Part 6

It appears from these communications that the Government at Buenos Ayres declared itself independent in July, 1816, having previously exercised the power of an independent government, though in the name of the King of Spain, from the year 1810; that the Banda Oriental, Entre Rios, and Paraguay, with the city of Santa Fee, all of which are also independent, are unconnected with the present Government of Buenos Ayres; that Chili has declared itself independent and is closely connected with Buenos Ayres; that Venezuela has also declared itself independent, and now maintains the conflict with various success; and that the remaining parts of South America, except Monte Video and such other portions of the eastern bank of the La Plata as are held by Portugal, are still in the possession of Spain or in a certain degree under her influence.

By a circular note addressed by the ministers of Spain to the allied powers, with whom they are respectively accredited, it appears that the allies have undertaken to mediate between Spain and the South American Provinces, and that the manner and extent of their interposition would be settled by a congress which was to have met at Aix-la-Chapelle in September last. From the general policy and course of proceeding observed by the allied powers in regard to this contest it is inferred that they will confine their interposition to the expression of their sentiments, abstaining from the application of force. I state this impression that force will not be applied with the greater satisfaction because it is a course more consistent with justice and likewise authorizes a hope that the calamities of the war will be confined to the parties only, and will be of shorter duration.

From the view taken of this subject, founded on all the information that we have been able to obtain, there is good cause to be satisfied with the course heretofore pursued by the United States in regard to this contest, and to conclude that it is proper to adhere to it, especially in the present state of affairs.

I have great satisfaction in stating that our relations with France, Russia, and other powers continue on the most friendly basis.

In our domestic concerns we have ample cause of satisfaction. The receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the year have exceeded $17,000,000.

After satisfying all the demands which have been made under existing appropriations, including the final extinction of the old 6 per cent stock and the redemption of a moiety of the Louisiana debt, it is estimated that there will remain in the Treasury on the 1st day of January next more than $2,000,000.

It is ascertained that the gross revenue which has accrued from the customs during the same period amounts to $21,000,000, and that the revenue of the whole year may be estimated at not less than $26,000,000. The sale of the public lands during the year has also greatly exceeded, both in quantity and price, that of any former year, and there is just reason to expect a progressive improvement in that source of revenue.

It is gratifying to know that although the annual expenditure has been increased by the act of the last session of Congress providing for Revolutionary pensions to an amount about equal to the proceeds of the internal duties which were then repealed, the revenue for the ensuing year will be proportionally augmented, and that whilst the public expenditure will probably remain stationary, each successive year will add to the national resources by the ordinary increase of our population and by the gradual development of our latent sources of national prosperity.

The strict execution of the revenue laws, resulting principally from the salutary provisions of the act of the 20th of April last amending the several collection laws, has, it is presumed, secured to domestic manufactures all the relief that can be derived from the duties which have been imposed upon foreign merchandise for their protection. Under the influence of this relief several branches of this important national interest have assumed greater activity, and although it is hoped that others will gradually revive and ultimately triumph over every obstacle, yet the expediency of granting further protection is submitted to your consideration.

The measures of defense authorized by existing laws have been pursued with the zeal and activity due to so important an object, and with all the dispatch practicable in so extensive and great an undertaking. The survey of our maritime and inland frontiers has been continued, and at the points where it was decided to erect fortifications the work has been commenced, and in some instances considerable progress has been made. In compliance with resolutions of the last session, the Board of Commissioners were directed to examine in a particular manner the parts of the coast therein designated and to report their opinion of the most suitable sites for two naval depots. This work is in a train of execution. The opinion of the Board on this subject, with a plan of all the works necessary to a general system of defense so far as it has been formed, will be laid before Congress in a report from the proper department as soon as it can be prepared.

In conformity with the appropriations of the last session, treaties have been formed with the Quapaw tribe of Indians, inhabiting the country on the Arkansaw, and with the Great and Little Osages north of the White River; with the tribes in the State of Indiana; with the several tribes within the State of Ohio and the Michigan Territory, and with the Chickasaws, by which very extensive cessions of territory have been made to the United States. Negotiations are now depending with the tribes in the Illinois Territory and with the Choctaws, by which it is expected that other extensive cessions will be made. I take great interest in stating that the cessions already made, which are considered so important to the United States, have been obtained on conditions very satisfactory to the Indians.

With a view to the security of our inland frontiers, it has been thought expedient to establish strong posts at the mouth of Yellow Stone River and at the Mandan village on the Missouri, and at the mouth of St. Peters on the Mississippi, at no great distance from our northern boundaries. It can hardly be presumed while such posts are maintained in the rear of the Indian tribes that they will venture to attack our peaceable inhabitants. A strong hope is entertained that this measure will likewise be productive of much good to the tribes themselves, especially in promoting the great object of their civilization. Experience has clearly demonstrated that independent savage communities can not long exist within the limits of a civilized population. The progress of the latter has almost invariably terminated in the extinction of the former, especially of the tribes belonging to our portion of this hemisphere, among whom loftiness of sentiment and gallantry in action have been conspicuous. To civilize them, and even to prevent their extinction, it seems to be indispensable that their independence as communities should cease, and that the control of the United States over them should be complete and undisputed. The hunter state will then be more easily abandoned, and recourse will be had to the acquisition and culture of land and to other pursuits tending to dissolve the ties which connect them together as a savage community and to give a new character to every individual. I present this subject to the consideration of Congress on the presumption that it may be found expedient and practicable to adopt some benevolent provisions, having these objects in view, relative to the tribes within our settlements.

It has been necessary during the present year to maintain a strong naval force in the Mediterranean and in the Gulf of Mexico, and to send some public ships along the southern coast and to the Pacific Ocean. By these means amicable relations with the Barbary Powers have been preserved, our commerce has been protected, and our rights respected. The augmentation of our Navy is advancing with a steady progress toward the limit contemplated by law.

I communicate with great satisfaction the accession of another State (Illinois) to our Union, because I perceive from the proof afforded by the additions already made the regular progress and sure consummation of a policy of which history affords no example, and of which the good effect can not be too highly estimated. By extending our Government on the principles of our Constitution over the vast territory within our limits, on the Lakes and the Mississippi and its numerous streams, new life and vigor are infused into every part of our system. By increasing the number of the States the confidence of the State governments in their own security is increased and their jealousy of the National Government proportionally diminished. The impracticability of one consolidated government for this great and growing nation will be more apparent and will be universally admitted. Incapable of exercising local authority except for general purposes, the General Government will no longer be dreaded. In those cases of a local nature and for all the great purposes for which it was instituted its authority will be cherished. Each government will acquire new force and a greater freedom of action within its proper sphere. Other inestimable advantages will follow. Our produce will be augmented to an incalculable amount in articles of the greatest value for domestic use and foreign commerce. Our navigation will in like degree be increased, and as the shipping of the Atlantic States will be employed in the transportation of the vast produce of the Western country, even those parts of the United States which are most remote from each other will be further bound together by the strongest ties which mutual interest can create.

The situation of this District, it is thought, requires the attention of Congress. By the Constitution the power of legislation is exclusively vested in the Congress of the United States. In the exercise of this power, in which the people have no participation, Congress legislate in all cases directly on the local concerns of the District. As this is a departure, for a special purpose, from the general principles of our system, it may merit consideration whether an arrangement better adapted to the principles of our Government and to the particular interests of the people may not be devised which will neither infringe the Constitution nor affect the object which the provision in question was intended to secure. The growing population, already considerable, and the increasing business of the District, which it is believed already interferes with the deliberations of Congress on great national concerns, furnish additional motives for recommending this subject to your consideration.

When we view the great blessings with which our country has been favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of handing them down unimpaired to our latest posterity, our attention is irresistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us, then, unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgments for these blessings to the Divine Author of All Good.

JAMES MONROE.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

NOVEMBER 30, 1818.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I lay before the Senate, for their advice and consent, the several treaties which have recently been made with the Chickasaws, the Quapaws, the Wyandot, Seneca, Delaware, Shawnese, Potawatamies, Ottawas, and Chippewas, the Peoria, Kaskaskias, Mitchigamia, Cahokia, and Tamarois, the Great and Little Osages, the Weas, Potawatamies, Delaware and Miami, the Wyandot, and the four Pawnees tribes of Indians.

By reference to the journal of the commissioners it appears that George and Levi Colbert have bargained and sold to the United States the reservations made to them by the treaty of September, 1816, and that a deed of trust of the same has been made by them to James Jackson, of Nashville. I would therefore suggest, in case the Chickasaw treaty be approved by the Senate, the propriety of providing by law for the payment of the sum stipulated to be given to them for their reservations.

JAMES MONROE.

DECEMBER 2, 1818.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate copies of such of the documents referred to in the message of the 17th of last month as have been prepared since that period. They contain a copy of the reports of Mr. Rodney and Mr. Graham, two of the commissioners to South America, who returned first from the mission, and of the papers connected with those reports. They also present a full view of the operations of our troops employed in the Seminole war in Florida.

It would have been gratifying to me to have communicated with the message all the documents referred to in it, but as two of our commissioners from South America made their reports a few days only before the meeting of Congress and the third on the day of its meeting, it was impossible to transmit at that time more than one copy of the two reports first made.

The residue of the documents will be communicated as soon as they are prepared.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _December 2, 1818_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of 25th of last month, requesting to be furnished with such information as may be possessed by the Executive touching the execution of so much of the first article of the late treaty of peace and amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States as relates to the restitution of slaves, and which has not heretofore been communicated, I lay before the Senate a report made by the Secretary of State on the 1st instant in relation to that subject.

JAMES MONROE.

DECEMBER 2, 1818.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to the House of Representatives copies of such documents referred to in the message of the 17th ultimo as have been prepared since that period. They present a full view of the operations of our troops employed in the Seminole war who entered Florida.

The residue of the documents, which are very voluminous, will be transmitted as soon as they can be prepared.

JAMES MONROE.

DECEMBER 12, 1818.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 10th instant, I transmit a report of the Secretary of War, with copies of the correspondence between the governor of Georgia and Major-General Andrew Jackson on the subject of the arrest of Captain Obed Wright.

JAMES MONROE.

DECEMBER 29, 1818.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I lay before the Senate, for their consideration, a convention, signed at London on the 20th of October last, between the United States and Great Britain, together with the documents showing the course and progress of the negotiation. I have to request that these documents, which are original, may be returned when the Senate shall have acted on the convention.

JAMES MONROE.

DECEMBER 31, 1818.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th instant, requesting me to lay before it "copies of the correspondence, if any, between the Department of War and the governor of Georgia, in answer to the letter of the latter to the former dated on the 1st of June of the present year, communicated to the House on the 12th instant; and also the correspondence, if any, between the Department of War and General Andrew Jackson, in answer to the letter of the latter of the date 7th May, 1818, also communicated to the House on the 12th instant," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with a copy of an extract of a letter from Major Van De Venter, chief clerk in the Department of War, in reply to General Jackson's letter of the 7th of May, 1818.

JAMES MONROE.

DECEMBER 31, 1818.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 7th instant, requesting me to lay before it "the proceedings which have been had under the act entitled 'An act for the gradual increase of the Navy of the United States,' specifying the number of ships which have been put on the stocks, and of what class, and the quantity and kind of materials which have been procured in compliance with the provisions of said act; and also the sums of money which have been paid out of the fund created by the said act, and for what objects; and likewise the contracts which have been entered into in execution of said act on which moneys may not yet have been advanced," I transmit a report from the Acting Secretary of the Navy, together with a communication from the Board of Navy Commissioners, which, with the documents accompanying it, comprehends all the information required by the House of Representatives.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1819_.

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

I transmit to Congress a proclamation, dated the 22d of last month, of the convention made and concluded at Madrid between the plenipotentiaries of the United States and His Catholic Majesty on the 11th of August, 1802, the ratifications of which were not exchanged until the 21st ultimo, together with the translation of a letter from the minister of Spain to the Secretary of State.

JAMES MONROE.

JANUARY 4, 1819.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, in pursuance of their resolution of the 30th of last month, requesting to be furnished with the instructions, including that of the 28th of July, 1818, to the plenipotentiaries of the United States who negotiated the convention with His Britannic Majesty signed on the 20th day of October in the same year, copies of all these instructions, including that particularly referred to.

JAMES MONROE.

JANUARY 11, 1819.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 5th instant, requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a statement of the effective force composing the military establishment of the United States; also a statement of the different posts and garrisons at and within which troops are stationed, and the actual number of officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates at each post and garrison, respectively; also to designate in such statement the number of artillerists and the number and caliber of ordnance at each of the said posts and garrisons," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the documents accompanying it, contains all the information required.

JAMES MONROE.

JANUARY 29, 1819.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their resolution of the 4th of this month, a report from the Secretary of State concerning the applications which have been made by any of the independent Governments of South America to have a minister or consul-general accredited by the Government of the United States, with the answers of this Government to the applications addressed to it.

JAMES MONROE.

JANUARY 30, 1819.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th instant, requesting me to cause any information not already communicated to be laid before the House whether Amelia Island, St. Marks, and Pensacola yet remain in the possession of the United States, and, if so, by what laws the inhabitants are governed; whether articles imported therein from foreign countries are subject to any, and what, duties, and by what laws, and whether the said duties are collected and how; whether vessels arriving in the United States from Pensacola and Amelia Island, and in Pensacola and Amelia Island from the United States, respectively, are considered and treated as vessels arriving from foreign countries, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, and likewise one from the Secretary of War, which will afford all the information requested by the House of Representatives.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 2, 1819.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I nominate John Overton, Newton Cannon, and Robert Weakly, of Tennessee, as commissioners to negotiate with the Chickasaw tribe of Indians for the cession of a tract of land 4 miles square, including a salt spring, reserved to the said tribe by the fourth article of a treaty concluded with the said Indians on the 19th day of October, 1818.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 2, 1819.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 13th of last month, requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a statement showing the measures that have been taken to collect the balances stated to be due from the several supervisors and collectors of the old direct tax of two millions; also a similar statement of the balances due from the officers of the old internal revenue, and to designate in such statement the persons who have been interested in the collection of the said debts and the sums by them respectively collected, and the time when the same were collected," I transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which, with the documents accompanying it, contains all the information required.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1819_.

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

I communicate to Congress copies of applications received from the minister of Great Britain in behalf of certain British subjects who have suffered in their property by proceedings to which the United States by their military and judicial officers have been parties. These injuries have been sustained under circumstances which appear to recommend strongly to the attention of Congress the claim to indemnity for the losses occasioned by them, which the legislative authority is alone competent to provide.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 5, 1819.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 25th of last month, requesting me "to cause to be laid before it a copy of the rules and regulations adopted for the government of the Military Academy at West Point; also how many cadets have been admitted into the Academy, the time of the residence of each cadet at that institution, and how many of them have been appointed officers in the Army and Navy of the United States," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the accompanying documents, will afford all the information required by the said resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _February 6, 1819_.

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

I transmit to Congress a copy of a letter from Governor Bibb to Major-General Jackson, connected with the late military operations in Florida. This letter has been mislaid, or it would have been communicated with the other documents at the commencement of the session.

JAMES MONROE.

FEBRUARY 6, 1819.

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

I transmit to Congress, for their consideration, applications which have been received from the minister resident of Prussia and from the senates of the free and Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Bremen, the object of which is that the advantages secured by the act of Congress of 20th of April last to the vessels and merchandise of the Netherlands should be extended to those of Prussia, Hamburg, and Bremen. It will appear from these documents that the vessels of the United States and the merchandise laden in them are in the ports of those Governments, respectively, entitled to the same advantages in respect to imposts and duties as those of the native subjects of the countries themselves.