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To these recommendations, I add, for the consideration of Congress, the expediency of a re-modification of the Judiciary Establishment, and of an additional Department in the Executive branch of the Government.

The first is called for by the accruing business, which necessarily swells the duties of the Federal Courts, and by the great and widening space, within which justice is to be dispensed by them. The time. seems to have arrived, which claims for Members of the Supreme Court a relief from itinerary fatigues, incompatible, as well with the age which a portion of them will always have attained, as with the researches and preparations which are due to their stations, and to the juridical reputation of their Country. And considerations equally cogent require a more convenient organization of the subordinate Tribunals, which may be accomplished without an objectionable increase of the number or expence of the Judges.

The extent and variety of Executive business, also accumulating with the progress of our Country, and its growing population, call for an additional Department, to be charged with duties now over-burdening other Departments, and with such as have not been annexed to any Department.

The course of experience recommends as another improvement in the Executive Establishment, that the provision for the station of Attorney General, whose residence at the seat of Government, official connections with it, and management of the public business before the Judiciary, preclude an extensive participation in professional emoluments, be made more adequate to his services and his relinquishments; and that, with a view to his reasonable accommodation, and to a proper depository of his official opinions and proceedings, there be included in the provision the usual appurtenances to a Public Office.

In directing the legislative attention to the state of the Finances, it is a subject of great gratification to find that, even within the short period which has elapsed since the return of Peace, the Revenue has far exceeded all the current demands upon the Treasury, and that, under any probable diminution of its future annual product, which the vicissitudes of commerce may occasion, it will afford an ample fund for the effectual and early extinguishment of the Public Debt. It has been estimated that, during the year 1816, the actual Receipts of Revenue at the Treasury, including the Balance at the commencement of the year, and excluding the proceeds of Loans and Treasury Notes, will amount to about the sum of 47,000,000 of dollars; that during the same year, the actual payments at the Treasury, including the payment of the Arrearages of the War Department, as well as the payment of a considerable excess, beyond the annual appropriation, will amount to about the sum of 38,000,000 of dollars; and that, con

sequently, at the close of the year, there will be a Surplus in the Treasury of about the sum of 9,000,000 of dollars.

The operations of the Treasury continue to be obstructed by difficulties, arising from the condition of the National Currency; but they have, nevertheless, been effectual, to a beneficial extent, in the reduction of the Public Debt, and the establishment of the Public Credit. The floating Debt of Treasury Notes, and temporary Loans, will soon be entirely discharged. The aggregate of the Funded Debt, composed of Debts incurred during the Wars of 1776 and of 1812, has been estimated, with reference to the 1st of January next, at a sum not exceeding 110,000,000 of dollars. The ordinary annual expences of the Government, for the maintenance of all its Institutions, Civil, Military, and Naval, have been estimated at a sum less than 20,000,000 of dollars. And the permanent Revenue, to be derived from all the existing sources, has been estimated at a sum of about 25,000,000 of dollars.

Upon this general view of the subject, it is obvious that there is only wanting, to the fiscal prosperity of the Government, the restoration of an uniform medium of exchange. The resources and the faith of the Nation, displayed in the system which Congress has established, ensure respect and confidence both at Home and Abroad. The local accumulations of the Revenue have already enabled the Treasury to meet the public engagements, in the local currency of most of the States; and it is expected that the same cause will produce the same effect, throughout the Union. But, for the interests of the Community at large, as well as for the purposes of the Treasury, it is essential that the Nation should possess a currency of equal value, credit and use, wherever it may circulate. The Constitution has entrusted Congress, exclusively, with the power of creating and regulating a currency of that description; and the measures which were taken during the last Session, in execution of the power, give every promise of success. The Bank of The United States has been organized under auspices the most favorable, and cannot fail to be an important auxiliary to those measures.

For a more enlarged view of the Public Finances, with a view of the measures pursued by the Treasury Department, previous to the resignation of the late Secretary, I transmit an Extract from the last Report of that Officer. Congress will perceive in it ample proofs of the solid foundation on which the financial prosperity of the Nation rests; and will do justice to the distinguished ability and successful exertions with which the duties of the Department were executed, during a period remarkable for its difficulties and its peculiar perplexities.

The period of my retiring from the Public Service, being at little distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the present, for

expressing to my Fellow-Citizens my deep sense of the continued confidence and kind support which I have received from them. My grateful recollection of these distinguished marks of their favorable regard can never cease; and, with the consciousness that, if I have not served my Country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere devotion, will accompany ine as a source of unfailing gratification.

Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theatre, other sources, which those who love their Country most will best appreciate; I shall behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at Home, and with peace and respect Abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection, that the American People have reached, in safety and success, their 40th year as an independent Nation; that for nearly an entire generation, they have had experience of their present Constitution, the offspring of their undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances; to contain, in its combination of the federate and elective principles, a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of National power for the defence of National rights, with a security against Wars of injustice, of ambition, or of vain glory, in the fundamental provision which subjects all Questions of War to the will of the Nation itself, which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a peculiar felicity of this Constitution, so dear to us all, that it is found to be capable, without losing its vital energies, of expanding itself over a spacious Territory, with the increase and expansion of the Community for whose benefit it was established.

And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle, that I shall read, in the character of the American People, in their devotion to true liberty, and to the Constitution which is its palladium, sure presages, that the destined career of my Country will exhibit a Government pursuing the public good as its sole object; and regulating its means by the great principles cousecrated in its charter, and by those moral principles to which they are so well allied :- -a Government which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal interdict against encroachments and compacts between Religion and the State, which maintains inviolably the maxims of public faith, the security of persons and property, and encourages, in every authorized mode, that general diffusion of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its permanency, and to those who possess the blessing, the true enjoyment of it :-a Government which avoids intrusions on the internal repose of other Nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice to all Nations with a readiness, equal to the firmness with which it requires justice from them; and which, whilst it refines its domestic Code from every ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an

enlightened Age, and the sentiments of a virtuous People, seeks, by appeals to reason, and by its liberal examples, to infuse into the Law which governs the civilized World, a spirit which may diminish the frequency, or circumscribe the calamities of War, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of Peace:-a Government, in a word, whose conduct, within and without, may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions,—that of promoting peace on earth and good will to man.

These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will animate my prayers for the happiness of my beloved Country, and a perpetuity of the Institutions under which it is enjoyed.

JAMES MADISON.

INSTRUCTIONS of the Prussian Government to its Minister at Paris, relative to the Private Claims of the Allied Powers upon France, under the Convention of Paris of 20th November, 1815.-Berlin, September, 1817.

INSTRUCTIONS pour M. le Comte de Goltz.

MONSIEUR LE Comte,

Berlin, le Septembre, 1817. Vos Dépêches, les Protocoles des Ministres des 4 Cours signataires de la Paix de Paris, et les rapports du Commissaire Liquidateur de notre Gouvernement à Paris, m'ont fait connoître les moyens que les Agens de la France ont employés depuis le commencement de cette année, d'abord pour retarder l'exécution de la Convention du 20 Novembre, 1815, relative aux Réclamations des Sujets des Puissances Alliées à la charge de la France, et ensuite pour se soustraire à une partie des engagemens que leur Gouvernement a contractés par le susdit Traité. En effet, les premières plaintes du Commissaire Liquidateur Prussien avoient pour objet les difficultés qu'éprouvoit la Liquidation de la part des Commissaires de Sa Majesté Très Chrétienne, lesquels opposoient aux Réclamations les plus justes et les mieux fondées une interprétation des Traités qui en détruisoit les Stipulations les plus claires et les plus positives. Toutes leurs démarches annonçoient le projet de trainer en longueur les opérations de la Liquidation. Cependant l'intérêt de la France, aussi bien que celui des autres Gouvernemens, exigeoit que ce travail fût accéléré, la Convention ayant statué, dans l'Article XVIII. que cette Puissance payeroit,à dater du 20 Novembre, 1815, un intérêt de retard aux Créanciers dont les titres auroient été reconnus légitimes. Cette Stipulation avoit été insérée dans le Traité pour engager la France à renoncer à ce systême de lenteur et d'inertie qu'on avoit suivi en 1814. Ce fut au mois de Mai de cette année que le Gouvernement François fit la première ten[1816-17.]

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tative pour se soustraire à cette obligation. M. le Marquis de Bonnay, Ministre de Sa Majesté Très Chrétienne, près le Roi, notre Auguste Maître, demanda qu'il fût donné à l'Article XVIII une interprétation qui, en bornant le terme du payement des Intérêts au 22 Mars, 1816, auroit détruit tout l'effet qu'on avoit eu en vue en l'insérant dans le Traité. Ce Ministre convint, dans sa Note du 9 Mai, 1817, que la nouvelle interprétation qu'il proposoit de donner à l'Article XVIII ne se fondoit pas sur le droit rigoureux ; mais il mit en avant, pour la faire adopter, des motifs d'équité qu'on ne fait jamais valoir en-vain auprès d'un Gouvernement légitime, et par conséquent porté à la justice. Pendant qu'on délibéroit encore dans le Conseil du Roi, sur la possibilité de combiner la protection que Sa Majesté doit à ses Sujets, Créanciers de la France, avec le désir d'alléger le fardeau de cette Puissance, vous me communiquâtes, M. le Comte, une Note de M. le Duc de Richelieu du 20 Juin, par laquelle, prévenant les Ministres des 4 Cours à Paris, des Négociations qu'il avoit entamées pour obtenir que l'Article XVIII fût supprimé, il leur fit part, en même temps qu'il venoit de donner à la Commission Françoise l'ordre d'en faire cesser l'exécution. Je n'ai pû qu'applaudir à la manière victorieuse dont vous et vos Collégues avez refuté le raisonnement par lequel M. le Duc de Richelieu avoit essayé de justifier sa démarche vraiment extraordinaire; peut-être la dignité des Cours Alliées auroit-elle exigé, néanmoins, qu'on se fût borné a faire sentir à ce Ministre tout ce qu'un procédé si arbitraire avoit d'offensant pour toutes les Puissances, sans entrer dans une discussion devenue d'autant plus inutile, que non-seulement le Gouvernement François avoit exécuté pendant 16 mois l'Article XVIII, dans le seul sens qu'il peut renfermer mais que, dans des Débats qui s'étoient élevés sur d'autres Articles de la Convention, il avoit lui-même fait valoir l'obligation que cet Article lui imposoit, pour obtenir des soulagemens sous d'autres rapports.

Pendant la dernière Session de la Chambre des Députés de France, Vous m'informâtes, M. le Comte, que les Ministres des 4 Cours, avertis par les Commissaires Liquidateurs que le fonds de garantie établi par l'Article XX de la Convention, ne tarderoit pas à être épuisé, avoient invité M. le Duc de Richelieu à ne pas permettre que cet objet fût perdu de vue dans la discussion du Budget de 1817. La réponse de ce Ministre, contenant l'assurance la plus positive que le Gouvernement François avoit pris toutes les Mesures nécessaires pour remplir ses engagemens, parut si satisfaisante qu'elle calma les inquiétudes des Parties intéressées; on devoit, en effet, ajouter foi à une parole donnée d'une manière si solemnelle et si positive. Néanmoins le fonds de garantie ayant été effectivement épuisé, quelque temps après, par les liquidations successives, vous engageâtes, d'accord avec vos Collégues, les Ministres d'Autriche, de Grande-Bretagne et de Russie, M. le Duc de Richelieu, à faire renouveler ce fonds, ainsi qu'il

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