President[ James Monroe
Date[ December 3, 1822
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Many causes unite to make your present meeting peculiarly interesting to
out constituents. The operation of our laws on the various subjects to
which they apply, with the amendments which they occasionally require,
imposes annually an important duty on the representatives of a free
people.
Our system has happily advanced to such maturity that I am not aware that
your cares in that respect will be augmented. Other causes exist which are
highly interesting to the whole civilized world and to no portion of it
more so, in certain views, than to the United States. Of these causes and
of their bearing on the interests of our Union I shall communicate the
sentiments which I have formed with that freedom which a sense of duty
dictates. It is proper, however, to invite your attention in the first
instance to those concerns respecting which legislative provision is
thought to be particularly urgent.
On the 24th of June last a convention of navigation and commerce was
concluded in this city between the United States and France by ministers
duly authorized for the purpose. The sanction of the Executive having been
given to this convention under a conviction that, taking all its
stipulations into view, it rested essentially on a basis of reciprocal and
equal advantage, I deemed it my duty, in compliance with the authority
vested in the Executive by the second section of the act of the last
session of the 6th of May, concerning navigation, to suspend by
proclamation until the end of the next session of Congress the operation of
the act entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and
vessels, and for other purposes", and to suspend likewise all other duties
on French vessels or the goods imported in them which exceeded the duties
on American vessels and on similar goods imported in them. I shall submit
this convention forthwith to the Senate for its advice and consent as to
the ratification.
Since your last session the prohibition which had been imposed on the
commerce between the United States and the British colonies in the West
Indies and on this continent has likewise been removed. Satisfactory
evidence having been adduced that the ports of those colonies had been
opened to the vessels of the United States by an act of the British
Parliament bearing date on the 24th of June last, on the conditions
specified therein, I deemed it proper, in compliance with the provision of
the first section of the act of the last session above recited, to declare,
by proclamation bearing date on the 24th of August last, that the ports of
the United States should thenceforward and until the end of the next
session of Congress be opened to the vessels of Great Britain employed in
that trade, under the limitation specified in that proclamation.
A doubt was entertained whether the act of Congress applied to the British
colonies on this continent as well as to those in the West Indies, but as
the act of Parliament opened the intercourse equally with both, and it was
the manifest intention of Congress, as well as the obvious policy of the
United States, that the provisions of the act of Parliament should be met
in equal extent on the part of the United States, and as also the act of
Congress was supposed to vest in the President some discretion in the
execution of it, I thought it advisable to give it a corresponding
construction.
Should the constitutional sanction of the Senate be given to the
ratification of the convention with France, legislative provisions will be
necessary to carry it fully into effect, as it likewise will be to continue
in force, on such conditions as may be deemed just and proper, the
intercourse which has been opened between the United States and the British
colonies. Every light in the possession of the Executive will in due time
be communicated on both subjects.
Resting essentially on a basis of reciprocal and equal advantage, it has
been the object of the Executive in transactions with other powers to meet
the propositions of each with a liberal spirit, believing that thereby the
interest of our country would be most effectually promoted. This course has
been systematically pursued in the late occurrences with France and Great
Britain, and in strict accord with the views of the Legislature. A
confident hope is entertained that by the arrangement thus commenced with
each all differences respecting navigation and commerce with the dominions
in question will be adjusted, and a solid foundation be laid for an active
and permanent intercourse which will prove equally advantageous to both
parties.
The decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia on the question
submitted to him by the United States and Great Britain, concerning the
construction of the first article of the treaty of Ghent, has been
received. A convention has since been concluded between the parties, under
the mediation of His Imperial Majesty, to prescribe the mode by which that
article shall be carried into effect in conformity with that decision. I
shall submit this convention to the Senate for its advice and consent as to
the ratification, and, if obtained, shall immediately bring the subject
before Congress for such provisions as may require the interposition of the
Legislature.
In compliance with an act of the last session a Territorial Government has
been established in Florida on the principles of our system. By this act
the inhabitants are secured in the full enjoyment of their rights and
liberties, and to admission into the Union, with equal participation in the
Government with the original States on the conditions heretofore prescribed
to other Territories. By a clause in the 9th article of the treaty with
Spain, by which that Territory was ceded to the United States, it is
stipulated that satisfaction shall be made for the injuries, if any, which
by process of law shall be established to have been suffered by the Spanish
officers and individual Spanish inhabitants by the late operations of our
troops in Florida. No provision having yet been made to carry that
stipulation into effect, it is submitted to the consideration of Congress
whether it will not be proper to vest the competent power in the district
court at Pensacola, or in some tribunal to be specially organized for the
purpose.
The fiscal operations of the year have been more successful than had been
anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.
The receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the year
have exceeded the sum of $14.745 millions. The payments made at the
Treasury during the same period have exceeded $12.279 millions, leaving
the Treasury on the 30th day of September last, including $1,168,592.24
which were in the Treasury on the first day of January last, a sum
exceeding $4.128 millions.
Besides discharging all demands for the current service of the year,
including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt, the 6% stock
of 1796, amounting to $80,000, has been redeemed. It is estimated that,
after defraying the current expenses of the present quarter and redeeming
the $2 millions of 6% stock of 1820, there will remain in the Treasury on
the first of January next nearly $3 millions. It is estimated that the
gross amount of duties which have been secured from the first of January
to the 30th of September last has exceeded $19.5 millions, and the amount
for the whole year will probably not fall short of $23 millions.
Of the actual force in service under the present military establishment,
the posts at which it is stationed, and the condition of each post, a
report from the Secretary of War which is now communicated will give a
distinct idea. By like reports the state of the Academy at West Point will
be seen, as will be the progress which has been made on the fortifications
along the coast and at the national armories and arsenals.
The organization of the several corps composing the Army is such as to
admit its expansion to a great extent in case of emergency, the officers
carrying with them all the light which they possess to the new corps to
which they might be appointed.
With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be satisfied. By
the concentration of every branch with its chief in this city, in the
presence of the Department, and with a grade in the chief military station
to keep alive and cherish a military spirit, the greatest promptitude in
the execution of orders, with the greatest economy and efficiency, are
secured. The same view is taken of the Military Academy. Good order is
preserved in it, and the youth are well instructed in every science
connected with the great objects of the institution. They are also well
trained and disciplined in the practical parts of the profession. It has
been always found difficult to control the ardor inseparable from that
early age in such manner as to give it a proper direction. The rights of
manhood are too often claimed prematurely, in pressing which too far the
respect which is due to age and the obedience necessary to a course of
study and instruction in every such institution are sometimes lost sight
of. The great object to be accomplished is the restraint of that ardor by
such wise regulations and Government as, by directing all the energies of
the youthful mind to the attainment of useful knowledge, will keep it
within a just subordination and at the same time elevate it to the highest
purposes. This object seems to be essentially obtained in this institution,
and with great advantage to the Union.
The Military Academy forms the basis, in regard to science, on which the
military establishment rests. It furnishes annually, after due examination
and on the report of the academic staff, many well-informed youths to fill
the vacancies which occur in the several corps of the Army, while others
who retire to private life carry with them such attainments as, under the
right reserved to the several States to appoint the officers and to train
the militia, will enable them, by affording a wider field for selection, to
promote the great object of the power vested in Congress of providing for
the organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia. Thus by the mutual
and harmonious cooperation of the two governments in the execution of a
power divided between them, an object always to be cherished, the
attainment of a great result, on which our liberties may depend, can not
fail to be secured. I have to add that in proportion as our regular force
is small should the instruction and discipline of the militia, the great
resource on which we rely, be pushed to the utmost extent that
circumstances will admit.
A report from the Secretary of the Navy will communicate the progress which
has been made in the construction of vessels of war, with other interesting
details respecting the actual state of the affairs of that Department. It
has been found necessary for the protection of our commerce to maintain the
usual squadrons on the Mediterranean, the Pacific, and along the Atlantic
coast, extending the cruises of the latter into the West Indies, where
piracy, organized into a system, has preyed on the commerce of every
country trading thither. A cruise has also been maintained on the coast of
Africa, when the season would permit, for the suppression of the slave
trade, and orders have been given to the commanders of all our public ships
to seize our own vessels, should they find any engaging in that trade, and
to bring them in for adjudication.
In the West Indies piracy is of recent date, which may explain the cause
why other powers have not combined against it. By the documents
communicated it will be seen that the efforts of the United States to
suppress it have had a very salutary effect. The benevolent provision of
the act under which the protection has been extended alike to the commerce
of other nations can not fail to be duly appreciated by them.
In compliance with the act of the last session entitled "An act to abolish
the United States trading establishments", agents were immediately
appointed and instructed, under the direction of the Secretary of the
Treasury, to close the business of the trading houses among the Indian
tribes and to settle the accounts of the factors and sub-factors engaged
in that trade, and to execute in all other respects the injunction of that
act in the mode prescribed therein. A final report of their proceedings
shall be communicated to Congress as soon as it is received.
It is with great regret I have to state that a serious malady has deprived
us of many valuable citizens of Pensacola and checked the progress of some
of those arrangements which are important to the Territory. This effect has
been sensibly felt in respect to the Indians who inhabit that Territory,
consisting of the remnants of the several tribes who occupy the middle
ground between St. Augustine and Pensacola, with extensive claims but
undefined boundaries. Although peace is preserved with those Indians, yet
their position and claims tend essentially to interrupt the intercourse
between the eastern and western parts of the Territory, on which our
inhabitants are principally settled. It is essential to the growth and
prosperity of the Territory, as well as to the interests of the Union, that
those Indians should be removed, by special compact with them, to some
other position or concentration within narrower limits where they are. With
the limited means in the power of the Executive, instructions were given to
the governor to accomplish this object so far as it might be practicable,
which was prevented by the distressing malady referred to. To carry it
fully into effect in either mode additional funds will be necessary, to the
provision of which the powers of Congress are competent. With a view to
such provision as may be deemed proper, the subject is submitted to your
consideration, and in the interim further proceedings are suspended.
It appearing that so much of the act entitled "An act regulating the staff
of the Army", which passed on April 14, 1818, as relates to the
commissariat will expire in April next, and the practical operation of
that department having evinced its great utility, the propriety of its
renewal is submitted to your consideration.
The view which has been taken of the probable productiveness of the lead
mines, connected with the importance of the material to the public defense,
makes it expedient that they should be managed with peculiar care. It is
therefore suggested whether it will not comport with the public interest to
provide by law for the appointment of an agent skilled in mineralogy to
superintend them, under the direction of the proper department.
It is understood that the Cumberland road, which was constructed at great
expense, has already suffered from the want of that regular superintendence
and of those repairs which are indispensable to the preservation of such a
work. This road is of incalculable advantage in facilitating the
intercourse between the Western and the Atlantic States. Through the whole
country from the northern extremity of Lake Erie to the Mississippi, and
from all the waters which empty into each, finds an easy and direct
communication to the seat of Government, and thence to the Atlantic. The
facility which it affords to all military and commercial operations, and
also to those of the Post Office Department, can not be estimated too
highly. This great work is likewise an ornament and an honor to the
nation.
Believing that a competent power to adopt and execute a system of internal
improvement has not been granted to Congress, but that such a power,
confined to great national purposes and with proper limitations, would be
productive of eminent advantage to our Union, I have thought it advisable
that an amendment of the Constitution to that effect should be recommended
to the several States.
A bill which assumed the right to adopt and execute such a system having
been presented for my signature at the last session, I was compelled, from
the view which I had taken of the powers of the General Government, to
negative it, on which occasion I thought it proper to communicate the
sentiments which I had formed, on mature consideration, on the whole
subject. To that communication, in all the views in which the great
interest to which it relates may be supposed to merit your attention, I
have now to refer. Should Congress, however, deem it improper to recommend
such an amendment, they have, according to my judgment, the right to keep
the road in repair by providing for the superintendence of it and
appropriating the money necessary for repairs. Surely if they had the right
to appropriate money to make the road they have a right to appropriate it
to preserve the road from ruin. From the exercise of this power no danger
is to be apprehended.
Under our happy system the people are the sole and exclusive fountain of
power. Each Government originates from them, and to them alone, each to its
proper constituents, are they respectively and solely responsible for the
faithful discharge of their duties within their constitutional limits; and
that the people will confine their public agents of every station to the
strict line of their constitutional duties there is no cause of doubt.
Having, however, communicated my sentiments to Congress at the last session
fully in the document to which I have referred, respecting the right of
appropriation as distinct from the right of jurisdiction and sovereignty
over the territory in question, I deem it improper to enlarge on the
subject here.
From the best information I have been able to obtain it appears that our
manufactures, though depressed immediately after the peace, have
considerably increased, and are still increasing, under the encouragement
given them by the tariff of 1816 and by subsequent laws. Satisfied I am,
whatever may be the abstract doctrine in favor of unrestricted commerce,
provided all nations would concur in it and it was not liable to be
interrupted by war, which has never occurred and can not be expected, that
there are other strong reasons applicable to our situation and relations
with other countries which impose on us the obligation to cherish and
sustain our manufactures.
Satisfied, however, I likewise am that the interest of every part of our
Union, even of those most benefitted by manufactures, requires that this
subject should be touched with the greatest caution, and a critical
knowledge of the effect to be produced by the slightest change. On full
consideration of the subject in all its relations I am persuaded that a
further augmentation may now be made of the duties on certain foreign
articles in favor of our own and without affecting injuriously any other
interest. For more precise details I refer you to the communications which
were made to Congress during the last session.
So great was the amount of accounts for moneys advanced during the late
war, in addition to others of a previous date which in the regular
operations of the Government necessarily remained unsettled, that it
required a considerable length of time for their adjustment. By a report
from the first Comptroller of the Treasury it appears that on March 4th,
1817, the accounts then unsettled amounted to $103,068,876.41, of which on
September 30th, 1822, $93,175,396.56 had been settled, leaving on that day
a balance unsettled of $9,893,479.85. That there have been drawn from the
Treasury, in paying the public debt and sustaining the Government in all
its operations and disbursements, since March 4th, 1817, $157,199,380.96,
the accounts for which have been settled to the amount of $137,501,451.12,
leaving a balance unsettled of $19,697,929.84. For precise details
respecting each of these balances I refer to the report of the Comptroller
and the documents which accompany it.
From this view it appears that our commercial differences with France and
Great Britain have been placed in a train of amicable arrangement on
conditions fair and honorable in both instances to each party; that our
finances are in a very productive state, our revenue being at present fully
competent to all the demands upon it; that our military force is well
organized in all its branches and capable of rendering the most important
service in case of emergency that its number will admit of; that due
progress has been made, under existing appropriations, in the construction
of fortifications and in the operations of the Ordnance Department; that
due progress has in like manner been made in the construction of ships of
war; that our Navy is in the best condition, felt and respected in every
sea in which it is employed for the protection of our commerce; that our
manufactures have augmented in amount and improved in quality; that great
progress has been made in the settlement of accounts and in the recovery of
the balances due by individuals, and that the utmost economy is secured and
observed in every Department of the Administration. Other objects will
likewise claim your attention, because from the station which the United
States hold as a member of the great community of nations they have rights
to maintain, duties to perform, and dangers to encounter.
A strong hope was entertained that peace would ere this have been concluded
between Spain and the independent governments south of the United States in
this hemisphere. Long experience having evinced the competency of those
governments to maintain the independence which they had declared, it was
presumed that the considerations which induced their recognition by the
United States would have had equal weight with other powers, and that Spain
herself, yielding to those magnanimous feelings of which her history
furnishes so many examples, would have terminated on that basis a
controversy so unavailing and at the same time so destructive. We still
cherish the hope that this result will not long be postponed.
Sustaining our neutral position and allowing to each party while the war
continues equal rights, it is incumbent on the United States to claim of
each with equal rigor the faithful observance of our rights according to
the well-known law of nations. From each, therefore, a like cooperation is
expected in the suppression of the piratical practice which has grown out
of this war and of blockades of extensive coasts on both seas, which,
considering the small force employed to sustain them, have not the
slightest foundation to rest on.
Europe is still unsettled, and although the war long menaced between Russia
and Turkey has not broken out, there is no certainty that the differences
between those powers will be amicably adjusted. It is impossible to look to
the oppressions of the country respecting which those differences arose
without being deeply affected. The mention of Greece fills the mind with
the most exalted sentiments and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of
which our nature is susceptible. Superior skill and refinement in the arts,
heroic gallantry in action, disinterested patriotism, enthusiastic zeal and
devotion in favor of public and personal liberty are associated with our
recollections of ancient Greece. That such a country should have been
overwhelmed and so long hidden, as it were, from the world under a gloomy
despotism has been a cause of unceasing and deep regret to generous minds
for ages past. It was natural, therefore, that the reappearance of those
people in their original character, contending in favor of their liberties,
should produce that great excitement and sympathy in their favor which have
been so signally displayed throughout the United States. A strong hope is
entertained that these people will recover their independence and resume
their equal station among the nations of the earth.
A great effort has been made in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition
of the people, and it must be very consoling to all benevolent minds to see
the extraordinary moderation with which it has been conducted. That it may
promote the happiness of both nations is the ardent wish of this whole
people, to the expression of which we confine ourselves; for whatever may
be the feelings or sentiments which every individual under our Government
has a right to indulge and express, it is nevertheless a sacred maxim,
equally with the Government and people, that the destiny of every
independent nation in what relates to such improvements of right belongs
and ought to be left exclusively to themselves.
Whether we reason from the late wars or from those menacing symptoms which
now appear in Europe, it is manifest that if a convulsion should take place
in any of those countries it will proceed from causes which have no
existence and are utterly unknown in these States, in which there is but
one order, that of the people, to whom the sovereignty exclusively
belongs.
Should war break out in any of those countries who can foretell the extent
to which it may be carried or the desolation which it may spread? Exempt as
we are from these causes, our internal tranquillity is secure; and distant
as we are from the troubled scene, and faithful to first principles in
regard to other powers, we might reasonably presume that we should not be
molested by them. This, however, ought not to be calculated on as certain.
Unprovoked injuries are often inflicted and even the peculiar felicity of
our situation might with some be a cause for excitement and aggression.
The history of the late wars in Europe furnishes a complete demonstration
that no system of conduct, however correct in principle, can protect
neutral powers from injury from any party; that a defenseless position and
distinguished love of peace are the surest invitations to war, and that
there is no way to avoid it other than by being always prepared and willing
for just cause to meet it. If there be a people on earth whose more
especial duty it is to be at all times prepared to defend the rights with
which they are blessed, and to surpass all others in sustaining the
necessary burthens, and in submitting to sacrifices to make such
preparations, it is undoubtedly the people of these States.
When we see that a civil war of the most frightful character rages from the
Adriatic to the Black Sea; that strong symptoms of war appear in other
parts, proceeding from causes which, should it break out, may become
general and be of long duration; that the war still continues between Spain
and the independent governments, her late Provinces, in this hemisphere;
that it is likewise menaced between Portugal and Brazil, in consequence of
the attempt of the latter to dismember itself from the former, and that a
system of piracy of great extent is maintained in the neighboring seas,
which will require equal vigilance and decision to suppress it, the reasons
for sustaining the attitude which we now hold and for pushing forward all
our measures of defense with the utmost vigor appear to me to acquire new
force.
The United States owe to the world a great example, and, by means thereof,
to the cause of liberty and humanity a generous support. They have so far
succeeded to the satisfaction of the virtuous and enlightened of every
country. There is no reason to doubt that their whole movement will be
regulated by a sacred regard to principle, all our institutions being
founded on that basis. The ability to support our own cause under any trial
to which it may be exposed is the great point on which the public
solicitude rests.
It has been often charged against free governments that they have neither
the foresight nor the virtue to provide at the proper season for great
emergencies; that their course is improvident and expensive; that war will
always find them unprepared, and, whatever may be its calamities, that its
terrible warnings will be disregarded and forgotten as soon as peace
returns. I have full confidence that this charge so far as relates to the
United States will be shewn to be utterly destitute of truth.
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