President[ James Polk
Date[ December 5, 1848
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the
States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the
public good. The gratitude of the nation to the Sovereign Arbiter of All
Human Events should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we
enjoy.
Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our
beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.
The troubled and unsettled condition of some of the principal European
powers has had a necessary tendency to check and embarrass trade and to
depress prices throughout all commercial nations, but notwithstanding these
causes, the United States, with their abundant products, have felt their
effects less severely than any other country, and all our great interests
are still prosperous and successful.
In reviewing the great events of the past year and contrasting the agitated
and disturbed state of other countries with our own tranquil and happy
condition, we may congratulate ourselves that we are the most favored
people on the face of the earth. While the people of other countries are
struggling to establish free institutions, under which man may govern
himself, we are in the actual enjoyment of them--a rich inheritance from
our fathers. While enlightened nations of Europe are convulsed and
distracted by civil war or intestine strife, we settle all our political
controversies by the peaceful exercise of the rights of freemen at the
ballot box.
The great republican maxim, so deeply engraven on the hearts of our people,
that the will of the majority, constitutionally expressed, shall prevail,
is our sure safeguard against force and violence. It is a subject of just
pride that our fame and character as a nation continue rapidly to advance
in the estimation of the civilized world.
To our wise and free institutions it is to be attributed that while other
nations have achieved glory at the price of the suffering, distress, and
impoverishment of their people, we have won our honorable position in the
midst of an uninterrupted prosperity and of an increasing individual
comfort and happiness.
I am happy to inform you that our relations with all nations are friendly
and pacific. Advantageous treaties of commerce have been concluded within
the last four years with New Granada, Peru, the Two Sicilies, Belgium,
Hanover, Oldenburg, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Pursuing our example, the
restrictive system of Great Britain, our principal foreign customer, has
been relaxed, a more liberal commercial policy has been adopted by other
enlightened nations, and our trade has been greatly enlarged and extended.
Our country stands higher in the respect of the world than at any former
period. To continue to occupy this proud position, it is only necessary to
preserve peace and faithfully adhere to the great and fundamental principle
of our foreign policy of noninterference in the domestic concerns of other
nations. We recognize in all nations the right which we enjoy ourselves, to
change and reform their political institutions according to their own will
and pleasure. Hence we do not look behind existing governments capable of
maintaining their own authority. We recognize all such actual governments,
not only from the dictates of true policy, but from a sacred regard for the
independence of nations. While this is our settled policy, it does not
follow that we can ever be indifferent spectators of the progress of
liberal principles. The Government and people of the United States hailed
with enthusiasm and delight the establishment of the French Republic, as we
now hail the efforts in progress to unite the States of Germany in a
confederation similar in many respects to our own Federal Union. If the
great and enlightened German States, occupying, as they do, a central and
commanding position in Europe, shall succeed in establishing such a
confederated government, securing at the same time to the citizens of each
State local governments adapted to the peculiar condition of each, with
unrestricted trade and intercourse with each other, it will be an important
era in the history of human events. Whilst it will consolidate and
strengthen the power of Germany, it must essentially promote the cause of
peace, commerce, civilization, and constitutional liberty throughout the
world.
With all the Governments on this continent our relations, it is believed,
are now on a more friendly and satisfactory footing than they have ever
been at any former period.
Since the exchange of ratifications of the treaty of peace with Mexico our
intercourse with the Government of that Republic has been of the most
friendly character. The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
the United States to Mexico has been received and accredited, and a
diplomatic representative from Mexico of similar rank has been received and
accredited by this Government. The amicable relations between the two
countries, which had been suspended, have been happily restored, and are
destined, I trust, to be long preserved. The two Republics, both situated
on this continent, and with coterminous territories, have every motive of
sympathy and of interest to bind them together in perpetual amity.
This gratifying condition of our foreign relations renders it unnecessary
for me to call your attention more specifically to them.
It has been my constant aim and desire to cultivate peace and commerce with
all nations. Tranquility at home and peaceful relations abroad constitute
the true permanent policy of our country. War, the scourge of nations,
sometimes becomes inevitable, but is always to be avoided when it can be
done consistently with the rights and honor of a nation.
One of the most important results of the war into which we were recently
forced with a neighboring nation is the demonstration it has afforded of
the military strength of our country. Before the late war with Mexico
European and other foreign powers entertained imperfect and erroneous views
of our physical strength as a nation and of our ability to prosecute war,
and especially a war waged out of out own country. They saw that our
standing Army on the peace establishment did not exceed 10,000 men.
Accustomed themselves to maintain in peace large standing armies for the
protection of thrones against their own subjects, as well as against
foreign enemies, they had not conceived that it was possible for a nation
without such an army, well disciplined and of long service, to wage war
successfully. They held in low repute our militia, and were far from
regarding them as an effective force, unless it might be for temporary
defensive operations when invaded on our own soil. The events of the late
war with Mexico have not only undeceived them, but have removed erroneous
impressions which prevailed to some extent even among a portion of our own
countrymen. That war has demonstrated that upon the breaking out of
hostilities not anticipated, and for which no previous preparation had been
made, a volunteer army of citizen soldiers equal to veteran troops, and in
numbers equal to any emergency, can in a short period be brought into the
field. Unlike what would have occurred in any other country, we were under
no necessity of resorting to drafts or conscriptions. On the contrary, such
was the number of volunteers who patriotically tendered their services that
the chief difficulty was in making selections and determining who should be
disappointed and compelled to remain at home. Our citizen soldiers are
unlike those drawn from the population of any other country. They are
composed indiscriminately of all professions and pursuits--of farmers,
lawyers, physicians, merchants, manufacturers, mechanics, and laborers--and
this not only among the officers, but the private soldiers in the ranks.
Our citizen soldiers are unlike those of any other country in other
respects. They are armed, and have been accustomed from their youth up to
handle and use firearms, and a large proportion of them, especially in the
Western and more newly settled States, are expert marksmen. They are men
who have a reputation to maintain at home by their good conduct in the
field. They are intelligent, and there is an individuality of character
which is found in the ranks of no other army. In battle each private man,
as well as every officer, rights not only for his country, but for glory
and distinction among his fellow-citizens when he shall return to civil
life.
The war with Mexico has demonstrated not only the ability of the Government
to organize a numerous army upon a sudden call, but also to provide it with
all the munitions and necessary supplies with dispatch, convenience, and
ease, and to direct its operations with efficiency. The strength of our
institutions has not only been displayed in the valor and skill of our
troops engaged in active service in the field, but in the organization of
those executive branches which were charged with the general direction and
conduct of the war. While too great praise can not be bestowed upon the
officers and men who fought our battles, it would be unjust to withhold
from those officers necessarily stationed at home, who were charged with
the duty of furnishing the Army in proper time and at proper places with
all the munitions of war and other supplies so necessary to make it
efficient, the commendation to which they are entitled. The credit due to
this class of our officers is the greater when it is considered that no
army in ancient or modern times was even better appointed or provided than
our Army in Mexico. Operating in an enemy's country, removed 2,000 miles
from the seat of the Federal Government, its different corps spread over a
vast extent of territory, hundreds and even thousands of miles apart from
each other, nothing short of the untiring vigilance and extraordinary
energy of these officers could have enabled them to provide the Army at all
points and in proper season with all that was required for the most
efficient service.
It is but an act of justice to declare that the officers in charge of the
several executive bureaus, all under the immediate eye and supervision of
the Secretary of War, performed their respective duties with ability,
energy, and efficiency. They have reaped less of the glory of the war, not
having been personally exposed to its perils in battle, than their
companions in arms; but without their forecast, efficient aid, and
cooperation those in the field would not have been provided with the ample
means they possessed of achieving for themselves and their country the
unfading honors which they have won for both.
When all these facts are considered, it may cease to be a matter of so much
amazement abroad how it happened that our noble Army in Mexico, regulars
and volunteers, were victorious upon every battlefield, however fearful the
odds against them.
The war with Mexico has thus fully developed the capacity of republican
governments to prosecute successfully a just and necessary foreign war with
all the vigor usually attributed to more arbitrary forms of government. It
has been usual for writers on public law to impute to republics a want of
that unity, concentration of purpose, and vigor of execution which are
generally admitted to belong to the monarchical and aristocratic forms; and
this feature of popular government has been supposed to display itself more
particularly in the conduct of a war carried on in an enemy's territory.
The war with Great Britain in 1812 was to a great extent confined within
our own limits, and shed but little light on this subject; but the war
which we have just closed by an honorable peace evinces beyond all doubt
that a popular representative government is equal to any emergency which is
likely to arise in the affairs of a nation.
The war with Mexico has developed most strikingly and conspicuously another
feature in our institutions. It is that without cost to the Government or
danger to our liberties we have in the bosom of our society of freemen,
available in a just and necessary war, virtually a standing army of
2,000,000 armed citizen soldiers, such as fought the battles of Mexico. But
our military strength does not consist alone in our capacity for extended
and successful operations on land. The Navy is an important arm of the
national defense. If the services of the Navy were not so brilliant as
those of the Army in the late war with Mexico, it was because they had no
enemy to meet on their own element. While the Army had opportunity of
performing more conspicuous service, the Navy largely participated in the
conduct of the war. Both branches of the service performed their whole duty
to the country. For the able and gallant services of the officers and men
of the Navy, acting independently as well as in cooperation with our
troops, in the conquest of the Californias, the capture of Vera Cruz, and
the seizure and occupation of other important positions on the Gulf and
Pacific coasts, the highest praise is due. Their vigilance, energy, and
skill rendered the most effective service in excluding munitions of war and
other supplies from the enemy, while they secured a safe entrance for
abundant supplies for our own Army. Our extended commerce was nowhere
interrupted, and for this immunity from the evils of war the country is
indebted to the Navy.
High praise is due to the officers of the several executive bureaus,
navy-yards, and stations connected with the service, all under the
immediate direction of the Secretary of the Navy, for the industry,
foresight, and energy with which everything was directed and furnished to
give efficiency to that branch of the service. The same vigilance existed
in directing the operations of the Navy as of the Army. There was concert
of action and of purpose between the heads of the two arms of the service.
By the orders which were from time to time issued, our vessels of war on
the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico were stationed in proper time and in
proper positions to cooperate efficiently with the Army. By this means
their combined power was brought to bear successfully on the enemy.
The great results which have been developed and brought to light by this
war will be of immeasurable importance in the future progress of our
country. They will tend powerfully to preserve us from foreign collisions,
and to enable us to pursue uninterruptedly our cherished policy of "peace
with all nations, entangling alliances with none."
Occupying, as we do, a more commanding position among nations than at any
former period, our duties and our responsibilities to ourselves and to
posterity are correspondingly increased. This will be the more obvious when
we consider the vast additions which have been recently made to our
territorial possessions and their great importance and value.
Within less than four years the annexation of Texas to the Union has been
consummated; all conflicting title to the Oregon Territory south of the
forty-ninth degree of north latitude, being all that was insisted on by any
of my predecessors, has been adjusted, and New Mexico and Upper California
have been acquired by treaty. The area of these several Territories,
according to a report carefully prepared by the Commissioner of the General
Land Office from the most authentic information in his possession, and
which is herewith transmitted, contains 1,193,061 square miles, or
763,559,040 acres; while the area of the remaining twenty-nine States and
the territory not yet organized into States east of the Rocky Mountains
contains 2,059,513 square miles, or 1,318,126,058 acres. These estimates
show that the territories recently acquired, and over which our exclusive
jurisdiction and dominion have been extended, constitute a country more
than half as large as all that which was held by the United States before
their acquisition. If Oregon be excluded from the estimate, there will
still remain within the limits of Texas, New Mexico, and California 851,598
square miles, or 545,012,720 acres, being an addition equal to more than
one-third of all the territory owned by the United States before their
acquisition, and, including Oregon, nearly as great an extent of territory
as the whole of Europe, Russia only excepted. The Mississippi, so lately
the frontier of our country, is now only its center. With the addition of
the late acquisitions, the United States are now estimated to be nearly as
large as the whole of Europe. It is estimated by the Superintendent of the
Coast Survey in the accompanying report that the extent of the seacoast of
Texas on the Gulf of Mexico is upward of 400 miles; of the coast of Upper
California on the Pacific, of 970 miles, and of Oregon, including the
Straits of Fuca, of 650 miles, making the whole extent of seacoast on the
Pacific 1,620 miles and the whole extent on both the Pacific and the Gulf
of Mexico 2,020 miles. The length of the coast on the Atlantic from the
northern limits of the United States around the capes of Florida to the
Sabine, on the eastern boundary of Texas, is estimated to be 3,100 miles;
so that the addition of seacoast, including Oregon, is very nearly
two-thirds as great as all we possessed before, and, excluding Oregon, is
an addition of 1,370 miles, being nearly equal to one-half of the extent of
coast which we possessed before these acquisitions. We have now three great
maritime fronts--on the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the
Pacific--making in the whole an extent of seacoast exceeding 5,000 miles.
This is the extent of the seacoast of the United States, not including
bays, sounds, and small irregularities of the main shore and of the sea
islands. If these be included, the length of the shore line of coast, as
estimated by the Superintendent of the Coast Survey in his report, would be
33,063 miles.
It would be difficult to calculate the value of these immense additions to
our territorial possessions. Texas, lying contiguous to the western
boundary of Louisiana, embracing within its limits a part of the navigable
tributary waters of the Mississippi and an extensive seacoast, could not
long have remained in the hands of a foreign power without endangering the
peace of our southwestern frontier. Her products in the vicinity of the
tributaries of the Mississippi must have sought a market through these
streams, running into and through our territory, and the danger of
irritation and collision of interests between Texas as a foreign state and
ourselves would have been imminent, while the embarrassments in the
commercial intercourse between them must have been constant and
unavoidable. Had Texas fallen into the hands or under the influence and
control of a strong maritime or military foreign power, as she might have
done, these dangers would have been still greater. They have been avoided
by her voluntary and peaceful annexation to the United States. Texas, from
her position, was a natural and almost indispensable part of our
territories. Fortunately, she has been restored to our country, and now
constitutes one of the States of our Confederacy, "upon an equal footing
with the original States." The salubrity of climate, the fertility of soil,
peculiarly adapted to the production of some of our most valuable staple
commodities, and her commercial advantages must soon make her one of our
most populous States.
New Mexico, though situated in the interior and without a seacoast, is
known to contain much fertile land, to abound in rich mines of the precious
metals, and to be capable of sustaining a large population. From its
position it is the intermediate and connecting territory between our
settlements and our possessions in Texas and those on the Pacific Coast.
Upper California, irrespective of the vast mineral wealth recently
developed there, holds at this day, in point of value and importance, to
the rest of the Union the same relation that Louisiana did when that fine
territory was acquired from France forty-five years ago. Extending nearly
ten degrees of latitude along the Pacific, and embracing the only safe and
commodious harbors on that coast for many hundred miles, with a temperate
climate and an extensive interior of fertile lands, it is scarcely possible
to estimate its wealth until it shall be brought under the government of
our laws and its resources fully developed. From its position it must
command the rich commerce of China, of Asia, of the islands of the Pacific,
of western Mexico, of Central America, the South American States, and of
the Russian possessions bordering on that ocean. A great emporium will
doubtless speedily arise on the Californian coast which may be destined to
rival in importance New Orleans itself. The depot of the vast commerce
which must exist on the Pacific will probably be at some point on the Bay
of San Francisco, and will occupy the same relation to the whole western
coast of that ocean as New Orleans does to the valley of the Mississippi
and the Gulf of Mexico. To this depot our numerous whale ships will resort
with their cargoes to trade, refit, and obtain supplies. This of itself
will largely contribute to build up a city, which would soon become the
center of a great and rapidly increasing commerce. Situated on a safe
harbor, sufficiently capacious for all the navies as well as the marine of
the world, and convenient to excellent timber for shipbuilding, owned by
the United States, it must become our great Western naval depot.
It was known that mines of the precious metals existed to a considerable
extent in California at the time of its acquisition. Recent discoveries
render it probable that these mines are more extensive and valuable than
was anticipated. The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory
are of such an extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief
were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the
public service who have visited the mineral district and derived the facts
which they detail from personal observation. Reluctant to credit the
reports in general circulation as to the quantity of gold, the officer
commanding our forces in California visited the mineral district in July
last for the purpose of obtaining accurate information on the subject. His
report to the War Department of the result of his examination and the facts
obtained on the spot is herewith laid before Congress. When he visited the
country there were about 4,000 persons engaged in collecting gold. There is
every reason to believe that the number of persons so employed has since
been augmented. The explorations already made warrant the belief that the
supply is very large and that gold is found at various places in an
extensive district of country.
Information received from officers of the Navy and other sources, though
not so full and minute, confirms the accounts of the commander of our
military force in California. It appears also from these reports that mines
of quicksilver are found in the vicinity of the gold region. One of them is
now being worked, and is believed to be among the most productive in the
world.
The effects produced by the discovery of these rich mineral deposits and
the success which has attended the labors of those who have resorted to
them have produced a surprising change in the state of affairs in
California. Labor commands a most exorbitant price, and all other pursuits
but that of searching for the precious metals are abandoned. Nearly the
whole of the male population of the country have gone to the gold
districts. Ships arriving on the coast are deserted by their crews and
their voyages suspended for want of sailors. Our commanding officer there
entertains apprehensions that soldiers can not be kept in the public
service without a large increase of pay. Desertions in his command have
become frequent, and he recommends that those who shall withstand the
strong temptation and remain faithful should be rewarded.
This abundance of gold and the all-engrossing pursuit of it have already
caused in California an unprecedented rise in the price of all the
necessaries of life.
That we may the more speedily and fully avail ourselves of the undeveloped
wealth of these mines, it is deemed of vast importance that a branch of the
Mint of the United States be authorized to be established at your present
session in California. Among other signal advantages which would result
from such an establishment would be that of raising the gold to its par
value in that territory. A branch mint of the United States at the great
commercial depot on the west coast would convert into our own coin not only
the gold derived from our own rich mines, but also the bullion and specie
which our commerce may bring from the whole west coast of Central and South
America. The west coast of America and the adjacent interior embrace the
richest and best mines of Mexico, New Granada, Central America, Chili, and
Peru. The bullion and specie drawn from these countries, and especially
from those of western Mexico and Peru, to an amount in value of many
millions of dollars, are now annually diverted and carried by the ships of
Great Britain to her own ports, to be recoined or used to sustain her
national bank, and thus contribute to increase her ability to command so
much of the commerce of the world. If a branch mint be established at the
great commercial point upon that coast, a vast amount of bullion and specie
would flow thither to be recoined, and pass thence to New Orleans, New
York, and other Atlantic cities. The amount of our constitutional currency
at home would be greatly increased, while its circulation abroad would be
promoted. It is well known to our merchants trading to China and the west
coast of America that great inconvenience and loss are experienced from the
fact that our coins are not current at their par value in those countries.
The powers of Europe, far removed from the west coast of America by the
Atlantic Ocean, which intervenes, and by a tedious and dangerous navigation
around the southern cape of the continent of America, can never
successfully compete with the United States in the rich and extensive
commerce which is opened to us at so much less cost by the acquisition of
California.
The vast importance and commercial advantages of California have heretofore
remained undeveloped by the Government of the country of which it
constituted a part. Now that this fine province is a part of our country,
all the States of the Union, some more immediately and directly than
others, are deeply interested in the speedy development of its wealth and
resources. No section of our country is more interested or will be more
benefited than the commercial, navigating, and manufacturing interests of
the Eastern States. Our planting and farming interests in every part of the
Union will Be greatly benefited by it. As our commerce and navigation are
enlarged and extended, our exports of agricultural products and of
manufactures will be increased, and in the new markets thus opened they can
not fail to command remunerating and profitable prices.
The acquisition of California and New Mexico, the settlement of the Oregon
boundary, and the annexation of Texas, extending to the Rio Grande, are
results which, combined, are of greater consequence and will add more to
the strength and wealth of the nation than any which have preceded them
since the adoption of the Constitution.
But to effect these great results not only California, but New Mexico, must
be brought under the control of regularly organized governments. The
existing condition of California and of that part of New Mexico lying west
of the Rio Grande and without the limits of Texas imperiously demands that
Congress should at its present session organize Territorial governments
over them.
Upon the exchange of ratifications of the treaty of peace with Mexico, on
the 30th of May last, the temporary governments which had been established
over New Mexico and California by our military and naval commanders by
virtue of the rights of war ceased to derive any obligatory force from that
source of authority, and having been ceded to the United States, all
government and control over them under the authority of Mexico had ceased
to exist. Impressed with the necessity of establishing Territorial
governments over them, I recommended the subject to the favorable
consideration of Congress in my message communicating the ratified treaty
of peace, on the 6th of July last, and invoked their action at that
session. Congress adjourned without making any provision for their
government. The inhabitants by the transfer of their country had become
entitled to the benefit of our laws and Constitution, and yet were left
without any regularly organized government. Since that time the very
limited power possessed by the Executive has been exercised to preserve and
protect them from the inevitable consequences of a state of anarchy. The
only government which remained was that established by the military
authority during the war. Regarding this to be a de facto government, and
that by the presumed consent of the inhabitants it might be continued
temporarily, they were advised to conform and submit to it for the short
intervening period before Congress would again assemble and could legislate
on the subject. The views entertained by the Executive on this point are
contained in a communication of the Secretary of State dated the 7th of
October last, which was forwarded for publication to California and New
Mexico, a copy of which is herewith transmitted. The small military force
of the Regular Army which was serving within the limits of the acquired
territories at the close of the war was retained in them, and additional
forces have been ordered there for the protection of the inhabitants and to
preserve and secure the rights and interests of the United States.
No revenue has been or could be collected at the ports in California,
because Congress failed to authorize the establishment of custom-houses or
the appointment of officers for that purpose.
The Secretary of the Treasury, by a circular letter addressed to collectors
of the customs on the 7th day of October last, a copy of which is herewith
transmitted, exercised all the power with which he was invested by law.
In pursuance of the act of the 14th of August last, extending the benefit
of our post-office laws to the people of California, the Postmaster-General
has appointed two agents, who have proceeded, the one to California and the
other to Oregon, with authority to make the necessary arrangements for
carrying its provisions into effect.
The monthly line of mail steamers from Panama to Astoria has been required
to "stop and deliver and take mails at San Diego, Monterey, and San
Francisco." These mail steamers, connected by the Isthmus of Panama with
the line of mail steamers on the Atlantic between New York and Chagres,
will establish a regular mail communication with California.
It is our solemn duty to provide with the least practicable delay for New
Mexico and California regularly organized Territorial governments. The
causes of the failure to do this at the last session of Congress are well
known and deeply to be regretted. With the opening prospects of increased
prosperity and national greatness which the acquisition of these rich and
extensive territorial possessions affords, how irrational it would be to
forego or to reject these advantages by the agitation of a domestic
question which is coeval with the existence of our Government itself, and
to endanger by internal strifes, geographical divisions, and heated
contests for political power, or for any other cause, the harmony of the
glorious Union of our confederated States--that Union which binds us
together as one people, and which for sixty years has been our shield and
protection against every danger. In the eyes of the world and of posterity
how trivial and insignificant will be all our internal divisions and
struggles compared with the preservation of this Union of the States in all
its vigor and with all its countless blessings! No patriot would foment and
excite geographical and sectional divisions. No lover of his country would
deliberately calculate the value of the Union. Future generations would
look in amazement upon the folly of such a course. Other nations at the
present day would look upon it with astonishment, and such of them as
desire to maintain and perpetuate thrones and monarchical or aristocratical
principles will view it with exultation and delight, because in it they
will see the elements of faction, which they hope must ultimately overturn
our system. Ours is the great example of a prosperous and free
self-governed republic, commanding the admiration and the imitation of all
the lovers of freedom throughout the world. How solemn, therefore, is the
duty, how impressive the call upon us and upon all parts of our country, to
cultivate a patriotic spirit of harmony, of good-fellowship, of compromise
and mutual concession, in the administration of the incomparable system of
government formed by our fathers in the midst of almost insuperable
difficulties, and transmitted to us with the injunction that we should
enjoy its blessings and hand it down unimpaired to those who may come after
us.
In view of the high and responsible duties which we owe to ourselves and to
mankind, I trust you may be able at your present session to approach the
adjustment of the only domestic question which seriously threatens, or
probably ever can threaten, to disturb the harmony and successful
operations of our system.
The immensely valuable possessions of New Mexico and California are already
inhabited by a considerable population. Attracted by their great fertility,
their mineral wealth, their commercial advantages, and the salubrity of the
climate, emigrants from the older States in great numbers are already
preparing to seek new homes in these inviting regions. Shall the
dissimilarity of the domestic institutions in the different States prevent
us from providing for them suitable governments? These institutions existed
at the adoption of the Constitution, but the obstacles which they
interposed were overcome by that spirit of compromise which is now invoked.
In a conflict of opinions or of interests, real or imaginary, between
different sections of our country, neither can justly demand all which it
might desire to obtain. Each, in the true spirit of our institutions,
should concede something to the other.
Our gallant forces in the Mexican war, by whose patriotism and unparalleled
deeds of arms we obtained these possessions as an indemnity for our just
demands against Mexico, were composed of citizens who belonged to no one
State or section of our Union. They were men from slaveholding and
nonslaveholding States, from the North and the South, from the East and the
West. They were all companions in arms and fellow-citizens of the same
common country, engaged in the same common cause. When prosecuting that war
they were brethren and friends, and shared alike with each other common
toils, dangers, and sufferings. Now, when their work is ended, when peace
is restored, and they return again to their homes, put off the habiliments
of war, take their places in society, and resume their pursuits in civil
life, surely a spirit of harmony and concession and of equal regard for the
rights of all and of all sections of the Union ought to prevail in
providing governments for the acquired territories--the fruits of their
common service. The whole people of the United States, and of every State,
contributed to defray the expenses of that war, and it would not be just
for any one section to exclude another from all participation in the
acquired territory. This would not be in consonance with the just system of
government which the framers of the Constitution adopted.
The question is believed to be rather abstract than practical whether
slavery ever can or would exist in any portion of the acquired territory
even if it were left to the option of the slaveholding States themselves.
From the nature of the climate and productions in much the larger portion
of it it is certain it could never exist, and in the remainder the
probabilities are it would not. But however this may be, the question,
involving, as it does, a principle of equality of rights of the separate
and several States as equal copartners in the Confederacy, should not be
disregarded.
In organizing governments over these territories no duty imposed on
Congress by the Constitution requires that they should legislate on the
subject of slavery, while their power to do so is not only seriously
questioned, but denied by many of the soundest expounders of that
instrument. Whether Congress shall legislate or not, the people of the
acquired territories, when assembled in convention to form State
constitutions, will possess the sole and exclusive power to determine for
themselves whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits. If
Congress shall abstain from interfering with the question, the people of
these territories will be left free to adjust it as they may think proper
when they apply for admission as States into the Union. No enactment of
Congress could restrain the people of any of the sovereign States of the
Union, old or new, North or South, slaveholding or nonslaveholding, from
determining the character of their own domestic institutions as they may
deem wise and proper. Any and all the States possess this right, and
Congress can not deprive them of it. The people of Georgia might if they
chose so alter their constitution as to abolish slavery within its limits,
and the people of Vermont might so alter their constitution as to admit
slavery within its limits. Both States would possess the right, though, as
all know, it is not probable that either would exert it.
It is fortunate for the peace and harmony of the Union that this question
is in its nature temporary and can only continue for the brief period which
will intervene before California and New Mexico may be admitted as States
into the Union. From the tide of population now flowing into them it is
highly probable that this will soon occur.
Considering the several States and the citizens of the several States as
equals and entitled to equal rights under the Constitution, if this were an
original question it might well be insisted on that the principle of
noninterference is the true doctrine and that Congress could not, in the
absence of any express grant of power, interfere with their relative
rights. Upon a great emergency, however, and under menacing dangers to the
Union, the Missouri compromise line in respect to slavery was adopted. The
same line was extended farther west in the acquisition of Texas. After an
acquiescence of nearly thirty years in the principle of compromise
recognized and established by these acts, and to avoid the danger to the
Union which might follow if it were now disregarded, I have heretofore
expressed the opinion that that line of compromise should be extended on
the parallel of 36° 30' from the western boundary of Texas, where it
now terminates, to the Pacific Ocean. This is the middle ground of
compromise, upon which the different sections of the Union may meet, as
they have heretofore met. If this be done, it is confidently believed a
large majority of the people of every section of the country, however
widely their abstract opinions on the subject of slavery may differ, would
cheerfully and patriotically acquiesce in it, and peace and harmony would
again fill our borders.
The restriction north of the line was only yielded to in the case of
Missouri and Texas upon a principle of compromise, made necessary for the
sake of preserving the harmony and possibly the existence of the Union.
It was upon these considerations that at the close of your last session I
gave my sanction to the principle of the Missouri compromise line by
approving and signing the bill to establish "the Territorial government of
Oregon." From a sincere desire to preserve the harmony of the Union, and in
deference for the acts of my predecessors, I felt constrained to yield my
acquiescence to the extent to which they had gone in compromising this
delicate and dangerous question. But if Congress shall now reverse the
decision by which the Missouri compromise was effected, and shall propose
to extend the restriction over the whole territory, south as well as north
of the parallel of 36° 30', it will cease to be a compromise, and must
be regarded as an original question.
If Congress, instead of observing the course of noninterference, leaving
the adoption of their own domestic institutions to the people who may
inhabit these territories, or if, instead of extending the Missouri
compromise line to the Pacific, shall prefer to submit the legal and
constitutional questions which may arise to the decision of the judicial
tribunals, as was proposed in a bill which passed the Senate at your last
session, an adjustment may be effected in this mode. If the whole subject
be referred to the judiciary, all parts of the Union should cheerfully
acquiesce in the final decision of the tribunal created by the Constitution
for the settlement of all questions which may arise under the Constitution,
treaties, and laws of the United States.
Congress is earnestly invoked, for the sake of the Union, its harmony, and
our continued prosperity as a nation, to adjust at its present session
this, the only dangerous question which lies in our path, if not in some
one of the modes suggested, in some other which may be satisfactory.
In anticipation of the establishment of regular governments over the
acquired territories, a joint commission of officers of the Army and Navy
has been ordered to proceed to the coast of California and Oregon for the
purpose of making reconnoissances and a report as to the proper sites for
the erection of fortifications or other defensive works on land and of
suitable situations for naval stations. The information which may be
expected from a scientific and skillful examination of the whole face of
the coast will be eminently useful to Congress when they come to consider
the propriety of making appropriations for these great national objects.
Proper defenses on land will be necessary for the security and protection
of our possessions, and the establishment of navy-yards and a dock for the
repair and construction of vessels will be important alike to our Navy and
commercial marine. Without such establishments every vessel, whether of the
Navy or of the merchant service, requiring repair must at great expense
come round Cape Horn to one of our Atlantic yards for that purpose. With
such establishments vessels, it is believed may be built or repaired as
cheaply in California as upon the Atlantic coast. They would give
employment to many of our enterprising shipbuilders and mechanics and
greatly facilitate and enlarge our commerce in the Pacific.
As it is ascertained that mines of gold, silver, copper, and quicksilver
exist in New Mexico and California, and that nearly all the lands where
they are found belong to the United States, it is deemed important to the
public interest that provision be made for a geological and mineralogical
examination of these regions. Measures should be adopted to preserve the
mineral lands, especially such as contain the precious metals, for the use
of the United States, or, if brought into market, to separate them from the
farming lands and dispose of them in such manner as to secure a large
return of money to the Treasury and at the same time to lead to the
development of their wealth by individual proprietors and purchasers. To do
this it will be necessary to provide for an immediate survey and location
of the lots. If Congress should deem it proper to dispose of the mineral
lands, they should be sold in small quantities and at a fixed minimum
price.
I recommend that surveyors-general's offices be authorized to be
established in New Mexico and California and provision made for surveying
and bringing the public lands into market at the earliest practicable
period. In disposing of these lands, I recommend that the right of
preemption be secured and liberal grants made to the early emigrants who
have settled or may settle upon them.
It will be important to extend our revenue laws over these territories, and
especially over California, at an early period. There is already a
considerable commerce with California, and until ports of entry shall be
established and collectors appointed no revenue can be received.
If these and other necessary and proper measures be adopted for the
development of the wealth and resources of New Mexico and California and
regular Territorial governments be established over them, such will
probably be the rapid enlargement of our commerce and navigation and such
the addition to the national wealth that the present generation may live to
witness the controlling commercial and monetary power of the world
transferred from London and other European emporiums to the city of New
York.
The apprehensions which were entertained by some of our statesmen in the
earlier periods of the Government that our system was incapable of
operating with sufficient energy and success over largely extended
territorial limits, and that if this were attempted it would fall to pieces
by its own weakness, have been dissipated by our experience. By the
division of power between the States and Federal Government the latter is
found to operate with as much energy in the extremes as in the center. It
is as efficient in the remotest of the thirty States which now compose the
Union as it was in the thirteen States which formed our Constitution.
Indeed, it may well be doubted whether if our present population had been
confined within the limits of the original thirteen States the tendencies
to centralization and consolidation would not have been such as to have
encroached upon the essential reserved rights of the States, and thus to
have made the Federal Government a widely different one, practically, from
what it is in theory and was intended to be by its framers. So far from
entertaining apprehensions of the safety of our system by the extension of
our territory, the belief is confidently entertained that each new State
gives strength and an additional guaranty for the preservation of the Union
itself.
In pursuance of the provisions of the thirteenth article of the treaty of
peace, friendship, limits, and settlement with the Republic of Mexico, and
of the act of July 29, 1848, claims of our citizens, which had been
"already liquidated and decided, against the Mexican Republic" amounting,
with the interest thereon, to $2,023,832.51 have been liquidated and paid.
There remain to be paid of these claims $74,192.26.
Congress at its last session having made no provision for executing the
fifteenth article of the treaty, by which the United States assume to make
satisfaction for the "unliquidated claims" of our citizens against Mexico
to "an amount not exceeding three and a quarter millions of dollars," the
subject is again recommended to your favorable consideration.
The exchange of ratifications of the treaty with Mexico took place on the
30th of May, 1848. Within one year after that time the commissioner and
surveyor which each Government stipulates to appoint are required to meet
"at the port of San Diego and proceed to run and mark the said boundary in
its whole course to the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte." It will be seen
from this provision that the period within which a commissioner and
surveyor of the respective Governments are to meet at San Diego will expire
on the 30th of May, 1849. Congress at the close of its last session made an
appropriation for "the expenses of running and marking the boundary line"
between the two countries, but did not fix the amount of salary which
should be paid to the commissioner and surveyor to be appointed on the part
of the United States. It is desirable that the amount of compensation which
they shall receive should be prescribed by law, and not left, as at
present, to Executive discretion.
Measures were adopted at the earliest practicable period to organize the
"Territorial government of Oregon," as authorized by the act of the 14th of
August last. The governor and marshal of the Territory, accompanied by a
small military escort, left the frontier of Missouri in September last, and
took the southern route, by the way of Santa Fe and the river Gila, to
California, with the intention of proceeding thence in one of our vessels
of war to their destination. The governor was fully advised of the great
importance of his early arrival in the country, and it is confidently
believed he may reach Oregon in the latter part of the present month or
early in the next. The other officers for the Territory have proceeded by
sea.
In the month of May last I communicated information to Congress that an
Indian war had broken out in Oregon, and recommended that authority be
given to raise an adequate number of volunteers to proceed without delay to
the assistance of our fellow-citizens in that Territory. The authority to
raise such a force not having been granted by Congress, as soon as their
services could be dispensed with in Mexico orders were issued to the
regiment of mounted riflemen to proceed to Jefferson Barracks, in Missouri,
and to prepare to march to Oregon as soon as the necessary provision could
be made. Shortly before it was ready to march it was arrested by the
provision of the act passed by Congress on the last day of the last
session, which directed that all the noncommissioned officers, musicians,
and privates of that regiment who had been in service in Mexico should,
upon their application, be entitled to be discharged. The effect of this
provision was to disband the rank and file of the regiment, and before
their places could be filled by recruits the season had so far advanced
that it was impracticable for it to proceed until the opening of the next
spring.
In the month of October last the accompanying communication was received
from the governor of the temporary government of Oregon, giving information
of the continuance of the Indian disturbances and of the destitution and
defenseless condition of the inhabitants. Orders were immediately
transmitted to the commander of our squadron in the Pacific to dispatch to
their assistance a part of the naval forces on that station, to furnish
them with arms and ammunition, and to continue to give them such aid and
protection as the Navy could afford until the Army could reach the
country.
It is the policy of humanity, and one which has always been pursued by the
United States, to cultivate the good will of the aboriginal tribes of this
continent and to restrain them from making war and indulging in excesses by
mild means rather than by force. That this could have been done with the
tribes in Oregon had that Territory been brought under the government of
our laws at an earlier period, and had other suitable measures been adopted
by Congress, such as now exist in our intercourse with the other Indian
tribes within our limits, can not be doubted. Indeed, the immediate and
only cause of the existing hostility of the Indians of Oregon is
represented to have been the long delay of the United States in making to
them some trifling compensation, in such articles as they wanted, for the
country now occupied by our emigrants, which the Indians claimed and over
which they formerly roamed. This compensation had been promised to them by
the temporary government established in Oregon, but its fulfillment had
been postponed from time to time for nearly two years, whilst those who
made it had been anxiously waiting for Congress to establish a Territorial
government over the country. The Indians became at length distrustful of
their good faith and sought redress by plunder and massacre, which finally
led to the present difficulties. A few thousand dollars in suitable
presents, as a compensation for the country which had been taken possession
of by our citizens, would have satisfied the Indians and have prevented the
war. A small amount properly distributed, it is confidently believed, would
soon restore quiet. In this Indian war our fellow-citizens of Oregon have
been compelled to take the field in their own defense, have performed
valuable military services, and been subjected to expenses which have
fallen heavily upon them. Justice demands that provision should be made by
Congress to compensate them for their services and to refund to them the
necessary expenses which they have incurred.
I repeat the recommendation heretofore made to Congress, that provision be
made for the appointment of a suitable number of Indian agents to reside
among the tribes of Oregon, and that a small sum be appropriated to enable
these agents to cultivate friendly relations with them. If this be done,
the presence of a small military force will be all that is necessary to
keep them in check and preserve peace. I recommend that similar provisions
be made as regards the tribes inhabiting northern Texas, New Mexico,
California, and the extensive region lying between our settlements in
Missouri and these possessions, as the most effective means of preserving
peace upon our borders and within the recently acquired territories.
The Secretary of the Treasury will present in his annual report a highly
satisfactory statement of the condition of the finances.
The imports for the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June last were of the
value of $154,977,876, of which the amount exported was $21,128,010,
leaving $133,849,866 in the country for domestic use. The value of the
exports for the same period was $154,032,131, consisting of domestic
productions amounting to $132,904,121 and $21,128,010 of foreign articles.
The receipts into the Treasury for the same period, exclusive of loans,
amounted to $35,436,750.59, of which there was derived from customs
$31,757,070.96, from sales of public lands $3,328,642.56, and from
miscellaneous and incidental sources $351,037.07.
It will be perceived that the revenue from customs for the last fiscal year
exceeded by $757,070.96 the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury in
his last annual report, and that the aggregate receipts during the same
period from customs, lands, and miscellaneous sources also exceeded the
estimate by the sum of $536,750.59, indicating, however, a very near
approach in the estimate to the actual result.
The expenditures during the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June last,
including those for the war and exclusive of payments of principal and
interest for the public debt, were $42,811,970.03.
It is estimated that the receipts into the Treasury for the fiscal year
ending on the 30th of June, 1849, including the balance in the Treasury on
the 1st of July last, will amount to the sum of $57,048,969.90, of which
$32,000,000, it is estimated, will be derived from customs, $3,000,000 from
the sales of the public lands, and $1,200,000 from miscellaneous and
incidental sources, including the premium upon the loan, and the amount
paid and to be paid into the Treasury on account of military contributions
in Mexico, and the sales of arms and vessels and other public property
rendered unnecessary for the use of the Government by the termination of
the war, and $20,695,435.30 from loans already negotiated, including
Treasury notes funded, which, together with the balance in the Treasury on
the 1st of July last, make the sum estimated.
The expenditures for the same period, including the necessary payment on
account of the principal and interest of the public debt, and the principal
and interest of the first installment due to Mexico on the 30th of May
next, and other expenditures growing out of the war to be paid during the
present year, will amount, including the reimbursement of Treasury notes,
to the sum of $54,195,275.06, leaving an estimated balance in the Treasury
on the 1st of July, 1849, of $2,853,694.84.
The Secretary of the Treasury will present, as required by law, the
estimate of the receipts and expenditures for the next fiscal year. The
expenditures as estimated for that year are $33,213,152.73, including
$3,799,102.18 for the interest on the public debt and $3,540,000 for the
principal and interest due to Mexico on the 30th of May, 1850, leaving the
sum of $25,874,050.35, which, it is believed, will be ample for the
ordinary peace expenditures.
The operations of the tariff act of 1846 have been such during the past
year as fully to meet the public expectation and to confirm the opinion
heretofore expressed of the wisdom of the change in our revenue system
which was effected by it. The receipts under it into the Treasury for the
first fiscal year after its enactment exceeded by the sum of $5,044,403.09
the amount collected during the last fiscal year under the tariff act of
1842, ending the 30th of June, 1846. The total revenue realized from the
commencement of its operation, on the 1st of December, 1846, until the
close of the last quarter, on the 30th of September last, being twenty-two
months, was $56,654,563.79, being a much larger sum than was ever before
received from duties during any equal period under the tariff acts of 1824,
1828, 1832, and 1842. Whilst by the repeal of highly protective and
prohibitory duties the revenue has been increased, the taxes on the people
have been diminished. They have been relieved from the heavy amounts with
which they were burthened under former laws in the form of increased prices
or bounties paid to favored classes and pursuits.
The predictions which were made that the tariff act of 1846 would reduce
the amount of revenue below that collected under the act of 1842, and would
prostrate the business and destroy the prosperity of the country, have not
been verified. With an increased and increasing revenue, the finances are
in a highly flourishing condition. Agriculture, commerce, and navigation
are prosperous; the prices of manufactured fabrics and of other products
are much less injuriously affected than was to have been anticipated from
the unprecedented revulsions which during the last and the present year
have overwhelmed the industry and paralyzed the credit and commerce of so
many great and enlightened nations of Europe.
Severe commercial revulsions abroad have always heretofore operated to
depress and often to affect disastrously almost every branch of American
industry. The temporary depression of a portion of our manufacturing
interests is the effect of foreign causes, and is far less severe than has
prevailed on all former similar occasions.
It is believed that, looking to the great aggregate of all our interests,
the whole country was never more prosperous than at the present period, and
never more rapidly advancing in wealth and population. Neither the foreign
war in which we have been involved, nor the loans which have absorbed so
large a portion of our capital, nor the commercial revulsion in Great
Britain in 1847, nor the paralysis of credit and commerce throughout Europe
in 1848, have affected injuriously to any considerable extent any of the
great interests of the country or arrested our onward march to greatness,
wealth, and power.
Had the disturbances in Europe not occurred, our commerce would undoubtedly
have been still more extended, and would have added still more to the
national wealth and public prosperity. But notwithstanding these
disturbances, the operations of the revenue system established by the
tariff act of 1846 have been so generally beneficial to the Government and
the business of the country that no change in its provisions is demanded by
a wise public policy, and none is recommended.
The operations of the constitutional treasury established by the act of the
6th of August, 1846, in the receipt, custody, and disbursement of the
public money have continued to be successful. Under this system the public
finances have been carried through a foreign war, involving the necessity
of loans and extraordinary expenditures and requiring distant transfers and
disbursements, without embarrassment, and no loss has occurred of any of
the public money deposited under its provisions. Whilst it has proved to be
safe and useful to the Government, its effects have been most beneficial
upon the business of the country. It has tended powerfully to secure an
exemption from that inflation and fluctuation of the paper currency so
injurious to domestic industry and rendering so uncertain the rewards of
labor, and, it is believed, has largely contributed to preserve the whole
country from a serious commercial revulsion, such as often occurred under
the bank deposit system. In the year 1847 there was a revulsion in the
business of Great Britain of great extent and intensity, which was followed
by failures in that Kingdom unprecedented in number and amount of losses.
This is believed to be the first instance when such disastrous
bankruptcies, occurring in a country with which we have such extensive
commerce, produced little or no injurious effect upon our trade or
currency. We remained but little affected in our money market, and our
business and industry were still prosperous and progressive.
During the present year nearly the whole continent of Europe has been
convulsed by civil war and revolutions, attended by numerous bankruptcies,
by an unprecedented fall in their public securities, and an almost
universal paralysis of commerce and industry; and yet, although our trade
and the prices of our products must have been somewhat unfavorably affected
by these causes, we have escaped a revulsion, our money market is
comparatively easy, and public and private credit have advanced and
improved.
It is confidently believed that we have been saved from their effect by the
salutary operation of the constitutional treasury. It is certain that if
the twenty-four millions of specie imported into the country during the
fiscal year ending on the 30th of June, 1847, had gone into the banks, as
to a great extent it must have done, it would in the absence of this system
have been made the basis of augmented bank paper issues, probably to an
amount not less than $60,000,000 or $70,000,000, producing, as an
inevitable consequence of an inflated currency, extravagant prices for a
time and wild speculation, which must have been followed, on the reflux to
Europe the succeeding year of so much of that specie, by the prostration of
the business of the country, the suspension of the banks, and most
extensive bankruptcies. Occurring, as this would have done, at a period
when the country was engaged in a foreign war, when considerable loans of
specie were required for distant disbursements, and when the banks, the
fiscal agents of the Government and the depositories of its money, were
suspended, the public credit must have sunk, and many millions of dollars,
as was the case during the War of 1812, must have been sacrificed in
discounts upon loans and upon the depreciated paper currency which the
Government would have been compelled to use.
Under the operations of the constitutional treasury not a dollar has been
lost by the depreciation of the currency. The loans required to prosecute
the war with Mexico were negotiated by the Secretary of the Treasury above
par, realizing a large premium to the Government. The restraining effect of
the system upon the tendencies to excessive paper issues by banks has saved
the Government from heavy losses and thousands of our business men from
bankruptcy and ruin. The wisdom of the system has been tested by the
experience of the last two years, and it is the dictate of sound policy
that it should remain undisturbed. The modifications in some of the details
of this measure, involving none of its essential principles, heretofore
recommended, are again presented for your favorable consideration.
In my message of the 6th of July last, transmitting to Congress the
ratified treaty of peace with Mexico, I recommended the adoption of
measures for the speedy payment of the public debt. In reiterating that
recommendation I refer you to the considerations presented in that message
in its support. The public debt, including that authorized to be negotiated
in pursuance of existing laws, and including Treasury notes, amounted at
that time to $65,778,450.41.
Funded stock of the United States amounting to about half a million of
dollars has been purchased, as authorized by law, since that period, and
the public debt has thus been reduced, the details of which will be
presented in the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury.
The estimates of expenditures for the next fiscal year, submitted by the
Secretary of the Treasury, it is believed will be ample for all necessary
purposes. If the appropriations made by Congress shall not exceed the
amount estimated, the means in the Treasury will be sufficient to defray
all the expenses of the Government, to pay off the next installment of
$3,000,000 to Mexico, which will fall due on the 30th of May next, and
still a considerable surplus will remain, which should be applied to the
further purchase of the public stock and reduction of the debt. Should
enlarged appropriations be made, the necessary consequence will be to
postpone the payment of the debt. Though our debt, as compared with that of
most other nations, is small, it is our true policy, and in harmony with
the genius of our institutions, that we should present to the world the
rare spectacle of a great Republic, possessing vast resources and wealth,
wholly exempt from public indebtedness. This would add still more to our
strength, and give to us a still more commanding position among the nations
of the earth.
The public expenditures should be economical, and be confined to such
necessary objects as are clearly within the powers of Congress. All such as
are not absolutely demanded should be postponed, and the payment of the
public debt at the earliest practicable period should be a cardinal
principle of our public policy.
For the reason assigned in my last annual message, I repeat the
recommendation that a branch of the Mint of the United States be
established at the city of New York. The importance of this measure is
greatly increased by the acquisition of the rich mines of the precious
metals in New Mexico and California, and especially in the latter.
I repeat the recommendation heretofore made in favor of the graduation and
reduction of the price of such of the public lands as have been long
offered in the market and have remained unsold, and in favor of extending
the rights of preemption to actual settlers on the unsurveyed as well as
the surveyed lands.
The condition and operations of the Army and the state of other branches of
the public service under the supervision of the War Department are
satisfactorily presented in the accompanying report of the Secretary of
War.
On the return of peace our forces were withdrawn from Mexico, and the
volunteers and that portion of the Regular Army engaged for the war were
disbanded. Orders have been issued for stationing the forces of our
permanent establishment at various positions in our extended country where
troops may be required. Owing to the remoteness of some of these positions,
the detachments have not yet reached their destination. Notwithstanding the
extension of the limits of our country and the forces required in the new
territories, it is confidently believed that our present military
establishment is sufficient for all exigencies so long as our peaceful
relations remain undisturbed.
Of the amount of military contributions collected in Mexico, the sum of
$769,650 was applied toward the payment of the first installment due under
the treaty with Mexico. The further sum of $346,369.30 has been paid into
the Treasury, and unexpended balances still remain in the hands of
disbursing officers and those who were engaged in the collection of these
moneys. After the proclamation of peace no further disbursements were made
of any unexpended moneys arising from this source. The balances on hand
were directed to be paid into the Treasury, and individual claims on the
fund will remain unadjusted until Congress shall authorize their settlement
and payment. These claims are not considerable in number or amount.
I recommend to your favorable consideration the suggestions of the
Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy in regard to legislation on
this subject.
Our Indian relations are presented in a most favorable view in the report
from the War Department. The wisdom of our policy in regard to the tribes
within our limits is clearly manifested by their improved and rapidly
improving condition.
A most important treaty with the Menomonies has been recently negotiated by
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in person, by which all their land in
the State of Wisconsin--being about 4,000,000 acres--has been ceded to the
United States. This treaty will be submitted to the Senate for ratification
at an early period of your present session.
Within the last four years eight important treaties have been negotiated
with different Indian tribes, and at a cost of $1,842,000; Indian lands to
the amount of more than 18,500,000 acres have been ceded to the United
States, and provision has been made for settling in the country west of the
Mississippi the tribes which occupied this large extent of the public
domain. The title to all the Indian lands within the several States of our
Union, with the exception of a few small reservations, is now extinguished,
and a vast region opened for settlement and cultivation.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of the Navy gives a satisfactory
exhibit of the operations and condition of that branch of the public
service.
A number of small vessels, suitable for entering the mouths of rivers, were
judiciously purchased during the war, and gave great efficiency to the
squadron in the Gulf of Mexico. On the return of peace, when no longer
valuable for naval purposes, and liable to constant deterioration, they
were sold and the money placed in the Treasury.
The number of men in the naval service authorized by law during the war has
been reduced by discharges below the maximum fixed for the peace
establishment. Adequate squadrons are maintained in the several quarters of
the globe where experience has shown their services may be most usefully
employed, and the naval service was never in a condition of higher
discipline or greater efficiency.
I invite attention to the recommendation of the Secretary of the Navy on
the subject of the Marine Corps. The reduction of the Corps at the end of
the war required that four officers of each of the three lower grades
should be dropped from the rolls. A board of officers made the selection,
and those designated were necessarily dismissed, but without any alleged
fault. I concur in opinion with the Secretary that the service would be
improved by reducing the number of landsmen and increasing the marines.
Such a measure would justify an increase of the number of officers to the
extent of the reduction by dismissal, and still the Corps would have fewer
officers than a corresponding number of men in the Army.
The contracts for the transportation of the mail in steamships, convertible
into war steamers, promise to realize all the benefits to our commerce and
to the Navy which were anticipated. The first steamer thus secured to the
Government was launched in January, 1847. There are now seven, and in
another year there will probably be not less than seventeen afloat. While
this great national advantage is secured, our social and commercial
intercourse is increased and promoted with Germany, Great Britain, and
other parts of Europe, with all the countries on the west coast of our
continent, especially with Oregon and California, and between the northern
and southern sections of the United States. Considerable revenue may be
expected from postages, but the connected line from New York to Chagres,
and thence across the Isthmus to Oregon, can not fail to exert a beneficial
influence, not now to be estimated, on the interests of the manufactures,
commerce, navigation, and currency of the United States. As an important
part of the system, I recommend to your favorable consideration the
establishment of the proposed line of steamers between New Orleans and Vera
Cruz. It promises the most happy results in cementing friendship between
the two Republics and extending reciprocal benefits to the trade and
manufactures of both.
The report of the Postmaster-General will make known to you the operations
of that Department for the past year.
It is gratifying to find the revenues of the Department, under the rates of
postage now established by law, so rapidly increasing. The gross amount of
postages during the last fiscal year amounted to $4,371,077, exceeding the
annual average received for the nine years immediately preceding the
passage of the act of the 3d of March, 1845, by the sum of $6,453, and
exceeding the amount received for the year ending the 30th of June, 1847,
by the sum of $425,184.
The expenditures for the year, excluding the sum of $94,672, allowed by
Congress at its last session to individual claimants, and including the sum
of $100,500, paid for the services of the line of steamers between Bremen
and New York, amounted to $4,198,845, which is less than the annual average
for the nine years previous to the act of 1845 by $300,748.
The mail routes on the 30th day of June last were 163,208 miles in extent,
being an increase during the last year of 9,390 miles. The mails were
transported over them during the same time 41,012,579 miles, making an
increase of transportation for the year of 2,124,680 miles, whilst the
expense was less than that of the previous year by $4,235.
The increase in the mail transportation within the last three years has
been 5,378,310 miles, whilst the expenses were reduced $456,738, making an
increase of service at the rate of 15 per cent and a reduction in the
expenses of more than 15 per cent.
During the past year there have been employed, under contracts with the
Post-Office Department, two ocean steamers in conveying the mails monthly
between New York and Bremen, and one, since October last, performing
semimonthly service between Charleston and Havana; and a contract has been
made for the transportation of the Pacific mails across the Isthmus from
Chagres to Panama.
Under the authority given to the Secretary of the Navy, three ocean
steamers have been constructed and sent to the Pacific, and are expected to
enter upon the mail service between Panama and Oregon and the intermediate
ports on the 1st of January next; and a fourth has been engaged by him for
the service between Havana and Chagres, so that a regular monthly mail line
will be kept up after that time between the United States and our
territories on the Pacific.
Notwithstanding this great increase in the mail service, should the revenue
continue to increase the present year as it did in the last, there will be
received near $450,000 more than the expenditures.
These considerations have satisfied the Postmaster-General that, with
certain modifications of the act of 1845, the revenue may be still further
increased and a reduction of postages made to a uniform rate of 5 cents,
without an interference with the principle, which has been constantly and
properly enforced, of making that Department sustain itself.
A well-digested cheap-postage system is the best means of diffusing
intelligence among the people, and is of so much importance in a country so
extensive as that of the United States that I recommend to your favorable
consideration the suggestions of the Postmaster-General for its
improvement.
Nothing can retard the onward progress of our country and prevent us from
assuming and maintaining the first rank among nations but a disregard of
the experience of the past and a recurrence to an unwise public policy. We
have just closed a foreign war by an honorable peace--a war rendered
necessary and unavoidable in vindication of the national rights and honor.
The present condition of the country is similar in some respects to that
which existed immediately after the close of the war with Great Britain in
1815, and the occasion is deemed to be a proper one to take a retrospect of
the measures of public policy which followed that war. There was at that
period of our history a departure from our earlier policy. The enlargement
of the powers of the Federal Government by construction, which obtained,
was not warranted by any just interpretation of the Constitution. A few
years after the close of that war a series of measures was adopted which,
united and combined, constituted what was termed by their authors and
advocates the "American system."
The introduction of the new policy was for a time favored by the condition
of the country, by the heavy debt which had been contracted during the war,
by the depression of the public credit, by the deranged state of the
finances and the currency, and by the commercial and pecuniary
embarrassment which extensively prevailed. These were not the only causes
which led to its establishment. The events of the war with Great Britain
and the embarrassments which had attended its prosecution had left on the
minds of many of our statesmen the impression that our Government was not
strong enough, and that to wield its resources successfully in great
emergencies, and especially in war, more power should be concentrated in
its hands. This increased power they did not seek to obtain by the
legitimate and prescribed mode--an amendment of the Constitution--but by
construction. They saw Governments in the Old World based upon different
orders of society, and so constituted as to throw the whole power of
nations into the hands of a few, who taxed and controlled the many without
responsibility or restraint. In that arrangement they conceived the
strength of nations in war consisted. There was also something fascinating
in the ease, luxury, and display of the higher orders, who drew their
wealth from the toil of the laboring millions. The authors of the system
drew their ideas of political economy from what they had witnessed in
Europe, and particularly in Great Britain. They had viewed the enormous
wealth concentrated in few hands and had seen the splendor of the overgrown
establishments of an aristocracy which was upheld by the restrictive
policy. They forgot to look down upon the poorer classes of the English
population, upon whose daily and yearly labor the great establishments they
so much admired were sustained and supported. They failed to perceive that
the scantily fed and half-clad operatives were not only in abject poverty,
but were bound in chains of oppressive servitude for the benefit of favored
classes, who were the exclusive objects of the care of the Government.
It was not possible to reconstruct society in the United States upon the
European plan. Here there was a written Constitution, by which orders and
titles were not recognized or tolerated. A system of measures was therefore
devised, calculated, if not intended, to withdraw power gradually and
silently from the States and the mass of the people, and by construction to
approximate our Government to the European models, substituting an
aristocracy of wealth for that of orders and titles.
Without reflecting upon the dissimilarity of our institutions and of the
condition of our people and those of Europe, they conceived the vain idea
of building up in the United States a system similar to that which they
admired abroad. Great Britain had a national bank of large capital, in
whose hands was concentrated the controlling monetary and financial power
of the nation--an institution wielding almost kingly power, and exerting
vast influence upon all the operations of trade and upon the policy of the
Government itself. Great Britain had an enormous public debt, and it had
become a part of her public policy to regard this as a "public blessing."
Great Britain had also a restrictive policy, which placed fetters and
burdens on trade and trammeled the productive industry of the mass of the
nation. By her combined system of policy the landlords and other property
holders were protected and enriched by the enormous taxes which were levied
upon the labor of the country for their advantage. Imitating this foreign
policy, the first step in establishing the new system in the United States
was the creation of a national bank. Not foreseeing the dangerous power and
countless evils which such an institution might entail on the country, nor
perceiving the connection which it was designed to form between the bank
and the other branches of the miscalled "American system," but feeling the
embarrassments of the Treasury and of the business of the country
consequent upon the war, some of our statesmen who had held different and
sounder views were induced to yield their scruples and, indeed, settled
convictions of its unconstitutionality, and to give it their sanction as an
expedient which they vainly hoped might produce relief. It was a most
unfortunate error, as the subsequent history and final catastrophe of that
dangerous and corrupt institution have abundantly proved. The bank, with
its numerous branches ramified into the States, soon brought many of the
active political and commercial men in different sections of the country
into the relation of debtors to it and dependents upon it for pecuniary
favors, thus diffusing throughout the mass of society a great number of
individuals of power and influence to give tone to public opinion and to
act in concert in cases of emergency. The corrupt power of such a political
engine is no longer a matter of speculation, having been displayed in
numerous instances, but most signally in the political struggles of 1832,
1833, and 1834 in opposition to the public will represented by a fearless
and patriotic President.
But the bank was but one branch of the new system. A public debt of more
than $120,000,000 existed, and it is not to be disguised that many of the
authors of the new system did not regard its speedy payment as essential to
the public prosperity, but looked upon its continuance as no national evil.
Whilst the debt existed it furnished aliment to the national bank and
rendered increased taxation necessary to the amount of the interest,
exceeding $7,000,000 annually.
This operated in harmony with the next branch of the new system, which was
a high protective tariff. This was to afford bounties to favored classes
and particular pursuits at the expense of all others. A proposition to tax
the whole people for the purpose of enriching a few was too monstrous to be
openly made. The scheme was therefore veiled under the plausible but
delusive pretext of a measure to protect "home industry," and many of our
people were for a time led to believe that a tax which in the main fell
upon labor was for the benefit of the laborer who paid it. This branch of
the system involved a partnership between the Government and the favored
classes, the former receiving the proceeds of the tax imposed on articles
imported and the latter the increased price of similar articles produced at
home, caused by such tax. It is obvious that the portion to be received by
the favored classes would, as a general rule, be increased in proportion to
the increase of the rates of tax imposed and diminished as those rates were
reduced to the revenue standard required by the wants of the Government.
The rates required to produce a sufficient revenue for the ordinary
expenditures of Government for necessary purposes were not likely to give
to the private partners in this scheme profits sufficient to satisfy their
cupidity, and hence a variety of expedients and pretexts were resorted to
for the purpose of enlarging the expenditures and thereby creating a
necessity for keeping up a high protective tariff. The effect of this
policy was to interpose artificial restrictions upon the natural course of
the business and trade of the country, and to advance the interests of
large capitalists and monopolists at the expense of the great mass of the
people, who were taxed to increase their wealth.
Another branch of this system was a comprehensive scheme of internal
improvements, capable of indefinite enlargement and sufficient to swallow
up as many millions annually as could be exacted from the foreign commerce
of the country. This was a convenient and necessary adjunct of the
protective tariff. It was to be the great absorbent of any surplus which
might at any time accumulate in the Treasury and of the taxes levied on the
people, not for necessary revenue purposes, but for the avowed object of
affording protection to the favored classes.
Auxiliary to the same end, if it was not an essential part of the system
itself, was the scheme, which at a later period obtained, for distributing
the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among the States. Other
expedients were devised to take money out of the Treasury and prevent its
coming in from any other source than the protective tariff. The authors and
supporters of the system were the advocates of the largest expenditures,
whether for necessary or useful purposes or not, because the larger the
expenditures the greater was the pretext for high taxes in the form of
protective duties.
These several measures were sustained by popular names and plausible
arguments, by which thousands were deluded. The bank was represented to be
an indispensable fiscal agent for the Government; was to equalize exchanges
and to regulate and furnish a sound currency, always and everywhere of
uniform value. The protective tariff was to give employment to "American
labor" at advanced prices; was to protect "home industry" and furnish a
steady market for the farmer. Internal improvements were to bring trade
into every neighborhood and enhance the value of every man's property. The
distribution of the land money was to enrich the States, finish their
public works, plant schools throughout their borders, and relieve them from
taxation. But the fact that for every dollar taken out of the Treasury for
these objects a much larger sum was transferred from the pockets of the
people to the favored classes was carefully concealed, as was also the
tendency, if not the ultimate design, of the system to build up an
aristocracy of wealth, to control the masses of society, and monopolize the
political power of the country.
The several branches of this system were so intimately blended together
that in their operation each sustained and strengthened the others. Their
joint operation was to add new burthens of taxation and to encourage a
largely increased and wasteful expenditure of public money. It was the
interest of the bank that the revenue collected and the disbursements made
by the Government should be large, because, being the depository of the
public money, the larger the amount the greater would be the bank profits
by its use. It was the interest of the favored classes, who were enriched
by the protective tariff, to have the rates of that protection as high as
possible, for the higher those rates the greater would be their advantage.
It was the interest of the people of all those sections and localities who
expected to be benefited by expenditures for internal improvements that the
amount collected should be as large as possible, to the end that the sum
disbursed might also be the larger. The States, being the beneficiaries in
the distribution of the land money, had an interest in having the rates of
tax imposed by the protective tariff large enough to yield a sufficient
revenue from that source to meet the wants of the Government without
disturbing or taking from them the land fund; so that each of the branches
constituting the system had a common interest in swelling the public
expenditures. They had a direct interest in maintaining the public debt
unpaid and increasing its amount, because this would produce an annual
increased drain upon the Treasury to the amount of the interest and render
augmented taxes necessary. The operation and necessary effect of the whole
system were to encourage large and extravagant expenditures, and thereby to
increase the public patronage, and maintain a rich and splendid government
at the expense of a taxed and impoverished people.
It is manifest that this scheme of enlarged taxation and expenditures, had
it continued to prevail, must soon have converted the Government of the
Union, intended by its framers to be a plain, cheap, and simple
confederation of States, united together for common protection and charged
with a few specific duties, relating chiefly to our foreign affairs, into a
consolidated empire, depriving the States of their reserved rights and the
people of their just power and control in the administration of their
Government. In this manner the whole form and character of the Government
would be changed, not by an amendment of the Constitution, but by resorting
to an unwarrantable and unauthorized construction of that instrument.
The indirect mode of levying the taxes by a duty on imports prevents the
mass of the people from readily perceiving the amount they pay, and has
enabled the few who are thus enriched, and who seek to wield the political
power of the country, to deceive and delude them. Were the taxes collected
by a direct levy upon the people, as is the case in the States, this could
not occur.
The whole system was resisted from its inception by many of our ablest
statesmen, some of whom doubted its constitutionality and its expediency,
while others believed it was in all its branches a flagrant and dangerous
infraction of the Constitution.
That a national bank, a protective tariff--levied not to raise the revenue
needed, but for protection merely--internal improvements, and the
distribution of the proceeds of the sale of the public lands are measures
without the warrant of the Constitution would, upon the maturest
consideration, seem to be clear. It is remarkable that no one of these
measures, involving such momentous consequences, is authorized by any
express grant of power in the Constitution. No one of them is "incident to,
as being necessary and proper for the execution of, the specific powers"
granted by the Constitution. The authority under which it has been
attempted to justify each of them is derived from inferences and
constructions of the Constitution which its letter and its whole object and
design do not warrant. Is it to be conceived that such immense powers would
have been left by the framers of the Constitution to mere inferences and
doubtful constructions? Had it been intended to confer them on the Federal
Government, it is but reasonable to conclude that it would have been done
by plain and unequivocal grants. This was not done; but the whole structure
of which the "American system" consisted was reared on no other or better
foundation than forced implications and inferences of power, which its
authors assumed might be deduced by construction from the Constitution.
But it has been urged that the national bank, which constituted so
essential a branch of this combined system of measures, was not a new
measure, and that its constitutionality had been previously sanctioned,
because a bank had been chartered in 1791 and had received the official
signature of President Washington. A few facts will show the just weight to
which this precedent should be entitled as bearing upon the question of
constitutionality.
Great division of opinion upon the subject existed in Congress. It is well
known that President Washington entertained serious doubts both as to the
constitutionality and expediency of the measure, and while the bill was
before him for his official approval or disapproval so great were these
doubts that he required "the opinion in writing" of the members of his
Cabinet to aid him in arriving at a decision. His Cabinet gave their
opinions and were divided upon the subject, General Hamilton being in favor
of and Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Randolph being opposed to the
constitutionality and expediency of the bank. It is well known also that
President Washington retained the bill from Monday, the 14th, when it was
presented to him, until Friday, the 25th of February, being the last moment
permitted him by the Constitution to deliberate, when he finally yielded to
it his reluctant assent and gave it his signature. It is certain that as
late as the 23d of February, being the ninth day after the bill was
presented to him, he had arrived at no satisfactory conclusion, for on that
day he addressed a note to General Hamilton in which he informs him that
"this bill was presented to me by the joint committee of Congress at 12
o'clock on Monday, the 14th instant," and he requested his opinion "to what
precise period, by legal interpretation of the Constitution, can the
President retain it in his possession before it becomes a law by the lapse
of ten days." If the proper construction was that the day on which the bill
was presented to the President and the day on which his action was had upon
it were both to be counted inclusive, then the time allowed him within
which it would be competent for him to return it to the House in which it
originated with his objections would expire on Thursday, the 24th of
February. General Hamilton on the same day returned an answer, in which he
states:
I give it as my opinion that you have ten days exclusive of that on which
the bill was delivered to you and Sundays; hence, in the present case if it
is returned on Friday it will be in time.
By this construction, which the President adopted, he gained another day
for deliberation, and it was not until the 25th of February that he signed
the bill, thus affording conclusive proof that he had at last obtained his
own consent to sign it not without great and almost insuperable difficulty.
Additional light has been recently shed upon the serious doubts which he
had on the subject, amounting at one time to a conviction that it was his
duty to withhold his approval from the bill. This is found among the
manuscript papers of Mr. Madison, authorized to be purchased for the use of
the Government by an act of the last session of Congress, and now for the
first time accessible to the public. From these papers it appears that
President Washington, while he yet held the bank bill in his hands,
actually requested Mr. Madison, at that time a member of the House of
Representatives, to prepare the draft of a veto message for him. Mr.
Madison, at his request, did prepare the draft of such a message, and sent
it to him on the 21st of February, 1791. A copy of this original draft, in
Mr. Madison's own handwriting, was carefully preserved by him, and is among
the papers lately purchased by Congress. It is preceded by a note, written
on the same sheet, which is also in Mr. Madison's handwriting, and is as
follows:
February 21, 1791.--Copy of a paper made out and sent to the President, at
his request, to be ready in case his judgment should finally decide against
the bill for incorporating a national bank, the bill being then before
him.
Among the objections assigned in this paper to the bill, and which were
submitted for the consideration of the President, are the following:
I object to the bill, because it is an essential principle of the
Government that powers not delegated by the Constitution can not be
rightfully exercised; because the power proposed by the bill to be
exercised is not expressly delegated, and because I can not satisfy myself
that it results from any express power by fair and safe rules of
interpretation.
The weight of the precedent of the bank of 1791 and the sanction of the
great name of Washington, which has been so often invoked in its support,
are greatly weakened by the development of these facts.
The experiment of that bank satisfied the country that it ought not to be
continued, and at the end of twenty years Congress refused to recharter it.
It would have been fortunate for the country, and saved thousands from
bankruptcy and ruin, had our public men of 1816 resisted the temporary
pressure of the times upon our financial and pecuniary interests and
refused to charter the second bank. Of this the country became abundantly
satisfied, and at the close of its twenty years' duration, as in the case
of the first bank, it also ceased to exist. Under the repeated blows of
President Jackson it reeled and fell, and a subsequent attempt to charter a
similar institution was arrested by the veto of President Tyler.
Mr. Madison, in yielding his signature to the charter of 1816, did so upon
the ground of the respect due to precedents; and, as he subsequently
declared--
The Bank of the United States, though on the original question held to be
unconstitutional, received the Executive signature.
It is probable that neither the bank of 1791 nor that of 1816 would have
been chartered but for the embarrassments of the Government in its
finances, the derangement of the currency, and the pecuniary pressure which
existed, the first the consequence of the War of the Revolution and the
second the consequence of the War of 1812. Both were resorted to in the
delusive hope that they would restore public credit and afford relief to
the Government and to the business of the country.
Those of our public men who opposed the whole "American system" at its
commencement and throughout its progress foresaw and predicted that it was
fraught with incalculable mischiefs and must result in serious injury to
the best interests of the country. For a series of years their wise
counsels were unheeded, and the system was established. It was soon
apparent that its practical operation was unequal and unjust upon different
portions of the country and upon the people engaged in different pursuits.
All were equally entitled to the favor and protection of the Government. It
fostered and elevated the money power and enriched the favored few by
taxing labor, and at the expense of the many. Its effect was to "make the
rich richer and the poor poorer." Its tendency was to create distinctions
in society based on wealth and to give to the favored classes undue control
and sway in our Government. It was an organized money power, which resisted
the popular will and sought to shape and control the public policy.
Under the pernicious workings of this combined system of measures the
country witnessed alternate seasons of temporary apparent prosperity, of
sudden and disastrous commercial revulsions, of unprecedented fluctuation
of prices and depression of the great interests of agriculture, navigation,
and commerce, of general pecuniary suffering, and of final bankruptcy of
thousands. After a severe struggle of more than a quarter of a century, the
system was overthrown.
The bank has been succeeded by a practical system of finance, conducted and
controlled solely by the Government. The constitutional currency has been
restored, the public credit maintained unimpaired even in a period of a
foreign war, and the whole country has become satisfied that banks,
national or State, are not necessary as fiscal agents of the Government.
Revenue duties have taken the place of the protective tariff. The
distribution of the money derived from the sale of the public lands has
been abandoned and the corrupting system of internal improvements, it is
hoped, has been effectually checked.
It is not doubted that if this whole train of measures, designed to take
wealth from the many and bestow it upon the few, were to prevail the effect
would be to change the entire character of the Government. One only danger
remains. It is the seductions of that branch of the system which consists
in internal improvements, holding out, as it does, inducements to the
people of particular sections and localities to embark the Government in
them without stopping to calculate the inevitable consequences. This branch
of the system is so intimately combined and linked with the others that as
surely as an effect is produced by an adequate cause, if it be resuscitated
and revived and firmly established it requires no sagacity to foresee that
it will necessarily and speedily draw after it the reestablishment of a
national bank, the revival of a protective tariff, the distribution of the
land money, and not only the postponement to the distant future of the
payment of the present national debt, but its annual increase.
I entertain the solemn conviction that if the internal-improvement branch
of the "American system" be not firmly resisted at this time the whole
series of measures composing it will be speedily reestablished and the
country be thrown back from its present high state of prosperity, which the
existing policy has produced, and be destined again to witness all the
evils, commercial revulsions, depression of prices, and pecuniary
embarrassments through which we have passed during the last twenty-five
years.
To guard against consequences so ruinous is an object of high national
importance, involving, in my judgment, the continued prosperity of the
country.
I have felt it to be an imperative obligation to withhold my constitutional
sanction from two bills which had passed the two Houses of Congress,
involving the principle of the internal improvement branch of the "American
system" and conflicting in their provisions with the views here expressed.
This power, conferred upon the President by the Constitution, I have on
three occasions during my administration of the executive department of the
Government deemed it my duty to exercise, and on this last occasion of
making to Congress an annual communication "of the state of the Union" it
is not deemed inappropriate to review the principles and considerations
which have governed my action. I deem this the more necessary because,
after the lapse of nearly sixty years since the adoption of the
Constitution, the propriety of the exercise of this undoubted
constitutional power by the President has for the first time been drawn
seriously in question by a portion of my fellow-citizens.
The Constitution provides that--
Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the
Senate shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the
United States. If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return
it with his objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who
shall enter the objections at large on their Journal and proceed to
reconsider it.
The preservation of the Constitution from infraction is the President's
highest duty. He is bound to discharge that duty at whatever hazard of
incurring the displeasure of those who may differ with him in opinion. He
is bound to discharge it as well by his obligations to the people who have
clothed him with his exalted trust as by his oath of office, which he may
not disregard. Nor are the obligations of the President in any degree
lessened by the prevalence of views different from his own in one or both
Houses of Congress. It is not alone hasty and inconsiderate legislation
that he is required to check; but if at any time Congress shall, after
apparently full deliberation, resolve on measures which he deems subversive
of the Constitution or of the vital interests of the country, it is his
solemn duty to stand in the breach and resist them. The President is bound
to approve or disapprove every bill which passes Congress and is presented
to him for his signature. The Constitution makes this his duty, and he can
not escape it if he would. He has no election. In deciding upon any bill
presented to him he must exercise his own best judgment. If he can not
approve, the Constitution commands him to return the bill to the House in
which it originated with his objections, and if he fail to do this within
ten days (Sundays excepted) it shall become a law without his signature.
Right or wrong, he may be overruled by a vote of two-thirds of each House,
and in that event the bill becomes a law without his sanction. If his
objections be not thus overruled, the subject is only postponed, and is
referred to the States and the people for their consideration and decision.
The President's power is negative merely, and not affirmative. He can enact
no law. The only effect, therefore, of his withholding his approval of a
bill passed by Congress is to suffer the existing laws to remain unchanged,
and the delay occasioned is only that required to enable the States and the
people to consider and act upon the subject in the election of public
agents who will carry out their wishes and instructions. Any attempt to
coerce the President to yield his sanction to measures which he can not
approve would be a violation of the spirit of the Constitution, palpable
and flagrant, and if successful would break down the independence of the
executive department and make the President, elected by the people and
clothed by the Constitution with power to defend their rights, the mere
instrument of a majority of Congress. A surrender on his part of the powers
with which the Constitution has invested his office would effect a
practical alteration of that instrument without resorting to the prescribed
process of amendment.
With the motives or considerations which may induce Congress to pass any
bill the President can have nothing to do. He must presume them to be as
pure as his own, and look only to the practical effect of their measures
when compared with the Constitution or the public good.
But it has been urged by those who object to the exercise of this undoubted
constitutional power that it assails the representative principle and the
capacity of the people to govern themselves; that there is greater safety
in a numerous representative body than in the single Executive created by
the Constitution, and that the Executive veto is a "one-man power,"
despotic in its character. To expose the fallacy of this objection it is
only necessary to consider the frame and true character of our system. Ours
is not a consolidated empire, but a confederated union. The States before
the adoption of the Constitution were coordinate, co-equal, and separate
independent sovereignties, and by its adoption they did not lose that
character. They clothed the Federal Government with certain powers and
reserved all others, including their own sovereignty, to themselves. They
guarded their own rights as States and the rights of the people by the very
limitations which they incorporated into the Federal Constitution, whereby
the different departments of the General Government were checks upon each
other. That the majority should govern is a general principle controverted
by none, but they must govern according to the Constitution, and not
according to an undefined and unrestrained discretion, whereby they may
oppress the minority.
The people of the United States are not blind to the fact that they may be
temporarily misled, and that their representatives, legislative and
executive, may be mistaken or influenced in their action by improper
motives. They have therefore interposed between themselves and the laws
which may be passed by their public agents various representations, such as
assemblies, senates, and governors in their several States, a House of
Representatives, a Senate, and a President of the United States. The people
can by their own direct agency make no law, nor can the House of
Representatives, immediately elected by them, nor can the Senate, nor can
both together without the concurrence of the President or a vote of
two-thirds of both Houses.
Happily for themselves, the people in framing our admirable system of
government were conscious of the infirmities of their representatives, and
in delegating to them the power of legislation they have fenced them around
with checks to guard against the effects of hasty action, of error, of
combination, and of possible corruption. Error, selfishness, and faction
have often sought to rend asunder this web of checks and subject the
Government to the control of fanatic and sinister influences, but these
efforts have only satisfied the people of the wisdom of the checks which
they have imposed and of the necessity of preserving them unimpaired.
The true theory of our system is not to govern by the acts or decrees of
any one set of representatives. The Constitution interposes checks upon all
branches of the Government, in order to give time for error to be corrected
and delusion to pass away; but if the people settle down into a firm
conviction different from that of their representatives they give effect to
their opinions by changing their public servants. The checks which the
people imposed on their public servants in the adoption of the Constitution
are the best evidence of their capacity for self-government. They know that
the men whom they elect to public stations are of like infirmities and
passions with themselves, and not to be trusted without being restricted by
coordinate authorities and constitutional limitations. Who that has
witnessed the legislation of Congress for the last thirty years will say
that he knows of no instance in which measures not demanded by the public
good have been carried? Who will deny that in the State governments, by
combinations of individuals and sections, in derogation of the general
interest, banks have been chartered, systems of internal improvements
adopted, and debts entailed upon the people repressing their growth and
impairing their energies for years to come?
After so much experience it can not be said that absolute unchecked power
is safe in the hands of any one set of representatives, or that the
capacity of the people for self-government, which is admitted in its
broadest extent, is a conclusive argument to prove the prudence, wisdom,
and integrity of their representatives.
The people, by the Constitution, have commanded the President, as much as
they have commanded the legislative branch of the Government, to execute
their will. They have said to him in the Constitution, which they require
he shall take a solemn oath to support, that if Congress pass any bill
which he can not approve "he shall return it to the House in which it
originated with his objections." In withholding from it his approval and
signature he is executing the will of the people, constitutionally
expressed, as much as the Congress that passed it. No bill is presumed to
be in accordance with the popular will until it shall have passed through
all the branches of the Government required by the Constitution to make it
a law. A bill which passes the House of Representatives may be rejected by
the Senate, and so a bill passed by the Senate may be rejected by the
House. In each case the respective Houses exercise the veto power on the
other.
Congress, and each House of Congress, hold under the Constitution a check
upon the President, and he, by the power of the qualified veto, a check
upon Congress. When the President recommends measures to Congress, he avows
in the most solemn form his opinions, gives his voice in their favor, and
pledges himself in advance to approve them if passed by Congress. If he
acts without due consideration, or has been influenced by improper or
corrupt motives, or if from any other cause Congress, or either House of
Congress, shall differ with him in opinion, they exercise their veto upon
his recommendations and reject them; and there is no appeal from their
decision but to the people at the ballot box. These are proper checks upon
the Executive, wisely interposed by the Constitution. None will be found to
object to them or to wish them removed. It is equally important that the
constitutional checks of the Executive upon the legislative branch should
be preserved.
If it be said that the Representatives in the popular branch of Congress
are chosen directly by the people, it is answered, the people elect the
President. If both Houses represent the States and the people, so does the
President. The President represents in the executive department the whole
people of the United States, as each member of the legislative department
represents portions of them.
The doctrine of restriction upon legislative and executive power, while a
well-settled public opinion is enabled within a reasonable time to
accomplish its ends, has made our country what it is, and has opened to us
a career of glory and happiness to which all other nations have been
strangers.
In the exercise of the power of the veto the President is responsible not
only to an enlightened public opinion, but to the people of the whole
Union, who elected him, as the representatives in the legislative branches
who differ with him in opinion are responsible to the people of particular
States or districts, who compose their respective constituencies. To deny
to the President the exercise of this power would be to repeal that
provision of the Constitution which confers it upon him. To charge that its
exercise unduly controls the legislative will is to complain of the
Constitution itself.
If the Presidential veto be objected to upon the ground that it checks and
thwarts the popular will, upon the same principle the equality of
representation of the States in the Senate should be stricken out of the
Constitution. The vote of a Senator from Delaware has equal weight in
deciding upon the most important measures with the vote of a Senator from
New York, and yet the one represents a State containing, according to the
existing apportionment of Representatives in the House of Representatives,
but one thirty-fourth part of the population of the other. By the
constitutional composition of the Senate a majority of that body from the
smaller States represent less than one-fourth of the people of the Union.
There are thirty States, and under the existing apportionment of
Representatives there are 230 Members in the House of Representatives.
Sixteen of the smaller States are represented in that House by but 50
Members, and yet the Senators from these States constitute a majority of
the Senate. So that the President may recommend a measure to Congress, and
it may receive the sanction and approval of more than three-fourths of the
House of Representatives and of all the Senators from the large States,
containing more than three-fourths of the whole population of the United
States, and yet the measure may be defeated by the votes of the Senators
from the smaller States. None, it is presumed, can be found ready to change
the organization of the Senate on this account, or to strike that body
practically out of existence by requiring that its action shall be
conformed to the will of the more numerous branch.
Upon the same principle that the veto of the President should be
practically abolished the power of the Vice-President to give the casting
vote upon an equal division of the Senate should be abolished also. The
Vice-President exercises the veto power as effectually by rejecting a bill
by his casting vote as the President does by refusing to approve and sign
it. This power has been exercised by the Vice-President in a few instances,
the most important of which was the rejection of the bill to recharter the
Bank of the United States in 1811. It may happen that a bill may be passed
by a large majority of the House of Representatives, and may be supported
by the Senators from the larger States, and the Vice-President may reject
it by giving his vote with the Senators from the smaller States; and yet
none, it is presumed, are prepared to deny to him the exercise of this
power under the Constitution.
But it is, in point of fact, untrue that an act passed by Congress is
conclusive evidence that it is an emanation of the popular will. A majority
of the whole number elected to each House of Congress constitutes a quorum,
and a majority of that quorum is competent to pass laws. It might happen
that a quorum of the House of Representatives, consisting of a single
member more than half of the whole number elected to that House, might pass
a bill by a majority of a single vote, and in that case a fraction more
than one-fourth of the people of the United States would be represented by
those who voted for it. It might happen that the same bill might be passed
by a majority of one of a quorum of the Senate, composed of Senators from
the fifteen smaller States and a single Senator from a sixteenth State; and
if the Senators voting for it happened to be from the eight of the smallest
of these States, it would be passed by the votes of Senators from States
having but fourteen Representatives in the House of Representatives, and
containing less than one-sixteenth of the whole population of the United
States. This extreme case is stated to illustrate the fact that the mere
passage of a bill by Congress is no conclusive evidence that those who
passed it represent the majority of the people of the United States or
truly reflect their will. If such an extreme case is not likely to happen,
cases that approximate it are of constant occurrence. It is believed that
not a single law has been passed since the adoption of the Constitution
upon which all the members elected to both Houses have been present and
voted. Many of the most important acts which have passed Congress have been
carried by a close vote in thin Houses. Many instances of this might be
given. Indeed, our experience proves that many of the most important acts
of Congress are postponed to the last days, and often the last hours, of a
session, when they are disposed of in haste, and by Houses but little
exceeding the number necessary to form a quorum.
Besides, in most of the States the members of the House of Representatives
are chosen by pluralities, and not by majorities of all the voters in their
respective districts, and it may happen that a majority of that House may
be returned by a less aggregate vote of the people than that received by
the minority.
If the principle insisted on be sound, then the Constitution should be so
changed that no bill shall become a law unless it is voted for by members
representing in each House a majority of the whole people of the United
States. We must remodel our whole system, strike down and abolish not only
the salutary checks lodged in the executive branch, but must strike out and
abolish those lodged in the Senate also, and thus practically invest the
whole power of the Government in a majority of a single assembly--a
majority uncontrolled and absolute, and which may become despotic. To
conform to this doctrine of the right of majorities to rule, independent of
the checks and limitations of the Constitution, we must revolutionize our
whole system; we must destroy the constitutional compact by which the
several States agreed to form a Federal Union and rush into consolidation,
which must end in monarchy or despotism. No one advocates such a
proposition, and yet the doctrine maintained, if carried out, must lead to
this result.
One great object of the Constitution in conferring upon the President a
qualified negative upon the legislation of Congress was to protect
minorities from injustice and oppression by majorities. The equality of
their representation in the Senate and the veto power of the President are
the constitutional guaranties which the smaller States have that their
rights will be respected. Without these guaranties all their interests
would be at the mercy of majorities in Congress representing the larger
States. To the smaller and weaker States, therefore, the preservation of
this power and its exercise upon proper occasions demanding it is of vital
importance. They ratified the Constitution and entered into the Union,
securing to themselves an equal representation with the larger States in
the Senate; and they agreed to be bound by all laws passed by Congress upon
the express condition, and none other, that they should be approved by the
President or passed, his objections to the contrary notwithstanding, by a
vote of two-thirds of both Houses. Upon this condition they have a right to
insist as a part of the compact to which they gave their assent.
A bill might be passed by Congress against the will of the whole people of
a particular State and against the votes of its Senators and all its
Representatives. However prejudicial it might be to the interests of such
State, it would be bound by it if the President shall approve it or it
shall be passed by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses; but it has a right
to demand that the President shall exercise his constitutional power and
arrest it if his judgment is against it. If he surrender this power, or
fail to exercise it in a case where he can not approve, it would make his
formal approval a mere mockery, and would be itself a violation of the
Constitution, and the dissenting State would become bound by a law which
had not been passed according to the sanctions of the Constitution.
The objection to the exercise of the veto power is founded upon an idea
respecting the popular will, which, if carried out, would annihilate State
sovereignty and substitute for the present Federal Government a
consolidation directed by a supposed numerical majority. A revolution of
the Government would be silently effected and the States would be subjected
to laws to which they had never given their constitutional consent.
The Supreme Court of the United States is invested with the power to
declare, and has declared, acts of Congress passed with the concurrence of
the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the approval of the President
to be unconstitutional and void, and yet none, it is presumed, can be found
who will be disposed to strip this highest judicial tribunal under the
Constitution of this acknowledged power--a power necessary alike to its
independence and the rights of individuals.
For the same reason that the Executive veto should, according to the
doctrine maintained, be rendered nugatory, and be practically expunged from
the Constitution, this power of the court should also be rendered nugatory
and be expunged, because it restrains the legislative and Executive will,
and because the exercise of such a power by the court may be regarded as
being in conflict with the capacity of the people to govern themselves.
Indeed, there is more reason for striking this power of the court from the
Constitution than there is that of the qualified veto of the president,
because the decision of the court is final, and can never be reversed even
though both Houses of Congress and the President should be unanimous in
opposition to it, whereas the veto of the President may be overruled by a
vote of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress or by the people at the
polls.
It is obvious that to preserve the system established by the Constitution
each of the coordinate branches of the Government--the executive,
legislative, and judicial--must be left in the exercise of its appropriate
powers. If the executive or the judicial branch be deprived of powers
conferred upon either as checks on the legislative, the preponderance of
the latter will become disproportionate and absorbing and the others
impotent for the accomplishment of the great objects for which they were
established. Organized, as they are, by the Constitution, they work
together harmoniously for the public good. If the Executive and the
judiciary shall be deprived of the constitutional powers invested in them,
and of their due proportions, the equilibrium of the system must be
destroyed, and consolidation, with the most pernicious results, must
ensue--a consolidation of unchecked, despotic power, exercised by
majorities of the legislative branch.
The executive, legislative, and judicial each constitutes a separate
coordinate department of the Government, and each is independent of the
others. In the performance of their respective duties under the
Constitution neither can in its legitimate action control the others. They
each act upon their several responsibilities in their respective spheres.
But if the doctrines now maintained be correct, the executive must become
practically subordinate to the legislative, and the judiciary must become
subordinate to both the legislative and the executive; and thus the whole
power of the Government would be merged in a single department. Whenever,
if ever, this shall occur, our glorious system of well-regulated
self-government will crumble into ruins, to be succeeded, first by anarchy,
and finally by monarchy or despotism. I am far from believing that this
doctrine is the sentiment of the American people; and during the short
period which remains in which it will be my duty to administer the
executive department it will be my aim to maintain its independence and
discharge its duties without infringing upon the powers or duties of either
of the other departments of the Government.
The power of the Executive veto was exercised by the first and most
illustrious of my predecessors and by four of his successors who preceded
me in the administration of the Government, and it is believed in no
instance prejudicially to the public interests. It has never been and there
is but little danger that it ever can be abused. No President will ever
desire unnecessarily to place his opinion in opposition to that of
Congress. He must always exercise the power reluctantly, and only in cases
where his convictions make it a matter of stern duty, which he can not
escape. Indeed, there is more danger that the President, from the
repugnance he must always feel to come in collision with Congress, may fail
to exercise it in cases where the preservation of the Constitution from
infraction, or the public good, may demand it than that he will ever
exercise it unnecessarily or wantonly.
During the period I have administered the executive department of the
Government great and important questions of public policy, foreign and
domestic, have arisen, upon which it was my duty to act. It may, indeed, be
truly said that my Administration has fallen upon eventful times. I have
felt most sensibly the weight of the high responsibilities devolved upon
me. With no other object than the public good, the enduring fame, and
permanent prosperity of my country, I have pursued the convictions of my
own best judgment. The impartial arbitrament of enlightened public opinion,
present and future, will determine how far the public policy I have
maintained and the measures I have from time to time recommended may have
tended to advance or retard the public prosperity at home and to elevate or
depress the estimate of our national character abroad.
Invoking the blessings of the Almighty upon your deliberations at your
present important session, my ardent hope is that in a spirit of harmony
and concord you may be guided to wise results, and such as may redound to
the happiness, the honor, and the glory of our beloved country.
JAMES K. POLK
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