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Title: State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson
Author: Thomas Jefferson
Posting Date: November 21, 2014 [EBook #5012]
Release Date: February, 2004
First Posted: April 11, 2002
Last Updated: December 16, 2004
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESSES ***
Produced by James Linden. HTML version by Al Haines.
State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson
The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
Dates of addresses by Thomas Jefferson in this eBook:
December 8, 1801
December 15, 1802
October 17, 1803
November 8, 1804
December 3, 1805
December 2, 1806
October 27, 1807
November 8, 1808
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
December 8, 1801
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me that on meeting the
great council of our nation I am able to announce to them on grounds of
reasonable certainty that the wars and troubles which have for so many
years afflicted our sister nations have at length come to an end, and that
the communications of peace and commerce are once more opening among them.
Whilst we devoutly return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been
pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness, we
are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace
has been preserved through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted
quietly to cultivate the earth and to practice and improve those arts which
tend to increase our comforts. The assurances, indeed, of friendly
disposition received from all the powers with whom we have principle
relations had inspired a confidence that our peace with them would not have
been disturbed. But a cessation of irregularities which had affected the
commerce of neutral nations and of the irritations and injuries produced by
them can not but add to this confidence, and strengthens at the same time
the hope that wrongs committed on unoffending friends under a pressure of
circumstances will now be reviewed with candor, and will be considered as
founding just claims of retribution for the past and new assurance for the
future.
Among our Indian neighbors also a spirit of peace and friendship generally
prevails, and I am happy to inform you that the continued efforts to
introduce among them the implements and the practice of husbandry and the
household arts have not been without success; that they are becoming more
and more sensible of the superiority of this dependence for clothing and
subsistence over the precarious resources of hunting and fishing, and
already we are able to announce that instead of that constant diminution of
their numbers produced by their wars and their wants, some of them begin to
experience an increase of population.
To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only
exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States,
had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and
had permitted itself to denounce war on our failure to comply before a
given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer.
I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean, with assurances
to that power of our sincere desire to remain in peace, but with orders to
protect our commerce against the threatened attack. The measure was
seasonable and salutary. The Bey had already declared war. His cruisers
were out. Two had arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce in the Mediterranean
was blockaded and that of the Atlantic in peril.
The arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger. One of the Tripolitan
cruisers having fallen in with and engaged the small schooner Enterprise,
commanded by Lieutenant Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our larger
vessels, was captured, after a heavy slaughter of her men, without the loss
of a single one on our part. The bravery exhibited by our citizens on that
element will, I trust, be a testimony to the world that it is not the want
of that virtue which makes us seek their peace, but a conscientious desire
to direct the energies of our nation to the multiplication of the human
race, and not to its destruction. Unauthorized by the Constitution, without
the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of defense, the vessel,
being disabled from committing further hostilities, was liberated with its
crew.
The Legislature will doubtless consider whether, by authorizing measures of
offense also, they will place our force on an equal footing with that of
its adversaries. I communicate all material information on this subject,
that in the exercise of this important function confided by the
Constitution to the Legislature exclusively their judgment may form itself
on a knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of weight.
I wish I could say that our situation with all the other Barbary States was
entirely satisfactory. Discovering that some delays had taken place in the
performance of certain articles stipulated by us, I thought it my duty, by
immediate measures for fulfilling them, to vindicate to ourselves the right
of considering the effect of departure from stipulation on their side. From
the papers which will be laid before you you will be enabled to judge
whether our treaties are regarded by them as fixing at all the measure of
their demands or as guarding from the exercise of force our vessels within
their power, and to consider how far it will be safe and expedient to leave
our affairs with them in their present posture.
I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our inhabitants,
to a conformity with which we are now to reduce the ensuing ration of
representation and taxation. You will perceive that the increase of numbers
during the last 10 years, proceeding in geometric ratio, promises a
duplication in little more than 22 years. We contemplate this rapid growth
and the prospect it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries it may
enable us to do others in some future day, but to the settlement of the
extensive country still remaining vacant within our limits to the
multiplication of men susceptible of happiness, educated in the love of
order, habituated to self-government, and valuing its blessings above all
price.
Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers, have produced
an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption in a ratio far beyond
that of population alone; and though the changes in foreign relations now
taking place so desirably for the whole world may for a season affect this
branch of revenue, yet weighing all probabilities of expense as well as of
income, there is reasonable ground of confidence that we may now safely
dispense with all the internal taxes, comprehending excise, stamps,
auctions, licenses, carriages, and refined sugars, to which the postage on
news papers may be added to facilitate the progress of information, and
that the remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the
support of Government, to pay the interest of the public debts, and to
discharge the principals within shorter periods than the laws or the
general expectation had contemplated.
War, indeed, and untoward events may change this prospect of things and
call for expenses which imposts could not meet; but sound principles will
not justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate
treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not, perhaps,
happen but from the temptations offered by that treasure.
These views, however, of reducing our burthens are formed on the
expectation that a sensible and at the same time a salutary reduction may
take place in our habitual expenditures. For this purpose those of the
civil Government, the Army, and Navy will need revisal.
When we consider that this Government is charged with the external and
mutual relations only of these States; that the States themselves have
principal care of our persons, our property, and our reputation,
constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether
our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and
officers have not been multiplied unnecessarily and sometimes injuriously
to the service they were meant to promote.
I will cause to be laid before you an essay toward a statement of those
who, under public employment of various kinds, draw money from the Treasury
or from our citizens. Time has not permitted a perfect enumeration, the
ramifications of office being too multiplied and remote to be completely
traced in a first trial.
Among those who are dependent on Executive discretion I have begun the
reduction of what was deemed unnecessary. The expenses of diplomatic agency
have been considerably diminished. The inspectors of internal revenue who
were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution have been
discontinued. Several agencies created by Executive authorities, on
salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the
expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises
to legislative inspection and sanction.
Other reformations of the same kind will be pursued with that caution which
is requisite in removing useless things, not to injure what is retained.
But the great mass of public offices is established by law, and therefore
by law alone can be abolished. Should the Legislature think it expedient to
pass this roll in review and try all its parts by the test of public
utility, they may be assured of every aid and light which Executive
information can yield.
Considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies and
to increase expense to the ultimate term of burthen which the citizen can
bear, it behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion which presents
itself for taking off the surcharge, that it never may be seen here that
after leaving to labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can
subsist, Government shall itself consume the whole residue of what it was
instituted to guard.
In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted to our direction it
would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation by
appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose susceptible of
definition; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the
appropriation in object or transcending it in amount; by reducing the
undefined field of contingencies and thereby circumscribing discretionary
powers over money, and by bringing back to a single department all
accountabilities for money, where the examinations may be prompt,
efficacious, and uniform.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, as prepared
by the Secretary of the Treasury, will, as usual, be laid before you. The
success which has attended the late sales of the public lands shews that
with attention they may be made an important source of receipt. Among the
payments those made in discharge of the principal and interest of the
national debt will shew that the public faith has been exactly maintained.
To these will be added an estimate of appropriations necessary for the
ensuing year. This last will, of course, be affected by such modifications
of the system of expense as you shall think proper to adopt.
A statement has been formed by the Secretary of War, on mature
consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be
expedient and of the number of men requisite for each garrison. The whole
amount is considerably short of the present military establishment. For the
surplus no particular use can be pointed out.
For defense against invasion their number is as nothing, nor is it
conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of
peace for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular
point in our circumference where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only
force which can be ready at every point and competent to oppose them is the
body of the neighboring citizens as formed into a militia. On these,
collected from the parts most convenient in numbers proportioned to the
invading force, it is best to rely not only to meet the first attack, but if
it threatens to be permanent to maintain the defense until regulars may be
engaged to relieve them. These considerations render it important that we
should at every session continue to amend the defects which from time to
time shew themselves in the laws for regulating the militia until they are
sufficiently perfect. Nor should we now or at any time separate until we
say we have done everything for the militia which we could do were an enemy
at our door.
The provision of military stores on hand will be laid before you, that you
may judge of the additions still requisite.
With respect to the extent to which our naval preparations should be
expected to appear, but just attention to the circumstances of every part
of the Union will doubtless reconcile all. A small force will probably
continue to be wanted for actual service in the Mediterranean. Whatever
annual sum beyond that you may think proper to appropriate to naval
preparations would perhaps be better employed in providing those articles
which may be kept without waste or consumption, and be in readiness when
any exigence calls them into use. Progress has been made, as will appear by
papers now communicated, in providing materials for 74-gun ships as
directed by law.
How far the authority given by the Legislature for procuring and
establishing sites for naval purposes has been perfectly understood and
pursued in the execution admits of some doubt. A statement of the expenses
already incurred on that subject is now laid before you. I have in certain
cases suspended or slackened these expenditures, that the Legislature might
determine whether so many yards are necessary as have been contemplated.
The works at this place are among those permitted to go on, and 5 of the 7
frigates directed to be laid up have been brought and laid up here, where,
besides the safety of their position, they are under the eye of the
Executive Administration, as well as of its agents, and where yourselves
also will be guided by your own view in the legislative provisions
respecting them which may from time to time be necessary. They are
preserved in such condition, as well the vessels as whatever belongs to
them, as to be at all times ready for sea on a short warning. Two others
are yet to be laid up so soon as they shall have received the repairs
requisite to put them also into sound condition. As a superintending
officer will be necessary at each yard, his duties and emoluments, hitherto
fixed by the Executive, will be a more proper subject for legislation. A
communication will also be made of our progress in the execution of the law
respecting the vessels directed to be sold.
The fortifications of our harbors, more or less advanced, present
considerations of great difficulty. While some of them are on a scale
sufficiently proportioned to the advantages of their position, to the
efficacy of their protection, and the importance of the points within it,
others are so extensive, will cost so much in their first erection, so much
in their maintenance, and require such a force to garrison them as to make
it questionable what is best now to be done. A statement of those commenced
or projected, of the expenses already incurred, and estimates of their
future cost, as far as can be foreseen, shall be laid before you, that you
may be enabled to judge whether any alteration is necessary in the laws
respecting this subject.
Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our
prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual
enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes
be seasonably interposed. If in the course of your observations or
inquiries they should appear to need any aid within the limits of our
constitutional powers, your sense of their importance is a sufficient
assurance they will occupy your attention. We can not, indeed, but all feel
an anxious solicitude for the difficulties under which our carrying trade
will soon be placed. How far it can be relieved, otherwise than by time, is
a subject of important consideration.
The judiciary system of the United States, and especially that portion of
it recently erected, will of course present itself to the contemplation of
Congress, and, that they may be able to judge of the proportion which the
institution bears on the business it has to perform, I have caused to be
procured from the several States and now lay before Congress an exact
statement of all the causes decided since the first establishment of the
courts, and of those which were depending when additional courts and judges
were brought in to their aid.
And while on the judiciary organization it will be worthy your
consideration whether the protection of the inestimable institution of
juries has been extended to all the cases involving the security of our
persons and property. Their impartial selection also being essential to
their value, we ought further to consider whether that is sufficiently
secured in those States where they are named by a marshal depending on
Executive will or designated by the court or by officers dependent on
them.
I can not omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of
naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of
citizenship under a residence of 14 years is a denial to a great proportion
of those who ask it, and controls a policy pursued from their first
settlement by many of these States, and still believed of consequence to
their prosperity; and shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from
distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to
our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum
on this globe? The Constitution indeed has wisely provided that for
admission to certain offices of important trust a residence shall be
required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the
general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to
everyone manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes
permanently with us, with restrictions, perhaps, to guard against the
fraudulent usurpation of our flag, an abuse which brings so much
embarrassment and loss on the genuine citizen and so much danger to the
nation of being involved in war that no endeavor should be spared to detect
and suppress it?
These, fellow citizens, are the matters respecting the state of the nation
which I have thought of importance to be submitted to your consideration at
this time. Some others of less moment or not yet ready for communication
will be the subject of separate messages. I am happy in this opportunity of
committing the arduous affairs of our Government to the collected wisdom of
the Union. Nothing shall be wanting on my part to inform as far as in my
power the legislative judgment, nor to carry that judgment into faithful
execution.
The prudence and temperance of your discussions will promote within your
own walls that conciliation which so much befriends rational conclusion,
and by its example will encourage among our constituents that progress of
opinion which is tending to unite them in object and in will. That all
should be satisfied with any one order of things is not to be expected; but
I indulge the pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens will
cordially concur in honest and disinterested efforts which have for their
object to preserve the General and State Governments in their
constitutional form and equilibrium; to maintain peace abroad, and order
and obedience to the laws at home; to establish principles and practices of
administration favorable to the security of liberty and property, and to
reduce expenses to what is necessary for the useful purposes of Government.
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
December 15, 1802
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
When we assemble together, fellow citizens, to consider the state of our
beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those pleasing
circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from whose favor they
flow and the large measure of thankfulness we owe for His bounty. Another
year has come around, and finds us still blessed with peace and friendship
abroad; law, order, and religion at home; good affection and harmony with
our Indian neighbors; our burthens lightened, yet our income sufficient for
the public wants, and the produce of the year great beyond example. These,
fellow citizens, are the circumstances under which we meet, and we remark
with special satisfaction those which under the smiles of Providence result
from the skill, industry, and order of our citizens, managing their own
affairs in their own way and for their own use, unembarrassed by too much
regulation, unoppressed by fiscal exactions.
On the restoration of peace in Europe that portion of the general carrying
trade which had fallen to our share during the war was abridged by the
returning competition of the belligerent powers. This was to be expected,
and was just. But in addition we find in some parts of Europe monopolizing
discriminations, which in the form of duties tend effectually to prohibit
the carrying thither our own produce in our own vessels. From existing
amities and a spirit of justice it is hoped that friendly discussion will
produce a fair and adequate reciprocity. But should false calculations of
interest defeat our hope, it rests with the Legislature to decide whether
they will meet inequalities abroad with countervailing inequalities at
home, or provide for the evil in any other way.
It is with satisfaction I lay before you an act of the British Parliament
anticipating this subject so far as to authorize a mutual abolition of the
duties and countervailing duties permitted under the treaty of 1794. It
shows on their part a spirit of justice and friendly accommodation which it
is our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations. Whether this
would produce a due equality in the navigation between the two countries is
a subject for your consideration.
Another circumstance which claims attention as directly affecting the very
source of our navigation is the defect or the evasion of the law providing
for the return of sea men, and particularly of those belonging to vessels
sold abroad. Numbers of them, discharged in foreign ports, have been thrown
on the hands of our consuls, who, to rescue them from the dangers into
which their distresses might plunge them and save them to their country,
have found it necessary in some cases to return them at the public charge.
The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana to France, which took
place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, make a
change in the aspect of our foreign relations which will doubtless have
just weight in any deliberations of the Legislature connected with that
subject.
There was reason not long since to apprehend that the warfare in which we
were engaged with Tripoli might be taken up by some other of the Barbary
Powers. A reenforcement, therefore, was immediately ordered to the vessels
already there. Subsequent information, however, has removed these
apprehensions for the present. To secure our commerce in that sea with the
smallest force competent, we have supposed it best to watch strictly the
harbor of Tripoli. Still, however, the shallowness of their coast and the
want of smaller vessels on our part has permitted some cruisers to escape
unobserved, and to one of these an American vessel unfortunately fell prey.
The captain, one American sea man, and two others of color remain prisoners
with them unless exchanged under an agreement formerly made with the
Bashaw, to whom, on the faith of that, some of his captive subjects had
been restored.
The convention with the State of Georgia has been ratified by their
legislature, and a repurchase from the Creeks has been consequently made of
a part of the Talasscee country. In this purchase has been also
comprehended a part of the lands within the fork of Oconee and Oakmulgee
rivers. The particulars of the contract will be laid before Congress so
soon as they shall be in a state for communication.
In order to remove every ground of difference possible with our Indian
neighbors, I have proceeded in the work of settling with them and marking
the boundaries between us. That with the Choctaw Nation is fixed in one
part and will be through the whole within a short time. The country to
which their title had been extinguished before the Revolution is sufficient
to receive a very respectable population, which Congress will probably see
the expediency of encouraging so soon as the limits shall be declared. We
are to view this position as an outpost of the United States, surrounded by
strong neighbors and distant from its support; and how far that monopoly
which prevents population should here be guarded against and actual
habitation made a condition of the continuance of title will be for your
consideration. A prompt settlement, too, of all existing rights and claims
within this territory presents itself as a preliminary operation.
In that part of the Indiana Territory which includes Vincennes the lines
settled with the neighboring tribes fix the extinction of their title at a
breadth of 24 leagues from east to west and about the same length parallel
with and including the Wabash. They have also ceded a tract of 4 miles
square, including the salt springs near the mouth of that river.
In the Department of Finance it is with pleasure I inform you, that the
receipts of external duties for the last 12 months have exceeded those of
any former year, and that the ration of increase has been also greater than
usual. This has enabled us to answer all the regular exigencies of
Government, to pay from the Treasury within one year upward of $8 millions,
principal and interest, of the public debt, exclusive of upward of $1
million paid by the sale of bank stock, and making in the whole a
reduction of nearly $5.5 millions of principal, and to have now in the
Treasury $4.5 millions which are in a course of application to the
further discharge of debt and current demands. Experience, too, so far,
authorizes us to believe, if no extraordinary event supervenes, and the
expenses which will be actually incurred shall not be greater than were
contemplated by Congress at their last session, that we shall not be
disappointed in the expectations then formed. But nevertheless, as the
effect of peace on the amount of duties is not yet fully ascertained, it
is the more necessary to practice every useful economy and to incur no
expense which may be avoided without prejudice.
The collection of the internal taxes having been completed in some of the
States, the officers employed in it are of course out of commission. In
others they will be so shortly. But in a few, where the arrangements for
the direct tax had been retarded, it will be some time before the system is
closed. It has not yet been thought necessary to employ the agent
authorized by an act of the last session for transacting business in Europe
relative to debts and loans. Nor have we used the power confided by the
same act of prolonging the foreign debt by reloans, and of redeeming
instead thereof an equal sum of the domestic debt. Should, however, the
difficulties of remittance on so large a scale render it necessary at any
time, the power shall be executed and the money thus employed abroad shall,
in conformity with that law, be faithfully applied here in an equivalent
extinction of domestic debt.
When effects so salutary result from the plans you have already sanctioned;
when merely by avoiding false objects of expense we are able, without a
direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing to make large and
effectual payments toward the discharge of our public debt and the
emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker, it is an
encouragement, fellow citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have
begun in substituting economy for taxation, and in pursuing what is useful
for a nation placed as we are, rather than what is practiced by others
under different circumstances. And when so ever we are destined to meet
events which shall call forth all the energies of our country-men, we have
the firmest reliance on those energies and the comfort of leaving for calls
like these the extraordinary resources of loans and internal taxes. In the
mean time, by payments of the principal of our debt, we are liberating
annually portions of the external taxes and forming from them a growing
fund still further to lessen the necessity of recurring to extraordinary
resources.
The usual account of receipts and expenditures for the last year, with an
estimate of the expenses of the ensuing one, will be laid before you by the
Secretary of the Treasury.
No change being deemed necessary in our military establishment, an estimate
of its expenses for the ensuing year on its present footing, as also of the
sums to be employed in fortifications and other objects within that
department, has been prepared by the Secretary of War, and will make a part
of the general estimates which will be presented you.
Considering that our regular troops are employed for local purposes, and
that the militia is our general reliance for great and sudden emergencies,
you will doubtless think this institution worthy of a review, and give it
those improvements of which you find it susceptible.
Estimates for the Naval Department, prepared by the Secretary of the Navy,
for another year will in like manner be communicated with the general
estimates. A small force in the Mediterranean will still be necessary to
restrain the Tripoline cruisers, and the uncertain tenure of peace with
some other of the Barbary Powers may eventually require that force to be
augmented. The necessity of procuring some smaller vessels for that service
will raise the estimate, but the difference in their maintenance will soon
make it a measure of economy.
Presuming it will be deemed expedient to expend annually a convenient sum
toward providing the naval defense which our situation may require, I can
not but recommend that the first appropriations for that purpose may go to
the saving what we already possess. No cares, no attentions, can preserve
vessels from rapid decay which lie in water and exposed to the sun. These
decays require great and constant repairs, and will consume, if continued,
a great portion of the moneys destined to naval purposes. To avoid this
waste of our resources it is proposed to add to our navy-yard here a dock
within which our present vessels may be laid up dry and under cover from
the sun. Under these circumstances experience proves that works of wood
will remain scarcely at all affected by time. The great abundance of
running water which this situation possesses, at heights far above the
level of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock navigation,
furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels on a dry and
sheltered bed. And should the measure be found useful here, similar
depositories for laying up as well as for building and repairing vessels
may hereafter be undertaken at other navy-yards offering the same means.
The plans and estimates of the work, prepared by a person of skill and
experience, will be presented to you without delay, and from this it will
be seen that scarcely more than has been the cost of one vessel is necessary
to save the whole, and that the annual sum to be employed toward its
completion may be adapted to the views of the Legislature as to naval
expenditure. To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all
their lawful enterprises; to foster our fisheries as nurseries of
navigation and for the nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted
to our circumstances; to preserve the faith of the nation by an exact
discharge of its debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same
care and economy we would practice with our own, and impose on our citizens
no unnecessary burthens; to keep in all things within the pale of our
constitutional powers, and cherish the federal union as the only rock of
safety--these, fellow citizens, are the land-marks by which we are to
guide ourselves in all proceedings. By continuing to make these the rule of
our action we shall endear to our country-men the true principles of their
Constitution and promote an union of sentiment and of action equally
auspicious to their happiness and safety. On my part, you may count on a
cordial concurrence in every measure for the public good and on all the
information I possess which may enable you to discharge to advantage the
high functions with which you are invested by your country.
TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
October 17, 1803
To The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In calling you together, fellow citizens, at an earlier day than was
contemplated by the act of the last session of Congress, I have not been
insensible to the personal inconveniences necessarily resulting from an
unexpected change in your arrangements, but matters of great public
concernment have rendered this call necessary, and the interests you feel
in these will supersede in your minds all private considerations.
Congress witnessed at their late session the extraordinary agitation
produced in the public mind by the suspension of our right of deposit at
the port of New Orleans, no assignment of another place having been made
according to treaty. They were sensible that the continuance of that
privation would be more injurious to our nation than any consequences which
could flow from any mode of redress, but reposing just confidence in the
good faith of the Government whose officer had committed the wrong,
friendly and reasonable representations were resorted to, and the right of
deposit was restored.
Previous, however, to this period we had not been unaware of the danger to
which our peace would be perpetually exposed whilst so important a key to
the commerce of the Western country remained under foreign power.
Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves as to the navigation of other
streams which, arising within our territories, pass through those adjacent.
Propositions had therefore been authorized for obtaining on fair conditions
the sovereignty of New Orleans and of other possessions in that quarter
interesting to our quiet to such extent as was deemed practicable, and the
provisional appropriation of $2 millions to be applied and accounted
for by the President of the United States, intended as part of the price,
was considered as conveying the sanction of Congress to the acquisition
proposed. The enlightened Government of France saw with just discernment
the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangements as might best
and permanently promote the peace, friendship, and interests of both, and
the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana which had been restored to
them have on certain conditions been transferred to the United States by
instruments bearing date the 30th of April last. When these shall have
received the constitutional sanction of the Senate, they will without delay
be communicated to the Representatives also for the exercise of their
functions as to those conditions which are within the powers vested by the
Constitution in Congress.
Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters
secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States and an
uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from collision
with other powers and the dangers to our peace from that source, the
fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise in due season
important aids to our Treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and a
wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal laws.
With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior measures
which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary
government of the country; for its incorporation into our Union; for
rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted
brethren; for securing to them the rights of conscience and of property;
for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and
self-government, establishing friendly and commercial relations with them,
and for ascertaining the geography of the country acquired. Such materials,
for your information, relative to its affairs in general as the short space
of time has permitted me to collect will be laid before you when the
subject shall be in a state for your consideration.
Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since the
last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians, with
which we have never had a difference, reduced by the wars and wants of
savage life to a few individuals unable to defend themselves against the
neighboring tribes, has transferred its country to the United States,
reserving only for its members what is sufficient to maintain them in an
agricultural way. The considerations stipulated are that we shall extend to
them our patronage and protection and give them certain annual aids in
money, in implements of agriculture, and other articles of their choice.
This country, among the most fertile within our limits, extending along the
Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois to and up to the Ohio, though
not so necessary as a barrier since the acquisition of the other bank, may
yet be well worthy of being laid open to immediate settlement, as its
inhabitants may descend with rapidity in support of the lower country
should future circumstances expose that to foreign enterprise. As the
stipulations in this treaty involve matters with the competence of both
Houses only, it will be laid before Congress as soon as the Senate shall
have advised its ratification.
With many of the other Indian tribes improvements in agriculture and
household manufacture are advancing, and with all our peace and friendship
are established on grounds much firmer than heretofore. The measure adopted
of establishing trading houses among them and of furnishing them
necessaries in exchange for their commodities at such moderate prices as
leave no gain, but cover us from loss, has the most conciliatory and useful
effect on them, and is that which will best secure their peace and good
will.
The small vessels authorized by Congress with a view to the Mediterranean
service have been sent into that sea, and will be able more effectually to
confine the Tripoline cruisers within their harbors and supersede the
necessity of convoy to our commerce in that quarter. They will sensibly
lessen the expenses of that service the ensuing year.
A further knowledge of the ground in the northeastern and northwestern
angles of the United States has evinced that the boundaries established by
the treaty of Paris between the British territories and ours in those parts
were too imperfectly described to be susceptible of execution. It has
therefore been thought worthy of attention for preserving and cherishing
the harmony and useful intercourse subsisting between the two nations to
remove by timely arrangements what unfavorable incidents might otherwise
render a ground of future misunderstanding. A convention has therefore been
entered into which provides for a practicable demarcation of those limits
to the satisfaction of both parties.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the year ending the 30th of
September last, with the estimates for the service of the ensuing year,
will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury so soon as the
receipts of the last quarter shall be returned from the more distant
States. It is already ascertained that the amount paid into the Treasury
for that year has been between $11 millions and $12 millions, and that the
revenue accrued during the same term exceeds the sum counted on as
sufficient for our current expenses and to extinguish the public debt
within the period heretofore proposed.
The amount of debt paid for the same year is about $3.1 millions exclusive
of interest, and making, with the payment of the preceding year, a
discharge of more than $8.5 millions of the principal of that debt,
besides the accruing interest; and there remain in the Treasury nearly
$6 millions. Of these, $880 thousands have been reserved for payment of
the first installment due under the British convention of January 8th,
1802, and $2 millions are what have been before mentioned as placed by
Congress under the power and accountability of the President toward the
price of New Orleans and other territories acquired, which, remaining
untouched, are still applicable to that object and go in diminution of
the sum to be funded for it.
Should the acquisition of Louisiana be constitutionally confirmed and
carried into effect, a sum of nearly $13 millions will then be added to
our public debt, most of which is payable after fifteen years, before
which term the present existing debts will all be discharged by the
established operation of the sinking fund. When we contemplate the
ordinary annual augmentation of impost from increasing population and
wealth, the augmentation of the same revenue by its extension to the new
acquisition, and the economies which may still be introduced into our
public expenditures, I can not but hope that Congress in reviewing
their resources will find means to meet the intermediate interest of
this additional debt without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this
object only the ordinary progression of our revenue. Its extraordinary
increase in times of foreign war will be the proper and sufficient fund
for any measures of safety or precaution which that state of things may
render necessary in our neutral position.
Remittances for the installments of our foreign debt having been found
practicable without loss, it has not been thought expedient to use the
power given by a former act of Congress of continuing them by reloans, and
of redeeming instead thereof equal sums of domestic debt, although no
difficulty was found in obtaining that accommodation.
The sum of $50 thousands appropriated by Congress for providing gun boats
remains unexpended. The favorable and peaceable turn of affairs on the
Mississippi rendered an immediate execution of that law unnecessary, and
time was desirable in order that the institution of that branch of our
force might begin on models the most approved by experience. The same
issue of events dispensed with a resort to the appropriation of $1.5
millions, contemplated for purposes which were effected by happier means.
We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up again in
Europe, and nations with which we have the most friendly and useful
relations engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret the miseries in
which we see others involved, let us bow with gratitude to that kind
Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and moderation our late legislative
councils while placed under the urgency of the greatest wrongs guarded us
from hastily entering into the sanguinary contest and left us only to look
on and pity its ravages.
These will be heaviest on those immediately engaged. Yet the nations
pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil.
In the course of this conflict let it be our endeavor, as it is our
interest and desire, to cultivate the friendship of the belligerent nations
by every act of justice and of innocent kindness; to receive their armed
vessels with hospitality from the distresses of the sea, but to administer
the means of annoyance to none; to establish in our harbors such a police
as may maintain law and order; to restrain our citizens from embarking
individually in a war in which their country takes no part; to punish
severely those persons, citizens or alien, who shall usurp the cover of our
flag for vessels not entitled to it, infecting thereby with suspicion those
of real Americans and committing us into controversies for the redress of
wrongs not our own; to exact from every nation the observance toward our
vessels and citizens of those principles and practices which all civilized
people acknowledge; to merit the character of a just nation, and maintain
that of an independent one, preferring every consequence to insult and
habitual wrong. Congress will consider whether the existing laws enable us
efficaciously to maintain this course with our citizens in all places and
with others while within the limits of our jurisdiction, and will give them
the new modifications necessary for these objects. Some contraventions of
right have already taken place, both within our jurisdictional limits and
on the high seas. The friendly disposition of the Governments from whose
agents they have proceeded, as well as their wisdom and regard for justice,
leave us in reasonable expectation that they will be rectified and
prevented in future, and that no act will be countenanced by them which
threatens to disturb our friendly intercourse.
Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe and from the political
interests which entangle them together, with productions and wants which
render our commerce and friendship useful to them and theirs to us, it can
not be the interest of any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them. We
should be most unwise, indeed, were we to cast away the singular blessings
of the position in which nature has placed us, the opportunity she has
endowed us with of pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions, the
paths of industry, peace, and happiness, of cultivating general friendship,
and of bringing collisions of interest to the umpirage of reason rather
than of force.
How desirable, then, must it be in a Government like ours to see its
citizens adopt individually the views, the interests, and the conduct which
their country should pursue, divesting themselves of those passions and
partialities which tend to lessen useful friendships and to embarrass and
embroil us in the calamitous scenes of Europe. Confident, fellow citizens,
that you will duly estimate the importance of neutral dispositions toward
the observance of neutral conduct, that you will be sensible how much it is
our duty to look on the bloody arena spread before us with commiseration
indeed, but with no other wish than to see it closed, I am persuaded you
will cordially cherish these dispositions in all discussions among
yourselves and in all communications with your constituents; and I
anticipate with satisfaction the measures of wisdom which the great
interests now committed to you will give you an opportunity of providing,
and myself that of approving and carrying into execution with the fidelity
I owe to my country.
TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
November 8, 1804
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
To a people, fellow citizens, who sincerely desire the happiness and
prosperity of other nations; to those who justly calculate that their own
well-being is advanced by that of the nations with which they have
intercourse, it will be a satisfaction to observe that the war which was
lighted up in Europe a little before our last meeting has not yet extended
its flames to other nations, nor been marked by the calamities which
sometimes stain the foot-steps of war. The irregularities, too, on the
ocean, which generally harass the commerce of neutral nations, have, in
distant parts, disturbed ours less than on former occasions; but in the
American seas they have been greater from peculiar causes, and even within
our harbors and jurisdiction infringements on the authority of the laws
have been committed which have called for serious attention. The friendly
conduct of the Governments from whose officers and subjects these acts have
proceeded, in other respects and in places more under their observation and
control, gives us confidence that our representations on this subject will
have been properly regarded.
While noticing the irregularities committed on the ocean by others, those
on our own part should not be omitted nor left unprovided for. Complaints
have been received that persons residing within the United States have
taken on themselves to arm merchant vessels and to force a commerce into
certain ports and countries in defiance of the laws of those countries.
That individuals should undertake to wage private war, independently of the
authority of their country, can not be permitted in a well-ordered society.
Its tendency to produce aggression on the laws and rights of other nations
and to endanger the peace of our own is so obvious that I doubt not you
will adopt measures for restraining it effectually in future.
Soon after the passage of the act of the last session authorizing the
establishment of a district and port of entry on the waters of the Mobile
we learnt that its object was misunderstood on the part of Spain. Candid
explanations were immediately given and assurances that, reserving our
claims in that quarter as a subject of discussion and arrangement with
Spain, no act was meditated in the mean time inconsistent with the peace
and friendship existing between the two nations, and that conformably to
these intentions would be the execution of the law. That Government had,
however, thought proper to suspend the ratification of the convention of
1802; but the explanations which would reach them soon after, and still
more the confirmation of them by the tenor of the instrument establishing
the port and district, may reasonably be expected to replace them in the
dispositions and views of the whole subject which originally dictated the
convention.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the objections which had been
urged by that Government against the validity of our title to the country
of Louisiana have been withdrawn, its exact limits, however, remaining
still to be settled between us; and to this is to be added that, having
prepared and delivered the stock created in execution of the convention of
Paris of April 30th, 1803, in consideration of the cession of that
country, we have received from the Government of France an acknowledgment,
in due form, of the fulfillment of that stipulation.
With the nations of Europe in general our friendship and intercourse are
undisturbed, and from the Governments of the belligerent powers especially
we continue to receive those friendly manifestations which are justly due
to an honest neutrality and to such good offices consistent with that as we
have opportunities of rendering.
The activity and success of the small force employed in the Mediterranean
in the early part of the present year, the reenforcements sent into that
sea, and the energy of the officers having command in the several vessels
will, I trust, by the sufferings of war, reduce the barbarians of Tripoli
to the desire of peace on proper terms. Great injury, however, ensues to
ourselves, as well as to others interested, from the distance to which
prizes must be brought for adjudication and from the impracticability of
bringing hither such as are not sea worthy.
The Bey of Tunis having made requisitions unauthorized by our treaty, their
rejection has produced from him some expressions of discontent, but to
those who expect us to calculate whether a compliance with unjust demands
will not cost us less than a war we must leave as a question of calculation
for them also whether to retire from unjust demands will not cost them less
than a war. We can do to each other very sensible injuries by war, but the
mutual advantages of peace make that the best interest of both.
Peace and intercourse with the other powers on the same coast continue on
the footing on which they are established by treaty.
In pursuance of the act providing for the temporary government of
Louisiana, the necessary officers for the Territory of Orleans were
appointed in due time to commence the exercise of their functions on the
first day of October. The distance, however, of some of them and
indispensable previous arrangements may have retarded its commencement in
some of its parts. The form of government thus provided having been
considered but as temporary, and open to such future improvements as
further information of the circumstances of our brethren there might
suggest, it will of course be subject to your consideration.
In the district of Louisiana it has been thought best to adopt the division
into subordinate districts which had been established under its former
government. These being five in number, a commanding officer has been
appointed to each, according to the provisions of the law, and so soon as
they can be at their stations that district will also be in its due state
of organization. In the mean time, their places are supplied by the
officers before commanding there, and the function of the governor and
judges of Indiana having commenced, the government, we presume, is
proceeding in its new form. The lead mines in that district offer so rich a
supply of that metal as to merit attention. The report now communicated
will inform you of their state and of the necessity of immediate inquiry
into their occupation and titles.
With the Indian tribes established within our newly acquired limits, I have
deemed it necessary to open conferences for the purpose of establishing a
good understanding and neighborly relations between us. So far as we have
yet learned, we have reason to believe that their dispositions are
generally favorable and friendly; and with these dispositions on their
part, we have in our own hands means which can not fail us for preserving
their peace and friendship. By pursuing an uniform course of justice toward
them, by aiding them in all the improvements which may better their
condition, and especially by establishing a commerce on terms which shall
be advantageous to them and only not losing to us, and so regulated as that
no incendiaries of our own or any other nation may be permitted to disturb
the natural effects of our just and friendly offices, we may render
ourselves so necessary to their comfort and prosperity that the protection
of our citizens from their disorderly members will become their interest
and their voluntary care. Instead, therefore, of an augmentation of
military force proportioned to our extension of frontier, I propose a
moderate enlargement of the capital employed in that commerce as a more
effectual, economical, and humane instrument for preserving peace and good
neighborhood with them.
On this side of the Mississippi an important relinquishment of native title
has been received from the Delawares. That tribe, desiring to extinguish in
their people the spirit of hunting and to convert superfluous lands into
the means of improving what they retain, has ceded to us all the country
between the Wabash and Ohio south of and including the road from the rapids
toward Vincennes, for which they are to receive annuities in animals and
implements for agriculture and in other necessaries. This acquisition is
important, not only for its extent and fertility, but as fronting three
hundred miles on the Ohio, and near half that on the Wabash. The produce
of the settled country descending those rivers will no longer pass in
review of the Indian frontier but in a small portion, and, with the
cession heretofore made by the Kaskaskias, nearly consolidates our
possessions north of the Ohio, in a very respectable breadth--from Lake
Erie to the Mississippi. The Piankeshaws having some claim to the country
ceded by the Delawares, it has been thought best to quiet that by fair
purchase also. So soon as the treaties on this subject shall have received
their constitutional sanctions they shall be laid before both houses.
The act of Congress of February 28th, 1803, for building and employing a
number of gun boats, is now in a course of execution to the extent there
provided for. The obstacle to naval enterprise which vessels of this
construction offer for our sea port towns, their utility toward supporting
within our waters the authority of the laws, the promptness with which they
will be manned by the sea men and militia of the place in the moment they
are wanting, the facility of their assembling from different parts of the
coast to any point where they are required in greater force than ordinary,
the economy of their maintenance and preservation from decay when not in
actual service, and the competence of our finances to this defensive
provision without any new burthen are considerations which will have due
weight with Congress in deciding on the expediency of adding to their
number from year to year, as experience shall test their utility, until all
our important harbors, by these and auxiliary means, shall be secured
against insult and opposition to the laws.
No circumstance has arisen since your last session which calls for any
augmentation of our regular military force. Should any improvement occur in
the militia system, that will be always seasonable.
Accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, with estimates
for the ensuing one, will as usual be laid before you.
The state of our finances continues to fulfill our expectations. $11.5
millions, received in the course of the year ending the 30th of September
last, have enabled us, after meeting all the ordinary expenses of the
year, to pay upward of $3.6 millions of the public debt, exclusive of
interest. This payment, with those of the two preceding years, has
extinguished upward of $12 millions of the principal and a greater sum
of interest within that period, and by a proportionate diminution of
interest renders already sensible the effect of the growing sum yearly
applicable to the discharge of the principal.
It is also ascertained that the revenue accrued during the last year
exceeds that of the preceding, and the probable receipts of the ensuing
year may safely be relied on as sufficient, with the sum already in the
Treasury, to meet all the current demands of the year, to discharge upward
of $3.5 millions of the engagements incurred under the British and French
conventions, and to advance in the further redemption of the funded debt as
rapidly as had been contemplated.
These, fellow citizens, are the principal matters which I have thought it
necessary at this time to communicate for your consideration and attention.
Some others will be laid before you in the course of the session; but in
the discharge of the great duties confided to you by our country you will
take a broader view of the field of legislation.
Whether the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, or
navigation can within the pale of your constitutional powers be aided in
any of their relations; whether laws are provided in all cases where they
are wanting; whether those provided are exactly what they should be; whether
any abuses take place in their administration, or in that of the public
revenues; whether the organization of the public agents or of the public
force is perfect in all its parts; in fine, whether anything can be done to
advance the general good, are questions within the limits of your functions
which will necessarily occupy your attention. In these and all other
matters which you in your wisdom may propose for the good of our country,
you may count with assurance on my hearty cooperation and faithful
execution.
TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
December 3, 1805
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
At a moment when the nations of Europe are in commotion and arming against
each other, and when those with whom we have principal intercourse are
engaged in the general contest, and when the countenance of some of them
toward our peaceable country threatens that even that may not be unaffected
by what is passing on the general theater, a meeting of the representatives
of the nation in both Houses of Congress has become more than usually
desirable. Coming from every section of our country, they bring with them
the sentiments and the information of the whole, and will be enabled to
give a direction to the public affairs which the will and the wisdom of the
whole will approve and support.
In taking a view of the state of our country we in the first place notice
the late affliction of two of our cities under the fatal fever which in
latter times has occasionally visited our shores. Providence in His
goodness gave it an early termination on this occasion and lessened the
number of victims which have usually fallen before it. In the course of the
several visitations by this disease it has appeared that it is strictly
local, incident to cities and on the tide waters only, incommunicable in
the country either by persons under the disease or by goods carried from
diseased places; that its access is with the autumn and it disappears with
the early frosts.
These restrictions within narrow limits of time and space give security
even to our maritime cities during three quarter of the year, and to the
country always. Although from these facts it appears unnecessary, yet to
satisfy the fears of foreign nations and cautions on their part not to be
complained of in a danger whose limits are yet unknown to them I have
strictly enjoined on the officers at the head of the customs to certify
with exact truth for every vessel sailing for a foreign port the state of
health respecting this fever which prevails at the place from which she
sails. Under every motive from character and duty to certify the truth, I
have no doubt they have faithfully executed this injunction. Much real
injury has, however, been sustained from a propensity to identify with this
endemic and to call by the same name fevers of very different kinds, which
have been known at all times and in all countries, and never have been
placed among those deemed contagious.
As we advance in our knowledge of this disease, as facts develop the source
from which individuals receive it, the State authorities charged with the
care of the public health, and Congress with that of the general commerce,
will become able to regulate with effect their respective functions in
these departments. The burthen of quarantines is felt at home as well as
abroad; their efficacy merits examination. Although the health laws of the
States should be found to need no present revisal by Congress, yet commerce
claims that their attention be ever awake to them.
Since our last meeting the aspect of our foreign relations has considerably
changed. Our coasts have been infested and our harbors watched by private
armed vessels, some of them without commissions, some with illegal
commissions, others with those of legal form, but committing practical acts
beyond the authority of their commissions. They have captured in the very
entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels
of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own also. They have carried
them off under pretense of legal adjudication, but not daring to approach a
court of justice, they have plundered and sunk them by the way or in
obscure places where no evidence could arise against them, maltreated the
crews, and abandoned them in boats in the open sea or on desert shores
without food or clothing. These enormities appearing to be unreached by any
control of their sovereigns, I found it necessary to equip a force to
cruise within our own seas, to arrest all vessels of these descriptions
found hovering on our coasts within the limits of the Gulf Stream and to
bring the offenders in for trial as pirates.
The same system of hovering on our coasts and harbors under color of
seeking enemies has been also carried on by public armed ships to the great
annoyance and oppression of our commerce. New principles, too, have been
interpolated into the law of nations, founded neither in justice nor in the
usage or acknowledgment of nations. According to these a belligerent takes
to itself a commerce with its own enemy which it denies to a neutral on the
ground of its aiding that enemy in the war; but reason revolts at such
inconsistency, and the neutral having equal right with the belligerent to
decide the question, the interests of our constituents and the duty of
maintaining the authority of reason, the only umpire between just nations,
impose on us the obligation of providing an effectual and determined
opposition to a doctrine so injurious to the rights of peaceable nations.
Indeed, the confidence we ought to have in the justice of others still
countenances the hope that a sounder view of those rights will of itself
induce from every belligerent a more correct observance of them.
With Spain our negotiations for a settlement of differences have not had a
satisfactory issue. Spoliations during a former war, for which she had
acknowledged herself responsible, have been refused to be compensated but
on conditions affecting other claims in no wise connected with them. Yet
the same practices are renewed in the present war and are already of great
amount. On the Mobile, our commerce passing through that river continues to
be obstructed by arbitrary duties and vexatious searches. Propositions for
adjusting amicably the boundaries of Louisiana have not been acceded to.
While, however, the right is unsettled, we have avoided changing the state
of things by taking new posts or strengthening ourselves in the disputed
territories, in the hope that the other power would not by a contrary
conduct oblige us to meet their example and endanger conflicts of authority,
the issue of which may not be easily controlled. But in this hope we
have now reason to lessen our confidence.
Inroads have been recently made into the Territories of Orleans and the
Mississippi, our citizens have been seized and their property plundered in
the very parts of the former which had been actually delivered up by Spain,
and this by the regular officers and soldiers of that Government. I have
therefore found it necessary at length to give orders to our troops on that
frontier to be in readiness to protect our citizens, and to repel by arms
any similar aggressions in future. Other details necessary for your full
information of the state of things between this country and that shall be
the subject of another communication.
In reviewing these injuries from some of the belligerent powers the
moderation, the firmness, and the wisdom of the Legislature will be called
into action. We ought still to hope that time and a more correct estimate
of interest as well as of character will produce the justice we are bound
to expect, but should any nation deceive itself by false calculations, and
disappoint that expectation, we must join in the unprofitable contest of
trying which party can do the other the most harm.
Some of these injuries may perhaps admit a peaceable remedy. Where that is
competent it is always the most desirable. But some of them are of a nature
to be met by force only, and all of them may lead to it. I can not,
therefore, but recommend such preparations as circumstances call for.
The first object is to place our sea port towns out of the danger of
insult. Measures have been already taken for furnishing them with heavy
cannon for the service of such land batteries as may make a part of their
defense against armed vessels approaching them. In aid of these it is
desirable we should have a competent number of gun boats, and the number,
to be competent, must be considerable. If immediately begun, they may be in
readiness for service at the opening of the next season.
Whether it will be necessary to augment our land forces will be decided by
occurrences probably in the course of your session. In the mean time you
will consider whether it would not be expedient for a state of peace as
well as of war so to organize or class the militia as would enable us on
any sudden emergency to call for the services of the younger portions,
unencumbered with the old and those having families. Upward of three
hundred thousand able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 26 years,
which the last census shews we may now count within our limits, will
furnish a competent number for offense or defense in any point where they
may be wanted, and will give time for raising regular forces after the
necessity of them shall become certain; and the reducing to the early
period of life all its active service can not but be desirable to our
younger citizens of the present as well as future times, in as much as it
engages to them in more advanced age a quiet and undisturbed repose in
the bosom of their families. I can not, then, but earnestly recommend to
your early consideration the expediency of so modifying our militia
system as, by a separation of the more active part from that which is
less so, we may draw from it when necessary an efficient corps fit for
real and active service, and to be called to it in regular rotation.
Considerable provision has been made under former authorities from Congress
of material for the construction of ships of war of 74 guns. These
materials are on hand subject to the further will of the Legislature.
An immediate prohibition of the exportation of arms and ammunition is also
submitted to your determination.
Turning from these unpleasant views of violence and wrong, I congratulate
you on the liberation of our fellow citizens who were stranded on the coast
of Tripoli and made prisoners of war. In a government bottomed on the will
of all the life and liberty of every individual citizen become interesting
to all.
In the treaty, therefore, which has concluded our warfare with that State
an article for the ransom of our citizens has been agreed to. An operation
by land by a small band of our country-men and others, engaged for the
occasion in conjunction with the troops of the ex-Bashaw of that country,
gallantly conducted by our late consul, Eaton, and their successful
enterprise on the city of Derne, contributed doubtless to the impression
which produced peace, and the conclusion of this prevented opportunities of
which the officers and men of our squadron destined for Tripoli would have
availed themselves to emulate the acts of valor exhibited by their brethren
in the attack of the last year. Reflecting with high satisfaction on the
distinguished bravery displayed whenever occasions permitted it in the late
Mediterranean service, I think it would be an useful encouragement as well
as a just reward to make an opening for some present promotion by enlarging
our peace establishment of captains and lieutenants.
With Tunis some misunderstandings have arisen not yet sufficiently
explained, but friendly discussions with their ambassador recently arrived
and a mutual disposition to do whatever is just and reasonable can not fail
of dissipating these, so that we may consider our peace on that coast,
generally, to be on as sound a footing as it has been at any preceding
time. Still, it will not be expedient to withdraw immediately the whole of
our force from that sea.
The law providing for a naval peace establishment fixes the number of
frigates which shall be kept in constant service in time of peace, and
prescribes that they shall be manned by not more than two-thirds of their
complement of sea men and ordinary sea men. Whether a frigate may be
trusted to two-thirds only of her proper complement of men must depend on
the nature of the service on which she is ordered; that may sometimes, for
her safety as well as to insure her object, require her fullest complement.
In adverting to this subject Congress will perhaps consider whether the
best limitation on the Executive discretion in this case would not be by
the number of sea men which may be employed in the whole service rather
than by the number of vessels. Occasions oftener arise for the employment
of small than of large vessels, and it would lessen risk as well as
expense to be authorized to employ them of preference. The limitation
suggested by the number of sea men would admit a selection of vessels
best adapted to the service.
Our Indian neighbors are advancing, many of them with spirit, and others
beginning to engage in the pursuits of agriculture and household
manufacture. They are becoming sensible that the earth yields subsistence
with less labor and more certainty than the forest, and find it their
interest from time to time to dispose of parts of their surplus and waste
lands for the means of improving those they occupy and of subsisting their
families while they are preparing their farms. Since your last session the
Northern tribes have sold to us the lands between the Connecticut Reserve
and the former Indian boundary and those on the Ohio from the same boundary
to the rapids and for a considerable depth inland. The Chickasaws and
Cherokees have sold us the country between and adjacent to the two
districts of Tennessee, and the Creeks the residue of their lands in the
fork of the Ocmulgee up to the Ulcofauhatche. The three former purchases
are important, in as much as they consolidate disjoined parts of our
settled country and render their intercourse secure; and the second
particularly so, as, with the small point on the river which we expect is
by this time ceded by the Piankeshaws, it completes our possession of the
whole of both banks of the Ohio from its source to near its mouth, and the
navigation of that river is thereby rendered forever safe to our citizens
settled and settling on its extensive waters. The purchase from the Creeks,
too, has been for some time particularly interesting to the State of
Georgia.
The several treaties which have been mentioned will be submitted to both
Houses of Congress for the exercise of their respective functions.
Deputations now on their way to the seat of Government from various nations
of Indians inhabiting the Missouri and other parts beyond the Mississippi
come charged with assurances of their satisfaction with the new relations
in which they are placed with us, of their dispositions to cultivate our
peace and friendship, and their desire to enter into commercial intercourse
with us. A state of our progress in exploring the principal rivers of that
country, and of the information respecting them hitherto obtained, will be
communicated as soon as we shall receive some further relations which we
have reason shortly to expect.
The receipts of the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day of
September last have exceeded the sum of $13 millions, which, with not
quite $5 millions in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have
enabled us after meeting other demands to pay nearly $2 millions of the
debt contracted under the British treaty and convention, upward of $4
millions of principal of the public debt, and $4 millions of interest.
These payments, with those which had been made in three years and a half
preceding, have extinguished of the funded debt nearly $18 millions of
principal. Congress by their act of November 10th, 1803, authorized us to
borrow $1.75 millions toward meeting the claims of our citizens assumed by
the convention with France. We have not, however, made use of this
authority, because the sum of $4.5 millions, which remained in the
Treasury on the same 30th day of September last, with the receipts of
which we may calculate on for the ensuing year, besides paying the annual
sum of $8 millions appropriated to the funded debt and meeting all the
current demands which may be expected, will enable us to pay the whole
sum of $3.75 millions assumed by the French convention and still leave
us a surplus of nearly $1 million at our free disposal. Should you
concur in the provisions of arms and armed vessels recommended by the
circumstances of the times, this surplus will furnish the means of doing
so.
On this first occasion of addressing Congress since, by the choice of my
constituents, I have entered on a second term of administration, I embrace
the opportunity to give this public assurance that I will exert my best
endeavors to administer faithfully the executive department, and will
zealously cooperate with you in every measure which may tend to secure the
liberty, property, and personal safety of our fellow citizens, and to
consolidate the republican forms and principles of our Government.
In the course of your session you shall receive all the aid which I can
give for the dispatch of public business, and all the information necessary
for your deliberations, of which the interests of our own country and the
confidence reposed in us by others will admit a communication.
TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
December 2, 1806
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
It would have given me, fellow citizens, great satisfaction to announce in
the moment of your meeting that the difficulties in our foreign relations
existing at the time of your last separation had been amicably and justly
terminated. I lost no time in taking those measures which were most likely
to bring them to such a termination--by special missions charged with such
powers and instructions as in the event of failure could leave no
imputation on either our moderation or forbearance. The delays which have
since taken place in our negotiations with the British Government appear to
have proceeded from causes which do not forbid the expectation that during
the course of the session I may be enabled to lay before you their final
issue. What will be that of the negotiations for settling our differences
with Spain nothing which had taken place at the date of the last dispatches
enables us to pronounce. On the western side of the Mississippi she
advanced in considerable force, and took post at the settlement of Bayou
Pierre, on the Red River. This village was originally settled by France,
was held by her as long as she held Louisiana, and was delivered to Spain
only as a part of Louisiana. Being small, insulated, and distant, it was
not observed at the moment of redelivery to France and the United States
that she continued a guard of half a dozen men which had been stationed
there. A proposition, however, having been lately made by our commander in
chief to assume the Sabine River as a temporary line of separation between
the troops of the two nations until the issue of our negotiations shall be
known, this has been referred by the Spanish commandant to his superior,
and in the mean time he has withdrawn his force to the western side of the
Sabine River. The correspondence on this subject now communicated will
exhibit more particularly the present state of things in that quarter.
The nature of that country requires indispensably that an unusual
proportion of the force employed there should be cavalry or mounted
infantry. In order, therefore, that the commanding officer might be enabled
to act with effect, I had authorized him to call on the governors of
Orleans and Mississippi for a corps of five hundred volunteer cavalry.
The temporary arrangement he has proposed may perhaps render this
unnecessary; but I inform you with great pleasure of the promptitude with
which the inhabitants of those Territories have tendered their services in
defense of their country. It has done honor to themselves, entitled them
to the confidence of their fellow citizens in every part of the Union,
and must strengthen the general determination to protect them
efficaciously under all circumstances which may occur.
Having received information that in another part of the United States a
great number of private individuals were combining together, arming and
organizing themselves contrary to law, to carry on a military expedition
against the territories of Spain, I thought it necessary, by proclamation
as well as by special orders, to take measures for preventing and
suppressing this enterprise, for seizing the vessels, arms, and other means
provided for it, and for arresting and bringing to justice its authors and
abettors. It was due to that good faith which ought ever to be the rule of
action in public as well as in private transactions, it was due to good
order and regular government, that while the public force was acting
strictly on defensive and merely to protect our citizens from aggression
the criminal attempts of private individuals to decide for their country
the question of peace or war by commencing active and unauthorized
hostilities should be promptly and efficaciously suppressed.
Whether it will be necessary to enlarge our regular forces will depend on
the result of our negotiations with Spain; but as it is uncertain when that
result will be known, the provisional measures requisite for that, and to
meet any pressure intervening in that quarter, will be a subject for your
early consideration.
The possession of both banks of the Mississippi reducing to a single point
the defense of that river, its waters, and the country adjacent, it becomes
highly necessary to provide for that point a more adequate security. Some
position above its mouth, commanding the passage of the river, should be
rendered sufficiently strong to cover the armed vessels which may be
stationed there for defense, and in conjunction with them to present an
insuperable obstacle to any force attempting to pass. The approaches to the
city of New Orleans from the eastern quarter also will require to be
examined and more effectually guarded. For the internal support of the
country the encouragement of a strong settlement on the western side of the
Mississippi, within reach of New Orleans, will be worthy the consideration
of the Legislature.
The gun boats authorized by an act of the last session are so advanced that
they will be ready for service in the ensuing spring. Circumstances
permitted us to allow the time necessary for their more solid construction.
As a much larger number will still be wanting to place our sea port towns
and waters in that state of defense to which we are competent and they
entitled, a similar appropriation for a further provision for them is
recommended for the ensuing year.
A further appropriation will also be necessary for repairing fortifications
already established and the erection of such other works as may have real
effect in obstructing the approach of an enemy to our sea port towns, or
their remaining before them.
In a country whose constitution is derived from the will of the people,
directly expressed by their free suffrages; where the principal executive
functionaries and those of the legislature are renewed by them at short
periods; where under the character of jurors they exercise in person the
greatest portion of the judiciary powers; where the laws are consequently
so formed and administered as to bear with equal weight and favor on all,
restraining no man in the pursuits of honest industry and securing to
everyone the property which that acquires, it would not be supposed that
any safe-guards could be needed against insurrection or enterprise on the
public peace or authority. The laws, however, aware that these should not
be trusted to moral restraints only, have wisely provided punishment for
these crimes when committed. But would it not be salutary to give also the
means of preventing their commission? Where an enterprise is meditated by
private individuals against a foreign nation in amity with the United
States, powers of prevention to a certain extent are given by the laws.
Would they not be as reasonable and useful where the enterprise preparing
is against the United States? While adverting to this branch of law it is
proper to observe that in enterprises meditated against foreign nations the
ordinary process of binding to the observance of the peace and good
behavior, could it be extended to acts to be done out of the jurisdiction
of the United States, would be effectual in some cases where the offender
is able to keep out of sight every indication of his purpose which could
draw on him the exercise of the powers now given by law.
The States on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to
respect our peace and friendship; with Tunis alone some uncertainty
remains. Persuaded that it is our interest to maintain our peace with them
on equal terms or not at all, I propose to send in due time a reenforcement
into the Mediterranean unless previous information shall show it to be
unnecessary.
We continue to receive proofs of the growing attachment of our Indian
neighbors and of their dispositions to place all their interests under the
patronage of the United States. These dispositions are inspired by their
confidence in our justice and in the sincere concern we feel for their
welfare; and as long as we discharge these high and honorable functions
with the integrity and good faith which alone can entitle us to their
continuance we may expect to reap the just reward in their peace and
friendship.
The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke for exploring the river Missouri
and the best communication from that to the Pacific Ocean has had all the
success which could have been expected. They have traced the Missouri
nearly to its source, descended the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean,
ascertained with accuracy the geography of that interesting communication
across our continent, learnt the character of the country, of its commerce
and inhabitants; and it is but justice to say that Messrs. Lewis and Clarke
and their brave companions have by this arduous service deserved well of
their country.
The attempt to explore the Red River, under the direction of Mr. Freeman,
though conducted with a zeal and prudence meriting entire approbation, has
not been equally successful. After proceeding up it about six hundred
miles, nearly as far as the French settlements had extended while the
country was in their possession, our geographers were obliged to return
without completing their work.
Very useful additions have also been made to our knowledge of the
Mississippi by Lieutenant Pike, who has ascended it to its source, and
whose journal and map, giving the details of his journey, will shortly be
ready for communication to both Houses of Congress. Those of Messrs. Lewis,
Clarke, and Freeman will require further time to be digested and prepared.
These important surveys, in addition to those before possessed, furnish
materials for commencing an accurate map of the Mississippi and its western
waters. Some principal rivers, however, remain still to be explored, toward
which the authorization of Congress by moderate appropriations will be
requisite.
I congratulate you, fellow citizens, on the approach of the period at which
you may interpose your authority constitutionally to withdraw the citizens
of the United States from all further participation in those violations of
human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending
inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best
of our country have long been eager to proscribe. Although no law you may
pass can take prohibitory effect until the first day of the year 1808,
yet the intervening period is not too long to prevent by timely notice
expeditions which can not be completed before that day.
The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day of
September last have amounted to near $15 millions, which have enabled us,
after meeting the current demands, to pay $2.7 millions of the American
claims in part of the price of Louisiana; to pay of the funded debt upward
of $3 millions of principal and nearly $4 millions of interest, and, in
addition, to reimburse in the course of the present month near $2
millions of 5.5% stock. These payments and reimbursements of the funded
debt, with those which had been made in the four years and a half
preceding, will at the close of the present year have extinguished upward
of $23 millions of principal.
The duties composing the Mediterranean fund will cease by law at the end of
the present session. Considering, however, that they are levied chiefly on
luxuries and that we have an impost on salt, a necessary of life, the free
use of which otherwise is so important, I recommend to your consideration
the suppression of the duties on salt and the continuation of the
Mediterranean fund instead thereof for a short time, after which that also
will become unnecessary for any purpose now within contemplation.
When both of these branches of revenue shall in this way be relinquished
there will still ere long be an accumulation of moneys in the Treasury
beyond the installments of public debt which we are permitted by contract
to pay. They can not then, without a modification assented to by the public
creditors, be applied to the extinguishment of this debt and the complete
liberation of our revenues, the most desirable of all objects. Nor, if our
peace continues, will they be wanting for any other existing purpose. The
question therefore now comes forward, To what other objects shall these
surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost, after the
entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals when the
purposes of war shall not call for them? Shall we suppress the impost and
give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures? On a few
articles of more general and necessary use the suppression in due season
will doubtless be right, but the great mass of the articles on which impost
is paid are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough
to afford themselves the use of them.
Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to
the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such
other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to
the constitutional enumeration of Federal powers. By these operations new
channels of communications will be opened between the States, the lines of
separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their
union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. Education is here placed among
the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its
ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so
much better all the concerns to which it is equal, but a public institution
can alone supply those sciences which though rarely called for are yet
necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the
improvement of the country and some of them to its preservation.
The subject is now proposed for the consideration of Congress, because if
approved by the time the State legislatures shall have deliberated on this
extension of the Federal trusts, and the laws shall be passed and other
arrangements made for their execution, the necessary funds will be on hand
and without employment.
I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by consent of the States,
necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among those
enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys
to be applied.
The present consideration of a national establishment for education
particularly is rendered proper by this circumstance also, that if
Congress, approving the proposition, shall yet think it more eligible to
found it on a donation of lands, they have it now in their power to endow
it with those which will be among the earliest to produce the necessary
income. This foundation would have the advantage of being independent of
war, which may suspend other improvements by requiring for its own purposes
the resources destined for them.
This, fellow citizens, is the state of the public interests at the present
moment and according to the information now possessed. But such is the
situation of the nations of Europe and such, too, the predicament in which
we stand with some of them that we can not rely with certainty on the
present aspect of our affairs, that may change from moment to moment during
the course of your session or after you shall have separated.
Our duty is, therefore, to act upon things as they are and to make a
reasonable provision for whatever they may be. Were armies to be raised
whenever a speck of war is visible in our horizon, we never should have
been without them. Our resources would have been exhausted on dangers which
have never happened, instead of being reserved for what is really to take
place. A steady, perhaps a quickened, pace in preparation for the defense
of our sea port towns and waters; an early settlement of the most exposed
and vulnerable parts of our country; a militia so organized that its
effective portions can be called to any point in the Union, or volunteers
instead of them to serve a sufficient time, are means which may always be
ready, yet never preying on our resources until actually called into use.
They will maintain the public interests while a more permanent force shall
be in course of preparation. But much will depend on the promptitude with
which these means can be brought into activity. If war be forced upon us,
in spite of our long and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and
vigorous movements in its outset will go far toward securing us in its
course and issue, and toward throwing its burthens on those who render
necessary the resort from reason to force.
The result of our negotiations, or such incidents in their course as may
enable us to infer their probable issue; such further movements also on our
western frontiers as may shew whether war is to be pressed there while
negotiation is protracted elsewhere, shall be communicated to you from time
to time as they become known to me, with whatever other information I
possess or may receive, which may aid your deliberations on the great
national interests committed to your charge.
TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
October 27, 1807
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
Circumstances, fellow citizens, which seriously threatened the peace of our
country have made it a duty to convene you at an earlier period than usual.
The love of peace so much cherished in the bosoms of our citizens, which
has so long guided the proceedings of their public councils and induced
forbearance under so many wrongs, may not insure our continuance in the
quiet pursuits of industry. The many injuries and depredations committed on
our commerce and navigation upon the high seas for years past, the
successive innovations on those principles of public law which have been
established by the reason and usage of nations as the rule of their
intercourse and the umpire and security of their rights and peace, and all
the circumstances which induced the extraordinary mission to London are
already known to you.
The instructions given to our ministers were framed in the sincerest spirit
of amity and moderation. They accordingly proceeded, in conformity
therewith, to propose arrangements which might embrace and settle all the
points in difference between us, which might bring us to a mutual
understanding on our neutral and national rights and provide for a
commercial intercourse on conditions of some equality. After long and
fruitless endeavors to effect the purposes of their mission and to obtain
arrangements within the limits of their instructions, they concluded to
sign such as could be obtained and to send them for consideration, candidly
declaring to the other negotiators at the same time that they were acting
against their instructions, and that their Government, therefore, could not
be pledged for ratification.
Some of the articles proposed might have been admitted on a principle of
compromise, but others were too highly disadvantageous, and no sufficient
provision was made against the principal source of the irritations and
collisions which were constantly endangering the peace of the two nations.
The question, therefore, whether a treaty should be accepted in that form
could have admitted but of one decision, even had no declarations of the
other party impaired our confidence in it. Still anxious not to close the
door against friendly adjustment, new modifications were framed and further
concessions authorized than could before have been supposed necessary; and
our ministers were instructed to resume their negotiations on these
grounds.
On this new reference to amicable discussion we were reposing in
confidence, when on the 22nd day of June last by a formal order from a
British admiral the frigate Chesapeake, leaving her port for a distant
service, was attacked by one of those vessels which had been lying in our
harbors under the indulgences of hospitality, was disabled from proceeding,
had several of her crew killed and four taken away. On this outrage no
commentaries are necessary. Its character has been pronounced by the
indignant voices of our citizens with an emphasis and unanimity never
exceeded. I immediately, by proclamation, interdicted our harbors and
waters to all British armed vessels, forbade intercourse with them, and
uncertain how far hostilities were intended, and the town of Norfolk,
indeed, being threatened with immediate attack, a sufficient force was
ordered for the protection of that place, and such other preparations
commenced and pursued as the prospect rendered proper. An armed vessel of
the United States was dispatched with instructions to our ministers at
London to call on that Government for the satisfaction and security
required by the outrage. A very short interval ought now to bring the
answer, which shall be communicated to you as soon as received; then also,
or as soon after as the public interests shall be found to admit, the
unratified treaty and proceedings relative to it shall be made known to
you.
The aggression thus begun has been continued on the part of the British
commanders by remaining within our waters in defiance of the authority of
the country, by habitual violations of its jurisdiction, and at length by
putting to death one of the persons whom they had forcibly taken from on
board the Chesapeake. These aggravations necessarily lead to the policy
either of never admitting an armed vessel into our harbors or of
maintaining in every harbor such an armed force as may constrain obedience
to the laws and protect the lives and property of our citizens against
their armed guests; but the expense of such a standing force and its
inconsistence with our principles dispense with those courtesies which
would necessarily call for it, and leave us equally free to exclude the
navy, as we are the army, of a foreign power from entering our limits.
To former violations of maritime rights another is now added of very
extensive effect. The Government of that nation has issued an order
interdicting all trade by neutrals between ports not in amity with them;
and being now at war with nearly every nation on the Atlantic and
Mediterranean seas, our vessels are required to sacrifice their cargoes at
the first port they touch or to return home without the benefit of going to
any other market. Under this new law of the ocean our trade on the
Mediterranean has been swept away by seizures and condemnations, and that
in other seas is threatened with the same fate.
Our differences with Spain remain still unsettled, no measure having been
taken on her part since my last communications to Congress to bring them to
a close. But under a state of things which may favor reconsideration they
have been recently pressed, and an expectation is entertained that they may
now soon be brought to an issue of some sort. With their subjects on our
borders no new collisions have taken place nor seem immediately to be
apprehended. To our former grounds of complaint has been added a very
serious one, as you will see by the decree a copy of which is now
communicated. Whether this decree, which professes to be conformable to
that of the French Government of November 21st, 1806, heretofore
communicated to Congress, will also be conformed to that in its
construction and application in relation to the United States had not
been ascertained at the date of our last communications. These, however,
gave reason to expect such a conformity.
With the other nations of Europe our harmony has been uninterrupted, and
commerce and friendly intercourse have been maintained on their usual
footing.
Our peace with the several states on the coast of Barbary appears as firm
as at any former period and as likely to continue as that of any other
nation.
Among our Indian neighbors in the northwestern quarter some fermentation
was observed soon after the late occurrences, threatening the continuance
of our peace. Messages were said to be interchanged and tokens to be
passing, which usually denote a state of restless among them, and the
character of the agitators pointed to the sources of excitement. Measures
were immediately taken for providing against that danger; instructions were
given to require explanations, and, with assurances of our continued
friendship, to admonish the tribes to remain quiet at home, taking no part
in quarrels not belonging to them. As far as we are yet informed, the
tribes in our vicinity, who are most advanced in the pursuits of industry,
are sincerely disposed to adhere to their friendship with us and to their
peace with all others, while those more remote do not present appearances
sufficiently quiet to justify the intermission of military precaution on
our part.
The great tribes on our southwestern quarter, much advanced beyond the
others in agriculture and household arts, appear tranquil and identifying
their views with ours in proportion to their advancement. With the whole of
these people, in every quarter, I shall continue to inculcate peace and
friendship with all their neighbors and perseverance in those occupations
and pursuits which will best promote their own well-being.
The appropriations of the last session for the defense of our sea port
towns and harbors were made under expectation that a continuance of our
peace would permit us to proceed in that work according to our convenience.
It has been thought better to apply the sums then given toward the defense
of New York, Charleston, and New Orleans chiefly, as most open and most
likely first to need protection, and to leave places less immediately in
danger to the provisions of the present session.
The gun boats, too, already provided have on a like principle been chiefly
assigned to New York, New Orleans, and the Chesapeake. Whether our movable
force on the water, so material in aid of the defensive works on the land,
should be augmented in this or any other form is left to the wisdom of the
Legislature. For the purpose of manning these vessels in sudden attacks on
our harbors it is a matter for consideration whether the sea men of the
United States may not justly be formed into a special militia, to be called
on for tours of duty in defense of the harbors where they shall happen to
be, the ordinary militia of the place furnishing that portion which may
consist of landsmen.
The moment our peace was threatened I deemed it indispensable to secure a
greater provision of those articles of military stores with which our
magazines were not sufficiently furnished. To have awaited a previous and
special sanction by law would have lost occasions which might not be
retrieved. I did not hesitate, therefore, to authorize engagements for such
supplements to our existing stock as would render it adequate to the
emergencies threatening us, and I trust that the Legislature, feeling the
same anxiety for the safety of our country, so materially advanced by this
precaution, will approve, when done, what they would have seen so important
to be done if then assembled. Expenses, also unprovided for, arose out of
the necessity of calling all our gun boats into actual service for the
defense of our harbors; all of which accounts will be laid before you.
Whether a regular army is to be raised, and to what extent, must depend on
the information so shortly expected. In the mean time I have called on the
States for quotas of militia, to be in readiness for present defense, and
have, moreover, encouraged the acceptance of volunteers; and I am happy to
inform you that these have offered themselves with great alacrity in every
part of the Union. They are ordered to be organized and ready at a
moment's warning to proceed on any service to which they may be
called, and every preparation within the Executive powers has been made to
insure us the benefit of early exertions.
I informed Congress at their last session of the enterprises against the
public peace which were believed to be in preparation by Aaron Burr and his
associates, of the measures taken to defeat them and to bring the offenders
to justice. Their enterprises were happily defeated by the patriotic
exertions of the militia whenever called into action, by the fidelity of
the Army, and energy of the commander in chief in promptly arranging the
difficulties presenting themselves on the Sabine, repairing to meet those
arising on the Mississippi, and dissipating before their explosion plots
engendering there. I shall think it my duty to lay before you the
proceedings and the evidence publicly exhibited on the arraignment of the
principal offenders before the circuit court of Virginia.
You will be enabled to judge whether the defect was in the testimony, in
the law, or in the administration of the law; and wherever it shall be
found, the Legislature alone can apply or originate the remedy. The framers
of our Constitution certainly supposed they had guarded as well their
Government against destruction by treason as their citizens against
oppression under pretense of it, and if these ends are not attained it is
of importance to inquire by what means more effectual they may be secured.
The accounts of the receipts of revenue during the year ending on the 30th
day of September last being not yet made up, a correct statement will be
hereafter transmitted from the Treasury. In the mean time, it is
ascertained that the receipts have amounted to near $16 millions, which,
with the $5.5 millions in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have
enabled us, after meeting the current demands and interest incurred, to
pay more than $4 millions of the principal of our funded debt. These
payments, with those of the preceding five and a half years, have
extinguished of the funded debt $25.5 millions, being the whole which
could be paid or purchased within the limits of the law and of our
contracts, and have left us in the Treasury $8.5 millions.
A portion of this sum may be considered as a commencement of accumulation
of the surpluses of revenue which, after paying the installments of debt as
they shall become payable, will remain without any specific object. It may
partly, indeed, be applied toward completing the defense of the exposed
points of our country, on such a scale as shall be adapted to our
principles and circumstances. This object is doubtless among the first
entitled to attention in such a state of our finances, and it is one which,
whether we have peace or war, will provide security where it is due.
Whether what shall remain of this, with the future surpluses, may be
usefully applied to purposes already authorized or more usefully to others
requiring new authorities, or how otherwise they shall be disposed of, are
questions calling for the notice of Congress, unless, indeed, they shall be
superseded by a change in our public relations now awaiting the
determination of others. Whatever be that determination, it is a great
consolation that it will become known at a moment when the supreme council
of the nation is assembled at its post, and ready to give the aids of its
wisdom and authority to whatever course the good of our country shall then
call us to pursue.
Matters of minor importance will be the subjects of future communications,
and nothing shall be wanting on my part which may give information or
dispatch to the proceedings of the Legislature in the exercise of their
high duties, and at a moment so interesting to the public welfare.
TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
November 8, 1808
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
It would have been a source, fellow citizens, of much gratification if our
last communications from Europe had enabled me to inform you that the
belligerent nations, whose disregard of neutral rights has been so
destructive to our commerce, had become awakened to the duty and true
policy of revoking their unrighteous edicts. That no means might be omitted
to produce this salutary effect, I lost no time in availing myself of the
act authorizing a suspension, in whole or in part, of the several embargo
laws. Our ministers at London and Paris were instructed to explain to the
respective Governments there our disposition to exercise the authority in
such manner as would withdraw the pretext on which the aggressions were
originally founded and open the way for a renewal of that commercial
intercourse which it was alleged on all sides had been reluctantly
obstructed.
As each of those Governments had pledged its readiness to concur in
renouncing a measure which reached its adversary through the incontestable
rights of neutrals only, and as the measure had been assumed by each as a
retaliation for an asserted acquiescence in the aggression of the other, it
was reasonably expected that the occasion would have been seized by both
for evincing the sincerity of their professions, and for restoring to the
commerce of the United States its legitimate freedom. The instructions to
our ministers with respect to the different belligerents were necessarily
modified with a reference to their different circumstances, and to the
condition annexed by law to the Executive power of suspension, requiring a
decree of security to our commerce which would not result from a repeal of
the decrees of France. Instead of a pledge, therefore, of a suspension of
the embargo as to her in case of such a repeal, it was presumed that a
sufficient inducement might be found in other considerations, and
particularly in the change produced by a compliance with our just demands
by one belligerent and a refusal by the other in the relations between the
other and the United States.
To Great Britain, whose power on the ocean is so ascendant, it was deemed
not inconsistent with that condition to state explicitly that on her
rescinding her orders in relation to the United States their trade would be
opened with her, and remain shut to her enemy in case of his failure to
rescind his decrees also. From France no answer has been received, nor any
indication that the requisite change in her decrees is contemplated. The
favorable reception of the proposition to Great Britain was the less to be
doubted, as her orders of council had not only been referred for their
vindication to an acquiescence on the part of the United States no longer
to be pretended, but as the arrangement proposed, whilst it resisted the
illegal decrees of France, involved, moreover, substantially the precise
advantages professedly aimed at by the British orders. The arrangement has
nevertheless been rejected.
This candid and liberal experiment having thus failed, and no other event
having occurred on which a suspension of the embargo by the Executive was
authorized, it necessarily remains in the extent originally given to it. We
have the satisfaction, however, to reflect that in return for the
privations imposed by the measure, and which our fellow citizens in general
have borne with patriotism, it has had the important effects of saving our
mariners and our vast mercantile property, as well as of affording time for
prosecuting the defensive and provisional measures called for by the
occasion. It has demonstrated to foreign nations the moderation and
firmness which govern our councils, and to our citizens the necessity of
uniting in support of the laws and the rights of their country, and has
thus long frustrated those usurpations and spoliations which, if resisted,
involved war; if submitted to, sacrificed a vital principle of our national
independence.
Under a continuance of the belligerent measures which, in defiance of laws
which consecrate the rights of neutrals, overspread the ocean with danger,
it will rest with the wisdom of Congress to decide on the course best
adapted to such a state of things; and bringing with them, as they do, from
every part of the Union the sentiments of our constituents, my confidence
is strengthened that in forming this decision they will, with an unerring
regard to the essential rights and interests of the nation, weigh and
compare the painful alternatives out of which a choice is to be made. Nor
should I do justice to the virtues which on other occasions have marked the
character of our fellow citizens if I did not cherish an equal confidence
that the alternative chosen, whatever it may be, will be maintained with
all the fortitude and patriotism which the crisis ought to inspire.
The documents containing the correspondences on the subject of the foreign
edicts against our commerce, with the instructions given to our ministers
at London and Paris, are now laid before you.
The communications made to Congress at their last session explained the
posture in which the close of the discussions relating to the attack by a
British ship of war on the frigate Chesapeake left a subject on which the
nation had manifested so honorable a sensibility. Every view of what had
passed authorized a belief that immediate steps would be taken by the
British Government for redressing a wrong which the more it was
investigated appeared the more clearly to require what had not been
provided for in the special mission. It is found that no steps have been
taken for the purpose. On the contrary, it will be seen in the documents
laid before you that the inadmissible preliminary which obstructed the
adjustment is still adhered to, and, moreover, that it is now brought into
connection with the distinct and irrelative case of the orders in council.
The instructions which had been given to our minister at London with a view
to facilitate, if necessary, the reparation claimed by the United States
are included in the documents communicated.
Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone no material
changes since your last session. The important negotiations with Spain
which had been alternately suspended and resumed necessarily experience a
pause under the extraordinary and interesting crisis which distinguishes
her internal situation.
With the Barbary Powers we continue in harmony, with the exception of an
unjustifiable proceeding of the Dey of Algiers toward our consul to that
Regency. Its character and circumstances are now laid before you, and will
enable you to decide how far it may, either now or hereafter, call for any
measures not within the limits of the Executive authority.
With our Indian neighbors the public peace has been steadily maintained.
Some instances of individual wrong have, as at other times, taken place,
but in no wise implicating the will of the nation. Beyond the Mississippi
the Ioways, the Sacs and the Alabamas have delivered up for trial and
punishment individuals from among themselves accused of murdering citizens
of the United States. On this side of the Mississippi the Creeks are
exerting themselves to arrest offenders of the same kind, and the Choctaws
have manifested their readiness and desire for amicable and just
arrangements respecting depredations committed by disorderly persons of
their tribe. And, generally, from a conviction that we consider them as a
part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and interests,
the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining strength daily--is
extending from the nearer to the more remote, and will amply requite us for
the justice and friendship practiced toward them. Husbandry and household
manufacture are advancing among them more rapidly with the Southern than
Northern tribes, from circumstances of soil and climate, and one of the two
great divisions of the Cherokee Nation have now under consideration to
solicit the citizenship of the United States, and to be identified with us
in laws and government in such progressive manner as we shall think best.
In consequence of the appropriations of the last session of Congress for
the security of our sea port towns and harbors, such works of defense have
been erected as seemed to be called for by the situation of the several
places, their relative importance, and the scale of expense indicated by
the amount of the appropriation. These works will chiefly be finished in
the course of the present season, except at New York and New Orleans, where
most was to be done; and although a great proportion of the last
appropriation has been expended on the former place, yet some further views
will be submitted to Congress for rendering its security entirely adequate
against naval enterprise. A view of what has been done at the several
places, and of what is proposed to be done, shall be communicated as soon
as the several reports are received.
Of the gun boats authorized by the act of December last, it has been
thought necessary to build only one hundred and three in the present year.
These, with those before possessed, are sufficient for the harbors and
waters most exposed, and the residents will require little time for their
construction when it shall be deemed necessary.
Under the act of the last session for raising an additional military force
so many officers were immediately appointed as were necessary for carrying
on the business of recruiting, and in proportion as it advanced others have
been added. We have reason to believe their success has been satisfactory,
although such returns have not yet been received as enable me to present
you a statement of the numbers engaged.
I have not thought it necessary in the course of the last season to call
for any general detachments of militia or of volunteers under the laws
passed for that purpose. For the ensuing season, however, they will be
required to be in readiness should their service be wanted. Some small and
special detachments have been necessary to maintain the laws of embargo on
that portion of our northern frontier which offered peculiar facilities for
evasion, but these were replaced as soon as it could be done by bodies of
new recruits. By the aid of these and of the armed vessels called into
service in other quarters the spirit of disobedience and abuse, which
manifested itself early and with sensible effect while we were unprepared
to meet it, has been considerably repressed.
Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our
attention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a
people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed
militia is their best security. It is therefore incumbent on us at every
meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it
is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories
exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to
this object, but every degree of neglect is to be found among others.
Congress alone having the power to produce an uniform state of preparation
in this great organ of defense, the interests which they so deeply feel in
their own and their country's security will present this as among the most
important objects of their deliberation.
Under the acts of March 11th and April 23rd respecting arms, the
difficulty of procuring them from abroad during the present situation
and dispositions of Europe induced us to direct our whole efforts to the
means of internal supply. The public factories have therefore been
enlarged, additional machineries erected, and, in proportion as
artificers can be found or formed, their effect, already more than
doubled, may be increased so as to keep pace with the yearly increase
of the militia. The annual sums appropriated by the latter have been
directed to the encouragement of private factories of arms, and contracts
have been entered into with individual undertakers to nearly the amount
of the first year's appropriation.
The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice of the
belligerent powers and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our citizens
are subjects of just concern. The situation into which we have thus been
forced has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to
internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion is
daily increasing, and little doubt remains that the establishments formed
and forming will, under the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence,
the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and
prohibitions, become permanent. The commerce with the Indians, too, within
our own boundaries is likely to receive abundant aliment from the same
internal source, and will secure to them peace and the progress of
civilization, undisturbed by practices hostile to both.
The accounts of the receipts and expenditures during the year ending the
30th of September last being not yet made up, a correct statement will
hereafter be transmitted from the Treasury. In the mean time it is
ascertained that the receipts have amounted to near $18 millions, which,
with the $8.5 millions in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have
enabled us, after meeting the current demands and interest incurred, to
pay $2.3 millions of the principal of our funded debt, and left us in
the Treasury on that day near $14 millions. Of these, $5.35 millions will
be necessary to pay what will be due on the 1st day of January next, which
will complete the reimbursement of the 8% stock. These payments, with
those made in the six and a half years preceding, will have extinguished
$33.58 millions of the principal of the funded debt, being the whole which
could be paid or purchased within the limits of the law and of our
contracts, and the amount of principal thus discharged will have liberated
the revenue from about $2 millions of interest and added that sum annually
to the disposable surplus.
The probable accumulation of the surpluses of revenue beyond what can be
applied to the payment of the public debt whenever the freedom and safety
of our commerce shall be restored merits the consideration of Congress.
Shall it lie unproductive in the public vaults? Shall the revenue be
reduced? Or shall it not rather be appropriated to the improvements of
roads, canals, rivers, education, and other great foundations of prosperity
and union under the powers which Congress may already possess or such
amendment to the Constitution as may be approved by the States? While
uncertain of the course of things, the time may be advantageously employed
in obtaining the powers necessary for a system of improvement, should that
be thought best.
Availing myself of this the last occasion which will occur of addressing
the two Houses of the Legislature at their meeting, I can not omit the
expression of my sincere gratitude for the repeated proofs of confidence
manifested to me by themselves and their predecessors since my call to the
administration and the many indulgences experienced at their hands. These
same grateful acknowledgements are due to my fellow citizens generally,
whose support has been my great encouragement under all embarrassments. In
the transaction of their business I can not have escaped error. It is
incident to our imperfect nature. But I may say with truth my errors have
been of the understanding, not of intention, and that the advancement of
their rights and interests has been the constant motive for every measure.
On these considerations I solicit their indulgence. Looking forward with
anxiety to future destinies, I trust that in their steady character,
unshaken by difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and
support of the public authorities, I see a sure guaranty of the permanence
of our Republic; and, retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry
with me the consolation of a firm persuasion that Heaven has in store for
our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.
TH. JEFFERSON
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