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President[ John Quincy Adams

         Date[ December 6, 1825

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

In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country, with

reference to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the first

sentiment which impresses itself upon the mind is of gratitude to the

Omnipotent Disposer of All Good for the continuance of the signal

blessings of His providence, and especially for that health which to an

unusual extent has prevailed within our borders, and for that abundance

which in the vicissitudes of the seasons has been scattered with

profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to Him the glory

that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of His hand in peace and

tranquillity--in peace with all the other nations of the earth, in

tranquillity among our selves. There has, indeed, rarely been a period

in the history of civilized man in which the general condition of the

Christian nations has been marked so extensively by peace and

prosperity.

Europe, with a few partial and unhappy exceptions, has enjoyed ten

years of peace, during which all her Governments, what ever the theory

of their constitutions may have been, are successively taught to feel

that the end of their institution is the happiness of the people, and

that the exercise of power among men can be justified only by the

blessings it confers upon those over whom it is extended.

During the same period our intercourse with all those nations has been

pacific and friendly; it so continues. Since the close of your last

session no material variation has occurred in our relations with any

one of them. In the commercial and navigation system of Great Britain

important changes of municipal regulation have recently been sanctioned

by acts of Parliament, the effect of which upon the interests of other

nations, and particularly upon ours, has not yet been fully developed.

In the recent renewal of the diplomatic missions on both sides between

the two Governments assurances have been given and received of the

continuance and increase of the mutual confidence and cordiality by

which the adjustment of many points of difference had already been

effected, and which affords the surest pledge for the ultimate

satisfactory adjustment of those which still remain open or may

hereafter arise.

The policy of the United States in their commercial intercourse with

other nations has always been of the most liberal character. In the

mutual exchange of their respective productions they have abstained

altogether from prohibitions; they have interdicted themselves the

power of laying taxes upon exports, and when ever they have favored

their own shipping by special preferences or exclusive privileges in

their own ports it has been only with a view to countervail similar

favors and exclusions granted by the nations with whom we have been

engaged in traffic to their own people or shipping, and to the

disadvantage of ours. Immediately after the close of the last war a

proposal was fairly made by the act of Congress of March 3rd, 1815, to

all the maritime nations to lay aside the system of retaliating

restrictions and exclusions, and to place the shipping of both parties

to the common trade on a footing of equality in respect to the duties

of tonnage and impost. This offer was partially and successively

accepted by Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Hanseatic

cities, Prussia, Sardinia, the Duke of Oldenburg, and Russia. It was

also adopted, under certain modifications, in our late commercial

convention with France, and by the act of Congress of January 1st,

1824, it has received a new confirmation with all the nations who had

acceded to it, and has been offered again to all those who are or may

here after be willing to abide in reciprocity by it. But all these

regulations, whether established by treaty or by municipal enactments,

are still subject to one important restriction.

The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and of impost is

limited to articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the

country to which the vessel belongs or to such articles as are most

usually first shipped from her ports. It will deserve the serious

consideration of Congress whether even this remnant of restriction may

not be safely abandoned, and whether the general tender of equal

competition made in the act of January 8th, 1824, maynot be extended to

include all articles of merchandise not prohibited, of what country so

ever they may be the produce or manufacture. Propositions of this

effect have already been made to us by more than one European

Government, and it is probable that if once established by legislation

or compact with any distinguished maritime state it would recommend

itself by the experience of its advantages to the general accession of

all.

The convention of commerce and navigation between the United States and

France, concluded on June 24th, 1822, was, in the understanding and

intent of both parties, as appears upon its face, only a temporary

arrangement of the points of difference between them of the most

immediate and pressing urgency. It was limited in the first instance to

two years from January 10th, 1822, but with a proviso that it should

further continue in force 'til the conclusion of a general and

definitive treaty of commerce, unless terminated by a notice, six

months in advance, of either of the parties to the other. Its operation

so far as it extended has been mutually advantageous, and it still

continues in force by common consent. But it left unadjusted several

objects of great interest to the citizens and subjects of both

countries, and particularly a mass of claims to considerable amount of

citizens of the United States upon the Government of France of

indemnity for property taken or destroyed under circumstances of the

most aggravated and outrageous character. In the long period during

which continual and earnest appeals have been made to the equity and

magnanimity of France in behalf of these claims their justice has not

been, as it could not be, denied.

It was hoped that the accession of a new Sovereign to the throne would

have afforded a favorable opportunity for presenting them to the

consideration of his Government. They have been presented and urged

hither to without effect. The repeated and earnest representations of

our minister at the Court of France remain as yet even without an

answer. Were the demands of nations upon the justice of each other

susceptible of adjudication by the sentence of an impartial tribunal,

those to which I now refer would long since have been settled and

adequate indemnity would have been obtained.

There are large amounts of similar claims upon the Netherlands, Naples,

and Denmark. For those upon Spain prior to 1819 indemnity was, after

many years of patient forbearance, obtained; and those upon Sweden have

been lately compromised by a private settlement, in which the claimants

themselves have acquiesced. The Governments of Denmark and of Naples

have been recently reminded of those yet existing against them, nor

will any of them be forgotten while a hope may be indulged of obtaining

justice by the means within the constitutional power of the Executive,

and without resorting to those means of self-redress which, as well as

the time, circumstances, and occasion which may require them, are

within the exclusive competency of the Legislature.

It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear witness to the

liberal spirit with which the Republic of Colombia has made

satisfaction for well-established claims of a similar character, and

among the documents now communicated to Congress will be distinguished

a treaty of commerce and navigation with that Republic, the

ratifications of which have been exchanged since the last recess of the

Legislature. The negotiation of similar treaties with all of the

independent South American States has been contemplated and may yet be

accomplished. The basis of them all, as proposed by the United States,

has been laid in two principles--the one of entire and unqualified

reciprocity, the other the mutual obligation of the parties to place

each other permanently upon the footing of the most favored nation.

These principles are, indeed, indispensable to the effectual

emancipation of the American hemisphere from the thralldom of

colonizing monopolies and exclusions, an event rapidly realizing in the

progress of human affairs, and which the resistance still opposed in

certain parts of Europe to the acknowledgment of the Southern American

Republics as independent States will, it is believed, contribute more

effectually to accomplish. The time has been, and that not remote, when

some of those States might, in their anxious desire to obtain a nominal

recognition, have accepted of a nominal independence, clogged with

burdensome conditions, and exclusive commercial privileges granted to

the nation from which they have separated to the disadvantage of all

others. They are all now aware that such concessions to any European

nation would be incompatible with that independence which they have

declared and maintained.

Among the measures which have been suggested to them by the new

relations with one another, resulting from the recent changes in their

condition, is that of assembling at the Isthmus of Panama a congress,

at which each of them should be represented, to deliberate upon objects

important to the welfare of all. The Republics of Colombia, of Mexico,

and of Central America have already deputed plenipotentiaries to such a

meeting, and they have invited the United States to be also represented

there by their ministers. The invitation has been accepted, and

ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to

attend at those deliberations, and to take part in them so far as may

be compatible with that neutrality from which it is neither our

intention nor the desire of the other American States that we should

depart.

The commissioners under the 7th article of the treaty of Ghent have so

nearly completed their arduous labors that, by the report recently

received from the agent on the part of the United States, there is

reason to expect that the commission will be closed at their next

session, appointed for May 22 of the ensuing year.

The other commission, appointed to ascertain the indemnities due for

slaves carried away from the United States after the close of the late

war, have met with some difficulty, which has delayed their progress in

the inquiry. A reference has been made to the British Government on the

subject, which, it may be hoped, will tend to hasten the decision of

the commissioners, or serve as a substitute for it.

Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution

are those of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies

throughout the United States and of providing for organizing, arming,

and disciplining the militia and for governing such part of them as may

be employed in the services of the United States. The magnitude and

complexity of the interests affected by legislation upon these subjects

may account for the fact that, long and often as both of them have

occupied the attention and animated the debates of Congress, no systems

have yet been devised for fulfilling to the satisfaction of the

community the duties prescribed by these grants of power.

To conciliate the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of

personal liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts,

is the difficult problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are

objects of the deepest interest to society, affecting all that is

precious in the existence of multitudes of persons, many of them in the

classes essentially dependent and helpless, of the age requiring

nurture, and of the sex entitled to protection from the free agency of

the parent and the husband. The organization of the militia is yet more

indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is only by an

effective militia that we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and bid

defiance to foreign aggression; it is by the militia that we are

constituted an armed nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense

in the presence of all the other nations of the earth. To this end it

would be necessary, if possible, so to shape its organization as to

give it a more united and active energy. There are laws establishing an

uniform militia throughout the United States and for arming and

equipping its whole body. But it is a body of dislocated members,

without the vigor of unity and having little of uniformity but the

name. To infuse into this most important institution the power of which

it is susceptible and to make it available for the defense of the Union

at the shortest notice and at the smallest expense possible of time, of

life, and of treasure are among the benefits to be expected from the

persevering deliberations of Congress.

Among the unequivocal indications of our national prosperity is the

flourishing state of our finances. The revenues of the present year,

from all their principal sources, will exceed the anticipations of the

last. The balance in the Treasury on the first of January last was a

little short of $2,000,000, exclusive of $2,500,000, being the moiety

of the loan of $5,000,000 authorized by the act of May 26th, 1824. The

receipts into the Treasury from the first of January to the 30th of

September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same loan, are

estimated at $16,500,000, and it is expected that those of the current

quarter will exceed $5,000,000, forming an aggregate of receipts of

nearly $22,000,000, independent of the loan. The expenditures of the

year will not exceed that sum more than $2,000,000. By those

expenditures nearly $8,000,000 of the principal of the public debt that

have been discharged.

More than $1,500,000 has been devoted to the debt of gratitude to the

warriors of the Revolution; a nearly equal sum to the construction of

fortifications and the acquisition of ordnance and other permanent

preparations of national defense; $500,000 to the gradual increase of

the Navy; an equal sum for purchases of territory from the Indians and

payment of annuities to them; and upward of $1,000,000 for objects of

internal improvement authorized by special acts of the last Congress.

If we add to these $4,000,000 for payment of interest upon the public

debt, there remains a sum of $7,000,000, which have defrayed the whole

expense of the administration of Government in its legislative,

executive, and judiciary departments, including the support of the

military and naval establishments and all the occasional contingencies

of a government coextensive with the Union.

The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported since the

commencement of the year is about $25,500,000, and that which will

accrue during the current quarter is estimated at $5,500,000; from

these $31,000,000, deducting the draw-backs, estimated at less than

$7,000,000, a sum exceeding $24,000,000 will constitute the revenue of

the year, and will exceed the whole expenditures of the year. The

entire amount of the public debt remaining due on the first of January

next will be short of $81,000,000.

By an act of Congress of the 3d of March last a loan of $12,000,000 was

authorized at 4.5%, or an exchange of stock to that amount of 4.5% for

a stock of 6%, to create a fund for extinguishing an equal amount of

the public debt, bearing an interest of 6%, redeemable in 1826. An

account of the measures taken to give effect to this act will be laid

before you by the Secretary of the Treasury. As the object which it had

in view has been but partially accomplished, it will be for the

consideration of Congress whether the power with which it clothed the

Executive should not be renewed at an early day of the present session,

and under what modifications.

The act of Congress of the 3d of March last, directing the Secretary of

the Treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United

States, for 1,500 shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and

Delaware Canal Company, has been executed by the actual subscription

for the amount specified; and such other measures have been adopted by

that officer, under the act, as the fulfillment of its intentions

requires. The latest accounts received of this important undertaking

authorize the belief that it is in successful progress.

The payments into the Treasury from the proceeds of the sales of the

public lands during the present year were estimated at $1,000,000. The

actual receipts of the first two quarters have fallen very little short

of that sum; it is not expected that the second half of the year will

be equally productive, but the income of the year from that source may

now be safely estimated at $1,500,000. The act of Congress of May 18th,

1824, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United

States by the purchasers of public lands, was limited in its operation

of relief to the purchaser to the 10th of April last. Its effect at the

end of the quarter during which it expired was to reduce that debt from

$10,000,000 to $7,000,000 By the operation of similar prior laws of

relief, from and since that of March 2d, 1821, the debt had been

reduced from upward of $22,000,000 to $10,000,000.

It is exceedingly desirable that it should be extinguished altogether;

and to facilitate that consummation I recommend to Congress the revival

for one year more of the act of May 18th, 1824, with such provisional

modification as may be necessary to guard the public interests against

fraudulent practices in the resale of the relinquished land.

The purchasers of public lands are among the most useful of our fellow

citizens, and since the system of sales for cash alone has been

introduced great indulgence has been justly extended to those who had

previously purchased upon credit. The debt which had been contracted

under the credit sales had become unwieldy, and its extinction was

alike advantageous to the purchaser and to the public. Under the system

of sales, matured as it has been by experience, and adapted to the

exigencies of the times, the lands will continue as they have become,

an abundant source of revenue; and when the pledge of them to the

public creditor shall have been redeemed by the entire discharge of the

national debt, the swelling tide of wealth with which they replenish

the common Treasury may be made to reflow in unfailing streams of

improvement from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

The condition of the various branches of the public service resorting

from the Department of War, and their administration during the current

year, will be exhibited in the report of the Secretary of War and the

accompanying documents herewith communicated. The organization and

discipline of the Army are effective and satisfactory. To counteract

the prevalence of desertion among the troops it has been suggested to

withhold from the men a small portion of their monthly pay until the

period of their discharge; and some expedient appears to be necessary

to preserve and maintain among the officers so much of the art of

horsemanship as could scarcely fail to be found wanting on the possible

sudden eruption of a war, which should take us unprovided with a single

corps of cavalry.

The Military Academy at West Point, under the restrictions of a severe

but paternal superintendence, recommends itself more and more to the

patronage of the nation, and the numbers of meritorious officers which

it forms and introduces to the public service furnishes the means of

multiplying the undertakings of the public improvements to which their

acquirements at that institution are peculiarly adapted. The school of

artillery practice established at Fortress Monroe Hampton, Virginia is

well suited to the same purpose, and may need the aid of further

legislative provision to the same end. The reports of the various

officers at the head of the administrative branches of the military

service, connected with the quartering, clothing, subsistence, health,

and pay of the Army, exhibit the assiduous vigilance of those officers

in the performance of their respective duties, and the faithful

accountability which has pervaded every part of the system.

Our relations with the numerous tribes of aboriginal natives of this

country, scattered over its extensive surface and so dependent even for

their existence upon our power, have been during the present year

highly interesting. An act of Congress of May 25th, 1824, made an

appropriation to defray the expenses of making treaties of trade and

friendship with the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi. An act of

March 3d, 1825, authorized treaties to be made with the Indians for

their consent to the making of a road from the frontier of Missouri to

that of New Mexico, and another act of the same date provided for

defraying the expenses of holding treaties with the Sioux, Chippeways,

Menomenees, Sauks, Foxes, etc., for the purpose of establishing

boundaries and promoting peace between said tribes.

The first and last objects of these acts have been accomplished, and

the second is yet in a process of execution. The treaties which since

the last session of Congress have been concluded with the several

tribes will be laid before the Senate for their consideration

conformably to the Constitution. They comprise large and valuable

acquisitions of territory, and they secure an adjustment of boundaries

and give pledges of permanent peace between several tribes which had

been long waging bloody wars against each other.

On the 12th of February last a treaty was signed at the Indian Springs

between commissioners appointed on the part of the United States and

certain chiefs and individuals of the Creek Nation of Indians, which

was received at the seat of Government only a very few days before the

close of the last session of Congress and of the late Administration.

The advice and consent of the Senate was given to it on the 3d of

March, too late for it to receive the ratification of the then

President of the United States; it was ratified on the 7th of March,

under the unsuspecting impression that it had been negotiated in good

faith and in the confidence inspired by the recommendation of the

Senate. The subsequent transactions in relation to this treaty will

form the subject of a separate communication.

The appropriations made by Congress for public works, as well in the

construction of fortifications as for purposes of internal improvement,

so far as they have been expended, have been faithfully applied. Their

progress has been delayed by the want of suitable officers for

superintending them. An increase of both the corps of engineers,

military and topographical, was recommended by my predecessor at the

last session of Congress. The reasons upon which that recommendation

was founded subsist in all their force and have acquired additional

urgency since that time. The Military Academy at West Point will

furnish from the cadets there officers well qualified for carrying this

measure into effect.

The Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, appointed for carrying

into execution the act of Congress of April 30th, 1824, "to procure the

necessary surveys, plans, and estimates on the subject of roads and

canals", have been actively engaged in that service from the close of

the last session of Congress. They have completed the surveys necessary

for ascertaining the practicability of a canal from the Chesapeake Bay

to the Ohio River, and are preparing a full report on that subject,

which, when completed, will be laid before you. The same observation is

to be made with regard to the two other objects of national importance

upon which the Board have been occupied, namely, the accomplishment of

a national road from this city to New Orleans, and the practicability

of uniting the waters of Lake Memphramagog with Connecticut River and

the improvement of the navigation of that river. The surveys have been

made and are nearly completed. The report may be expected at an early

period during the present session of Congress.

The acts of Congress of the last session relative to the surveying,

marking, or laying out roads in the Territories of Florida, Arkansas,

and Michigan, from Missouri to Mexico, and for the continuation of the

Cumberland road, are, some of them, fully executed, and others in the

process of execution. Those for completing or commencing fortifications

have been delayed only so far as the Corps of Engineers has been

inadequate to furnish officers for the necessary superintendence of the

works. Under the act confirming the statutes of Virginia and Maryland

incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, three

commissioners on the part of the United States have been appointed for

opening books and receiving subscriptions, in concert with a like

number of commissioners appointed on the part of each of those States.

A meeting of the commissioners has been postponed, to await the

definitive report of the board of engineers.

The light-houses and monuments for the safety of our commerce and

mariners, the works for the security of Plymouth Beach and for the

preservation of the islands in Boston Harbor, have received the

attention required by the laws relating to those objects respectively.

The continuation of the Cumberland road, the most important of them

all, after surmounting no inconsiderable difficulty in fixing upon the

direction of the road, has commenced under the most promising of

auspices, with the improvements of recent invention in the mode of

construction, and with advantage of a great reduction in the

comparative cost of the work.

The operation of the laws relating to the Revolutionary pensioners may

deserve the renewed consideration of Congress. The act of March 18th,

1818, while it made provision for many meritorious and indigent

citizens who had served in the War of Independence, opened a door to

numerous abuses and impositions. To remedy this the act of May 1st, 1820,

exacted proofs of absolute indigence, which many really in want were

unable and all susceptible of that delicacy which is allied to many

virtues must be deeply reluctant to give. The result has been that some

among the least deserving have been retained, and some in whom the

requisites both of worth and want were combined have been stricken from

the list. As the numbers of these venerable relics of an age gone by

diminish; as the decays of body, mind, and estate of those that survive

must in the common course of nature increase, should not a more liberal

portion of indulgence be dealt out to them? May not the want in most

instances be inferred from the demand when the service can be proved,

and may not the last days of human infirmity be spared the

mortification of purchasing a pittance of relief only by the exposure

of its own necessities? I submit to Congress the expediency of

providing for individual cases of this description by special

enactment, or of revising the act of May 1st, 1820, with a view to

mitigate the rigor of its exclusions in favor of persons to whom

charity now bestowed can scarcely discharge the debt of justice.

The portion of the naval force of the Union in actual service has been

chiefly employed on three stations--the Mediterranean, the coasts of

South America bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and the West Indies. An

occasional cruiser has been sent to range along the African shores most

polluted by the traffic of slaves; one armed vessel has been stationed

on the coast of our eastern boundary, to cruise along the fishing

grounds in Hudsons Bay and on the coast of Labrador, and the first

service of a new frigate has been performed in restoring to his native

soil and domestic enjoyments the veteran hero whose youthful blood and

treasure had freely flowed in the cause of our country's independence,

and whose whole life has been a series of services and sacrifices to

the improvement of his fellow men.

The visit of General Lafayette, alike honorable to himself and to our

country, closed, as it had commenced, with the most affecting

testimonials of devoted attachment on his part, and of unbounded

gratitude of this people to him in return. It will form here-after a

pleasing incident in the annals of our Union, giving to real history

the intense interest of romance and signally marking the unpurchasable

tribute of a great nation's social affections to the disinterested

champion of the liberties of human-kind.

The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean is a

necessary substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying tribute

for the security of our commerce in that sea, and for a precarious

peace, at the mercy of every caprice of four Barbary States, by whom it

was liable to be violated. An additional motive for keeping a

respectable force stationed there at this time is found in the maritime

war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in which the neutral

navigation of this Union is always in danger of outrage and

depredation. A few instances have occurred of such depredations upon

our merchant vessels by privateers or pirates wearing the Grecian flag,

but without real authority from the Greek or any other Government. The

heroic struggles of the Greeks themselves, in which our warmest

sympathies as free men and Christians have been engaged, have continued

to be maintained with vicissitudes of success adverse and favorable.

Similar motives have rendered expedient the keeping of a like force on

the coasts of Peru and Chile on the Pacific. The irregular and

convulsive character of the war upon the shores has been extended to

the conflicts upon the ocean. An active warfare has been kept up for

years with alternate success, though generally to the advantage of the

American patriots. But their naval forces have not always been under

the control of their own Governments. Blockades, unjustifiable upon any

acknowledged principles of international law, have been proclaimed by

officers in command, and though disavowed by the supreme authorities,

the protection of our own commerce against them has been made cause of

complaint and erroneous imputations against some of the most gallant

officers of our Navy. Complaints equally groundless have been made by

the commanders of the Spanish royal forces in those seas; but the most

effective protection to our commerce has been the flag and the firmness

of our own commanding officers.

The cessation of the war by the complete triumph of the patriot cause

has removed, it is hoped, all cause of dissension with one party and

all vestige of force of the other. But an unsettled coast of many

degrees of latitude forming a part of our own territory and a

flourishing commerce and fishery extending to the islands of the

Pacific and to China still require that the protecting power of the

Union should be displayed under its flag as well upon the ocean as upon

the land.

The objects of the West India Squadron have been to carry into

execution the laws for the suppression of the African slave trade; for

the protection of our commerce against vessels of piratical character,

though bearing commissions from either of the belligerent parties; for

its protection against open and unequivocal pirates. These objects

during the present year have been accomplished more effectually than at

any former period. The African slave trade has long been excluded from

the use of our flag, and if some few citizens of our country have

continued to set the laws of the Union as well as those of nature and

humanity at defiance by persevering in that abominable traffic, it has

been only by sheltering themselves under the banners of other nations

less earnest for the total extinction of the trade of ours.

The active, persevering, and unremitted energy of Captain Warrington

and of the officers and men under his command on that trying and

perilous service have been crowned with signal success, and are

entitled to the approbation of their country. But experience has shown

that not even a temporary suspension or relaxation from assiduity can

be indulged on that station without reproducing piracy and murder in

all their horrors; nor is it probably that for years to come our

immensely valuable commerce in those seas can navigate in security

without the steady continuance of an armed force devoted to its

protection.

It were, indeed, a vain and dangerous illusion to believe that in the

present or probable condition of human society a commerce so extensive

and so rich as ours could exist and be pursued in safety without the

continual support of a military marine--the only arm by which the power

of this Confederacy can be estimated or felt by foreign nations, and

the only standing military force which can never be dangerous to our

own liberties at home. A permanent naval peace establishment,

therefore, adapted to our present condition, and adaptable to that

gigantic growth with which the nation is advancing in its career, is

among the subjects which have already occupied the foresight of the

last Congress, and which will deserve your serious deliberations. Our

Navy, commenced at an early period of our present political

organization upon a scale commensurate with the incipient energies, the

scanty resources, and the comparative indigence of our infancy, was

even then found adequate to cope with all the powers of Barbary, save

the first, and with one of the principle maritime powers of Europe.

At a period of further advancement, but with little accession of

strength, it not only sustained with honor the most unequal of

conflicts, but covered itself and our country with unfading glory. But

it is only since the close of the late war that by the numbers and

force of the ships of which it was composed it could deserve the name

of a navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organization as when it

consisted only of five frigates. The rules and regulations by which it

is governed earnestly call for revision, and the want of a naval school

of instruction, corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point,

for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with

daily increasing aggravation.

The act of Congress of May 26th, 1824, authorizing an examination and

survey of the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Marys, in

Georgia, and of the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been

executed so far as the appropriation would admit. Those of the 3d of

March last, authorizing the establishment of a navy yard and depot on

the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and authorizing the

building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in the

course of execution, for the particulars of which and other objects

connected with this Department I refer to the report of the Secretary

of the Navy, herewith communicated.

A report from the Post Master General is also submitted, exhibiting the

present flourishing condition of that Department. For the first time

for many years the receipts for the year ending on the first of July

last exceeded the expenditures during the same period to the amount of

more than $45,000. Other facts equally creditable to the administration

of this Department are that in two years from July 1st, 1823, an

improvement of more than $185,000 in its pecuniary affairs has been

realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation

of the mail has exceeded 1,500,000 miles annually, and that 1,040 new

post offices have been established. It hence appears that under

judicious management the income from this establishment may be relied

on as fully adequate to defray its expenses, and that by the

discontinuance of post roads altogether unproductive, others of more

useful character may be opened, 'til the circulation of the mail shall

keep pace with the spread of our population, and the comforts of

friendly correspondence, the exchanges of internal traffic, and the

lights of the periodical press shall be distributed to the remotest

corners of the Union, at a charge scarcely perceptible to any

individual, and without the cost of a dollar to the public Treasury.

Upon this first occasion of addressing the Legislature of the Union,

with which I have been honored, in presenting to their view the

execution so far as it has been effected of the measures sanctioned by

them for promoting the internal improvement of our country, I can not

close the communication without recommending to their calm and

persevering consideration the general principle in a more enlarged

extent. The great object of the institution of civil government is the

improvement of the condition of those who are parties to the social

compact, and no government, in what ever form constituted, can

accomplish the lawful ends of its institution but in proportion as it

improves the condition of those over whom it is established. Roads and

canals, by multiplying and facilitating the communications and

intercourse between distant regions and multitudes of men, are among

the most important means of improvement. But moral, political,

intellectual improvement are duties assigned by the Author of Our

Existence to social no less than to individual man.

For the fulfillment of those duties governments are invested with

power, and to the attainment of the end--the progressive improvement of

the condition of the governed--the exercise of delegated powers is a

duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of powers not

granted is criminal and odious.

Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement

of the condition of men is knowledge, and to the acquisition of much of

the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of

human life public institutions and seminaries of learning are

essential. So convinced of this was the first of my predecessors in

this office, now first in the memory, as, living, he was first in the

hearts, of our country-men, that once and again in his addresses to the

Congresses with whom he cooperated in the public service he earnestly

recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for

all the emergencies of peace and war--a national university and a

military academy. With respect to the latter, had he lived to the

present day, in turning his eyes to the institution at West Point he

would have enjoyed the gratification of his most earnest wishes; but in

surveying the city which has been honored with his name he would have

seen the spot of earth which he had destined and bequeathed to the use

and benefit of his country as the site for a university still bare and

barren.

In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth it

would seem that our country had contracted the engagement to contribute

her share of mind, of labor, and of expense to the improvement of those

parts of knowledge which lie beyond the reach of individual

acquisition, and particularly to geographical and astronomical science.

Looking back to the history only of the half century since the

declaration of our independence, and observing the generous emulation

with which the Governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia have

devoted the genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective

nations to the common improvement of the species in these branches of

science, is it not incumbent upon us to inquire whether we are not

bound by obligations of a high and honorable character to contribute

our portion of energy and exertion to the common stock? The voyages of

discovery prosecuted in the course of that time at the expense of those

nations have not only redounded to their glory, but to the improvement

of human knowledge.

We have been partakers of that improvement and owe for it a sacred

debt, not only of gratitude, but of equal or proportional exertion in

the same common cause. Of the cost of these undertakings, if the mere

expenditures of outfit, equipment, and completion of the expeditions

were to be considered the only charges, it would be unworthy of a great

and generous nation to take a second thought. One hundred expeditions

of circumnavigation like those of Cook and La Prouse would not burden

the exchequer of the nation fitting them out so much as the ways and

means of defraying a single campaign in war. But if we take into

account the lives of those benefactors of man-kind of which their

services in the cause of their species were the purchase, how shall the

cost of those heroic enterprises be estimated, and what compensation

can be made to them or to their countries for them? Is it not by

bearing them in affectionate remembrance? Is it not still more by

imitating their example--by enabling country-men of our own to pursue

the same career and to hazard their lives in the same cause?

In inviting the attention of Congress to the subject of internal

improvements upon a view thus enlarged it is not my desire to recommend

the equipment of an expedition for circumnavigating the globe for

purposes of scientific research and inquiry. We have objects of useful

investigation nearer home, and to which our cares may be more

beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories has yet been

very imperfectly explored. Our coasts along many degrees of latitude

upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented by our

spirited commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public

ships. The River of the West, first fully discovered and navigated by a

country-man of our own, still bears the name of the ship in which he

ascended its waters, and claims the protection of our armed national

flag at its mouth. With the establishment of a military post there or

at some other point of that coast, recommended by my predecessor and

already matured in the deliberations of the last Congress, I would

suggest the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public ship for

the exploration of the whole north-west coast of this continent.

The establishment of an uniform standard of weights and measures was

one of the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our

Constitution, and to fix that standard was on of the powers delegated

by express terms in that instrument to Congress. The Governments of

Great Britain and France have scarcely ceased to be occupied with

inquiries and speculations on the same subject since the existence of

our Constitution, and with them it has expanded into profound,

laborious, and expensive researches into the figure of the earth and

the comparative length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in various

latitudes from the equator to the pole. These researches have resulted

in the composition and publication of several works highly interesting

to the cause of science. The experiments are yet in the process of

performance. Some of them have recently been made on our own shores,

within the walls of one of our own colleges, and partly by one of our

own fellow citizens. It would be honorable to our country if the sequel

of the same experiments should be countenanced by the patronage of our

Government, as they have hitherto been by those of France and Britain.

Connected with the establishment of an university, or separate from it,

might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with

provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant

attendance of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens, and for

the periodical publication of his observances. It is with no feeling of

pride as an American that the remark may be made that on the

comparatively small territorial surface of Europe there are existing

upward of 130 of these light-houses of the skies, while throughout the

whole American hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon

the discoveries which in the last four centuries have been made in the

physical constitution of the universe by the means of these buildings

and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness

to every nation? And while scarcely a year passes over our heads

without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we

must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are we not cutting

ourselves off from the means of returning light for light while we have

neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe and the

earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?

When, on October 25th, 1791, the first President of the United States

announced to Congress the result of the first enumeration of the

inhabitants of this Union, he informed them that the returns gave the

pleasing assurance that the population of the United States bordered on

4,000,000 persons. At the distance of 30 years from that time the last

enumeration, five years since completed, presented a population

bordering on 10,000,000. Perhaps of all the evidence of a prosperous

and happy condition of human society the rapidity of the increase of

population is the most unequivocal. But the demonstration of our

prosperity rests not alone upon this indication.

Our commerce, our wealth, and the extent of our territories have

increased in corresponding proportions, and the number of independent

communities associated in our Federal Union has since that time nearly

doubled. The legislative representation of the States and people in the

two Houses of Congress has grown with the growth of their constituent

bodies. The House, which then consisted of 65 members, now numbers

upward of 200. The Senate, which consisted of 26 members, has now 48.

But the executive and, still more, the judiciary departments are yet in

a great measure confined to their primitive organization, and are now

not adequate to the urgent wants of a still growing community.

The naval armaments, which at an early period forced themselves upon

the necessities of the Union, soon led to the establishment of a

Department of the Navy. But the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of

the Interior, which early after the formation of the Government had

been united in one, continue so united to this time, to the

unquestionable detriment of the public service. The multiplication of

our relations with the nations and Governments of the Old World has

kept pace with that of our population and commerce, while within the

last ten years a new family of nations in our own hemisphere has arisen

among the inhabitants of the earth, with whom our intercourse,

commercial and political, would of itself furnish occupation to an

active and industrious department.

The constitution of the judiciary, experimental and imperfect as it was

even in the infancy of our existing Government, is yet more inadequate

to the administration of national justice at our present maturity. Nine

years have elapsed since a predecessor in this office, now not the

last, the citizen who, perhaps, of all others throughout the Union

contributed most to the formation and establishment of our

Constitution, in his valedictory address to Congress, immediately

preceding his retirement from public life, urgently recommended the

revision of the judiciary and the establishment of an additional

executive department. The exigencies of the public service and its

unavoidable deficiencies, as now in exercise, have added yearly

cumulative weight to the considerations presented by him as persuasive

to the measure, and in recommending it to your deliberations I am happy

to have the influence of this high authority in aid of the undoubting

convictions of my own experience.

The laws relating to the administration of the Patent Office are

deserving of much consideration and perhaps susceptible of some

improvement. The grant of power to regulate the action of Congress upon

this subject has specified both the end to be obtained and the means by

which it is to be effected, "to promote the progress of science and

useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the

exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries". If an

honest pride might be indulged in the reflection that on the records of

that office are already found inventions the usefulness of which has

scarcely been transcended in the annals of human ingenuity, would not

its exultation be allayed by the inquiry whether the laws have

effectively insured to the inventors the reward destined to them by the

Constitution--even a limited term of exclusive right to their

discoveries?

On December 24th, 1799, it was resolved by Congress that a marble

monument should be erected by the United States in the Capitol at the

city of Washington; that the family of General Washington should be

requested to permit his body to be deposited under it, and that the

monument be so designed as to commemorate the great events of his

military and political life. In reminding Congress of this resolution

and that the monument contemplated by it remains yet without execution,

I shall indulge only the remarks that the works at the Capitol are

approaching to completion; that the consent of the family, desired by

the resolution, was requested and obtained; that a monument has been

recently erected in this city over the remains of another distinguished

patriot of the Revolution, and that a spot has been reserved within the

walls where you are deliberating for the benefit of this and future

ages, in which the mortal remains may be deposited of him whose spirit

hovers over you and listens with delight to every act of the

representatives of his nation which can tend to exalt and adorn his and

their country.

The Constitution under which you are assembled is a charter of limited

powers. After full and solemn deliberation upon all or any of the

objects which, urged by an irresistible sense of my own duty, I have

recommended to your attention should you come to the conclusion that,

however desirable in themselves, the enactment of laws for effecting

them would transcend the powers committed to you by that venerable

instrument which we are all bound to support, let no consideration

induce you to assume the exercise of powers not granted to you by the

people.

But if the power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what so

ever over the District of Columbia; if the power to lay and collect

taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for

the common defense and general welfare of the United States; if the

power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several

States and with the Indian tribes, to fix the standard of weights and

measures, to establish post offices and post roads, to declare war, to

raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, to dispose of

and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or

other property belonging to the United States, and to make all laws

which shall be necessary and proper for carrying these powers into

execution--if these powers and others enumerated in the Constitution

may be effectually brought into action by laws promoting the

improvement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, the cultivation

and encouragement of the mechanic and of the elegant arts, the

advancement of literature, and the progress of the sciences, ornamental

and profound, to refrain from exercising them for the benefit of the

people themselves would be to hide in the earth the talent committed to

our charge--would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts.

The spirit of improvement is abroad upon the earth. It stimulates the

hearts and sharpens the faculties not of our fellow citizens alone, but

of the nations of Europe and of their rulers. While dwelling with

pleasing satisfaction upon the superior excellence of our political

institutions, let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the

nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion

to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and that the

tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon

condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve

the condition of himself and his fellow men.

While foreign nations less blessed with that freedom which is power

than ourselves are advancing with gigantic strides in the career of

public improvement, were we to slumber in indolence or fold up our arms

and proclaim to the world that we are palsied by the will of our

constituents, would it not be to cast away the bounties of Providence

and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority? In the course of the year

now drawing to its close we have beheld, under the auspices and at the

expense of one State of this Union, a new university unfolding its

portals to the sons of science and holding up the torch of human

improvement to eyes that seek the light. We have seen under the

persevering and enlightened enterprise of another State the waters of

our Western lakes mingle with those of the ocean. If undertakings like

these have been accomplished in the compass of a few years by the

authority of single members of our Confederation, can we, the

representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our fellow

servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit

of our common sovereign by the accomplishment of works important to the

whole and to which neither the authority nor the resources of any one

State can be adequate?

Finally, fellow citizens, I shall await with cheering hope and faithful

cooperation the result of your deliberations, assured that, without

encroaching upon the powers reserved to the authorities of the

respective States or to the people, you will, with a due sense of your

obligations to your country and of the high responsibilities weighing

upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed to you for the

common good. And may He who searches the hearts of the children of men

prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of peace and promote the

highest welfare of your country.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

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