Part 13

During the last summer a detachment of the Army has been usefully and successfully called to perform their appropriate duties. At the moment when the commissioners appointed for carrying into execution certain provisions of the treaty of August 19, 1825, with various tribes of the Northwestern Indians were about to arrive at the appointed place of meeting the unprovoked murder of several citizens and other acts of unequivocal hostility committed by a party of the Winnebago tribe, one of those associated in the treaty, followed by indications of a menacing character among other tribes of the same region, rendered necessary an immediate display of the defensive and protective force of the Union in that quarter. It was accordingly exhibited by the immediate and concerted movements of the governors of the State of Illinois and of the Territory of Michigan, and competent levies of militia, under their authority, with a corps of 700 men of United States troops, under the command of General Atkinson, who, at the call of Governor Cass, immediately repaired to the scene of danger from their station at St. Louis. Their presence dispelled the alarms of our fellow-citizens on those borders, and overawed the hostile purposes of the Indians. The perpetrators of the murders were surrendered to the authority and operation of our laws, and every appearance of purposed hostility from those Indian tribes has subsided.

Although the present organization of the Army and the administration of its various branches of service are, upon the whole, satisfactory, they are yet susceptible of much improvement in particulars, some of which have been heretofore submitted to the consideration of Congress, and others are now first presented in the report of the Secretary of War.

The expediency of providing for additional numbers of officers in the two corps of engineers will in some degree depend upon the number and extent of the objects of national importance upon which Congress may think it proper that surveys should be made conformably to the act of the 30th of April, 1824. 'Of the surveys which before the last session of Congress had been made under the authority of that act, reports were made--

1. Of the Board of Internal Improvement, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

2. On the continuation of the national road from Cumberland to the tide waters within the district of Columbia.

3. On the continuation of the national road from Canton to Zanesville.

4. On the location of the national road from Zanesville to Columbus.

5. On the continuation of the same to the seat of government in Missouri.

6. On a post-road from Baltimore to Philadelphia.

7. Of a survey of Kennebec River (in part).

8. On a national road from Washington to Buffalo.

9. On the survey of Saugatuck Harbor and River.

10. On a canal from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River.

11. On surveys at Edgartown, Newburyport, and Hyannis Harbor.

12. On survey of La Plaisance Bay, in the Territory of Michigan.

And reports are now prepared and will be submitted to Congress--

On surveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the practicability of a canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico across that peninsula; and also of the country between the bays of Mobile and of Pensacola, with the view of connecting them together by a canal.

On surveys of a route for a canal to connect the waters of James and Great Kenhawa rivers.

On the survey of the Swash, in Pamlico Sound, and that of Cape Fear, below the town of Wilmington, in North Carolina.

On the survey of the Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee River, and for a route for a contemplated communication between the Hiwassee and Coosa rivers, in the State of Alabama.

Other reports of surveys upon objects pointed out by the several acts of Congress of the last and preceding sessions are in the progress of preparation, and most of them may be completed before the close of this session. All the officers of both corps of engineers, with several other persons duly qualified, have been constantly employed upon these services from the passage of the act of 30th April, 1824, to this time. Were no other advantage to accrue to the country from their labors than the fund of topographical knowledge which they have collected and communicated, that alone would have been a profit to the Union more than adequate to all the expenditures which have been devoted to the object; but the appropriations for the repair and continuation of the Cumberland road, for the construction of various other roads, for the removal of obstructions from the rivers and harbors, for the erection of light-houses, beacons, piers, and buoys, and for the completion of canals undertaken by individual associations, but heeding the assistance of means and resources more comprehensive than individual enterprise can command, may be considered rather as treasures laid up from the contributions of the present age for the benefit of posterity than as unrequited applications of the accruing revenues of the nation. To such objects of permanent improvement to the condition of the country, of real addition to the wealth as well as to the comfort of the people by whose authority and resources they have been effected, from three to four millions of the annual income of the nation have, by laws enacted at the three most recent sessions of Congress, been applied, without intrenching upon the necessities of the Treasury, without adding a dollar to the taxes or debts of the community, without suspending even the steady and regular discharge of the debts contracted in former days, which within the same three years have been diminished by the amount of nearly $16,000,000.

The same observations are in a great degree applicable to the appropriations made for fortifications upon the coasts and harbors of the United States, for the maintenance of the Military Academy at West Point, and for the various objects under the superintendence of the Department of the Navy. The report from the Secretary of the Navy and those from the subordinate branches of both the military departments exhibit to Congress in minute detail the present condition of the public establishments dependent upon them, the execution of the acts of Congress relating to them, and the views of the officers engaged in the several branches of the service concerning the improvements which may tend to their perfection. The fortification of the coasts and the gradual increase and improvement of the Navy are parts of a great system of national defense which has been upward of ten years in progress, and which for a series of years to come will continue to claim the constant and persevering protection and superintendence of the legislative authority. Among the measures which have emanated from these principles the act of the last session of Congress for the gradual improvement of the Navy holds a conspicuous place. The collection of timber for the future construction of vessels of war, the preservation and reproduction of the species of timber peculiarly adapted to that purpose, the construction of dry docks for the use of the Navy, the erection of a marine railway for the repair of the public ships, and the improvement of the navy-yards for the preservation of the public property deposited in them have all received from the Executive the attention required by that act, and will continue to receive it, steadily proceeding toward the execution of all its purposes. The establishment of a naval academy, furnishing the means of theoretic instruction to the youths who devote their lives to the service of their country upon the ocean, still solicits the sanction of the Legislature. Practical seamanship and the art of navigation may be acquired on the cruises of the squadrons which from time to time are dispatched to distant seas, but a competent knowledge even of the art of shipbuilding, the higher mathematics, and astronomy; the literature which can place our officers on a level of polished education with the officers of other maritime nations; the knowledge of the laws, municipal and national, which in their intercourse with foreign states and their governments are continually called into operation, and, above all, that acquaintance with the principles of honor and justice, with the higher obligations of morals and of general laws, human and divine, which constitutes the great distinction between the warrior-patriot and the licensed robber and pirate--these can be systematically taught and eminently acquired only in a permanent school, stationed upon the shore and provided with the teachers, the instruments, and the books conversant with and adapted to the communication of the principles of these respective sciences to the youthful and inquiring mind.

The report from the Postmaster-General exhibits the condition of that Department as highly satisfactory for the present and still more promising for the future. Its receipts for the year ending the 1st of July last amounted to $1,473,551, and exceeded its expenditures by upward of $100,000. It can not be an oversanguine estimate to predict that in less than ten years, of which one-half have elapsed, the receipts will have been more than doubled. In the meantime a reduced expenditure upon established routes has kept pace with increased facilities of public accommodation and additional services have been obtained at reduced rates of compensation. Within the last year the transportation of the mail in stages has been greatly augmented. The number of post-offices has been increased to 7,000, and it may be anticipated that while the facilities of intercourse between fellow-citizens in person or by correspondence will soon be carried to the door of every villager in the Union, a yearly surplus of revenue will accrue which may be applied as the wisdom of Congress under the exercise of their constitutional powers may devise for the further establishment and improvement of the public roads, or by adding still further to the facilities in the transportation of the mails. Of the indications of the prosperous condition of our country, none can be more pleasing than those presented by the multiplying relations of personal and intimate intercourse between the citizens of the Union dwelling at the remotest distances from each other.

Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied the earnest solicitude and attention of Congress is the management and disposal of that portion of the property of the nation which consists of the public lands. The acquisition of them, made at the expense of the whole Union, not only in treasure but in blood, marks a right of property in them equally extensive. By the report and statements from the General Land Office now communicated it appears that under the present Government of the United States a sum little short of $33,000,000 has been paid from the common Treasury for that portion of this property which has been purchased from France and Spain, and for the extinction of the aboriginal titles. The amount of lands acquired is near 260,000,000 acres, of which on the 1st of January, 1826, about 139,000,000 acres had been surveyed, and little more than 19,000,000 acres had been sold. The amount paid into the Treasury by the purchasers of the public lands sold is not yet equal to the sums paid for the whole, but leaves a small balance to be refunded. The proceeds of the sales of the lands have long been pledged to the creditors of the nation, a pledge from which we have reason to hope that they will in a very few years be redeemed.

The system upon which this great national interest has been managed was the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation. Matured and modified by the progress of our population and the lessons of experience, it has been hitherto eminently successful. More than nine-tenths of the lands still remain the common property of the Union, the appropriation and disposal of which are sacred trusts in the hands of Congress. Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under extended credits, which in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of lands and of their produce became oppressively burdensome to the purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation to wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits of their industry and enterprise by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of $22,000,000, due by purchasers of the public lands, had accumulated, which they were unable to pay. An act of Congress of the 2d March, 1821, came to their relief, and has been succeeded by others, the latest being the act of the 4th of May, 1826, the indulgent provisions of which expired on the 4th July last. The effect of these laws has been to reduce the debt from the purchasers to a remaining balance of about $4,300,000 due, more than three-fifths of which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend to Congress the revival and continuance for a further term of the beneficent accommodations to the public debtors of that statute, and submit to their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the remission, under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial payments on account of purchases of the public lands, so far as to allow of their application to other payments.

There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration of Congress, as well by my predecessors as, under the impression of the duties devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt, rather of justice than gratitude, to the surviving warriors of the Revolutionary war; the extension of the judicial administration of the Federal Government to those extensive and important members of the Union which, having risen into existence since the organization of the present judiciary establishment, now constitute at least one-third of its territory, power, and population; the formation of a more effective and uniform system for the government of the militia, and the amelioration in some form or modification of the diversified and often oppressive codes relating to insolvency. Amidst the multiplicity of topics of great national concernment which may recommend themselves to the calm and patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice to say that on these and all other measures which may receive their sanction my hearty cooperation will be given, conformably to the duties enjoined upon me and under the sense of all the obligations prescribed by the Constitution.

John Quincy Adams.

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SPECIAL MESSAGES.

Washington, _December 6, 1827_. _To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 19th of February last, requesting a statement of all the expenses annually incurred in carrying into effect the act of March 2, 1819, for prohibiting the slave trade, including the cost of keeping the ships of war on the coast of Africa and all the incidental expenses growing out of the operation of that act, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the statement, so far as it can be made, required by the resolution.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _December 11, 1827_. _To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate--

1. A convention between the United States and Great Britain for the continuance in force of the convention of 3d July, 1815, after the 20th October, 1828, the term at which it would otherwise expire.

2. A convention between the same parties for continuing in force after the 20th October, 1828, the provisions of the third article of the convention of 20th October, 1818, in relation to the territories westward of the Rocky Mountains.

3. A convention between the same parties for the reference to a friendly sovereign of the points of difference between them relating to the northeastern boundary of the United States.

The first and second of these conventions were signed by the plenipotentiaries of the respective parties at London on the 6th day of August and the third on the 29th day of September last.

Copies of them are also communicated, together with the correspondence and documents illustrative of their negotiation.

I request the advice of the Senate with regard to the ratification of each of them.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _December 11, 1827_

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for their advice with regard to its ratification, a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and the Kingdom of. Sweden and Norway, signed at Stockholm by the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on the 4th day of July last.

A copy of the treaty, with a translation, and the instructions and correspondence relating to the negotiation are also communicated.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _December 12, 1827_

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

I transmit herewith to Congress copies of a report of the surveyor-general of lands northwest of Ohio, with a plat of the northern boundary line of the State of Indiana, surveyed in conformity to the act of Congress to authorize the President of the United States to ascertain and designate the northern boundary of the State of Indiana, passed the 2d of March, 1827.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _December 24, 1827_

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant, requesting a communication of the instructions to the American minister at London for the negotiation of the convention of the 13th of November, 1826, with Great Britain, for indemnity to the claimants under the first article of the treaty of Ghent, together with the letters of the minister accompanying and explaining the said convention, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, together with the documents desired.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 4, 1828_

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 19th of last month, I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with copies of the correspondence with the British Government relating to the establishment of light-houses, light-vessels, buoys, and other improvements to the navigation within their jurisdiction, opposite to the coast of Florida, referred to in the resolution,

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 7, 1828_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 17th of last month, I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State and the correspondence with the Government of Great Britain relative to the free navigation of the river St. Lawrence.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 9, 1828_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 7th instant, I transmit herewith Mitchell's map and the map marked A,[013] as requested by the resolution, desiring that when the Senate shall have no further use for them they may be returned.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 15, 1828_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 2d instant, requesting information respecting the recovery of debts and property in the Mexican States from persons absconding from the United States, and also respecting the boundary between the State of Louisiana and the Province of Texas, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State on the subject-matter of the resolution.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 22, 1828_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice, articles of agreement signed at the Creek Agency on the 15th of November last by Thomas L. McKenney and John Crowell in behalf of the United States and by the Little Prince and other chiefs and headmen of the Creek Nation, with a supplementary article concluded by the said John Crowell with the chiefs and headmen of the nation in general council convened on the 3d instant, embracing a cession by the Creek Nation of all the remnant of their lands within the State of Georgia. Documents connected with the negotiation of the treaty and the instructions under which it was effected are also communicated to the Senate.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 22, 1828_.

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

By the report of the Secretary of War and the documents from that Department exhibited to Congress at the commencement of their present session they were advised of the measures taken for carrying into execution the act of 4th May, 1826, to authorize the President of the United States to run and mark a line dividing the Territory of Florida from the State of Georgia, and of their unsuccessful result. I now transmit to Congress copies of communications received from the governor of Georgia relating to that subject.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 23, 1828_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

A resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant requested information relative to the trade between the United States and the colonies of France. A report from the Secretary of State, with a translation of the ordinance of the King of France of the 5th of February, 1826, is herewith transmitted, containing the information desired by the resolution.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 28, 1828_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate--

1. A treaty concluded at the Butte des Morts, on Fox River, in the Territory of Michigan, on 11th of August, 1827, between Lewis Cass and Thomas L. McKenney, commissioners of the United States, and the chiefs and headmen of the Chippewa, Menomonie, and Winnebago tribes of Indians.

2. A treaty concluded at St. Joseph, in the Territory of Michigan, on the 19th of September, 1827, between Lewis Cass, commissioner of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the Potawatamie tribe of Indians.

Upon which treaties I request the advice of the Senate. The instructions and other documents relating to the negotiation of them are here-with communicated.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _January 29_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

A report from the Secretary of State, with copies of a recent correspondence between the chargé d'affaires from Brazil and him on the subjects of discussion between this Government and that of Brazil,[014] is transmitted to the House of Representatives, in compliance with a resolution of the House of the 2d instant.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _February 6, 1828_.

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

I communicate herewith to Congress copies of a treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and His Majesty the King of Sweden and Norway, concluded at Stockholm on the 4th of July, 1827, and the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 18th ultimo at this city.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _February 14, 1828_

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 11th instant, requesting copies of the instructions to Andrew Ellicott, commissioner for running the line between the United States and Spain, and of any journal or report of the commissioners, I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with the documents requested, so far as they are found in the files of that Department.

John Quincy Adams.

Washington, _February 21, 1828_

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