SPECIAL MESSAGE.

APRIL 30, 1828.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States.— In the month of December last, one hundred and twenty-one African negroes were landed at Key West, from a Spanish slave-trading vessel stranded within the jurisdiction of the United States while pursued by an armed schooner in his Britannic majesty's service. The collector of the customs at Key West took possession of these persons, who were afterward delivered over to the marshal of the territory of East Florida, by whom they were conveyed to St. Augustine, where they still remain.

Believing that the circumstances under which they have been cast upon the compassion of the country are not embraced by the provisions of the act of Congress of the 3d of March, 1819, or of the other acts prohibiting the slave-trade, I submit to the consideration of Congress the expediency of a supplementary act, directing and authorizing such measures as may be necessary for removing them from the territory of the United States, and for fulfilling toward them the obligations of humanity.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

MARCH 3, 1829.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :— I TRANSMIT herewith, to Congress, a copy of the instructions prepared by the secretary of state, and furnished to the minister of the United States appointed to attend at the assembly of American plenipotentiaries, first held at Panama, and thence transferred to Tacubaya. The occasion for which they were given, has passed away, and there is no present probability of the renewal of those negotiations; but the purpose for which they were intended are still of the deepest interest to our country, and to the world, and may hereafter call again for the active energies of the government of the United States. The motive for withholding them from general publication having ceased, justice to the government from which they emanated, and to the people for whose benefit it was instituted, require that they should be made known. With this view, and from the consideration that the subjects embraced by those instructions must probably engage hereafter the consideration of our successors, I deem it proper to make this communication to both houses of Congress. One copy only of the instructions being prepared, I send it to the senate, requesting that it may be transmitted also to the house of representatives.

ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

THE inauguration of John Quincy Adams as president of the United States, took place on the 4th of March, 1825. At about half-past twelve o'clock on that day he was introduced into the capitol, followed by the expresident, Mr. Monroe, and his family, by the judges of the supreme court, in their robes of office, and the members of the senate, preceded by the vice-president, with a number of members of the house of representatives. Mr. Adams, in a plain suit of black, ascended the steps to the speaker's chair, and took his seat. Silence having been proclaimed, and the doors of the hall closed, the president elect rose and delivered his inaugural address to the assembled multitude, by whom it was received with great attention and interest.

After delivering this address, Mr. Adams descended from the chair, and placing himself on the righthand of the judge's table, received from ChiefJustice Marshall a volume of the laws of the United States, from which he read the oath of office, at the close of which, the house rang with the cheers and plaudits of the immense audience.

The senate being in session, the president immediately nominated the members of his cabinet, namely: Henry Clay, of Kentucky, for secretary of state; Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury; James Barbour, of Virginia, secretary of war. These nominations were all confirmed, and unanimously, except that of Mr. Clay, to which a warm opposition was made on the part of a few senators, and the injunction of secresy being removed, the votes appeared to have been twenty-seven in favor, and fourteen against it. S. L. Southard, as secretary of the navy, and Will. iam Wirt, as attorney-general, were continued in office. John M'Lean of Ohio, postmaster-general (not then a member of the cabinet), who had been appointed by Mr. Monroe, was also continued in office.

.

After disposing of the nominations made by the executive, the senate took into consideration the treaty made with the republic of Colombia, for the suppression of the slave-trade. This treaty was made in conformity with a resolution of the house of representatives, recommending to the executive to make treaties, giving the mutual right of search of vessels in suspected parts of the world, in order more effectually to prevent the

traffic in slaves. The amendments proposed by the senate, at the last session, to the treaty with Great Britain, for the same purpose, were introduced into this treaty; but the fate of the treaty with England had probably caused a change in the minds of some of the senators, and other views had been taken of the subject by others, and the treaty with Colombia was rejected by 28 votes to 12.

The divisions which had been taken on the foregoing questions, in the senate, left little doubt that the new administration was destined to meet with a systematic and organized opposition; and previous to the next meeting of Congress, the ostensible grounds of opposition were set forth at public dinners and meetings, so as to prepare the community for a warm political contest, until the next election.

Those who placed themselves in opposition to the administration, without reference to its measures, urged as reasons for their hostility, that Mr. Adams's election was the result of a bargain between Mr. Clay and himself; and his selection of Mr. Clay as secretary of state, was relied upon as a conclusive proof of the bargain; that he was elected against the expressed will of the people; and that Congress, by not taking General Jackson, the candidate having the highest number of votes, had violated the constitution, and disobeyed their constituents. Personal objections were also urged, but as these formed no part of the justification of the opposition which was to be arrayed in anticipation of measures, it is unnecessary to give them a place. Those who were friendly to the new administration, or disposed to judge of it by its acts, replied to these objections, that Mr. Clay, as a representative, was obliged to decide between three candidates for the presidency, and that his vote was in accordance with all his previous declarations; that his own situation as a candidate who might possibly succeed, rendered it unsuitable for him to express any preference for either of the other candidates, until the decision of the legislature of Louisiana (first heard at Washington on the 27th of December) had left him free to decide between his former competitors; that Mr. Crawford, though constitutionally a candidate, was virtually withdrawn by the situation of his health, and that as between Mr. Adams and General Jackson, the previous deliberate expression of his sentiments as to the latter's character and qualifications for a civil office, rendered it impossible for him to vote for him without the most gross inconsistency; that Mr. Adams's experience, learning, and talents, were guaranties for his proper performance of the duties of the chief magistracy, which were not in the power of his competitor to offer; and that, having been compelled to discharge this duty as a representative of the people, it would have argued an improper distrust of his own character and of public opinion, to have refused to take the appointment of secretary of state from Mr. Adams, because he had contributed by his vote to elect him to the presidency. As to the fact of his selection as secretary of state, they vindicated it on the

ground, that his situation as speaker of the house, and his long and intimate acquaintance with our national affairs, made him the most prominent candidate for that station, and the strong support he received in the west for the presidency, showed that his appointment would gratify a part of the Union, which, until then, had never been complimented with a representative in the cabinet.*

One of the most prominent topics of public interest during the year 1825, was the controversy between the national government and the executive of Georgia, Governor Troup. This controversy grew out of a compact between the general government and the state of Georgia in 1802. By that compact the United States agreed, in consideration of Georgia relinquishing her claim to the Mississippi territory, to extinguish, at the national expense, the Indian title to the lands occupied by them in Georgia, "whenever it could be peaceably done, upon reasonable terms." Since making that agreement, the general government had extinguished the Indian title to about fifteen millions of acres, and conveyed the same to the state of Georgia. There still remained 9,537,000 of acres in possession of the Indians, of which 5,292,000 of acres belonged to the Cherokees, and the remainder to the Creek nation.

Shortly before the termination of Mr. Monroe's administration, the state government became very urgent for the entire removal of the Indians from the state; and at the solicitation of the governor, the late president appointed two commissioners, selected by the governor of Georgia, to make a treaty with the Creeks for the purchase of their lands.†

But the Creek nation having began to enjoy the arts and comforts of civilization introduced among them by the government of the United States, were unwilling to leave their lands for the wilderness of the west, and passed a law forbidding the sale of any of their lands, on the pain of death. A few of the chiefs were induced to violate this law, by negotiating with the United States commissioners, after the breaking up of the general council of the nation, and by these chiefs, forming a fraction only of the acknowledged heads of the tribes, all the lands of the Creeks in Georgia and Alabama were ceded to the United States. This treaty, however, was transmitted to the United States senate, and ratified by them on the 3d of March, 1825, the last day of Mr. Monroe's administration. When the information that this treaty had been thus sanctioned, reached the Creeks, it produced great excitement, and a secret council of the nation being called, they resolved not to accept the treaty, and the death of M'Intosh, the chief of the party that assented to it, was determined on. This determination was carried into effect by a party of Indians, who surrounded his house on the 30th of April, and shot M'Intosh, and another chief who had also signed the treaty.

This course on the part of the Creeks presented a new question, and a † Ibid.

• American Annual Register.