President[ Martin van Buren
Date[ December 3, 1838
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
I congratulate you on the favorable circumstances in the condition of our
country under which you reassemble for the performance of your official
duties. Though the anticipations of an abundant harvest have not everywhere
been realized, yet on the whole the labors of the husbandman are rewarded
with a bountiful return; industry prospers in its various channels of
business and enterprise; general health again prevails through our vast
diversity of climate; nothing threatens from abroad the continuance of
external peace; nor has anything at home impaired the strength of those
fraternal and domestic ties which constitute the only guaranty to the
success and permanency of our happy Union, and which, formed in the hour of
peril, have hitherto been honorably sustained through every vicissitude in
our national affairs. These blessings, which evince the care and
beneficence of Providence, call for our devout and fervent gratitude.
We have not less reason to be grateful for other bounties bestowed by the
same munificent hand, and more exclusively our own.
The present year closes the first half century of our Federal institutions,
and our system, differing from all others in the acknowledged practical and
unlimited operation which it has for so long a period given to the
sovereignty of the people, has now been fully tested by experience.
The Constitution devised by our forefathers as the framework and bond of
that system, then untried, has become a settled form of government; not
only preserving and protecting the great principles upon which it was
rounded, but wonderfully promoting individual happiness and private
interests. Though subject to change and entire revocation whenever deemed
inadequate to all these purposes, yet such is the wisdom of its
construction and so stable has been the public sentiment that it remains
unaltered except in matters of detail comparatively unimportant. It has
proved amply sufficient for the various emergencies incident to our
condition as a nation. A formidable foreign war; agitating collisions
between domestic, and in some respects rival, sovereignties; temptations to
interfere in the intestine commotions of neighboring countries; the
dangerous influences that arise in periods of excessive prosperity, and the
antirepublican tendencies of associated wealth--these, with other trials
not less formidable, have all been encountered, and thus far successfully
resisted.
It was reserved for the American Union to test the advantages of a
government entirely dependent on the continual exercise of the popular
will, and our experience has shown that it is as beneficent in practice as
it is just in theory. Each successive change made in our local institutions
has contributed to extend the right of suffrage, has increased the direct
influence of the mass of the community, given greater freedom to individual
exertion, and restricted more and more the powers of Government; yet the
intelligence, prudence, and patriotism of the people have kept pace with
this augmented responsibility. In no country has education been so widely
diffused. Domestic peace has nowhere so largely reigned. The close bonds of
social intercourse have in no instance prevailed with such harmony over a
space so vast. All forms of religion have united for the first time to
diffuse charity and piety, because for the first time in the history of
nations all have been totally untrammeled and absolutely free. The deepest
recesses of the wilderness have been penetrated; yet instead of the
rudeness in the social condition consequent upon such adventures elsewhere,
numerous communities have sprung up, already unrivaled in prosperity,
general intelligence, internal tranquillity, and the wisdom of their
political institutions. Internal improvement, the fruit of individual
enterprise, fostered by the protection of the States, has added new links
to the Confederation and fresh rewards to provident industry. Doubtful
questions of domestic policy have been quietly settled by mutual
forbearance, and agriculture, commerce, and manufactures minister to each
other. Taxation and public debt, the burdens which bear so heavily upon all
other countries, have pressed with comparative lightness upon us. Without
one entangling alliance, our friendship is prized by every nation, and the
rights of our citizens are everywhere respected, because they are known to
be guarded by a united, sensitive, and watchful people.
To this practical operation of our institutions, so evident and successful,
we owe that increased attachment to them which is among the most cheering
exhibitions of popular sentiment and will prove their best security in time
to come against foreign or domestic assault.
This review of the results of our institutions for half a century, without
exciting a spirit of vain exultation, should serve to impress upon us the
great principles from which they have sprung--constant and direct
supervision by the people over every public measure, strict forbearance on
the part of the Government from exercising any doubtful or disputed powers,
and a cautious abstinence from all interference with concerns which
properly belong and are best left to State regulations and individual
enterprise.
Full information of the state of our foreign affairs having been recently
on different occasions submitted to Congress, I deem it necessary now to
bring to your notice only such events as have subsequently occurred or are
of such importance as to require particular attention.
The most amicable dispositions continue to be exhibited by all the nations
with whom the Government and citizens of the United States have an habitual
intercourse. At the date of my last annual message Mexico was the only
nation which could not be included in so gratifying a reference to our
foreign relations.
I am happy to be now able to inform you that an advance has been made
toward the adjustment of our differences with that Republic and the
restoration of the customary good feeling between the two nations. This
important change has been effected by conciliatory negotiations that have
resulted in the conclusion of a treaty between the two Governments, which,
when ratified, will refer to the arbitrament of a friendly power all the
subjects of controversy between us growing out of injuries to individuals.
There is at present also reason to believe that an equitable settlement of
all disputed points will be attained without further difficulty or
unnecessary delay, and thus authorize the free resumption of diplomatic
intercourse with our sister Republic.
With respect to the northeastern boundary of the United States, no official
correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain has passed
since that communicated to Congress toward the close of their last session.
The offer to negotiate a convention for the appointment of a joint
commission of survey and exploration I am, however, assured will be met by
Her Majesty's Government in a conciliatory and friendly spirit, and
instructions to enable the British minister here to conclude such an
arrangement will be transmitted to him without needless delay. It is hoped
and expected that these instructions will be of a liberal character, and
that this negotiation, if successful, will prove to be an important step
toward the satisfactory and final adjustment of the controversy.
I had hoped that the respect for the laws and regard for the peace and
honor of their own country which have ever characterized the citizens of
the United States would have prevented any portion of them from using any
means to promote insurrection in the territory of a power with which we are
at peace, and with which the United States are desirous of maintaining the
most friendly relations. I regret deeply, however, to be obliged to inform
you that this has not been the case. Information has been given to me,
derived from official and other sources, that many citizens of the United
States have associated together to make hostile incursions from our
territory into Canada and to aid and abet insurrection there, in violation
of the obligations and laws of the United States and in open disregard of
their own duties as citizens. This information has been in part confirmed
by a hostile invasion actually made by citizens of the United States, in
conjunction with Canadians and others, and accompanied by a forcible
seizure of the property of our citizens and an application thereof to the
prosecution of military operations against the authorities and people of
Canada.
The results of these criminal assaults upon the peace and order of a
neighboring country have been, as was to be expected, fatally destructive
to the misguided or deluded persons engaged in them and highly injurious to
those in whose behalf they are professed to have been undertaken. The
authorities in Canada, from intelligence received of such intended
movements among our citizens, have felt themselves obliged to take
precautionary measures against them; have actually embodied the militia and
assumed an attitude to repel the invasion to which they believed the
colonies were exposed from the United States. A state of feeling on both
sides of the frontier has thus been produced which called for prompt and
vigorous interference. If an insurrection existed in Canada, the amicable
dispositions of the United States toward Great Britain, as well as their
duty to themselves, would lead them to maintain a strict neutrality and to
restrain their citizens from all violations of the laws which have been
passed for its enforcement. But this Government recognizes a still higher
obligation to repress all attempts on the part of its citizens to disturb
the peace of a country where order prevails or has been reestablished.
Depredations by our citizens upon nations at peace with the United States,
or combinations for committing them, have at all times been regarded by the
American Government and people with the greatest abhorrence. Military
incursions by our citizens into countries so situated, and the commission
of acts of violence on the members thereof, in order to effect a change in
their government, or under any pretext whatever, have from the commencement
of our Government been held equally criminal on the part of those engaged
in them, and as much deserving of punishment as would be the disturbance of
the public peace by the perpetration of similar acts within our own
territory.
By no country or persons have these invaluable principles of international
law--principles the strict observance of which is so indispensable to the
preservation of social order in the world--been more earnestly cherished or
sacredly respected than by those great and good men who first declared and
finally established the independence of our own country. They promulgated
and maintained them at an early and critical period in our history; they
were subsequently embodied in legislative enactments of a highly penal
character, the faithful enforcement of which has hitherto been, and will, I
trust, always continue to be, regarded as a duty inseparably associated
with the maintenance of our national honor. That the people of the United
States should feel an interest in the spread of political institutions as
free as they regard their own to be is natural, nor can a sincere
solicitude for the success of all those who are at any time in good faith
struggling for their acquisition be imputed to our citizens as a crime.
With the entire freedom of opinion and an undisguised expression thereof on
their part the Government has neither the right nor, I trust, the
disposition to interfere. But whether the interest or the honor of the
United States requires that they should be made a party to any such
struggle, and by inevitable consequence to the war which is waged in its
support, is a question which by our Constitution is wisely left to Congress
alone to decide. It is by the laws already made criminal in our citizens to
embarrass or anticipate that decision by unauthorized military operations
on their part. Offenses of this character, in addition to their criminality
as violations of the laws of our country, have a direct tendency to draw
down upon our own citizens at large the multiplied evils of a foreign war
and expose to injurious imputations the good faith and honor of the
country. As such they deserve to be put down with promptitude and decision.
I can not be mistaken, I am confident, in counting on the cordial and
general concurrence of our fellow-citizens in this sentiment. A copy of the
proclamation which I have felt it my duty to issue is herewith
communicated. I can not but hope that the good sense and patriotism, the
regard for the honor and reputation of their country, the respect for the
laws which they have themselves enacted for their own government, and the
love of order for which the mass of our people have been so long and so
justly distinguished will deter the comparatively few who are engaged in
them from a further prosecution of such desperate enterprises. In the
meantime the existing laws have been and will continue to be faithfully
executed, and every effort will be made to carry them out in their full
extent. Whether they are sufficient or not to meet the actual state of
things on the Canadian frontier it is for Congress to decide.
It will appear from the correspondence herewith submitted that the
Government of Russia declines a renewal of the fourth article of the
convention of April, 1824, between the United States and His Imperial
Majesty, by the third article of which it is agreed that "hereafter there
shall not be formed by the citizens of the United States or under the
authority of the said States any establishment upon the northwest coast of
America, nor in any of the islands adjacent, to the north of 54° 40' of
north latitude, and that in the same manner there shall be none formed by
Russian subjects or under the authority of Russia south of the same
parallel;" and by the fourth article, "that during a term of ten years,
counting from the signature of the present convention, the ships of both
powers, or which belong to their citizens or subjects, respectively, may
reciprocally frequent, without any hindrance whatever, the interior seas,
gulfs, harbors, and creeks upon the coast mentioned in the preceding
article, for the purpose of fishing and trading with the natives of the
country." The reasons assigned for declining to renew the provisions of
this article are, briefly, that the only use made by our citizens of the
privileges it secures to them has been to supply the Indians with
spirituous liquors, ammunition, and firearms; that this traffic has been
excluded from the Russian trade; and as the supplies furnished from the
United States are injurious to the Russian establishments on the northwest
coast and calculated to produce complaints between the two Governments, His
Imperial Majesty thinks it for the interest of both countries not to accede
to the proposition made by the American Government for the renewal of the
article last referred to.
The correspondence herewith communicated will show the grounds upon which
we contend that the citizens of the United States have, independent of the
provisions of the convention of 1824, a right to trade with the natives
upon the coast in question at unoccupied places, liable, however, it is
admitted, to be at any time extinguished by the creation of Russian
establishments at such points. This right is denied by the Russian
Government, which asserts that by the operation of the treaty of 1824 each
party agreed to waive the general right to land on the vacant coasts on the
respective sides of the degree of latitude referred to, and accepted in
lieu thereof the mutual privileges mentioned in the fourth article. The
capital and tonnage employed by our citizens in their trade with the
northwest coast of America will, perhaps, on adverting to the official
statements of the commerce and navigation of the United States for the last
few years, be deemed too inconsiderable in amount to attract much
attention; yet the subject may in other respects deserve the careful
consideration of Congress.
I regret to state that the blockade of the principal ports on the eastern
coast of Mexico, which, in consequence of differences between that Republic
and France, was instituted in May last, unfortunately still continues,
enforced by a competent French naval armament, and is necessarily
embarrassing to our own trade in the Gulf, in common with that of other
nations. Every disposition, however, is believed to exist on the part of
the French Government to render this measure as little onerous as
practicable to the interests of the citizens of the United States and to
those of neutral commerce, and it is to be hoped that an early settlement
of the difficulties between France and Mexico will soon reestablish the
harmonious relations formerly subsisting between them and again open the
ports of that Republic to the vessels of all friendly nations.
A convention for marking that part of the boundary between the United
States and the Republic of Texas which extends from the mouth of the Sabine
to the Red River was concluded and signed at this city on the 25th of April
last. It has since been ratified by both Governments, and seasonable
measures will be taken to carry it into effect on the part of the United
States.
The application of that Republic for admission into this Union, made in
August, 1837, and which was declined for reasons already made known to you,
has been formally withdrawn, as will appear from the accompanying copy of
the note of the minister plenipotentiary of Texas, which was presented to
the Secretary of State on the occasion of the exchange of the ratifications
of the convention above mentioned.
Copies of the convention with Texas, of a commercial treaty concluded with
the King of Greece, and of a similar treaty with the Peru-Bolivian
Confederation, the ratifications of which have been recently exchanged,
accompany this message, for the information of Congress and for such
legislative enactments as may be found necessary or expedient in relation
to either of them.
To watch over and foster the interests of a gradually increasing and widely
extended commerce, to guard the rights of American citizens whom business
or pleasure or other motives may tempt into distant climes, and at the same
time to cultivate those sentiments of mutual respect and good will which
experience has proved so beneficial in international intercourse, the
Government of the United States has deemed it expedient from time to time
to establish diplomatic connections with different foreign states, by the
appointment of representatives to reside within their respective
territories. I am gratified to be enabled to announce to you that since the
close of your last session these relations have been opened under the
happiest auspices with Austria and the Two Sicilies, that new nominations
have been made in the respective missions of Russia, Brazil, Belgium, and
Sweden and Norway in this country, and that a minister extraordinary has
been received, accredited to this Government, from the Argentine
Confederation.
An exposition of the fiscal affairs of the Government and of their
condition for the past year will be made to you by the Secretary of the
Treasury.
The available balance in the Treasury on the 1st of January next is
estimated at $2,765,342. The receipts of the year from customs and lands
will probably amount to $20,615,598. These usual sources of revenue have
been increased by an issue of Treasury notes, of which less than
$8,000,000, including interest and principal, will be outstanding at the
end of the year, and by the sale of one of the bonds of the Bank of the
United States for $2,254,871. The aggregate of means from these and other
sources, with the balance on hand on the 1st of January last, has been
applied to the payment of appropriations by Congress. The whole expenditure
for the year on their account, including the redemption of more than eight
millions of Treasury notes, constitutes an aggregate of about $40,000,000,
and will still leave in the Treasury the balance before stated.
Nearly $8,000,000 of Treasury notes are to be paid during the coming year
in addition to the ordinary appropriations for the support of Government.
For both these purposes the resources of the Treasury will undoubtedly be
sufficient if the charges upon it are not increased beyond the annual
estimates. No excess, however, is likely to exist. Nor can the postponed
installment of the surplus revenue be deposited with the States nor any
considerable appropriations beyond the estimates be made without causing a
deficiency in the Treasury. The great caution, advisable at all times, of
limiting appropriations to the wants of the public service is rendered
necessary at present by the prospective and rapid reduction of the tariff,
while the vigilant jealousy evidently excited among the people by the
occurrences of the last few years assures us that they expect from their
representatives, and will sustain them in the exercise of, the most rigid
economy. Much can be effected by postponing appropriations not immediately
required for the ordinary public service or for any pressing emergency, and
much by reducing the expenditures where the entire and immediate
accomplishment of the objects in view is not indispensable.
When we call to mind the recent and extreme embarrassments produced by
excessive issues of bank paper, aggravated by the unforeseen withdrawal of
much foreign capital and the inevitable derangement arising from the
distribution of the surplus revenue among the States as required by
Congress, and consider the heavy expenses incurred by the removal of Indian
tribes, by the military operations in Florida, and on account of the
unusually large appropriations made at the last two annual sessions of
Congress for other objects, we have striking evidence in the present
efficient state of our finances of the abundant resources of the country to
fulfill all its obligations. Nor is it less gratifying to find that the
general business of the community, deeply affected as it has been, is
reviving with additional vigor, chastened by the lessons of the past and
animated by the hopes of the future. By the curtailment of paper issues, by
curbing the sanguine and adventurous spirit of speculation, and by the
honorable application of all available means to the fulfillment of
obligations, confidence has been restored both at home and abroad, and ease
and facility secured to all the operations of trade.
The agency of the Government in producing these results has been as
efficient as its powers and means permitted. By withholding from the States
the deposit of the fourth installment, and leaving several millions at long
credits with the banks, principally in one section of the country, and more
immediately beneficial to it, and at the same time aiding the banks and
commercial communities in other sections by postponing the payment of bonds
for duties to the amount of between four and five millions of dollars; by
an issue of Treasury notes as a means to enable the Government to meet the
consequences of their indulgences, but affording at the same time
facilities for remittance and exchange; and by steadily declining to employ
as general depositories of the public revenues, or receive the notes of,
all banks which refused to redeem them with specie--by these measures,
aided by the favorable action of some of the banks and by the support and
cooperation of a large portion of the community, we have witnessed an early
resumption of specie payments in our great commercial capital, promptly
followed in almost every part of the United States. This result has been
alike salutary to the true interests of agriculture, commerce, and
manufactures; to public morals, respect for the laws, and that confidence
between man and man which is so essential in all our social relations.
The contrast between the suspension of 1814 and that of 1837 is most
striking. The short duration of the latter, the prompt restoration of
business, the evident benefits resulting from an adherence by the
Government to the constitutional standard of value instead of sanctioning
the suspension by the receipt of irredeemable paper, and the advantages
derived from the large amount of specie introduced into the country
previous to 1837 afford a valuable illustration of the true policy of the
Government in such a crisis. Nor can the comparison fail to remove the
impression that a national bank is necessary in such emergencies. Not only
were specie payments resumed without its aid, but exchanges have also been
more rapidly restored than when it existed, thereby showing that private
capital, enterprise, and prudence are fully adequate to these ends. On all
these points experience seems to have confirmed the views heretofore
submitted to Congress. We have been saved the mortification of seeing the
distresses of the community for the third time seized on to fasten upon the
country so dangerous an institution, and we may also hope that the business
of individuals will hereafter be relieved from the injurious effects of a
continued agitation of that disturbing subject. The limited influence of a
national bank in averting derangement in the exchanges of the country or in
compelling the resumption of specie payments is now not less apparent than
its tendency to increase inordinate speculation by sudden expansions and
contractions; its disposition to create panic and embarrassment for the
promotion of its own designs; its interference with politics, and its far
greater power for evil than for good, either in regard to the local
institutions or the operations of Government itself. What was in these
respects but apprehension or opinion when a national bank was first
established now stands confirmed by humiliating experience. The scenes
through which we have passed conclusively prove how little our commerce,
agriculture, manufactures, or finances require such an institution, and
what dangers are attendant on its power--a power, I trust, never to be
conferred by the American people upon their Government, and still less upon
individuals not responsible to them for its unavoidable abuses.
My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for the
safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion in regard
to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those objects have
been already submitted to you. These have been strengthened by recent
events, and in the full conviction that time and experience must still
further demonstrate their propriety I feel it my duty, with respectful
deference to the conflicting views of others, again to invite your
attention to them.
With the exception of limited sums deposited in the few banks still
employed under the act of 1836, the amounts received for duties, and, with
very inconsiderable exceptions, those accruing from lands also, have since
the general suspension of specie payments by the deposit banks been kept
and disbursed by the Treasurer under his general legal powers, subject to
the superintendence of the Secretary of the Treasury. The propriety of
defining more specifically and of regulating by law the exercise of this
wide scope of Executive discretion has been already submitted to Congress.
A change in the office of collector at one of our principal ports has
brought to light a defalcation of the gravest character, the particulars of
which will be laid before you in a special report from the Secretary of the
Treasury. By his report and the accompanying documents it will be seen that
the weekly returns of the defaulting officer apparently exhibited
throughout a faithful administration of the affairs intrusted to his
management. It, however, now appears that he commenced abstracting the
public moneys shortly after his appointment and continued to do so,
progressively increasing the amount, for the term of more than seven years,
embracing a portion of the period during which the public moneys were
deposited in the Bank of the United States, the whole of that of the State
bank deposit system, and concluding only on his retirement from office,
after that system had substantially failed in consequence of the suspension
of specie payments.
The way in which this defalcation was so long concealed and the steps taken
to indemnify the United States, as far as practicable, against loss will
also be presented to you. The case is one which imperatively claims the
attention of Congress and furnishes the strongest motive for the
establishment of a more severe and secure system for the safe-keeping and
disbursement of the public moneys than any that has heretofore existed.
It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to that
of other countries the application of public money by an officer of
Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with severe
and ignominious punishment. This is already in effect the law in respect to
the Mint, and has been productive of the most salutary results. Whatever
system is adopted, such an enactment would be wise as an independent
measure, since much of the public moneys must in their collection and
ultimate disbursement pass twice through the hands of public officers, in
whatever manner they are intermediately kept. The Government, it must be
admitted, has been from its commencement comparatively fortunate in this
respect. But the appointing power can not always be well advised in its
selections, and the experience of every country has shown that public
officers are not at all times proof against temptation. It is a duty,
therefore, which the Government owes, as well to the interests committed to
its care as to the officers themselves, to provide every guard against
transgressions of this character that is consistent with reason and
humanity. Congress can not be too jealous of the conduct of those who are
intrusted with the public money, and I shall at all times be disposed to
encourage a watchful discharge of this duty.
If a more direct cooperation on the part of Congress in the supervision of
the conduct of the officers intrusted with the custody and application of
the public money is deemed desirable, it will give me pleasure to assist in
the establishment of any judicious and constitutional plan by which that
object may be accomplished. You will in your wisdom determine upon the
propriety of adopting such a plan and upon the measures necessary to its
effectual execution. When the late Bank of the United States was
incorporated and made the depository of the public moneys, a right was
reserved to Congress to inspect at its pleasure, by a committee of that
body, the books and the proceedings of the bank. In one of the States,
whose banking institutions are supposed to rank amongst the first in point
of stability, they are subjected to constant examination by commissioners
appointed for that purpose, and much of the success of its banking system
is attributed to this watchful supervision.
The same course has also, in view of its beneficial operation, been adopted
by an adjoining State, favorably known for the care it has always bestowed
upon whatever relates to its financial concerns. I submit to your
consideration whether a committee of Congress might not be profitably
employed in inspecting, at such intervals as might be deemed proper, the
affairs and accounts of officers intrusted with the custody of the public
moneys. The frequent performance of this duty might be made obligatory on
the committee in respect to those officers who have large sums in their
possession, and left discretionary in respect to others. They might report
to the Executive such defalcations as were found to exist, with a view to a
prompt removal from office unless the default was satisfactorily accounted
for, and report also to Congress, at the commencement of each session, the
result of their examinations and proceedings. It does appear to me that
with a subjection of this class of public officers to the general
supervision of the Executive, to examinations by a committee of Congress at
periods of which they should have no previous notice, and to prosecution
and punishment as for felony for every breach of trust, the safe-keeping of
the public moneys might under the system proposed be placed on a surer
foundation than it has ever occupied since the establishment of the
Government.
The Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you additional information
containing new details on this interesting subject. To these I ask your
early attention. That it should have given rise to great diversity of
opinion can not be a subject of surprise. After the collection and custody
of the public moneys had been for so many years connected with and made
subsidiary to the advancement of private interests, a return to the simple
self-denying ordinances of the Constitution could not but be difficult. But
time and free discussion, eliciting the sentiments of the people, and aided
by that conciliatory spirit which has ever characterized their course on
great emergencies, were relied upon for a satisfactory settlement of the
question. Already has this anticipation, on one important point at
least--the impropriety of diverting public money to private purposes--been
fully realized. There is no reason to suppose that legislation upon that
branch of the subject would now be embarrassed by a difference of opinion,
or fail to receive the cordial support of a large majority of our
constituents.
The connection which formerly existed between the Government and banks was
in reality injurious to both, as well as to the general interests of the
community at large. It aggravated the disasters of trade and the
derangements of commercial intercourse, and administered new excitements
and additional means to wild and reckless speculations, the disappointment
of which threw the country into convulsions of panic, and all but produced
violence and bloodshed. The imprudent expansion of bank credits, which was
the natural result of the command of the revenues of the State, furnished
the resources for unbounded license in every species of adventure, seduced
industry from its regular and salutary occupations by the hope of abundance
without labor, and deranged the social state by tempting all trades and
professions into the vortex of speculation on remote contingencies.
The same wide-spreading influence impeded also the resources of the
Government, curtailed its useful operations, embarrassed the fulfillment of
its obligations, and seriously interfered with the execution of the laws.
Large appropriations and oppressive taxes are the natural consequences of
such a connection, since they increase the profits of those who are allowed
to use the public funds, and make it their interest that money should be
accumulated and expenditures multiplied. It is thus that a concentrated
money power is tempted to become an active agent in political affairs; and
all past experience has shown on which side that influence will be arrayed.
We deceive ourselves if we suppose that, it will ever be found asserting
and supporting the rights of the community at large in opposition to the
claims of the few.
In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion
and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals
will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. Nor is it the
nature of combinations for the acquisition of legislative influence to
confine their interference to the single object for which they were
originally formed. The temptation to extend it to other matters is, on the
contrary, not unfrequently too strong to be resisted. The rightful
influence in the direction of public affairs of the mass of the people is
therefore in no slight danger of being sensibly and injuriously affected by
giving to a comparatively small but very efficient class a direct and
exclusive personal interest in so important a portion of the legislation of
Congress as that which relates to the custody of the public moneys. If laws
acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be
confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the
legislatures of the States. When not thus restricted they lead to
combinations of powerful associations, foster an influence necessarily
selfish, and turn the fair course of legislation to sinister ends rather
than to objects that advance public liberty and promote the general good.
The whole subject now rests with you, and I can not but express a hope that
some definite measure will be adopted at the present session.
It will not, I am sure, be deemed out of place for me here to remark that
the declaration of my views in opposition to the policy of employing banks
as depositories of the Government funds can not justly be construed as
indicative of hostility, official or personal, to those institutions; or to
repeat in this form and in connection with this subject opinions which I
have uniformly entertained and on all proper occasions expressed. Though
always opposed to their creation in the form of exclusive privileges, and,
as a State magistrate, aiming by appropriate legislation to secure the
community against the consequences of their occasional mismanagement, I
have yet ever wished to see them protected in the exercise of rights
conferred by law, and have never doubted their utility when properly
managed in promoting the interests of trade, and through that channel the
other interests of the community. To the General Government they present
themselves merely as State institutions, having no necessary connection
with its legislation or its administration. Like other State
establishments, they may be used or not in conducting the affairs of the
Government, as public policy and the general interests of the Union may
seem to require. The only safe or proper principle upon which their
intercourse with the Government can be regulated is that which regulates
their intercourse with the private citizen--the conferring of mutual
benefits. When the Government can accomplish a financial operation better
with the aid of the banks than without it, it should be at liberty to seek
that aid as it would the services of a private banker or other capitalist
or agent, giving the preference to those who will serve it on the best
terms. Nor can there ever exist an interest in the officers of the General
Government, as such, inducing them to embarrass or annoy the State banks
any more than to incur the hostility of any other class of State
institutions or of private citizens. It is not in the nature of things that
hostility to these institutions can spring from this source, or any
opposition to their course of business, except when they themselves depart
from the objects of their creation and attempt to usurp powers not
conferred upon them or to subvert the standard of value established by the
Constitution. While opposition to their regular operations can not exist in
this quarter, resistance to any attempt to make the Government dependent
upon them for the successful administration of public affairs is a matter
of duty, as I trust it ever will be of inclination, no matter from what
motive or consideration the attempt may originate.
It is no more than just to the banks to say that in the late emergency most
of them firmly resisted the strongest temptations to extend their paper
issues when apparently sustained in a suspension of specie payments by
public opinion, even though in some cases invited by legislative
enactments. To this honorable course, aided by the resistance of the
General Government, acting in obedience to the Constitution and laws of the
United States, to the introduction of an irredeemable paper medium, may be
attributed in a great degree the speedy restoration of our currency to a
sound state and the business of the country to its wonted prosperity.
The banks have but to continue in the same safe course and be content in
their appropriate sphere to avoid all interference from the General
Government and to derive from it all the protection and benefits which it
bestows on other State establishments, on the people of the States, and on
the States themselves. In this, their true position, they can not but
secure the confidence and good will of the people and the Government, which
they can only lose when, leaping from their legitimate sphere, they attempt
to control the legislation of the country and pervert the operations of the
Government to their own purposes.
Our experience under the act, passed at the last session, to grant
preemption rights to settlers on the public lands has as yet been too
limited to enable us to pronounce with safety upon the efficacy of its
provisions to carry out the wise and liberal policy of the Government in
that respect. There is, however, the best reason to anticipate favorable
results from its operation. The recommendations formerly submitted to you
in respect to a graduation of the price of the public lands remain to be
finally acted upon. Having found no reason to change the views then
expressed, your attention to them is again respectfully requested.
Every proper exertion has been made and will be continued to carry out the
wishes of Congress in relation to the tobacco trade, as indicated in the
several resolutions of the House of Representatives and the legislation of
the two branches. A favorable impression has, I trust, been made in the
different foreign countries to which particular attention has been
directed; and although we can not hope for an early change in their policy,
as in many of them a convenient and large revenue is derived from
monopolies in the fabrication and sale of this article, yet, as these
monopolies are really injurious to the people where they are established,
and the revenue derived from them may be less injuriously and with equal
facility obtained from another and a liberal system of administration, we
can not doubt that our efforts will be eventually crowned with, success if
persisted in with temperate firmness and sustained by prudent legislation.
In recommending to Congress the adoption of the necessary provisions at
this session for taking the next census or enumeration of the inhabitants
of the United States, the suggestion presents itself whether the scope of
the measure might not be usefully extended by causing it to embrace
authentic statistical returns of the great interests specially intrusted to
or necessarily affected by the legislation of Congress.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of War presents a satisfactory
account of the state of the Army and of the several branches of the public
service confided to the superintendence of that officer.
The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United
States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been
extensively and usefully employed during the past season.
I would again call to your notice the subjects connected with and essential
to the military defenses of the country which were submitted to you at the
last session, but which were not acted upon, as is supposed, for want of
time. The most important of them is the organization of the militia on the
maritime and inland frontiers. This measure is deemed important, as it is
believed that it will furnish an effective volunteer force in aid of the
Regular Army, and may form the basis of a general system of organization
for the entire militia of the United States. The erection of a national
foundry and gunpowder manufactory, and one for making small arms, the
latter to be situated at some point west of the Allegany Mountains, all
appear to be of sufficient importance to be again urged upon your
attention.
The plan proposed by the Secretary of War for the distribution of the
forces of the United States in time of peace is well calculated to promote
regularity and economy in the fiscal administration of the service, to
preserve the discipline of the troops, and to render them available for the
maintenance of the peace and tranquillity of the Country. With this view,
likewise, I recommend the adoption of the plan presented by that officer
for the defense of the western frontier. The preservation of the lives and
property of our fellow-citizens who are settled upon that border country,
as well as the existence of the Indian population, which might be tempted
by our want of preparation to rush on their own destruction and attack the
white settlements, all seem to require that this subject should be acted
upon without delay, and the War Department authorized to place that country
in a state of complete defense against any assault from the numerous and
warlike tribes which are congregated on that border.
It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire
removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the
Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session, with
a view to the long-standing controversy with them, have had the happiest
effects. By an agreement concluded with them by the commanding general in
that country, who has performed the duties assigned to him on the occasion
with commendable energy and humanity, their removal has been principally
under the conduct of their own chiefs, and they have emigrated without any
apparent reluctance.
The successful accomplishment of this important object, the removal also of
the entire Creek Nation with the exception of a small number of fugitives
amongst the Seminoles in Florida, the progress already made toward a speedy
completion of the removal of the Chickasaws, the Choctaws, the
Pottawatamies, the Ottawas, and the Chippewas, with the extensive purchases
of Indian lands during the present year, have rendered the speedy and
successful result of the long-established policy of the Government upon the
subject of Indian affairs entirely certain. The occasion is therefore
deemed a proper one to place this policy in such a point of view as will
exonerate the Government of the United States from the undeserved reproach
which has been cast upon it through several successive Administrations.
That a mixed occupancy of the same territory by the white and red man is
incompatible with the safety or happiness of either is a position in
respect to which there has long since ceased to be room for a difference of
opinion. Reason and experience have alike demonstrated its
impracticability. The bitter fruits of every attempt heretofore to overcome
the barriers interposed by nature have only been destruction, both physical
and moral, to the Indian, dangerous conflicts of authority between the
Federal and State Governments, and detriment to the individual prosperity
of the citizen as well as to the general improvement of the country. The
remedial policy, the principles of which were settled more than thirty
years ago under the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, consists in an
extinction, for a fair consideration, of the title to all the lands still
occupied by the Indians within the States and Territories of the United
States; their removal to a country west of the Mississippi much more
extensive and better adapted to their condition than that on which they
then resided; the guarantee to them by the United States of their exclusive
possession of that country forever, exempt from all intrusions by white
men, with ample provisions for their security against external violence and
internal dissensions, and the extension to them of suitable facilities for
their advancement in civilization. This has not been the policy of
particular Administrations only, but of each in succession since the first
attempt to carry it out under that of Mr. Monroe. All have labored for its
accomplishment, only with different degrees of success. The manner of its
execution has, it is true, from time to time given rise to conflicts of
opinion and unjust imputations; but in respect to the wisdom and necessity
of the policy itself there has not from the beginning existed a doubt in
the mind of any calm, judicious, disinterested friend of the Indian race
accustomed to reflection and enlightened by experience.
Occupying the double character of contractor on its own account and
guardian for the parties contracted with, it was hardly to be expected that
the dealings of the Federal Government with the Indian tribes would escape
misrepresentation. That there occurred ill the early settlement of this
country, as in all others where the civilized race has succeeded to the
possessions of the savage, instances of oppression and fraud on the part of
the former there is too much reason to believe. No such offenses can,
however, be justly charged upon this Government since it became free to
pursue its own course. Its dealings with the Indian tribes have been just
and friendly throughout; its efforts for their civilization constant, and
directed by the best feelings of humanity; its watchfulness in protecting
them from individual frauds unremitting; its forbearance under the keenest
provocations, the deepest injuries, and the most flagrant outrages may
challenge at least a comparison with any nation, ancient or modern, in
similar circumstances; and if in future times a powerful, civilized, and
happy nation of Indians shall be found to exist within the limits of this
northern continent it will be owing to the consummation of that policy
which has been so unjustly assailed. Only a very brief reference to facts
in confirmation of this assertion can in this form be given, and you are
therefore necessarily referred to the report of the Secretary of War for
further details. To the Cherokees, whose case has perhaps excited the
greatest share of attention and sympathy, the United States have granted in
fee, with a perpetual guaranty of exclusive and peaceable possession,
13,554,135 acres of land on the west side of the Mississippi, eligibly
situated, in a healthy climate, and in all respects better suited to their
condition than the country they have left, in exchange for only 9,492, 160
acres on the east side of the same river. The United States have in
addition stipulated to pay them $5,600,000 for their interest in and
improvements on the lands thus relinquished, and $1,160,000 for subsistence
and other beneficial purposes, thereby putting it in their power to become
one of the most wealthy and independent separate communities of the same
extent in the world.
By the treaties made and ratified with the Miamies, the Chippewas, the
Sioux, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Winnebagoes during the last year the
Indian title to 18,458,000 acres has been extinguished. These purchases
have been much more extensive than those of any previous year, and have,
with other Indian expenses, borne very heavily upon the Treasury. They
leave, however, but a small quantity of unbought Indian lands within the
States and Territories, and the Legislature and Executive were equally
sensible of the propriety of a final and more speedy extinction of Indian
titles within those limits. The treaties, which were with a single
exception made in pursuance of previous appropriations for defraying the
expenses, have subsequently been ratified by the Senate, and received the
sanction of Congress by the appropriations necessary to carry them into
effect. Of the terms upon which these important negotiations were concluded
I can speak from direct knowledge, and I feel no difficulty in affirming
that the interest of the Indians in the extensive territory embraced by
them is to be paid for at its fair value, and that no more favorable terms
have been granted to the United States than would have been reasonably
expected in a negotiation with civilized men fully capable of appreciating
and protecting their own rights. For the Indian title to 116,349,897 acres
acquired since the 4th of March, 1829, the United States have paid
$72,560,056 in permanent annuities, lands, reservations for Indians,
expenses of removal and subsistence, merchandise, mechanical and
agricultural establishments and implements. When the heavy expenses
incurred by the United States and the circumstance that so large a portion
of the entire territory will be forever unsalable are considered, and this
price is compared with that for which the United States sell their own
lands, no one can doubt that justice has been done to the Indians in these
purchases also. Certain it is that the transactions of the Federal
Government with the Indians have been uniformly characterized by a sincere
and paramount desire to promote their welfare; and it must be a source of
the highest gratification to every friend to justice and humanity to learn
that not withstanding the obstructions from time to time thrown in its way
and the difficulties which have arisen from the peculiar and impracticable
nature of the Indian character, the wise, humane, and undeviating policy of
the Government in this the most difficult of all our relations, foreign or
domestic, has at length been justified to the world in its near approach to
a happy and certain consummation.
The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them in
the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early
civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and
turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. All those who have been
established for any length of time in that fertile region maintain
themselves by their own industry. There are among them traders of no
inconsiderable capital, and planters exporting cotton to some extent, but
the greater number are small agriculturists, living in comfort upon the
produce of their farms. The recent emigrants, although they have in some
instances removed reluctantly, have readily acquiesced in their unavoidable
destiny. They have found at once a recompense for past sufferings and an
incentive to industrious habits in the abundance and comforts around them.
There is reason to believe that all these tribes are friendly in their
feelings toward the United States; and it is to be hoped that the
acquisition of individual wealth, the pursuits of agriculture, and habits
of industry will gradually subdue their warlike propensities and incline
them to maintain peace among themselves. To effect this desirable object
the attention of Congress is solicited to the measures recommended by the
Secretary of War for their future government and protection, as well from
each other as from the hostility of the warlike tribes around them and the
intrusions of the whites. The policy of the Government has given them a
permanent home and guaranteed to them its peaceful and undisturbed
possession. It only remains to give them a government and laws which will
encourage industry and secure to them the rewards of their exertions. The
importance of some form of government can not be too much insisted upon.
The earliest effects will be to diminish the causes and occasions for
hostilities among the tribes, to inspire an interest in the observance of
laws to which they will have themselves assented, and to multiply the
securities of property and the motives for self-improvement. Intimately
connected with this subject is the establishment of the military defenses
recommended by the Secretary of War, which have been already referred to.
Without them the Government will be powerless to redeem its pledge of
protection to the emigrating Indians against the numerous warlike tribes
that surround them and to provide for the safety of the frontier settlers
of the bordering States.
The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to the
successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the homes
assigned them west of the Mississippi. Four hundred of this tribe emigrated
in 1836 and 1,500 in 1837 and 1838, leaving in the country, it is supposed,
about 2,000 Indians. The continued treacherous conduct of these people; the
savage and unprovoked murders they have lately committed, butchering whole
families of the settlers of the Territory without distinction of age or
sex, and making their way into the very center and heart of the country, so
that no part of it is free from their ravages; their frequent attacks on
the light-houses along that dangerous coast, and the barbarity with which
they have murdered the passengers and crews of such vessels as have been
wrecked upon the reefs and keys which border the Gulf, leave the Government
no alternative but to continue the military operations against them until
they are totally expelled from Florida. There are other motives which would
urge the Government to pursue this course toward the Seminoles. The United
States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the
Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like
performance of their obligations. To relax from this salutary rule because
the Seminoles have maintained themselves so long in the territory they had
relinquished, and in defiance of their frequent and solemn engagements
still continue to wage a ruthless war against the United States, would not
only evince a want of constancy on our part, but be of evil example in our
intercourse with other tribes. Experience has shown that but little is to
be gained by the march of armies through a country so intersected with
inaccessible swamps and marshes, and which, from the fatal character of the
climate, must be abandoned at the end of the winter. I recommend,
therefore, to your attention the plan submitted by the Secretary of War in
the accompanying report, for the permanent occupation of the portion of the
Territory freed from the Indians and the more efficient protection of the
people of Florida from their inhuman warfare.
From the report of the Secretary of the Navy herewith transmitted it will
appear that a large portion of the disposable naval force is either
actively employed or in a state of preparation for the purposes of
experience and discipline and the protection of our commerce. So effectual
has been this protection that so far as the information of Government
extends not a single outrage has been attempted on a vessel carrying the
flag of the United States within the present year, in any quarter, however
distant or exposed.
The exploring expedition sailed from Norfolk on the 19th of August last,
and information has been received of its safe arrival at the island of
Madeira. The best spirit animates the officers and crews, and there is
every reason to anticipate from its efforts results beneficial to commerce
and honorable to the nation.
It will also be seen that no reduction of the force now in commission is
contemplated. The unsettled state of a portion of South America renders it
indispensable that our commerce should receive protection in that quarter;
the vast and increasing interests embarked in the trade of the Indian and
China seas, in the whale fisheries of the Pacific Ocean, and in the Gulf of
Mexico require equal attention to their safety, and a small squadron may be
employed to great advantage on our Atlantic coast in meeting sudden demands
for the reenforcement of other stations, in aiding merchant vessels in
distress, in affording active service to an additional number of officers,
and in visiting the different ports of the United States, an accurate
knowledge of which is obviously of the highest importance.
The attention of Congress is respectfully called to that portion of the
report recommending an increase in the number of smaller vessels, and to
other suggestions contained in that document. The rapid increase and wide
expansion of our commerce, which is every day seeking new avenues of
profitable adventure; the absolute necessity of a naval force for its
protection precisely in the degree of its extension; a due regard to the
national rights and honor; the recollection of its former exploits, and the
anticipation of its future triumphs whenever opportunity presents itself,
which we may rightfully indulge from the experience of the past--all seem
to point to the Navy as a most efficient arm of our national defense and a
proper object of legislative encouragement.
The progress and condition of the Post-Office Department will be seen by
reference to the report of the Postmaster-General. The extent of post-roads
covered by mail contracts is stated to be 134,818 miles, and the annual
transportation upon them 34,580,202 miles. The number of post-offices in
the United States is 12,553, and rapidly increasing. The gross revenue for
the year ending on the 30th day of June last was $4,262,145; the accruing
expenditures, $4,680,068; excess of expenditures, $417,923. This has been
made up out of the surplus previously on hand. The cash on hand on the 1st
instant was $314,068. The revenue for the year ending June 30, 1838, was
$161,540 more than that for the year ending June 30, 1837. The expenditures
of the Department had been graduated upon the anticipation of a largely
increased revenue. A moderate curtailment of mail service consequently
became necessary, and has been effected, to shield the Department against
the danger of embarrassment. Its revenue is now improving, and it will soon
resume its onward course in the march of improvement.
Your particular attention is requested to so much of the
Postmaster-Generals report as relates to the transportation of the mails
upon railroads. The laws on that subject do not seem adequate to secure
that service, now become almost essential to the public interests, and at
the same time protect the Department from combinations and unreasonable
demands.
Nor can I too earnestly request your attention to the necessity of
providing a more secure building for this Department. The danger of
destruction to which its important books and papers are continually
exposed, as well from the highly combustible character of the building
occupied as from that of others in the vicinity, calls loudly for prompt
action.
Your attention is again earnestly invited to the suggestions and
recommendations submitted at the last session in respect to the District of
Columbia.
I feel it my duty also to bring to your notice certain proceedings at law
which have recently been prosecuted in this District in the name of the
United States, on the relation of Messrs. Stockton & Stokes, of the State
of Maryland, against the Postmaster-General, and which have resulted in the
payment of money out of the National Treasury, for the first time since the
establishment of the Government, by judicial compulsion exercised by the
common-law writ of mandamus issued by the circuit court of this District.
The facts of the case and the grounds of the proceedings will be found
fully stated in the report of the decision, and any additional information
which you may desire will be supplied by the proper Department. No
interference in the particular case is contemplated. The money has been
paid, the claims of the prosecutors have been satisfied, and the whole
subject, so far as they are concerned, is finally disposed of; but it is on
the supposition that the case may be regarded as an authoritative
exposition of the law as it now stands that I have thought it necessary to
present it to your consideration.
The object of the application to the circuit court was to compel the
Postmaster-General to carry into effect an award made by the Solicitor of
the Treasury, under a special act of Congress for the settlement of certain
claims of the relators on the Post-Office Department, which award the
Postmaster-General declined to execute in full until he should receive
further legislative direction on the subject. If the duty imposed on the
Postmaster-General by that law was to be regarded as one of an official
nature, belonging to his office as a branch of the executive, then it is
obvious that the constitutional competency of the judiciary to direct and
control him in its discharge was necessarily drawn in question; and if the
duty so imposed on the Postmaster-General was to be considered as merely
ministerial, and not executive, it yet remained to be shown that the
circuit court of this District had authority to interfere by mandamus, such
a power having never before been asserted or claimed by that court. With a
view to the settlement of these important questions, the judgment of the
circuit court was carried by a writ of error to the Supreme Court of the
United States. In the opinion of that tribunal the duty imposed on the
Postmaster-General was not an official executive duty, but one of a merely
ministerial nature. The grave constitutional questions which had been
discussed were therefore excluded from the decision of the case, the court,
indeed, expressly admitting that with powers and duties properly belonging
to the executive no other department can interfere by the writ of
mandamus; and the question therefore resolved itself into this: Has
Congress conferred upon the circuit court of this District the power to
issue such a writ to an officer of the General Government commanding him to
perform a ministerial act? A majority of the court have decided that it
has, but have rounded their decision upon a process of reasoning which in
my judgment renders further legislative provision indispensable to the
public interests and the equal administration of justice.
It has long since been decided by the Supreme Court that neither that
tribunal nor the circuit courts of the United States, held within the
respective States, possess the power in question; but it is now held that
this power, denied to both of these high tribunals (to the former by the
Constitution and to the latter by Congress), has been by its legislation
vested in the circuit court of this District. No such direct grant of power
to the circuit court of this District is claimed, but it has been held to
result by necessary implication from several sections of the law
establishing the court. One of these sections declares that the laws of
Maryland, as they existed at the time of the cession, should be in force in
that part of the District ceded by that State, and by this provision the
common law in civil and criminal cases, as it prevailed in Maryland in
1801, was established in that part of the District.
In England the court of king's bench--because the Sovereign, who, according
to the theory of the constitution, is the fountain of justice originally
sat there in person, and is still deemed to be present in construction of
law--alone possesses the high power of issuing the writ of mandamus, not
only to inferior jurisdictions and corporations, but also to magistrates
and others, commanding them in the King's name to do what their duty
requires in cases where there is a vested right and no other specific
remedy. It has been held in the case referred to that as the Supreme Court
of the United States is by the Constitution rendered incompetent to
exercise this power, and as the circuit court of this District is a court
of general jurisdiction in cases at common law, and the highest court of
original jurisdiction in the District, the right to issue the writ of
mandamus is incident to its common-law powers. Another ground relied upon
to maintain the power in question is that it was included by fair
construction in the powers granted to the circuit courts of the United
States by the act "to provide for the more convenient organization of the
courts of the United States," passed 13th February, 1801; that the act
establishing the circuit court of this District, passed the 27th day of
February, 1801, conferred upon that court and the judges thereof the same
powers as were by law vested in the circuit courts of the United States and
in the judges of the said courts; that the repeal of the first-mentioned
act, which took place in the next year, did not divest the circuit court of
this District of the authority in dispute, but left it still clothed with
the powers over the subject which, it is conceded, were taken away from the
circuit courts of the United States by the repeal of the act of 13th
February, 1801.
Admitting that the adoption of the laws of Maryland for a portion of this
District confers on the circuit court thereof, in that portion, the
transcendent extrajudicial prerogative powers of the court of king's bench
in England, or that either of the acts of Congress by necessary implication
authorizes the former court to issue a writ of mandamus to an officer of
the United States to compel him to perform a ministerial duty, the
consequences are in one respect the same. The result in either case is that
the officers of the United States stationed in different parts of the
United States are, in respect to the performance of their official duties,
subject to different laws and a different supervision--those in the States
to one rule, and those in the District of Columbia to another and a very
different one. In the District their official conduct is subject to a
judicial control from which in the States they are exempt.
Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the expediency of vesting
such a power in the judiciary in a system of government constituted like
that of the United States, all must agree that these disparaging
discrepancies in the law and in the administration of justice ought not to
he permitted to continue; and as Congress alone can provide the remedy, the
subject is unavoidably presented to your consideration.
M. VAN BUREN
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