Part 10

In looking to the internal concerns of our country you will, I am persuaded, derive much satisfaction from a view of the several objects to which, in the discharge of your official duties, your attention will be drawn. Among these none holds a more important place than the public revenue, from the direct operation of the power by which it is raised on the people, and by its influence in giving effect to every other power of the Government. The revenue depends on the resources of the country, and the facility by which the amount required is raised is a strong proof of the extent of the resources and of the efficiency of the Government. A few prominent facts will place this great interest in a just light before you. On the 30th of September, 1815, the funded and floating debt of the United States was estimated at $119,635,558. If to this sum be added the amount of 5 per cent stock subscribed to the Bank of the United States, the amount of Mississippi stock and of the stock which was issued subsequently to that date, the balances ascertained to be due to certain States for military services and to individuals for supplies furnished and services rendered during the late war, the public debt may be estimated as amounting at that date, and as afterwards liquidated, to $158,713,049. On the 30th of September, 1820, it amounted to $91,993,883, having been reduced in that interval by payments $66,879,165. During this term the expenses of the Government of the United States were likewise defrayed in every branch of the civil, military, and naval establishments; the public edifices in this city have been rebuilt with considerable additions; extensive fortifications have been commenced, and are in a train of execution; permanent arsenals and magazines have been erected in various parts of the Union; our Navy has been considerably augmented, and the ordnance, munitions of war, and stores of the Army and Navy, which were much exhausted during the war, have been replenished.

By the discharge of so large a proportion of the public debt and the execution of such extensive and important operations in so short a time a just estimate may be formed of the great extent of our national resources. The demonstration is the more complete and gratifying when it is recollected that the direct tax and excise were repealed soon after the termination of the late war, and that the revenue applied to these purposes has been derived almost wholly from other sources.

The receipts into the Treasury from every source to the 30th of September last have amounted to $16,794,107.66, whilst the public expenditures to the same period amounted to $16,871,534.72, leaving in the Treasury on that day a sum estimated at $1,950,000. For the probable receipts of the following year I refer you to the statement which will be transmitted from the Treasury.

The sum of $3,000,000 authorized to be raised by loan by an act of the last session of Congress has been obtained upon terms advantageous to the Government, indicating not only an increased confidence in the faith of the nation, but the existence of a large amount of capital seeking that mode of investment at a rate of interest not exceeding 5 per cent per annum.

It is proper to add that there is now due to the Treasury for the sale of public lands $22,996,545. In bringing this subject to view I consider it my duty to submit to Congress whether it may not be advisable to extend to the purchasers of these lands, in consideration of the unfavorable change which has occurred since the sales, a reasonable indulgence. It is known that the purchases were made when the price of every article had risen to its greatest height, and that the installments are becoming due at a period of great depression. It is presumed that some plan may be devised by the wisdom of Congress, compatible with the public interest, which would afford great relief to these purchasers.

Considerable progress has been made during the present season in examining the coast and its various bays and other inlets, in the collection of materials, and in the construction of fortifications for the defense of the Union at several of the positions at which it has been decided to erect such works. At Mobile Point and Dauphin Island, and at the Rigolets, leading to Lake Pontchartrain, materials to a considerable amount have been collected, and all the necessary preparations made for the commencement of the works. At Old Point Comfort, at the mouth of James River, and at the Rip-Rap, on the opposite shore in the Chesapeake Bay, materials to a vast amount have been collected; and at the Old Point some progress has been made in the construction of the fortification, which is on a very extensive scale. The work at Fort Washington, on this river, will be completed early in the next spring, and that on the Pea Patch, in the Delaware, in the course of the next season. Fort Diamond, at the Narrows, in the harbor of New York, will be finished this year. The works at Boston, New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and Niagara have been in part repaired, and the coast of North Carolina, extending south to Cape Fear, has been examined, as have likewise other parts of the coast eastward of Boston. Great exertions have been made to push forward these works with the utmost dispatch possible; but when their extent is considered, with the important purposes for which they are intended--the defense of the whole coast, and, in consequence, of the whole interior--and that they are to last for ages, it will be manifest that a well-digested plan, founded on military principles, connecting the whole together, combining security with economy, could not be prepared without repeated examinations of the most exposed and difficult parts, and that it would also take considerable time to collect the materials at the several points where they would be required. From all the light that has been shed on this subject I am satisfied that every favorable anticipation which has been formed of this great undertaking will be verified, and that when completed it will afford very great if not complete protection to our Atlantic frontier in the event of another war--a protection sufficient to counterbalance in a single campaign with an enemy powerful at sea the expense of all these works, without taking into the estimate the saving of the lives of so many of our citizens, the protection of our towns and other property, or the tendency of such works to prevent war.

Our military positions have been maintained at Belle Point, on the Arkansas, at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, at St. Peters, on the Mississippi, and at Green Bay, on the upper Lakes. Commodious barracks have already been erected at most of these posts, with such works as were necessary for their defense. Progress has also been made in opening communications between them and in raising supplies at each for the support of the troops by their own labor, particularly those most remote.

With the Indians peace has been preserved and a progress made in carrying into effect the act of Congress making an appropriation for their civilization, with the prospect of favorable results. As connected equally with both these objects, our trade with those tribes is thought to merit the attention of Congress. In their original state game is their sustenance and war their occupation, and if they find no employment from civilized powers they destroy each other. Left to themselves their extirpation is inevitable. By a judicious regulation of our trade with them we supply their wants, administer to their comforts, and gradually, as the game retires, draw them to us. By maintaining posts far in the interior we acquire a more thorough and direct control over them, without which it is confidently believed that a complete change in their manners can never be accomplished. By such posts, aided by a proper regulation of our trade with them and a judicious civil administration over them, to be provided for by law, we shall, it is presumed, be enabled not only to protect our own settlements from their savage incursions and preserve peace among the several tribes, but accomplish also the great purpose of their civilization.

Considerable progress has also been made in the construction of ships of war, some of which have been launched in the course of the present year.

Our peace with the powers on the coast of Barbary has been preserved, but we owe it altogether to the presence of our squadron in the Mediterranean. It has been found equally necessary to employ some of our vessels for the protection of our commerce in the Indian Sea, the Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast. The interests which we have depending in those quarters, which have been much improved of late, are of great extent and of high importance to the nation as well as to the parties concerned, and would undoubtedly suffer if such protection was not extended to them. In execution of the law of the last session for the suppression of the slave trade some of our public ships have also been employed on the coast of Africa, where several captures have already been made of vessels engaged in that disgraceful traffic.

JAMES MONROE.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

DECEMBER 12, 1820.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 6th of December, requesting that the agent employed under the act entitled "An act authorizing the purchase of fire engines and building houses for the safekeeping of the same" should report in the manner stated in the said resolution his conduct in execution of the said act, I now transmit to the Senate a report from the agent, which communicates all the information which has been desired.

JAMES MONROE.

DECEMBER 14, 1820.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I submit to the consideration of the Senate, for their advice and consent as to the ratification, the following treaties, concluded with the several Indian tribes therein mentioned since the last session of Congress, with their documents, viz: With the Weas, Kickapoos, Chippeways, Ottawas, Choctaws, and Mahas; and also a treaty with the Kickapoos amended as proposed by a resolution of the Senate at their last session.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _December 14, 1820_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 21st November last, requesting the President to lay before the House information relating to the progress and expenditures of the commissioners under the fifth, sixth, and seventh articles of the treaty of Ghent, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with documents containing all the information in the possession of that Department requested by the resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 1, 1821_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d of November last, requesting the President to inform that House what naval force has been stationed for the protection of the commerce of our citizens in the West India Islands and parts adjacent during the present year, and whether any depredations by pirates or others upon the property of citizens of the United States engaged in such commerce have been reported to our Government, I now submit for the information of the House a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying documents, which contains all the information in the possession of the Government required by that resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1821_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

I communicate to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, which, with the papers accompanying it, contains all the information in the possession of the Executive requested by a resolution of the House of the 4th December last, on the subject of the African slave trade.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1821_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th of December last, requesting the President of the United States to cause to be laid before that House a statement of expenditures and receipts in the Indian Department; also the nature and extent of the contracts entered into, and with whom, from the 2d of March, 1811, to the present period, I now transmit a letter from the Secretary of War, with a report of the superintendent of Indian trade, which contains the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1821_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, with the inclosed documents, relating to the negotiation for the suppression of the slave trade, which should have accompanied a message on that subject communicated to the House some time since, but which were accidentally omitted.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1821_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, "requesting the President of the United States to communicate to the Senate any information he may have as to the power or authority which belonged to Don John Bonaventure Morales and to the Baron Carondelet to grant and dispose of the lands of Spain in Louisiana previously to the year 1803," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, submitting a letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the document to which it refers.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1821_.

_To the House of Representatives_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives requesting the President to inform the House, if in his opinion proper, whether any, and, if any, what, negotiations since the 1st of January, 1816, have been had with the Six Nations of Indians, or any portion of them, who the commissioners or agents were, the objects of the negotiation, the expenses of the same, the compensation of each commissioner, secretary, or agent, and to whom the moneys were paid, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War communicating the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 31, 1821_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the Treasury submitting copies of the instructions given to the commissioners appointed under the act of the 15th of May, 1820, authorizing the location of a road from Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, to a point on the left bank of the Mississippi River between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois River, and copies of the report made by the said commissioners to the Treasury Department of the progress they have made in the execution of the duties prescribed by the said act, together with maps of the country through which the location is to be made.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 5, 1821.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I herewith transmit, in confidence, to the Senate reports from the Secretary of State and of the Treasury, with the papers containing the correspondence and the information in possession of the Government the communication of which was requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 23d of last month. It is desired that the original letters may, when the Senate shall have no further use for them, be returned.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 8, 1821.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid before the Senate any information he may have in relation to the claims of citizens of Georgia against the Creek Nation of Indians, and why these claims, if any exist, have not been heretofore adjusted and settled under the provisions of the treaties of 1790 and 1796," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with accompanying documents, which contains all the information on this subject in the possession of the Executive.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 13, 1821.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

The ratification by the Spanish Government of the treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States and Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 1819, and on the 24th of that month ratified on the part of the United States, has been received by the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of that power at this place, who has given notice that he is ready to exchange the ratifications.

By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was stipulated that the ratifications should be exchanged within six months from the day of its signature, which time having elapsed before the ratification of Spain was given, a copy and translation thereof are now transmitted to the Senate for their advice and consent to receive it in exchange for the ratification of the United. States heretofore executed.

The treaty was submitted to the consideration of the Cortes of that Kingdom before its ratification, which was finally given with their assent and sanction. The correspondence between the Spanish minister of foreign affairs and the minister of the United States at Madrid on that occasion is also herewith communicated to the Senate, together with a memorandum by the Secretary of State of his conference with the Spanish envoy here yesterday, when that minister gave notice of his readiness to exchange the ratifications.

The return of the original papers now transmitted, to avoid the delay necessary to the making of copies, is requested.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1821_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 16th instant, requesting "the President of the United States to cause to be laid before the Senate the original order for building the barracks at Sacketts Harbor, together with all communications between the War Department and Major-General Brown relative thereto, and the amount of public moneys expended thereon," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with the papers inclosed, which contains the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _February 22, 1821_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

The treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States and Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 1819, having been ratified by the contracting parties, and the ratifications having been exchanged, it is herewith communicated to Congress, that such legislative measures may be taken as they shall judge proper for carrying the same into execution.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _February 24, 1821_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to Congress a letter from the Secretary of War, inclosing an annual return of the militia of the United States, prepared by the Adjutant and Inspector General conformably to the militia laws on that subject.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1821_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to Congress certain extracts and a copy of letters received by the Secretary of State from the marshal of the United States for the eastern district of Virginia, in relation to the execution of the act of the 14th of March, 1820, to provide for taking the Fourth Census, together with the answers returned to that marshal by the Secretary of State. As the time within which the assistants of the marshals can legally make their returns expired on the first Monday of the present month, it would appear by the information from the marshal at Richmond that the completion of the Fourth Census as it respects the eastern district of Virginia will have been defeated not only as it regards the period contemplated by law, but during the whole of the current year, unless Congress, to whom the case is submitted, should by an act of the present session allow further time for making the returns in question.

As connected with this subject, it is also submitted for the consideration of Congress how far the marshals ought to be liable to the payment of postage on the conveyance of the papers concerning the census and manufactures by the mail. In one instance it has been already ascertained that this item of contingent expense will amount to nearly a moiety of the compensation of the marshal for the whole of his services. If the marshals are to be relieved from this charge, provision will be necessary by law either for the admission of it in their accounts or the refunding of it by the respective postmasters.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1821_.

_To the Congress of the United States_:

I communicate to the two Houses of Congress copies of a treaty this day ratified on the part of the United States, concluded and signed at the Indian Springs on the 8th of January last, with the Creek Nation of Indians, in order to such legislative measures as may be necessary for giving effect to it.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 3, 1821_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

The treaty concluded between the United States and the Kickapoo tribe of Indians on the 30th of July, 1820, having been ratified by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, I now lay a copy of the said treaty before the House of Representatives in order to such legislative provisions being made as may be necessary to carry into effect the stipulations therein contained on the part of the United States.

JAMES MONROE.

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

Fellow-Citizens: I shall not attempt to describe the grateful emotions which the new and very distinguished proof of the confidence of my fellow-citizens, evinced by my reelection to this high trust, has excited in my bosom. The approbation which it announces of my conduct in the preceding term affords me a consolation which I shall profoundly feel through life. The general accord with which it has been expressed adds to the great and never-ceasing obligations which it imposes. To merit the continuance of this good opinion, and to carry it with me into my retirement as the solace of advancing years, will be the object of my most zealous and unceasing efforts.

Having no pretensions to the high and commanding claims of my predecessors, whose names are so much more conspicuously identified with our Revolution, and who contributed so preeminently to promote its success, I consider myself rather as the instrument than the cause of the union which has prevailed in the late election. In surmounting, in favor of my humble pretensions, the difficulties which so often produce division in like occurrences, it is obvious that other powerful causes, indicating the great strength and stability of our Union, have essentially contributed to draw you together. That these powerful causes exist, and that they are permanent, is my fixed opinion; that they may produce a like accord in all questions touching, however remotely, the liberty, prosperity, and happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good.