President[ John Adams
Date[ December 3, 1799
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
It is with peculiar satisfaction that I meet the 6th Congress of the United
States of America. Coming from all parts of the Union at this critical and
interesting period, the members must be fully possessed of the sentiments
and wishes of our constituents.
The flattering prospects of abundance from the labors of the people by land
and by sea; the prosperity of our extended commerce, notwithstanding
interruptions occasioned by the belligerent state of a great part of the
world; the return of health, industry, and trade to those cities which have
lately been afflicted with disease, and the various and inestimable
advantages, civil and religious, which, secured under our happy frame of
government, are continued to us unimpaired, demand of the whole American
people sincere thanks to a benevolent Deity for the merciful dispensations
of His providence.
But while these numerous blessings are recollected, it is a painful duty to
advert to the ungrateful return which has been made for them by some of the
people in certain counties of Pennsylvania, where, seduced by the arts and
misrepresentations of designing men, they have openly resisted the law
directing the valuation of houses and lands. Such defiance was given to the
civil authority as rendered hopeless all further attempts by judicial
process to enforce the execution of the law, and it became necessary to
direct a military force to be employed, consisting of some companies of
regular troops, volunteers, and militia, by whose zeal and activity, in
cooperation with the judicial power, order and submission were restored and
many of the offenders arrested. Of these, some have been convicted of
misdemeanors, and others, charged with various crimes, remain to be tried.
To give due effect to the civil administration of Government and to insure
a just execution of the laws, a revision and amendment of the judiciary
system is indispensably necessary. In this extensive country it can not but
happen that numerous questions respecting the interpretation of the laws
and the rights and duties of officers and citizens must arise. On the one
hand, the laws should be executed; on the other, individuals should be
guarded from oppression. Neither of these objects is sufficiently assured
under the present organization of the judicial department. I therefore
earnestly recommend the subject to your serious consideration.
Persevering in the pacific and humane policy which had been invariably
professed and sincerely pursued by the Executive authority of the United
States, when indications were made on the part of the French Republic of a
disposition to accommodate the existing differences between the two
countries, I felt it to be my duty to prepare for meeting their advances by
a nomination of ministers upon certain conditions which the honor of our
country dictated, and which its moderation had given it a right to
prescribe.
The assurances which were required of the French Government previous to the
departure of our envoys have been given through their minister of foreign
relations, and I have directed them to proceed on their mission to Paris.
They have full power to conclude a treaty, subject to the constitutional
advice and consent of the Senate. The characters of these gentlemen are
sure pledges to their country that nothing incompatible with its honor or
interest, nothing inconsistent with our obligations of good faith or
friendship to any other nation, will be stipulated.
It appearing probable from the information I received that our commercial
intercourse with some ports in the island of St. Domingo might safely be
renewed, I took such steps as seemed to me expedient to ascertain that
point. The result being satisfactory, I then, in conformity with the act of
Congress on the subject, directed the restraints and prohibitions of that
intercourse to be discontinued on terms which were made known by
proclamation. Since the renewal of this intercourse our citizens trading to
those ports, with their property, have been duly respected, and
privateering from those ports has ceased.
In examining the claims of British subjects by the commissioners at
Philadelphia, acting under the 6th article of the treaty of amity,
commerce, and navigation with Great Britain, a difference of opinion on
points deemed essential in the interpretation of that article has arisen
between the commissioners appointed by the United States and the other
members of that board, from which the former have thought it their duty to
withdraw. It is sincerely to be regretted that the execution of an article
produced by a mutual spirit of amity and justice should have been thus
unavoidably interrupted. It is, however, confidently expected that the same
spirit of amity and the same sense of justice in which it originated will
lead to satisfactory explanations.
In consequence of the obstacles to the progress of the commission in
Philadelphia, His Britannic Majesty has directed the commissioners
appointed by him under the 7th article of the treaty relating to the
British captures of American vessels to withdraw from the board sitting in
London, but with the express declaration of his determination to fulfill
with punctuality and good faith the engagements which His Majesty has
contracted by his treaty with the United States, and that they will be
instructed to resume their functions whenever the obstacles which impede
the progress of the commission at Philadelphia shall be removed. It being
in like manner my sincere determination, so far as the same depends on me,
that with equal punctuality and good faith the engagements contracted by
the United States in their treaties with His Britannic Majesty shall be
fulfilled, I shall immediately instruct our minister at London to endeavor
to obtain the explanation necessary to a just performance of those
engagements on the part of the United States. With such dispositions on
both sides, I can not entertain a doubt that all difficulties will soon be
removed and that the two boards will then proceed and bring the business
committed to them respectively to a satisfactory conclusion.
The act of Congress relative to the seat of the Government of the United
States requiring that on the 1st Monday of December next it should be
transferred from Philadelphia to the District chosen for its permanent
seat, it is proper for me to inform you that the commissioners appointed to
provide suitable buildings for the accommodation of Congress and of the
President and of the public offices of the Government have made a report of
the state of the buildings designed for those purposes in the city of
Washington, from which they conclude that the removal of the seat of
Government to that place at the time required will be practicable and the
accommodation satisfactory. Their report will be laid before you.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I shall direct the estimates of the appropriations necessary for the
service of the ensuing year, together with an account of the revenue and
expenditure, to be laid before you. During a period in which a great
portion of the civilized world has been involved in a war unusually
calamitous and destructive, it was not to be expected that the United
States could be exempted from extraordinary burthens. Although the period
is not arrived when the measures adopted to secure our country against
foreign attacks can be renounced, yet it is alike necessary for the honor
of the Government and the satisfaction of the community that an exact
economy should be maintained. I invite you, gentlemen, to investigate the
different branches of the public expenditure. The examination will lead to
beneficial retrenchments or produce a conviction of the wisdom of the
measures to which the expenditure relates.
Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
At a period like the present, when momentous changes are occurring and
every hour is preparing new and great events in the political world, when a
spirit of war is prevalent in almost every nation with whose affairs the
interests of the United States have any connection, unsafe and precarious
would be our situation were we to neglect the means of maintaining our just
rights. The result of the mission to France is uncertain; but however it
may terminate, a steady perseverance in a system of national defense
commensurate with our resources and the situation of our country is an
obvious dictate of wisdom; for, remotely as we are placed from the
belligerent nations, and desirous as we are, by doing justice to all, to
avoid offense to any, nothing short of the power of repelling aggressions
will secure to our country a rational prospect of escaping the calamities
of war or national degradation. As to myself, it is my anxious desire so to
execute the trust reposed in me as to render the people of the United
States prosperous and happy. I rely with entire confidence on your
cooperation in objects equally your care, and that our mutual labors will
serve to increase and confirm union among our fellow citizens and an
unshaken attachment to our Government.
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