after the fraud has been committed. It may happen again, as it has already happened, that during the whole two years, all the evidences of the fraud may be in the possession of the culprit himself. However proper the limitation may be in relation to private citizens, it would seem that it ought not to commence running in favour of public officers until they go out of office. The judiciary system of the United States remains imperfect. Of the nine western and south western states, three only enjoy the benfits of a circuit court. Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, are embraced in the general system; but Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, have only district courts. If the existing system be a good one, why should it not be extended? If it be a bad one, why is it suffered to exist? The new states were promised equal rights and privileges when they came into the Union, and such are the guaranties of the constitution. Nothing can be more obvious than the obligation of the general government to place all the states on the same footing, in relation to the administration of justice, and I trust this duty will be neglected no longer.

On many of the subjects to which your attention is invited in this communication, it is a source of gratification to reflect that the steps to be now adopted are uninfluenced by the embarrassments entailed upon the country by the wars through which it has passed. In regard to most of our great interests, we may consider ourselves as just starting in our career, and, after a salutary experience, about to fix upon a permanent basis the policy best calculated to promote the happiness of the people and facilitate their progress towards the most complete

enjoyment of civil liberty. On an occasion so interesting and important in our history, and of such anxious concern to the friends of freedom throughout the world, it is our imperious duty to lay aside all selfish and local considerations, and be guided by a lofty spirit of devotion to the great principles on which our institutions are founded.

That this government may be so administered as to preserve its efficiency in promoting and securing these general objects, should be the only aim of our ambition, and we cannot, therefore, too carefully examine its structure, in order that we may not mistake its powers, or assume those which the people have reserved to themselves, or have preferred to assign to other agents. We should bear constantly in mind the fact that the considerations which induced the framers of the constitution to withhold from the general government the power to regulate the great mass of the business and concerns of the people, have been fully justified by experience, and that it cannot now be doubted that the genius of all our institutions prescribes simplicity and economy as the characteristics of the reform which is yet to be effected in the present and future execu, tion of the functions bestowed upon us by the constitution.

Limited to a general superintending power to maintain peace at home and abroad, and to prescribe laws on a few subjects of general interest, not calculated to restrict human liberty, but to enforce human rights, this government will find its strength and its glory in the faithful discharge of these plain and simple duties. Relieved by its protecting shield from the fear of war and the apprehension of oppression, the free enterprise of our citizens, aided by the state sovereignties,

will work out improvements and ameliorations which cannot fail to demonstrate that the great truth, that the people can govern themselves, is not only realized in our example, but that it is done by a machinery in government so simple and economical as scarcely to be felt. That

the Almighty Ruler of the Universe may so direct our deliberations, and overrule our acts, as to make us instrumental in securing a result so dear to mankind, is my most earnest and sincere prayer. ANDREW JACKSON.

December 4th, 1832,

Washington, December 6th, 1832.

To the Senate of the United States:

I avail myself of this early op portunity to return to the senate, in which it originated, the bill entitled "an act providing for the final settlement of the claims of states for interest on advances to the United States made during the late war," with the reasons which induced me to withhold my approbation, in consequence of which, it has failed to

become a law.

This bill was presented to me for my signature on the last day of your session, and when I was compelled to consider a variety of other bills of greater urgency to the public service. It obviously embraced a principle in the allowance of interest different from that which had been sanctioned by the practice of the accounting officers, or by the previous legislation of congress, in regard to advances by the states, and without any apparent grounds for the change.

Previously to giving my sanction to so great an extension of the practice of allowing interest upon accounts with the government, and which, in its consequences, and from analogy, might not only call for large payments from the treasury, but disturb the great mass of

individual accounts long since finally settled, I deemed it my duty to make a more thorough investigation of the subject than it was possi ble for me to do previously to the close of your last session. I adopted this course the more readily, from the consideration that as the bill contained no appropriation, the states which would have been entitled to claim its benefits, could not have received them without the fuller legislation of congress.

The principle which this bill authorizes, varies not only from the practice uniformly adopted by many of the accounting officers in the case of individual accounts, and in those of the states finally settled and closed previously to your last session, but also from that pursued under the act of your last session, for the adjustment and settlement of the claims of the state of South Carolina. This last act prescribed no particular mode for the allowance of interest, which, therefore, in conformity with the directions of congress in previous cases, and with the uniform practice of the auditor by whom the account was settled, was computed on the sums expended by the state of South Carolina for the use and benefit of the United States, and which had been repaid

to the state, and the payments made by the United States were deducted from the principal sums, exclusive of the interest; thereby stopping future interest on so much of the principal as had been reimbursed by the payment.

I deem it proper, moreover, to observe, that both under the act of the 5th of August, 1790, and that of the 12th of February, 1793, authorizing the settlement of the ac

counts between the United States and the individual states, arising out of the war of the revolution, the interest on these accounts was computed in conformity with the prac tice already adverted to, and from which the bill now returned is a departure.

With these reasons and considerations, I return the bill to the seANDREW JACKSON.

nate.

To the House of Representatives.

In addition to the general views I have heretofore expressed to congress on the subject of internal improvement, it is my duty to advert to it again in stating my objections to the bill entitled "an act for the improvement of certain harbours and the navigation of certain rivers," which was not received a sufficient time before the close of the last session to enable me to examine it before the adjournment.

Having maturely considered that bill within the time allowed me by the constitution, and being convinced that some of its provisions conflict with the rule adopted for my guide on this subject of legislation, I have been compelled to withhold from it my signature, and it has therefore failed to become a law.

To facilitate as far as I can the intelligent action of congress upon the subjects embraced in this bill, I transmit herewith a report from the engineer department, distinguishing, as far as the information in its possession would enable it, between those appropriations which do, and those which do not, conflict with the rules by which my conduct, in this

respect, has hitherto been governed. By that report it will be seen that there is a class of appropriations in the bill for the improvement of streams that are not navigable, that are not channels of commerce, and that do not pertain to the harbours or ports of entry designated by any law, or have ascertained any connexion with the usual establishments for the security of commerce, external or internal.

It is obvious that such appropriations involve the sanction of a principle that concedes to the general government an unlimited power over the subject of internal improvements, and that I could not, therefore, approve a bill containing them, without receding from the positions taken in my veto of the Maysville road bill, and afterwards in my annual message of December 7th, 1830.

It is to be regretted that the rules by which the classifiation of the im provements in this bill has been made by the engineer department, are not more definite and certain, and that embarrassment may not always be avoided by the obser vance of them; but, as neither my own reflection, nor the lights de

rived from other sources, have furnished me with a better guide, I shall continue to apply my best exertions to their application and enforcement. In thus employing my best faculties to exercise the powers with which I am invested, to avoid evils, and to effect the greatest attainable good for our common country, I feel that I may trust to your cordial co-operation; and the experience of the past leaves me no room to doubt the liberal indulgence and favourable consideration of those for whom we act.

The grounds upon which I have given my assent to appropriations for the construction of light houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and the removal of sand bars, sawyers, and

other temporary, or partial impediments in our navigable rivers and harbours, and with which many of the provisions of this bill correspond, have been so fully stated, that I trust a repetition of them is unnecessary. Had there been incorporated in the bill no provisons for works of a different description, depending on principles which extend the power of making appropriations to every object which the discretion of the government may select, and losing sight of the distinctions between national and local character which I had stated would be my future guide on the subject, I should have cheerfully signed the bill.

ANDREW JACKSON.
December 6th, 1832.

WHEREAS a convention assembled in the state of South Carolina have passed an ordinance, by which they declare, "that the several acts and parts of acts of the congress of the United States, purporting to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual operation and effect within the United States, and more espe cially" two acts, for the same purposes, passed on the 29th of May, 1828, and on the 14th of July, 1832, "are unauthorized by the constitution of the United States, and vio. late the true meaning and intent thereof, and are null and void, and no law," nor binding on the citizens of that state or its officers;

and by the said ordinance it is fur ther declared to be unlawful for any of the constituted authorities of the state, or of the United States, to enforce the payment of the duties im posed by the said acts within the same state, and that it is the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to give full effect to the said ordinance:

And whereas, by the said ordinance it is further ordained, that in no case of law or equity, decided in the courts of said state, wherein shall be drawn in question the va lidity of the said ordinance, or of the acts of the legislature that may be passed to give it effect, or of the said laws of the United States, no appeal shall be allowed to the supreme

court of the United States, nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for that purpose; and that any person attempting to take such appeal shall be punished as for a contempt of court.

And, finally, the said ordinance declares that the people of South Carolina will maintain the said ordinance at every hazard; and that they will consider the passage of any act by congress abolishing or closing the ports of the said state, or otherwise obstructing the free ingress or egress of vessels to and from the said ports, or any other act of the federal government to coerce the state, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her commerce, or to enforce the said acts otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South Caro. lina in the union; and that the people of the said state will thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to maintain or preserve their political connexion with the people of the other states, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other acts and things which sovereign and independent states may of right do:

And whereas the said ordinance prescribes to the people of South Carolina a course of conduct in direct violation of their duty as citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its constitution, and having for its object the destruction of the union; that union which, coeval with our political existence, led our fathers, without any other ties to unite them than those of patriotism and a common cause, through a sanguinary struggle to a glorious independence; that sacred union, hitherto inviolate, which, perfected by our happy constitution, has N

brought us, by the favour of heaven, to a state of prosperity at home, and high consideration abroad, rarely, if ever, equaled in the history of nations. To preserve this bond of our political existence from destruction, to maintain inviolate this state of national honour and prosperity, and to justify the confidence my fellow citizens have reposed in me, I, ANDREW JACKSON, President of the United States, have thought proper to issue this my PROCLA MATION, stating my views of the constitution and laws applicable to the measures adopted by the convention of South Carolina, and to the reasons they have put forth to sustain them, declaring the course which duty will require me to pursue, and, appealing to the understanding and patriotism of the people, warn them of the consequences that must inevitably result from an observance of the dictates of the convention.

Strict duty would require of me nothing more than the exercise of those powers with which I am now, or may hereafter be, invested, for preserving the peace of the union, and for the execution of the laws. But the imposing aspect which op position has assumed in this case, by clothing itself with state authority, and the deep interest which the people of the United States must all feel in preventing a resort to stronger measures, while there is a hope that any thing will be yielded to reasoning and remonstrance, perhaps demand, and will certainly justify, a full exposition to South Carolina and the nation of the views I entertain of this important question, as well as a distinct enuncia. tion of the course which my sense of duty will require me to pursue.

The ordinance is founded not on the indefeasible right of resisting acts which are plainly unconstitu