Part 31

In submitting this subject to the calm and enlightened judgment of Congress, I do it with peculiar satisfaction, from a knowledge that you are now placed, by the course of events, in a situation which will enable you to adopt such measures as will not only comport with the sound principles of our Government, but likewise be conducive to other the highest interests of our Union. By the renunciation of the principle maintained by the then executive of Massachusetts, as has been done by its present executive and both branches of the legislature in the most formal manner and in accord with the sentiments of the great body of the people, the Constitution is restored in a very important feature (that connected with the public defense) and in the most important branch (that of the militia) to its native strength. It is very gratifying to know that this renunciation has been produced by the regular, orderly, and pacific operation of our republican system, whereby those who were in the right at the moment of difficulty and who sustained the Government with great firmness have daily gained strength until this result was accomplished. The points on which you will have to decide are, What is fairly due for the services which were actually rendered? By what means shall we contribute most to cement the Union and give the greatest support to our most excellent Constitution? In seeking each object separately we are led to the same result. All that can be claimed by our fellow-citizens of Massachusetts is that the constitutional objection be waived, and that they be placed on the same footing with their brethren in the other States; that regarding the services rendered by the militia of other States, for which compensation has been made, giving to the rule the most liberal construction, like compensation be made for similar services rendered by the militia of that State.

I have been led to conclude on great consideration that the principles of justice as well as a due regard for the great interests of our Union require that this claim in the extent proposed should be acceded to. Essential service was rendered in the late war by the militia of Massachusetts, and with the most patriotic motives. It seems just, therefore, that they should be compensated for such services in like manner with the militia of the other States. The constitutional difficulty did not originate with them, and has now been removed. It comports with our system to look to the service rendered and to the intention with which it was rendered, and to award the compensation accordingly, especially as it may now be done without the sacrifice of principle. The motive in this instance is the stronger because well satisfied I am that by so doing we shall give the most effectual support to our republican institutions. No latent cause of discontent will be left behind. The great body of the people will be gratified, and even those who now survive who were then in error can not fail to see with interest and satisfaction this distressing occurrence thus happily terminated. I therefore consider it my duty to recommend it to Congress to make provision for the settlement of the claim of Massachusetts for services rendered in the late war by the militia of the State, in conformity with the rules which have governed in the settlement of the claims for services rendered by the militia of the other States.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 24, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of War, containing the information called for by a resolution of the House of Representatives of the United States, passed on the 4th instant, respecting any suit or suits which have been or are now depending, in which the United States are interested, for the recovery of the Pea Patch.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1824_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th instant, I now transmit the report of the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by statements marked A and B, shewing "the amount of money expended in conformity with the provisions of the act entitled 'An act for the gradual increase of the Navy of the United States,' approved April 29, 1816, and of the act to amend said act, approved 3d of March, 1821; also the number of vessels built or now on the stocks, with their rates, the value of the timber purchased, or for which contracts have been made, and whether sufficient timber has been purchased or contracted for to build the vessels contemplated by the provisions of said acts."

JAMES MONROE.

MARCH 3, 1824.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, containing copies of the contracts made by the Surveyor-General, and called for by a resolution of the Senate bearing date the 24th February, 1824.

JAMES MONROE.

MARCH 4, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which communicates all the information in possession of the Department called for by a resolution of the House requesting a copy of the report of the register of the land office in the eastern district of Louisiana, bearing date the 6th of January, 1821, together with all the information from the said register to the Treasury Department.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 4, 1824_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 1st March, 1823, requesting information of the number and position of the permanent fortifications which have been and are now erecting for the defense of the coasts, harbors, and frontiers of the United States, with the classification and magnitude of each, with the amount expended on each, showing the work done and to be done, the number of guns of every caliber for each fortification, the total cost of a complete armament for each, the force required to garrison each in time of peace and of war, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of War containing the information required by the resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 8, 1824_.

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

On the 3d March, 1819, James Miller was first commissioned as governor of the Territory of Arkansas for the term of three years from that date.

Before the expiration of that time, and in the winter of 1821-22, a nomination of him for reappointment was intended, and believed by me to have been made to the Senate, and to have received the confirmation of that body.

By some accident, the cause of which is unknown, it appears that this impression was erroneous, and in December, 1822, it was discovered that Mr. Miller had not then been recommissioned, though in the confidence that he had been he had continued to act in that capacity. He was then renominated to the Senate, with the additional proposal that his commission should take effect from 3d March, 1822, when his first commission had expired.

The nomination was confirmed by the Senate so far as regarded the appointment, but without concurrence in the retrospective effect proposed to be given to the commission.

His second commission, therefore, bears date on the 3d January, 1823, and the interposition of the Legislature becomes necessary to legalize his official acts in the interval between 3d March, 1822, and that time, a subject which I recommend to the consideration of Congress.

JAMES MONROE.

MARCH 17, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th of February last, requesting "information whether any measures had been taken for carrying into effect the resolution of Congress of June 17, 1777, directing a monument to be erected to the memory of David Wooster, a brigadier-general in the Army of the United States, who fell in defending the liberties of America and bravely repelling an inroad of the British forces to Danbury, in Connecticut," I have caused the necessary inquiries to be made, and find by the report of the Register of the Treasury that no monument has been erected to the memory of that patriotic and gallant officer, nor has any money been paid to the executive of Connecticut on that account.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1824_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 25th of February, requesting information whether the title of the United Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen to certain sections of land in Ohio has been purchased for the United States, and, if so, to cause a copy of the contract and of the papers relating thereto to be laid before the House, I transmit herewith all the documents required.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 25, 1824_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

Having seen with regret that occasional errors have been made in nominations to the Senate, sometimes by the omission of a letter in the name, proceeding from casualties in the Departments and in my own office, it would be satisfactory to me if an arrangement could be made whereby such errors might be corrected without the formality of a special message. Where there is an accord as to the person there seems to be no reason for resorting to a renomination for the correction of such trivial errors. Any mode which the Senate may adopt will be satisfactory to me.

JAMES MONROE.

MARCH 25, 1824.

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

Having stated to Congress on the 7th of December last that Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of New York, was entitled to a larger sum than that reported in his favor by the accounting officers of the Government, and that in the execution of the law of the last session I had the subject still under consideration, I now communicate to you the result.

On full consideration of the law by which this duty was enjoined on me and of the report of the committee on the basis of which the law was founded, I have thought that I was authorized to adopt the principles laid down in that report in deciding on the sum which should be allowed to him for his services. With this view and on a comparison of his services with those which were rendered by other disbursing officers, taking into consideration also his aid in obtaining loans, I had decided to allow him 5 per cent for all sums borrowed and disbursed by him, and of which decision I informed him. Mr. Tompkins has since stated to me that this allowance will not indemnify him for his advances, loans, expenditures, and losses in rendering those services, nor place him on the footing of those who loaned money to the Government at that interesting period. He has also expressed a desire that I would submit the subject to the final decision of Congress, which I now do. In adopting this measure I think proper to add that I concur fully in the sentiments expressed by the committee in favor of the very patriotic and valuable services which were rendered by Mr. Tompkins in the late war.

JAMES MONROE.

MARCH 28, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of War, together with a report from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, accompanied by the necessary documents, communicating the information heretofore requested by a resolution of the House in relation to the salt springs, lead and copper mines, together with the probable value of each of them and of the reservations attached to each, the extent to which they have been worked, the advantages and proximity of each to navigable waters, and the origin, nature, and extent of any claim made to them by individuals or companies, which reports contain all the information at present possessed on the subjects of the said resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

MARCH 30, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 14th instant, requesting information whether an advance of compensation had been made to any of the commissioners who had been appointed for the examination of titles and claims to land in Florida, and by what authority such advance, if any, had been made, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State, which contains the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 30, 1824_.

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

I transmit to Congress certain papers enumerated in a report from the Secretary of War, relating to the compact between the United States and the State of Georgia entered into in 1802, whereby the latter ceded to the former a portion of the territory then within its limits on the conditions therein specified. By the fourth article of that compact it was stipulated that the United States should at their own expense extinguish for the use of Georgia the Indian title to all the lands within the State as soon as it might be done _peaceably_ and on _reasonable_ conditions. These papers show the measures adopted by the Executive of the United States in fulfillment of the several conditions of the compact from its date to the present time, and particularly the negotiations and treaties with the Indian tribes for the extinguishment of their title, with an estimate of the number of acres purchased and sums paid for lands they acquired. They show also the state in which this interesting concern now rests with the Cherokees, one of the tribes within the State, and the inability of the Executive to make any further movement with this tribe without the special sanction of Congress.

I have full confidence that my predecessors exerted their best endeavors to execute this compact in all its parts, of which, indeed, the sums paid and the lands acquired during their respective terms in fulfillment of its several stipulations are a full proof. I have also been animated since I came into this office with the same zeal, from an anxious desire to meet the wishes of the State, and in the hope that by the establishment of these tribes beyond the Mississippi their improvement in civilization, their security and happiness would be promoted. By the paper bearing date on the 30th of January last, which was communicated to the chiefs of the Cherokee Nation in this city, who came to protest against any further appropriations of money for holding treaties with them, the obligation imposed on the United States by the compact with Georgia to extinguish the Indian title to the right of soil within the State, and the incompatibility with our system of their existence as a distinct community within any State, were pressed with the utmost earnestness. It was proposed to them at the same time to procure and convey to them territory beyond the Mississippi in exchange for that which they hold within the limits of Georgia, or to pay them for it its value in money. To this proposal their answer, which bears date 11th of February following, gives an unqualified refusal. By this it is manifest that at the present time and in their present temper they can be removed only by force, to which, should it be deemed proper, the power of the Executive is incompetent.

I have no hesitation, however, to declare it as my opinion that the Indian title was not affected in the slightest circumstance by the compact with Georgia, and that there is no obligation on the United States to remove the Indians by force. The express stipulation of the compact that their title should be extinguished at the expense of the United States when it may be done _peaceably_ and on _reasonable_ conditions is a full proof that it was the clear and distinct understanding of both parties to it that the Indians had a right to the territory, in the disposal of which they were to be regarded as free agents. An attempt to remove them by force would, in my opinion, be unjust. In the future measures to be adopted in regard to the Indians within our limits, and, in consequence, within the limits of any State, the United States have duties to perform and a character to sustain to which they ought not to be indifferent. At an early period their improvement in the arts of civilized life was made an object with the Government, and that has since been persevered in. This policy was dictated by motives of humanity to the aborigines of the country, and under a firm conviction that the right to adopt and pursue it was equally applicable to all the tribes within our limits.

My impression is equally strong that it would promote essentially the security and happiness of the tribes within our limits if they could be prevailed on to retire west and north of our States and Territories on lands to be procured for them by the United States, in exchange for those on which they now reside. Surrounded as they are, and pressed as they will be, on every side by the white population, it will be difficult if not impossible for them, with their kind of government, to sustain order among them. Their interior will be exposed to frequent disturbances, to remedy which the interposition of the United States will be indispensable, and thus their government will gradually lose its authority until it is annihilated. In this process the moral character of the tribes will also be lost, since the change will be too rapid to admit their improvement in civilization to enable them to institute and sustain a government founded on our principles, if such a change were compatible either with the compact with Georgia or with our general system, or to become members of a State, should any State be willing to adopt them in such numbers, regarding the good order, peace, and tranquillity of such State. But all these evils may be avoided if these tribes will consent to remove beyond the limits of our present States and Territories. Lands equally good, and perhaps more fertile, may be procured for them in those quarters. The relations between the United States and such Indians would still be the same.

Considerations of humanity and benevolence, which have now great weight, would operate in that event with an augmented force, since we should feel sensibly the obligation imposed on us by the accommodation which they thereby afforded us. Placed at ease, as the United States would then be, the improvement of those tribes in civilization and in all the arts and usages of civilized life would become the part of a general system which might be adopted on great consideration, and in which every portion of our Union would then take an equal interest. These views have steadily been pursued by the Executive, and the moneys which have been placed at its disposal have been so applied in the manner best calculated, according to its judgment, to produce this desirable result, as will appear by the documents which accompany the report of the Secretary of War.

I submit this subject to the consideration of Congress under a high sense of its importance and of the propriety of an early decision on it. This compact gives a claim to the State which ought to be executed in all its conditions with perfect good faith. In doing this, however, it is the duty of the United States to regard its strict import, and to make no sacrifice of their interest not called for by the compact nor contemplated by either of the parties when it was entered into, nor to commit any breach of right or of humanity in regard to the Indians repugnant to the judgment and revolting to the feelings of the whole American people. I submit the subject to your consideration, in full confidence that you will duly weigh the obligations of the compact with Georgia, its import in all its parts, and the extent to which the United States are bound to go under it. I submit it with equal confidence that you will also weigh the nature of the Indian title to the territory within the limits of any State, with the stipulations in the several treaties with this tribe respecting territory held by it within the State of Georgia, and decide whether any measure on the part of Congress is called for at the present time, and what such measure shall be if any is deemed expedient.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL 9, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit the report of the Secretary of War, with the accompanying documents, containing the information requested by a resolution of the House of the 10th ultimo, and which communicates the accounts of all the generals of the Army, likewise of the Inspector-General, the chiefs of the Engineer and Ordnance Corps, and Surgeon-General for the two years preceding the 30th of September last; also shewing the amount of money paid to each under the different heads of pay, fuel, straw, quarters, transportation, and all other extra and contingent allowances; which report, together with the statements herewith transmitted, furnishes all the information required.

JAMES MONROE.

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

The executive of Virginia having requested payment of the amount of interest paid by the State for moneys borrowed and paid by it for services rendered by the militia in the late war, and such claim not being allowable according to the uniform decisions of the accounting officers of the Government, I submit the subject to your consideration, with a report from the Secretary of War and all the documents connected with it.

The following are the circumstances on which this claim is founded: From an early stage of the war the squadrons of the enemy entered occasionally the Chesapeake Bay, and, menacing its shores and those of the principal rivers emptying into it, subjected the neighboring militia to calls from the local authorities for the defense of the parts thus menaced. The pressure was most sensibly felt in 1814, after the attack on this city and its capture, when the invading force, retiring to its squadron, menaced alike Baltimore, Norfolk, and Richmond. The attack on this city had induced a call by the Department of War for large detachments of the militia of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, which, being collected in this quarter, and the enemy bearing, in the first instance, on Baltimore, were ordered to its defense. As early as the 31st of August notice was given by the Secretary of War to the governor of Virginia of the position of the enemy and of the danger to which Richmond as well as Norfolk and Baltimore were exposed, and he was also authorized and enjoined to be on his guard, prepared at every point and in every circumstance to meet and repel the invaders. This notice was repeated several times afterwards, until the enemy left the bay and moved to the south.

In the course of the war the State had augmented its taxes to meet the pressure, but the funds being still inadequate, it borrowed money to a considerable amount, which was applied to the payment of the militia for the services thus rendered. The calls which had been made, except for the brigades in this quarter and at Norfolk, being made by the State, the settlement with those corps and the payment for their services were made according to the rules and usage of the Department by the State and not by the United States. On the settlement by the State, after the peace, with the accounting officers of the Government the reimbursement of the interest which the State had paid on the sums thus borrowed and paid to the militia was claimed, but not allowed for the reason above stated. It is this claim which I now submit to the consideration of Congress.