the narrowest limits of efficiency, the military force; to improve the organization and discipline of the army; to provide and sustain a school of military science; to extend equal protection to all the great interests of the nation; to promote the civilization of the Indian tribes; and to proceed in the great system of internal improvements within the limits of the constitutional power of the Union. Under the pledge of these promises, made by that eminent citizen at the time of his first induction to this office, in his career of eight years, the internal taxes have been repealed; sixty millions of the public debt have been discharged; provision has been made for the comfort and relief of the aged and indigent among the surviving warriors of the revolution; the regular armed force has been reduced, and its constitution revised and perfected; the accountability for the expenditure of public monies has been made more effective; the Floridas have been peaceably acquired, and our boundary has been extended to the Pacific Ocean; the independence of the southern nations of this hemisphere has been recognized, and recommended by example and by counsel to the potentates of Europe; progress has been made in the defence of the country by fortifications, and the increase of the navy; towards the effectual suppression of the African traffic in slaves; in alluring the aboriginal hunters of our land to the cultivation of the soil and of the mind; in exploring the interior regions of the Union; and in preparing, by scientific researches and surveys, for the further application of our national resources to the internal improvement of our country. VOL. LXVII.

In this brief outline of the promise and performance of my immediate predecessor, the line of duty for his successor is clearly delineated. To pursue, to their consummation, those purposes of improvement in our common condition, instituted or recommended by him, will embrace the whole sphere of my obligations.

To the topic of internal improvement, emphatically urged by him at his inauguration, I recur with peculiar satisfaction. It is that from which I am convinced that the unborn millions of our posterity, who are, in future ages, to people this continent, will derive their most fervent gratitude to the founders of the Union; that, in which the beneficent action of its government will be most deeply felt and acknowledged. The magnificence and splendor of their public works are among the imperishable glories of the ancient republics. The roads. and aqueducts of Rome have been the admiration of all after ages, and have survived thousands of years after all her conquests have been swallowed up in despotism, or become the spoil of barbarians.

Some diversity of opinion has prevailed with regard to the powers of congress for legislation upon objects of this nature. The most respectful deference is due to doubts, originating in pure patriotism, and sustained by venerated authority. But nearly twenty years have passed since the construction of the first national road was commenced. The authority for its construction was then questioned. To how many thousands of our country has it proved a benefit? To what single individual has it ever proved an injury? Repeated liberal and candid discussions in the legislature have conH*

of the prospect that I shall stand more and oftener in need of your indulgence. Intentions, upright and pure; a heart devoted to the welfare of our country, and the unceasing application of all the faculties allotted to me to her service, are all the pledge that I can give for the faithful performance of the arduous duties I am to undertake. To the guidance of the legislative councils; to the assistance of the executive and subordinate departments; to the friendly co-operation of the respective state governments; to the candid and liberal support of the people, so far as it may be deserved by honest industry and zeal, I shall look for whatever success may attend my public service. And knowing that, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain, with fervent supplications for his favour, to his overruling Providence I commit with humble but fearless confidence, my own fate, and the future destinies of my country.

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives, In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country, with reference to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the first sentiment which impresses itself upon the mind is, of gratitude to the Omnipotent Dispenser of good, for the continuance of the signal blessings of his providence, and especially for that health which, to an unusual extent, has prevailed within our border, and for that

abundance which, in the vicissitudes of the seasons, has been scattered with profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to him the glory, that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of his hand in peace and tranquillity; in peace with all the other nations of the earth, in tranquillity among ourselves. There has, indeed, rarely been a period in the history of civilized man, in which the general condition of the christian nations has been marked

so extensively by peace and prosperity. Europe, with a few partial and unhappy exceptions, has enjoyed ten years of peace, during which all her governments, whatever the theory of their constitutions may have been, are successively taught to feel that the end of their institution is the happiness of the people, and that the exercise of power among men can be justified only by the blessings it confers upon those over whom it is extended.

During the same period, our intercourse with all those nations has been pacific and friendly-it so continues. Since the close of your last session, no material variation has occurred in our relations with any of them. In the commercial and navigation system of Great Britain, important changes of municipal regulation have recently been sanctioned by acts of parliament, the effect of which, upon the interests of other nations, and particularly upon ours, has not yet been fully developed. In the recent renewal of the diplo matic missions on both sides, between the two governments, assurances have been given and received of the continuance and increase of the mutual confidence and cordiality by which the adjust ment of many points of difference had already been effected, and which afford the surest pledge for the ultimate satisfactory adjustment of those which still remain open or may hereafter arise.

The policy of the United States in their commercial intercourse with other nations, has always been of the most liberal character. In the mutual exchange of their respective productions, they have abstained altogether from prohibitions they have interdicted them

selves the power of laying taxes upon exports, and whenever they have favoured their own shipping, by special preference, or exclusive privileges in their own ports, it has been only with a view to countervail similar favours and exclusions granted by the nations with whom we have been engaged in traffic, to their own people or shipping, and to the disadvantage of ours. Immediately after the close of the last war, a proposal was fairly made by the act of congress of the 3rd of March, 1815, to all the maritime nations, to lay aside the system of retaliating restrictions and exclusions, and to place the shipping of both parties to the common trade, on a footing of equality, in respect to the duties of tonnage and impost. This offer was partially and successively accepted by Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Hanseatic cities, Prussia, Sardinia, the duke of Oldenburg, and Russia. It was also adopted, under certain modifications, in our late commercial convention with France. And, by the act of congress of the 8th of January, 1824, it has received a new confirmation, with all the nations who had acceded to it, and has been offered again to all those who are, or may hereafter be willing to abide in reciprocity by it. at all these regulations, whether established by treaty or municipal enactments, are still subject to one important restriction. The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and impost is limited to articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the country to which the vessel belongs, or to such articles as are most usually first shipped from her ports. It will deserve the serious consideration of congress, whether

even this remnant of restriction may not be safely abandoned, and whether the general tender of equal competition, made in the act of the 8th of January, 1824, may not be extended to include all articles of merchandize not prohibited, of what country soever they may be the produce or manufacture. Propositions to this effect have already been made to us by more than one European government; and it is probable that if once established by legislation or compact with any distinguished maritime state, it would recommend itself by the experience of its advantages to the general accession of all.

The convention of commerce and navigation between the United States and France, concluded on the 24th June, 1822, was, in the understanding and intent of both parties, as appears upon its face, only a temporary arrangement of the points of difference between them, of the most immediate and pressing urgency. It was limited, in the first instance, to two years, from the 1st of October, 1822, but with a proviso, that it should further continue in force till the conclusion of a general and definitive treaty of commerce: unless terminated by a notice, six months in advance, of either of the parties to the other. Its operations, so far as it extended, have been mutually advantageous; and it still continues in force by common consent. But it left unadjusted several objects of great interest to the citizens and subjects of both countries, and particularly a mass of claims, to a considerable amount, of citizens of the United States upon the government of France, of indemnity for property taken or destroyed under circumstances of

the most aggravated and outrageous character. In the long period during which continual and earnest appeals have been made to the equity and magnanimity of France, in behalf of these claims, their justice has not been, as it could not be, denied. It was hoped that the accession of a new sovereign to the throne would have afforded a favourable opportunity for presenting them to the consideration of his government. They have been presented and urged, hitherto without effect.

The repeated and earnest representations of our minister at the court of France, remain as yet even without an answer. Were the demands of nations upon the justice of each other susceptible of adjudication by the sentence of an impartial tribunal, those to which I now refer would long since have been settled, and adequate indemnity would have been obtained. There are large amounts of similar claims upon the Netherlands, Naples, and Denmark. For those upon Spain, prior to 1819, indemnity was, after many years of patient forbearance, obtained; and those upon Sweden have been lately compromised by a private settlement, in which the claimants themselves have acquiesced. The governments of Denmark and of Naples have been recently reminded of those yet existing against them; nor will any of them be forgotten while a hope may be indulged of obtaining justice, by the means within the constitutional power of the executive, and without resorting to those measures of self-redress, which, as well as the time, circumstances and occasion, which may require them, are within the exclusive competency of the legislature.