government. As individuals, we may entertain and express our opinions of their acts; but, as a government, we have as little right to control them as we have to prescribe laws to foreign nations.

With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, have, with great unanimity, determined to avail themselves of the liberal offers presented by the act of congress, and have agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi river. Treaties have been made with them, which, in due season, will be submitted for consideration. In negotiating these treaties, they were made to understand their true condition; and they have preferred maintaining their independence in the western forests to submitting to the laws of the states in which they now reside. These treaties, being probably the last which will ever be made with them, are characterized by great liberality on the part of the government. They give the Indians a liberal sum in consideration of their removal, and comfortable subsistence on their arrival at their new homes. If it be their real interest to maintain a separate existence, they will there be at liberty to do so without the inconveniences and vexations to which they would unavoidably have been subject in Alabama and Mississippi.

Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country; and philanthropy has been long busily employed in devising means to avert it. But its progress has never for a moment been arrested; and one by one have many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To follow to the tomb the last of his race, and to tread on the graves of extinct nations, excites melancholy reflections. But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes, as it does to the extinction of one generation to make room for another. In the monuments and fortresses of an unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the west, we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, which was exterminated, or has disappeared, to make room for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there any thing in this, which, upon a comprehensive view of the general interests of the human race, is to be regretted. Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would prefer a country cov ered with forests, and ranged by a few thousand savages, to our extensive republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise, or industry execute; occupied by more than twelve millions of happy people and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion!

The present policy of the government is but a continuation of the same progressive change, by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting the eastern states were annihilated, or have melted away to make room for the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the westward; and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by the red men of the south and west, by a fair exchange; and at the expense of the United States, to send them to a land where their existence may be prolonged, and perhaps made perpetual. Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our ancestors did, or than our children are now doing. To better their condition in an unknown land, our forefathers left all that

was dear in earthly objects. Our children, by thousands, yearly leave the land of their birth, to seek new homes in distant regions. Does humanity weep at these painful separations, from every thing animate and inanimate, with which the young heart has become entwined? Far from it. It is rather a source of joy that our country affords scope where our young population may range unconstrained in body or in mind, developing the power and faculties of man in their highest perfection. These remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles, at their own expense, purchase the lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new home from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this government, when, by events which it cannot control, the Indian is made discontented in his ancient home, to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode? How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the west on such conditions! If the offers made to the Indians were extended to them, they would be hailed with gratitude and joy.

And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home, than the settled, civilized christian? Is it more afflicting to leave the graves of his fathers, than it is to our brothers and children? Rightly considered the policy of the general government towards the red man is not only liberal but generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the states, and mingle with their population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation, the general government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his removal and settlement.

In the consummation of a policy originating at an early period, and steadily pursued by every administration within the present century—so just to the states, and so generous to the Indians, the executive feels it has a right to expect the co-operation of congress, and of all good and disinterested men. The states, moreover, have a right to demand it. It was substantially a part of the compact which made them members of our confederacy. With Georgia there is an express contract; with the new states, an implied one, of equal obligation. Why, in authorizing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama, to form constitutions, and become separate states, did congress include within their limits extensive tracts of Indian lands, and, in some instances, powerful Indian tribes? Was it not understood by both parties that the power of the states was to be co-extensive with their limits, and that, with all convenient despatch, the general government should extinguish the Indian title, and remove every obstruction to the complete jurisdiction of the state governments over the soil? Probably not one of those states would have accepted a separate existence-certainly it would never have been granted by congress-had it been understood that they were to be confined forever to those small portions of their nominal territory, the Indian title to which had at the time been extinguished.

It is, therefore, a duty which this government owes to the new states, to extinguish, as soon as possible, the Indian title to all lands which con

gress themselves have included within their limits. When this is done, the duties of the general government in relation to the states and Indians within their limits are at an end. The Indians may leave the state or not, as they choose. The purchase of their lands does not alter in the least, their personal relations with the state government. No act of the general government has ever been deemed necessary to give the states jurisdiction over the persons of the Indians. That they possess, by virtue of their sovereign power within their own limits, in as full a manner before as after the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this government add to or diminish it.

May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more zealously than those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection to the laws of the states, will unite in attempting to open the eyes of those children of the forest to their true condition, and, by a speedy removal, to relieve them from the evils, real or imaginary, present or prospective, with which they may be supposed to be threatened.

Among the numerous causes of congratulation, the condition of our impost revenue deserves special mention, inasmuch as it promises the means of extinguishing the public debt sooner than was anticipated, and furnishes a strong illustration of the practical effects of the present tariff upon our commercial interests.

The object of the tariff is objected to by some as unconstitutional; and it is considered by almost all as defective in many of its parts.

The power to impose duties on imports originally belonged to the several states. The right to adjust those duties with a view to the encouragment of domestic branches of industry is so completely incidental to that power, that it is difficult to suppose the existence of the one without the other. The states have delegated their whole authority over imports to the general government, without limitation or restriction, saving the very inconsiderable reservation relating to their inspection laws. This authority having thus entirely passed from the states, the right to exercise it for the purpose of protection does not exist in them; and, consequently, if it be not possessed by the general government, it must be extinct. Our political system would thus present the anomaly of a people stripped of the right to foster their own industry, ard to counteract the most selfish and destructive policy which might be adopted by foreign nations. This surely cannot be the case: this indispensable power, thus surrendered by the states, must be within the scope of the authority on the subject expressly delegated to congress.

In this conclusion, I am confirmed as well by the opinions of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have each repeatedly recommended. the exercise of this right under the constitution, as by the uniform practice of congress, the continued acquiescence of the states, and the general understanding of the people.

The difficulties of a more expedient adjustment of the present tariff, although great, are far from being insurmountable. Some are unwilling to improve any of its parts, because they would destroy the whole: others fear to touch the objectionable parts, lest those they approve should be jeopardized. I am persuaded that the advocates of these conflicting

views do injustice to the American people, and to their representatives. The general interest is the interest of each: and my confidence is entire, that, to ensure the adoption of such modifications of the tariff as the general interest requires, it is only necessary that that interest should be understood.

It is an infirmity of our nature to mingle our interests and prejudices with the operation of our reasoning powers, and attribute to the objects of our likes and dislikes, qualities they do not possess, and effects they cannot produce. The effects of the present tariff are doubtless overrated, both in its evils and in its advantages. By one class of reasoners, the reduced price of cotton and other agricultural products is ascribed wholly to its influence, and by another, the reduced price of manufactured articles. The probability is, that neither opinion approaches the truth, and that both are induced by that influence of interests and prejudices to which I have referred. The decrease of prices extends throughout the commercial world, embracing not only the raw material and the manufactured article, but provisions and lands. The cause must, therefore, be deeper and more pervading than the tariff of the United States. It may, in a mea. sure, be attributable to the increased value of the precious metals, produced by a diminution of the supply, and an increase in the demand; while commerce has rapidly extended itself, and population has augmented. The supply of gold and silver, the general medium of exchange, has been greatly interrupted by civil convulsions in the countries from which they are principally drawn. A part of the effect, too, is doubtless owing to an increase of operatives and improvements in machinery. But, on the whole, it is questionable whether the reduction in the price of lands, produce, and manufactures, has been greater than the appreciation of the standard of value.

While the chief object of duties should be revenue, they may be so adjusted as to encourage manufactures. In this adjustment, however, it is the duty of the government to be guided by the general good. Objects of national importance, alone, ought to be protected; of these, the productions of our soil, our mines, and our workshops, essential to national defence, occupy the first rank. Whatever other species of domestic industry, having the importance to which I have referred, may be expected, after temporary protection, to compete with foreign labor on equal terms, merit the same attention in a subordinate degree.

The present tariff taxes some of the comforts of life unnecessarily high: it undertakes to protect interests too local and minute, to justify a general exaction; and it also attempts to force some kinds of manufactures for which the country is not ripe.-Much relief will be derived, in some of these respects, from the measures of your last session.

The best, as well as fairest mode of determining whether, from any just considerations, a particular interest ought to receive protection, would be to submit the question singly for deliberation. If, after due examination of its merits, unconnected with extraneous considerations— such as a desire to sustain a general system, or to purchase support for a different interest-it should enlist in its favour a majority of therepre

sentatives of the people, there can be little danger of wrong or injury in adjusting the tariff with reference to its protective effect. If this obviously just principle were honestly adhered to, the branches of industry which deserve protection, would be saved from the prejudice excited against them, when that protection forms part of a system by which portions of the country feel, or conceive themselves to be oppressed. What is incalculably more important, the vital principle of our systemthat principle which requires acquiescence in the will of the majority— would be secure from the discredit and danger to which it is exposed by the acts of majorities, founded, not on identity of conviction, but on combinations of small minorities, entered into for the purpose of mutual assistance in measures which, resting solely on their own merits, could never be carried.

I am well aware, that this is a subject of so much delicacy, on account of the extended interests it involves, as to require that it should be touched with the utmost caution; and that, while an abandonment of the policy in which it originated-a policy coeval with our government, and pursued through successive administrations, is neither to be expected or desired, the people have a right to demand, and have demanded, that it be so modified as to correct abuses, and obviate injustice.

That our deliberations on this interesting subject should be uninfluenced by those partizan conflicts that are incident to free institutions, is the fervent wish of my heart. To make this great question, which unhappily so much divides and excites the public mind subservient to the shortsighted views of faction, must destroy all hope of settling it satisfactorily to the great body of the people, and for the general interest. I cannot therefore, on taking leave of the subject, too earnestly for my own feelings or the common good, warn you against the blighting consequences of such a course.

According to the estimates at the treasury department the receipts in the treasury during the present year will amount to twenty-four millions one hundred and sixty-one thousand and eighteen dollars, which will exceed by about three hundred thousand dollars the estimate presented in the last annual report of the secretary of the treasury.-The total expenditure during the year, exclusive of public debt, is estimated at thirteen millions seven hundred and forty-two thousand three hundred and eleven dollars; and the payment on account of public debt for the same period will have been eleven millions three hundred and fifty-four thousand six hundred and thirty dollars; leaving a balance in the treasury, on the first of January, 1831, of four millions eight hundred and nineteen thousand seven hundred and eighty-one dollars.

In connexion with the condition of our finances, it affords me pleasure to remark that judicious and efficient arrangements have been made by the treasury department for securing the pecuniary responsibility of the public officers, and the more punctual payment of the public dues. The revenue cutter service has been organized, and placed on a good footing, and, aided by an increase of inspectors at exposed points, and the regulations adopted under the act of May, 1830, for the inspection and appraisement of merchandise, have produced much improvement in the