Chapter 32

It need scarcely be remarked that where a State advances money for the use of the General Government for a purpose authorized by it that the claim for the interest on the amount thus advanced, which has been paid by the State, is reasonable and just. The claim is the stronger under the circumstance which existed when those advances were made, it being at a period of great difficulty, when the United States were compelled to borrow very large sums for the prosecution of the war. Had the State not borrowed this money the militia, whose services have been recognized since by the nation, must have been disbanded and the State left without defense.

The claim is, in my opinion, equally well founded where a State advances money which it has in its treasury, or which it raises by taxes, to meet the current demand.

In submitting this claim to your consideration it is proper to observe that many other States have like claims with those of Virginia, and that all those similarly circumstanced should be placed on the same footing.

I invite your attention to a principle which is deemed just, and with a view that the provision which may be made respecting it may be extended alike to all the States.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL, 12, 1824.

APRIL, 16, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 8th of April, requesting information whether the fifth section of the act of the 3d March, 1803, relating to a township of land lying within John Cleves Symmes's patent, had been executed, and, if not, what reasons had prevented it, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, which affords the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL, 16, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of War, containing the information requested by a resolution of the House dated 25th ultimo, shewing the reason why the engineers appointed to examine the most suitable site for a national armory on the Western waters have not made their report.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL, 16, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of War, which contains the information requested by a resolution of the 8th instant, respecting the proposals that were made by certain Indians, therein described, of the Cherokee Nation for the cession of their lands to the United States.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _April 18, 1824_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th instant, requesting a detailed account of the disbursement of the sums appropriated by the acts of the 30th April, 1818, and of the 3d March, 1819, for making certain improvements in the grounds connected with the public offices and the President's house, I transmit a report from the Commissioner of the Public Buildings, which contains the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL, 23, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In conformity with a resolution of the House of Representatives of yesterday, I have received a copy of the proceedings of the committee to whom was referred a communication from Ninian Edwards, lately appointed a minister plenipotentiary to Mexico, in which it is decided that his attendance in this city for the purpose of being examined by the committee on matters contained in the said communication was requisite. As soon as I was apprised that such a communication had been made to the House, anticipating that the attendance of Mr. Edwards might be desired for the purpose stated, I thought it proper that he should be informed thereof, and instructed him not to proceed on his mission, but to await such call as might be made on him either by the House or its committee, and in consequence a letter was addressed to him to that effect by the Secretary of State.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL 27, 1824.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In conformity with the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant, requesting information whether the Executive, through the agency of the War Department, borrowed any money during the late war, under the condition of applying the same to the defense of the State wherein the said loans were made, to what amount, and whether interest was paid by the United States for such loans, etc., I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of War containing all the information in that Department in relation to the resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL, 28, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives_:

The House of Representatives having referred back the accounts and claims of Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of New York, to be settled on the principles established by the report of the committee and the law founded on it in the last session I have reconsidered the subject, and now communicate the result.

By the report of the committee, which it was understood was adopted by the House, it was decided that his accounts and claims should be settled on the four following principles:

First. That interest should be allowed him on all moneys advanced by him for the public from the time of the advance to that of his being reimbursed.

Second. That a reasonable commission should be allowed him on all moneys disbursed by him during the late war.

Third. That an indemnity should be allowed for all losses which he had sustained by the failure of the Government to fulfill its engagements to send him money or Treasury notes within the time specified to be deposited in certain banks as collateral security for loans procured by him at the request and on account of the Government.

Fourth. That he should not be held responsible for losses incurred by the frauds and failures of subagents to whom moneys were advanced through his hands.

On the first, that of interest on his advances for the public, I have allowed him $14,438.68. This allowance is made on advances admitted by the accounting department, and on the declaration of Mr. Tompkins that the remittances made to him, after his advances and previous to the 24th of December, 1814, when a very large sum was remitted to him, were applied to public purposes and not to the reimbursement of his advances.

On the second head, that of a reasonable commission for his disbursements during the late war, I have allowed him 5 per cent on the whole sum disbursed by him, amounting to $92,213.13. I have made him this extra allowance in consideration of the aid which he afforded to the Government at that important epoch in obtaining the loan of a considerable part of the sums thus disbursed.

On the third head, that of an indemnity for losses sustained by him in consequence of the failure of the Government to fulfill its engagements to send him money or Treasury notes within the time specified, I have allowed him $4,411.25, being the amount of the loss sustained on the sale of Treasury notes, for which he was responsible.

On the fourth head, that of losses sustained by him by any frauds or failures of subagents, none such having been shewn no allowance whatever has been made to him.

From the amount thus allowed to Mr. Tompkins after deducting the sum paid him under the act of the present session and the moneys charged to his account there will remain a balance due him of $60,238.46, as appears by the sketch herewith communicated.

In making a final decision on Mr. Tompkins's claims a question arises, Shall interest be allowed him on the amount of the commission on his disbursements? The law of the last session grants to the President a power to allow interest on moneys advanced by him to the public, but does not authorize it on the commission to be allowed on his disbursements. To make such allowance belongs exclusively to Congress. Had his claims been settled at the end of the last war on the principles established by the law of the last session a commission on disbursements would then have been allowed him. This consideration operates with great force in favor of the allowance of interest on that commission at this time, which I recommend to Congress.

I think proper to add that the official relation which I bore to Governor Tompkins at that very interesting epoch, under the highly distinguished and meritorious citizen under whom we both served, enabling me to feel very sensibly the value of his services, excites a strong interest in his favor, which I deem it not improper to express.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _April 30, 1824_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I transmit to the Senate, for their constitutional advice with regard to its ratification, a convention for the suppression of the African slave trade, signed at London on the 13th ultimo by the minister of the United States residing there on their part, with the plenipotentiaries of the British Government on the part of that nation, together with the correspondence relating thereto, a part of which is included in a communication made to the House of Representatives on the 19th ultimo, a printed copy of which is among the documents herewith sent.

Motives of accommodation to the wishes of the British Government render it desirable that the Senate should act definitively upon this convention as speedily as may be found convenient.

JAMES MONROE.

APRIL 30, 1824.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I communicate to the Senate a treaty entered into with the Cherokee Nation as early as 1804, but which, owing to causes not now understood, has never been carried into effect. Of the authenticity of the transaction a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents accompanying it, furnishes the most unquestionable proof. I submit it to the Senate for its advice and consent as to the ratification.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _May 7, 1824_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I communicate herewith to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State, with the documents relating to the present state of the commercial intercourse between the United States and Portugal, requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 13th ultimo.

JAMES MONROE.

MAY 11, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of War, containing the information called for by the resolution of the 10th of March, requesting the names of all the officers of the Army who have been brevetted, stating their lineal rank and brevet rank, when brevetted, and the amount of money paid to each and when paid, which report, with the accompanying documents, contains the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

MAY 13, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th of April, requesting the President to cause to be communicated to the House a statement of the supplies which have been sent from the United States to any ports of South America for the use of our squadron in the Pacific Ocean, of the amount paid for such supplies, with the names of the owners of the vessels, and other details therein specified, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, which, with the documents accompanying it, furnishes the information desired.

JAMES MONROE.

MAY 14, 1824.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report of the Secretary of the Navy, together with the proceedings of a court-martial lately held at Norfolk for the trial of Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, as requested by a resolution of the House bearing date the 25th of April, 1824.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _May 18, 1824_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

I communicate to the House a report, with accompanying documents, received from Alexander Hamilton, one of the commissioners of land titles in East Florida, deeming the statements therein contained to be worthy of the particular attention of the House, and of a nature which may, perhaps, require their interposition or that of both branches of the Legislature.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _May 21, 1824_.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

Apprehending from the delay in the decision that some difficulty exists with the Senate respecting the ratification of the convention lately concluded with the British Government for the suppression of the slave trade by making it piratical, I deem it proper to communicate for your consideration such views as appear to me to merit attention. Charged as the Executive is, and as I have long been, with maintaining the political relations between the United States and other nations, I consider it my duty, in submitting for your advice and consent as to the ratification any treaty or convention which has been agreed on with another power, to explain, when the occasion requires it, all the reasons which induced the measure. It is by such full and frank explanation only that the Senate can be enabled to discharge the high trust reposed in them with advantage to their country. Having the instrument before them, with the views which guided the Executive in forming it, the Senate will possess all the light necessary to a sound decision.

By an act of Congress of 15th May, 1820, the slave trade, as described by that act, was made piratical, and all such of our citizens as might be found engaged in that trade were subjected, on conviction thereof by the circuit courts of the United States, to capital punishment. To communicate more distinctly the import of that act, I refer to its fourth and fifth sections, which are in the following words:

SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen of the United States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned in the whole or part or navigated for or in behalf of any citizen or citizens of the United States, shall land from any such ship or vessel, and on any foreign shore seize any Negro or Mulatto not held to service or labor by the laws of either of the States or Territories of the United States, with intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a slave, or shall decoy or forcibly bring or carry, or shall receive, such Negro or Mulatto on board any such ship or vessel, with intent as aforesaid, such citizen or person shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before the circuit court of the United States for the district wherein he may be brought or found shall suffer death.

SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen of the United States, being of the crew or ship's company of any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave trade, or any person whatever, being of the crew or ship's company of any ship or vessel owned wholly or in part, or navigated for or in behalf of, any citizen or citizens of the United States, shall forcibly confine or detain, or aid and abet in forcibly confining or detaining, on board such ship or vessel any Negro or Mulatto not held to service by the laws of either of the States or Territories of the United States, with intent to make such Negro or Mulatto a slave, or shall on board any such ship or vessel offer or attempt to sell as a slave any Negro or Mulatto not held to service as aforesaid, or shall on the high seas or anywhere on tide water transfer or deliver over to any other ship or vessel any Negro or Mulatto not held to service as aforesaid, with intent to make such Negro or mulatto a slave, or shall land or deliver on shore from on board any such ship or vessel any such Negro or mulatto, with intent to make sale of, or having previously sold such Negro or Mulatto as a slave, such citizen or person shall be adjudged a pirate, and on conviction thereof before the circuit court of the United States for the district wherein he may be brought or found shall suffer death.

And on the 28th February, 1823, the House of Representatives, by a majority of 131 to 9, passed a resolution to the following effect:

_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to enter upon and prosecute from time to time such negotiations with the several maritime powers of Europe and America as he may deem expedient for the effectual abolition of the African slave trade and its ultimate denunciation as piracy under the law of nations, by the consent of the civilized world.

By the act of Congress above referred to, whereby the most effectual means that could be devised were adopted for the extirpation of the slave trade, the wish of the United States was explicitly declared, that all nations might concur in a similar policy. It could only be by such concurrence that the great object could be accomplished, and it was by negotiation and treaty alone that such concurrence could be obtained, commencing with one power and extending it to others. The course, therefore, which the Executive, who had concurred in the act, had to pursue was distinctly marked out for it. Had there, however, been any doubt respecting it, the resolution of the House of Representatives, the branch which might with strict propriety express its opinion, could not fail to have removed it.

By the tenth article of the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, concluded at Ghent, it was stipulated that both parties should use their best endeavors to accomplish the abolition of the African slave trade. This object has been accordingly pursued by both Governments with great earnestness, by separate acts of legislation, and by negotiation almost uninterrupted, with the purpose of establishing a conceit between them in some measure which might secure its accomplishment.

Great Britain in her negotiations with other powers had concluded treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, in which, without constituting the crime as piracy or classing it with crimes of that denomination, the parties had conceded to the naval officers of each other the right of search and capture of the vessels of either that might be engaged in the slave trade, and had instituted courts consisting of judges, subjects of both parties, for the trial of the vessels so captured.

In the negotiations with the United States Great Britain had earnestly and repeatedly pressed on them the adoption of similar provisions. They had been resisted by the Executive on two grounds: One, that the constitution of mixed tribunals was incompatible with their Constitution; and the other, that the concession of the right of search in time of peace for an offense not piratical would be repugnant to the feelings of the nation and of dangerous tendency. The right of search is the right of war of the belligerent toward the neutral. To extend it in time of peace to any object whatever might establish a precedent which might lead to others with some powers, and which, even if confined to the instance specified, might be subject to great abuse.

Animated by an ardent desire to suppress this trade, the United States took stronger ground by making it, by the act above referred to, piratical, a measure more adequate to the end and free from many of the objections applicable to the plan which had been proposed to them. It is this alternative which the Executive, under the sanction and injunctions above stated, offered to the British Government, and which that Government has accepted. By making the crime piracy the right of search attaches to the crime, and which when adopted by all nations will be common to all; and that it will be so adopted may fairly be presumed if steadily persevered in by the parties to the present convention. In the meantime, and with a view to a fair experiment, the obvious course seems to be to carry into effect with every power such treaty as may be made with each in succession.

In presenting this alternative to the British Government it was made an indispensable condition that the trade should be made piratical by act of Parliament, as it had been by an act of Congress. This was provided for in the convention, and has since been complied with. In this respect, therefore, the nations rest on the same ground. Suitable provisions have also been adopted to protect each party from the abuse of the power granted to the public ships of the other. Instead of subjecting the persons detected in the slave trade to trial by the courts of the captors, as would be the case if such trade was piracy by the laws of nations, it is stipulated that until that event they shall be tried by the courts of their own country only. Hence there could be no motive for an abuse of the right of search, since such abuse could not fail to terminate to the injury of the captor.

Should this convention be adopted, there is every reason to believe that it will be the commencement of a system destined to accomplish the entire abolition of the slave trade. Great Britain, by making it her own, confessedly adopted at the suggestion of the United States, and being pledged to propose and urge its adoption by other nations in concert with the United States, will find it for her interest to abandon the less-effective system of her previous treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, and to urge on those and other powers their accession to this. The crime will then be universally proscribed as piracy, and the traffic be suppressed forever.

Other considerations of high importance urge the adoption of this convention. We have at this moment pending with Great Britain sundry other negotiations intimately connected with the welfare and even the peace of our Union. In one of them nearly a third part of the territory of the State of Maine is in contestation. In another the navigation of the St. Lawrence, the admission of consuls into the British islands, and a system of commercial intercourse between the United States and all the British possessions in this hemisphere are subjects of discussion. In a third our territorial and other rights upon the northwest coast are to be adjusted, while a negotiation on the same interest is opened with Russia. In a fourth all the most important controvertible points of maritime law in time of war are brought under consideration, and in the fifth the whole system of South American concerns, connected with a general recognition of South American independence, may again from hour to hour become, as it has already been, an object of concerted operations of the highest interest to both nations and to the peace of the world.

It can not be disguised that the rejection of this convention can not fail to have a very injurious influence on the good understanding between the two Governments on all these points. That it would place the Executive Administration under embarrassment, and subject it, the Congress, and the nation to the charge of insincerity respecting the great result of the final suppression of the slave trade, and that its first and indispensable consequence will be to constrain the Executive to suspend all further negotiation with every European and American power to which overtures have been made in compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of 28th February, 1823, must be obvious. To invite all nations, with the statute of piracy in our hands, to adopt its principles as the law of nations and yet to deny to all the common right of search for the pirate, whom it would be impossible to detect without entering and searching the vessel, would expose us not simply to the charge of inconsistency.