the means which the Government will have at its disposal from various sources, which will be fully stated by the proper Department, the whole of the public debt may be extinguished, either by redemption or purchase, within the four years of my Administration. We shall then exhibit the rare example of a great nation, abounding in all the means of happiness and security, altogether free from debt.

The confidence with which the extinguishment of the public debt may be anticipated presents an opportunity for carrying into effect more fully the policy in relation to import duties which has been recommended in my former messages. A modification of the tariff which shall produce a reduction of our revenue to the wants of the Government and an adjustment of the duties on imports with a view to equal justice in relation to all our national interests and to the counteraction of foreign policy so far as it may be injurious to those interests, is deemed to be one of the principal objects which demand the consideration of the present Congress. Justice to the interests of the merchant as well as the manufacturer requires that material reductions in the import duties be prospective; and unless the present Congress shall dispose of the subject the proposed reductions can not properly be made to take effect at the period when the necessity for the revenue arising from present rates shall cease. It is therefore desirable that arrangements be adopted at your present session to relieve the people from unnecessary taxation after the extinguishment of the public debt. In the exercise of that spirit of concession and conciliation which has distinguished the friends of our Union in all great emergencies, it is believed that this object may be effected without injury to any national interest.

In my annual message of December, 1829, I had the honor to recommend the adoption of a more liberal policy than that which then prevailed toward unfortunate debtors to the Government, and I deem it my duty again to invite your attention to this subject.

Actuated by similar views, Congress at their last session passed an act for the relief of certain insolvent debtors of the United States, but the provisions of that law have not been deemed such as were adequate to that relief to this unfortunate class of our fellow-citizens which may be safely extended to them. The points in which the law appears to be defective will be particularly communicated by the Secretary of the Treasury, and I take pleasure in recommending such an extension of its provisions as will unfetter the enterprise of a valuable portion of our citizens and restore to them the means of usefulness to themselves and the community. While deliberating on this subject I would also recommend to your consideration the propriety of so modifying the laws for enforcing the payment of debts due either to the public or to individuals suing in the courts of the United States as to restrict the imprisonment of the person to cases of fraudulent concealment of property. The personal liberty of the citizen seems too sacred to be held, as in many cases it now is, at the will of a creditor to whom he is willing to surrender all the means he has of discharging his debt.

The reports from the Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments and from the Postmaster-General, which accompany this message, present satisfactory views of the operations of the Departments respectively under their charge, and suggest improvements which are worthy of and to which I invite the serious attention of Congress. Certain defects and omissions having been discovered in the operation of the laws respecting patents, they are pointed out in the accompanying report from the Secretary of State.

I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal Constitution giving the election of President and Vice-President to the people and limiting the service of the former to a single term. So important do I consider these changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in accordance with my sense of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new Congress. For my views more at large, as well in relation to these points as to the disqualification of members of Congress to receive an office from a President in whose election they have had an official agency, which I proposed as a substitute, I refer you to my former messages.

Our system of public accounts is extremely complicated, and it is believed may be much improved. Much of the present machinery and a considerable portion of the expenditure of public money may be dispensed with, while greater facilities can be afforded to the liquidation of claims upon the Government and an examination into their justice and legality quite as efficient as the present secured. With a view to a general reform in the system, I recommend the subject to the attention of Congress.

I deem it my duty again to call your attention to the condition of the District of Columbia. It was doubtless wise in the framers of our Constitution to place the people of this District under the jurisdiction of the General Government, but to accomplish the objects they had in view it is not necessary that this people should be deprived of all the privileges of self-government. Independently of the difficulty of inducing the representatives of distant States to turn their attention to projects of laws which are not of the highest interest to their constituents, they are not individually, nor in Congress collectively, well qualified to legislate over the local concerns of this District. Consequently its interests are much neglected, and the people are almost afraid to present their grievances, lest a body in which they are not represented and which feels little sympathy in their local relations should in its attempt to make laws for them do more harm than good. Governed by the laws of the States whence they were severed, the two shores of the Potomac within the 10 miles square have different penal codes—not the present codes of Virginia and Mary land, but such as existed in those States at the time of the cession to the United States. As Congress will not form a new code, and as the people of the District can not make one for themselves, they are virtually under two governments. Is it not just to allow them at least a Delegate in Congress, if not a local legislature, to make laws for the District, subject to the approval or rejection of Congress? I earnestly recommend the extension to them of every political right which their interests require and which may be compatible with the Constitution.

The extension of the judiciary system of the United States is deemed to be one of the duties of Government. One-fourth of the States in the Union do not participate in the benefits of a circuit court. To the States of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, admitted into the Union since the present judicial system was organized, only a district court has been allowed. If this be sufficient, then the circuit courts already existing in eighteen States ought to be abolished; if it be not sufficient, the defect ought to be remedied, and these States placed on the same footing with the other members of the Union. It was on this condition and on this footing that they entered the Union, and they may demand circuit courts as a matter not of concession, but of right. I trust that Congress will not adjourn leaving this anomaly in our system.

Entertaining the opinions heretofore expressed in relation to the Bank of the United States as at present organized, I felt it my duty in my former messages frankly to disclose them, in order that the attention of the Legislature and the people should be seasonably directed to that important subject, and that it might be considered and finally disposed of in a manner best calculated to promote the ends of the Constitution and subserve the public interests. Having thus conscientiously discharged a constitutional duty, I deem it proper on this occasion, without a more particular reference to the views of the subject then expressed, to leave it for the present to the investigation of an enlightened people and their representatives.

In conclusion permit me to invoke that Power which superintends all governments to infuse into your deliberations at this important crisis of our history a spirit of mutual forbearance and conciliation. In that spirit was our Union formed, and in that spirit must it be preserved.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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SPECIAL MESSAGES.
Washington, December 6, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for their advice with regard to its ratification, a treaty between the United States and France, signed at Paris by the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on the 4th of July, 1831.

With the treaty are also transmitted the dispatch which accompanied it, and two others on the same subject received since.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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December 7, 1831.
Gentlemen of the Senate:

In my public message to both Houses of Congress I communicated the state in which I had found the controverted claims of Great Britain and the United States in relation to our northern and eastern boundary, and the measures which since my coming into office I had pursued to bring it to a close, together with the fact that on the 10th day of January last the sovereign arbiter had delivered his opinion to the plenipotentiaries of the United States and Great Britain.

I now transmit to you that opinion for your consideration, that you may determine whether you will advise submission to the opinion delivered by the sovereign arbiter and consent to its execution.

That you may the better be enabled to judge of the obligation as well as the expediency of submitting to or rejecting the decision of the arbiter, I herewith transmit—

1. A protest made by the minister plenipotentiary of the United States after receiving the opinion of the King of the Netherlands, on which paper it may be necessary to remark that I had always determined, whatever might have been the result of the examination by the sovereign arbiter, to have submitted the same to the Senate for their advice before I executed or rejected it. Therefore no instructions were given to the ministers to do any act that should commit the Government as to the course it might deem proper to pursue on a full consideration of all the circumstances of the case.

2. The dispatches from our minister at The Hague accompanying the protest, as well as those previous and subsequent thereto, in relation to the subject of the submission.

3. Communications between the Department of State and the governor of the State of Maine in relation to this subject.

4. Correspondence between the chargé d'affaires of His Britannic Majesty and the Department of State in relation to the arrest of certain persons at Madawasca under the authority of the British Government at New Brunswick.

It is proper to add that in addition to the evidence derived from Mr. Treble's dispatches of the inclination of the British Government to abide by the award, assurances to the same effect have been uniformly made to our minister at London, and that an official communication on that subject may very soon be expected.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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Washington City, December 7, 1831.
To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, two letters from the Secretary of State, accompanied by statements from that Department showing the progress which has been made in taking the Fifth Census of the inhabitants of the United States, and also by a printed copy of the revision of the statements heretofore transmitted to Congress of all former enumerations of the population of the United States and their Territories.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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Washington, December 13, 1831.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

The accompanying papers show the situation of extreme peril from which more than sixty of our fellow-citizens have been rescued by the courage and humanity of the master and crew of a Spanish brig. As no property was saved, there were no means of making pecuniary satisfaction for the risk and loss incurred in performing this humane and meritorious service. Believing, therefore, that the obligation devolved upon the nation, but having no funds at my disposal which I could think constitutionally applicable to the case, I have thought honor as well as justice required that the facts should be submitted to the consideration of Congress, in order that they might provide not only a just indemnity for the losses incurred, but some compensation adequate to the merits of the service.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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WASHINGTON, December 13, 1831.
To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith, in obedience to a resolution of the Senate of the 8th December, 1831, all the information in the possession of the Executive relative to the capture, abduction, and imprisonment of American citizens by the provincial authorities of New Brunswick, and the measures which, in consequence thereof, have been adopted by the Executive of the United States.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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WASHINGTON CITY, December 21, 1831.
To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, a report of the Secretary of State, respecting tonnage duties levied at Martinique and Guadaloupe on American vessels and on French vessels from those islands to the United States.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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WASHINGTON CITY, December 21, 1831.
Gentlemen of the Senate:

Since my message of the 7th instant, transmitting the award of the King of the Netherlands, I have received the official communication, then expected, of the determination of the British Government to abide by the award. This communication is now respectfully laid before you for the purpose of aiding your deliberations on the same subject.

ANDREW JACKSON.

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WASHINGTON, December 29, 1831.
To the House of Representatives:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 19th instant, requesting the President of the United States to communicate to it "the correspondence between the governor of Georgia and any Department of this Government, in the years 1830 and 1831, in relation to the boundary line between the State of Georgia and the Territory of Florida," I transmit herewith a communication from the Secretary of State, with copies of the papers referred to. It is proper to add, as the resolutions on this subject from the governor and legislature of Georgia were received after the adjournment of the last Congress, and as that body, after having the same subject under consideration, had failed to authorize the President to take any steps in relation to it, that it was my intention to present it in due time to the attention of the present Congress by special message. This determination has been hastened by the call of the House for the information now communicated, and it only remains for me to await the action of Congress upon the subject.

ANDREW JACKSON.