MARCH, 1821.] Inauguration of the President. [H. OF R. short time excepted, when it was thought advisable | great emergency, or for purposes of high national to withdraw it. The great interest which the United importance. Independently of the exigency of the States have in the Pacific, in commerce, and in the case, many considerations of great weight urge a fisheries, have also made it necessary to maintain a policy having in view a provision of revenue to meet, naval force there. In disposing of this force, in both to a certain extent, the demands of the nation, withinstances, the most effectual measures in our power out relying altogether on the precarious resource of have been taken, without interfering with its other foreign commerce. I am satisfied that internal duduties, for the suppression of the slave trade, and of ties and excises, with corresponding imposts on forpiracy, in the neighboring seas. eign articles of the same kind, would, without imposing any serious burdens on the people, enhance the price of produce, promote our manufactures, and augment the revenue, at the same time that they made it more secure and permanent. The care of the Indian tribes within our limits has long been an essential part of our system, but, unfortunately, it has not been executed in a manner to accomplish all the objects intended by it. We have treated them as independent nations without their having any substantial pretension to that rank. The distinction has flattered their pride, retarded their improvement, and, in many instances, paved the way to their destruction. The progress of our The situation of the United States, in regard to their resources, the extent of their revenue, and the facility with which it is raised, affords a most gratifying spectacle. The payment of nearly sixty-seven millions of dollars of the public debt, with the great progress made in measures of defence, and in other improvements of various kinds, since the late war, are conclusive proofs of this extraordinary prosperity, especially when it is recollected that these expenditures have been defrayed, without a burden on the people, the direct tax and excise having been repealed soon after the conclusion of the late war, and the revenue applied to these great objects having been raised in a manner not to be felt. Our great re-settlements westward, supported as they are by a sources, therefore, remain untouched, for any purpose which may affect the vital interests of the nation. For all such purposes they are inexhaustible. They are more especially to be found in the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence, of our fellow-citizens, and in the devotion with which they would yield up, by any just measure of taxation, all their property in support of the rights and honor of their country. Under the present depression of prices, affecting all the productions of the country, and every branch of industry, proceeding from causes explained on a former occasion, the revenue has considerably diminished; the effect of which has been to compel Congress either to abandon these great measures of defence, or to resort to loans or internal taxes to supply the deficiency. On the presumption that this depression, and the deficiency in the revenue arising from it, would be temporary, loans were authorized for the demands of the last and present year. Anxious to relieve my fellow-citizens in 1817, from every burden which could be dispensed with, and the state of the Treasury permitting it, I recommended the repeal of the internal taxes, knowing that such relief was then peculiarly necessary, in consequence of the great exertions made in the late war. I made that recommendation under a pledge that, should the public exigencies require a recurrence to them at any time while I remained in this trust, I would, with equal promptitude, perform the duty which would then be alike incumbent on me. By the experiment now making it will be seen, by the next session of Congress, whether the revenue shall have been so augmented as to be adequate to all these necessary purposes. Should the deficiency still continue, and especially should it be probable that it would be permanent, the course to be pursued appears to me to be obvious. I am satisfied that, under certain circumstances, loans may be resorted to with great advantage. I am equally well satisfied, as a general rule, that the demands of the current year, especially in time of peace, should be provided for by the revenue of that year. I have never dreaded, nor have I ever shunned, in any situation in which I have been placed, making appeals to the virtue and patriotism of my fellow-citizens, well knowing that they could never be made in vain, especially in times of dense population, has constantly driven them back, with almost the total sacrifice of the lands which they have been compelled to abandon. They have claims on the magnanimity, and, I may add, on the justice of this nation, which we must all feel. We should become their real benefactors, we should perform the office of their Great Father, the endearing title which they emphatically give to the Chief Magistrate of our Union. Their sovereignty over vast territories should cease, in lieu of which the right of soil should be secured to each individual, and his posterity, in competent portions, and for the territory thus ceded by each tribe some reasonable equivalent should be granted, to be vested in permanent funds for the support of civil government over them, and for the education of their children, for their instruction in the arts of husbandry, and to provide sustenance for them until they could provide it for themselves. My earnest hope is, that Congress will digest some plan, founded on these principles, with such improvements as their wisdom may suggest, and carry it into effect as soon as it may by practicable. Europe is again unsettled, and the prospect of war increasing. Should the flame light up in any quarter, how far it may extend it is impossible to foresee. It is our peculiar felicity to be altogether unconnected with the causes which produce this menacing aspect elsewhere. With every power we are in perfect amity, and it is our interest to remain so, if it be practicable on just conditions. I see no reasonable cause to apprehend variance with any power, unless it proceed from a violation of our maritime rights. In these contests, should they occur, and to whatever extent they may be carried, we shall be neutral; but as a neutral power we have rights which it is our duty to maintain. For light injuries it will be incumbent on us to seek redress in a spirit of amity, in full confidence that, injuring none, none would knowingly injure us. For more imminent dangers we should be prepared, and it should always be recollected that such preparation, adapted to the circumstances, and sanctioned by the judgment and wishes of our constituents, cannot fail to have a good effect, in averting dangers of every kind. We should recollect also that the season of peace is best adapted to these preparations. If we turn our attention, follow-citizens, more im mediately to the internal concerns of our country, and more especially to those on which its future welfare depends, we have every reason to anticipate the happiest results. It is now rather more than fortyfour years since we declared our independence, and thirty-seven since it was acknowledged. The talents and virtues which were displayed in that great struggle were a sure presage of all that has since followed. A people who were able to surmount in their infant state such great perils, would be more competent as they rose into manhood to repel any which they meet in their progress. Their physical strength would be more adequate to foreign danger, and the practice of self-government, aided by the light of experience, could not fail to produce an effect equally salutary on all those questions connected with the internal organization. These favorable anticipations have been realized. In our whole system, National and State, we have shunned all the defects which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the ancient republics. In them there were distinct orders, a nobility and a people, or the people governed in one assembly. Thus, in the one instance there was a perpetual conflict between the orders in society for the ascendency, in which the victory of either terminated in the overthrow of the Government and the ruin of the State. In the other, in which the people governed in a body, and whose dominions seldom exceeded the dimensions of a county in one of our States, a tumultuous and disorderly movement permitted only a transitory existence. In this great nation there is but one order, that of the people, whose power, by a peculiarly happy improvement of the representative principle, is transferred from them without impairing in the slightest degree their sovereignty, to bodies of their own creation, and to persons elected by themselves, in the full extent necessary for all the purposes of a free, enlightened, and efficient Government. The whole system is elective, the complete sovereignty being in the people, and every officer in every department deriving his authority from and being responsible to them for his conduct. Our career has corresponded with this great outline. Perfection in our organization could not have been expected in the outset, either in the National or State Governments, or in tracing the line between their respective powers, But no serious conflict has arisen, nor any contest but such as are managed by argument, and by a fair appeal to the good sense of the people; and many of the defects which experience [MARCH, 1821. had clearly demonstrated, in both Governments have been remedied. By steadily pursuing this course, in this spirit, there is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfec tion of which human institutions are capable, and that the movement, in all its branches, will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony, as to command the admiration and respect of the civilized world. Our physical attainments have not been less eminent. Twenty-five years ago the river Mississippi was shut up, and our Western brethren had no outlet for their commerce. What has been the progress since that time? The river has not only become the property of the United States from its source to the ocean, with all its tributary streams, (with the exception of the upper part of the Red River only,) but Louisiana, with a fair and liberal boundary on the western side, and the Floridas on the eastern, have been ceded to us. The United States now enjoy the complete and uninterrupted sovereignty over the whole territory from St Croix to the Sabine. New States, settled from among ourselves in this, and in other parts, have been admitted into our Union, in equal participation in the national sovereignty with the original States. Our population has augmented in an astonishing degree, and extended in every direction. We now, fellow-citizens, comprise within our limits the dimensions and faculties of a great power, under a Government possessing all the energies of any Government ever known to the old world, with an utter incapacity to oppress the people. Entering, with these views, the office which I have just solemnly sworn to execute with fidelity, and to the utmost of my ability, I derive great satisfaction from a knowledge that I shall be assisted in the several departments by the very enlightened and upright citizens from whom I have received so much aid in the preceding term. With full confidence in the continuance of that candor, and generous indulgence, from my fellow-citizens at large, which I have heretofore experienced, and, with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forthwith commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me. DANIEL D. TOMPKINS took the constitutional oath on entering his second term of service in the office of Vice President of the United States, at his own residence, on Saturday, the third instant. DECEMBER, 1821.] Proceedings. [SENATE. SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS.-FIRST SESSION. BEGUN AT THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 3, 1821. PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.* MONDAY, December 3, 1821. The first-session of the Seventeenth Congress, conformably to the Constitution of the United States, commenced this day at the city of Washington, and the Senate assembled. PRESENT: DAVID L. MORRILL and JOHN F. PARROTT, from the State of New Hampshire. ELIJAH BOARDMAN and JAMES LANMAN, from Connecticut. JAMES D'WOLF and NEHEMIAH R. Knight, from Rhode Island. WILLIAM A. PALMER and HORATIO SEYMOUR, from Vermont. RUFUS KING and MARTIN VAN BUREN, from New York. JAMES BROWN and HENRY JOHNSON, from Louisiana. JAMES NOBLE and WALLER TAYLOR, from Indiana. DAVID HOLMES and THOMAS H. WILLIAMS, from Mississippi. JESSE B. THOMAS, from Illinois. JOHN CHANDLER and JOHN HOLMES, from Maine. DAVID BARTON, from Missouri. JOHN GAILLARD, President pro tempore, resumed the Chair. ELIJAH BOARDMAN, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last; HORATIO SEYMOUR, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Vermont, for the term of six years, commen MAHLON DICKERSON and SAMUEL L. SOUTH-cing on the fourth day of March last; JAMES ARD, from New Jersey. WALTER LOWRIE, from Pennsylvania. JAMES BARBOUR and JAMES PLEASANTS, from Virginia. NATHANIEL MACON and MONTFORT STOKES, from North Carolina. JOHN GAILLARD and WILLIAM SMITH, from South Carolina. RICHARD M. JOHNSON, from Kentucky. Tennessee. BENJAMIN RUGGLES, from Ohio. *LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE SENATE. Maine.-John Chandler, John Holmes. New Hampshire.-David L. Morrill, John F. Parrott. Massachusetts.-Harrison Gray Otis, Elijah H. Mills. Rhode Island.-James D'Wolf, Nehemiah R. Knight. Vermont.-William A. Palmer, Horatio Seymour. Connecticut.-Elijah Boardman, James Lanman. New York-Rufus King, Martin Van Buren. New Jersey.-Mahlon Dickerson, Samuel L. Southard. Pennsylvania.-Walter Lowrie, William Findlay. Delaware.-Nicholas Van Dyke, Cæsar Augustus Rodney. Maryland.-Edward Lloyd, William Pinkney. D'WOLF, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last; MARTIN VAN BUREN, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of New York, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of last March; JOHN HENRY EATON, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Tennessee, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last; DAVID HOLMES, appointed a Senator by the Virginia.-James Barbour, James Pleasants. North Carolina.-Nathaniel Macon, Montfort Stokes. Louisiana.-James Brown, Henry Johnson. SENATE.] President's Annual Message. Legislature of the State of Mississippi, for the term of six years, commencing on the fourth day of March last; and DAVID BARTON, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Missouri, respectively produced their credentials, which were read; and the oath prescribed by law was administered to them, and they took their seats in the Senate. The oath was also administered to Messrs. HOLMES, of Maine, SOUTHARD, BARBOUR, RUGGLES, and NOBLE; their credentials having been read and filed during the last session. A quorum being present— On motion, a committee was ordered to be appointed, jointly with such committee as should be appointed by the House of Representatives, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that the two Houses were assembled, and ready to receive any communication he might have to make. On balloting for the committee, Messrs. MACON, of North Carolina, and KING, of New York, were appointed; and the Senate adjourned. TUESDAY, December 4. took his seat in the Senate. WEDNESDAY, December 5. HARRISON GRAY OTIS, from the State of Massachusetts, took his seat in the Senate. DECEMBER, 1821. The laws have had their and of the powers vested by the Constitution in the By an act of the 3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts as imposed higher duties on the ton nage of foreign vessels, and on the manufactures and productions of foreign nations, when imported into the United States in foreign vessels, than when imported in vessels of the United States, were repealed, so far as respected the manufactures and productions of the nation to which such vessels belonged, on the favor of any foreign nation, when the Executive condition, that the repeal should take effect only in should be satisfied that such discriminating duties, to the disadvantage of the United States, had likewise been repealed by such nation. By this act a proposition was made to all nations to place our commerce with each on a basis which, it was presumed, would be acceptable to all. Every nation was allowed to bring its manufactures and productions into our ports, and to take the manufactures and productions of the United States back to their ports, in their own vessels, on the same conditions that they might be transported in vessels of the United States; and, in reshould be granted to the vessels of the United States turn, it was required that a like accommodation Mr. MACON reported, from the joint commit-mitted, or prohibited on either side, formed no part of in the ports of other powers. The articles to be adtee, that they had waited on the President of the proposed arrangement. Each party would retain the United States, and that the President in- the right to admit or prohibit such articles from the formed the committee that he would make a other, as it thought proper, and on its own condicommunication to the two Houses this day tions. A message from the House of Representatives informed the Senate that a quorum of the House of Representatives is assembled, and have elected PHILIP P. BARBOUR, one of the Representatives from the State of Virginia, their Speaker, and THOMAS DOUGHERTY their Clerk, and are ready to proceed to business. They have appointed a committee on their part, to join the committee appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled, and ready to receive any communications he may be pleased to make to them. President's Message. When the nature of the commerce between the United States and every other country was taken The following Message was received from the into view, it was thought that this proposition would PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fellow-citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: The progress of our affairs since the last session has been such as may justly be claimed and expected, under a Government deriving all its powers from an enlightened people, and under laws formed by their representatives, on great consideration, for the sole purpose of promoting the welfare and happiness of their constituents. In the execution of those laws, be considered fair, and even liberal, by every power. The exports of the United States consits generally of articles of the first necessity, and of rude materials in demand for foreign manufactories, of great bulk, requiring for their transportation many vessels, the return for which, in the manufactures and productions of any foreign country, even when disposed of there to advantage, may be brought in a single vessel. This observation is the more especially applicable to those countries from which manufactures alone are imported, but it applies in a great extent to the Eu ropean dominions of every European power, and, in a certain extent, to all the colonies of those powers. By placing, then, the navigation precisely on the same ground, in the transportation of exports and imports between the United States and other countries, it was presumed that all was offered which could be desired. It seemed to be the only proposition which could be devised, which would retain even the semblance of equality in our favor. [SENATE. versity of views entertained, on the various points which have been brought into discussion, that there does not appear to be any reasonable prospect of its early conclusion. As little cause has the Government of France to complain of the seizure of the Apollo, and the removal of other vessels, from the waters of the St. Mary's. It will not be denied, that every nation has a right to regulate its commercial system as it thinks fit, and Many considerations of great weight, gave us a to enforce the collection of its revenue, provided it right to expect that this commerce should be extend- be done without an invasion of the rights of other ed to the colonies, as well as to the European domin- powers. The violation of its revenue laws is an ions, of other powers. With the latter, especially offence which all nations punish-the punishment with countries exclusively manufacturing, the advan- of which gives no just cause of complaint to the tage was manifestly on their side. An indemnity for power to which the offenders belong, provided it be that loss was expected from a trade with the colonies, extended to all equally. In this case, every circumand, with the greater reason, as it was known that stance which occurred indicated a fixed purpose to the supplies which the colonies derived from us were violate our revenue laws. Had the party intended of the highest importance to them, their labor being to have pursued a fair trade, he would have entered bestowed with so much greater profit in the culture our ports, and paid the duties; or, had he intended of other articles; and because, likewise, the articles, to carry on a legitimate circuitous commerce with of which those supplies consisted, forming so large a the United States, he would have entered the port of proportion of the exports of the United States, were some other power, landed his goods at the customnever admitted into any of the ports of Europe, ex- house according to law, and reshipped and sent them cept in cases of great emergency, to avert a serious in the vessel of such power, or of some other power calamity. When no article is admitted which is not which might lawfully bring them, free from such required to supply the wants of the party admitting duties, to a port of the United States. But the conit, and admitted then, not in favor of any particular duct of the party in this case was altogether different. country, to the disadvantage of others, but on condi- He entered the river St. Mary's, the boundary line tions equally applicable to all, it seems just that the between the United States and Florida, and took his articles thus admitted and invited should be carried position on the Spanish side, on which, in the whole thither in the vessels of the country affording such extent of the river, there was no town, no port, no supply, and that the reciprocity should be found in a custom-house, and scarcely any settlement. His purcorresponding accommodation on the other side. By pose, therefore, was not to sell his goods to the inhaballowing each party to participate in the transporta-itants of Florida, but to citizens of the United States, tion of such supplies, on the payment of equal ton- in exchange for their productions, which could not nage, a strong proof was afforded of an accommo- be done without a direct and palpable breach of our dating spirit. To abandon to it the transportation laws. It is known that a regular systematic plan of the whole, would be a sacrifice which ought not had been formed by certain persons for the violation to be expected. The demand, in the present in- of our revenue system, which made it the more nestance, would be the more unreasonable, in consider-cessary to check the proceeding in its commenceation of the great inequality existing in the trade ment. with the parent country. Such was the basis of our system, as established by the act of 1815, and such its true character. In the year in which this act was passed, a treaty was concluded with Great Britain, in strict conformity with its principles, in regard to her European dominions. To her colonies, however, in the West Indies and on this continent, it was not extended, the British Government claiming the exclusive supply of those colonies, and from our own ports, and of the productions of the colonies in return, in our own vessels. To this claim the United States could not assent, and, in consequence, each party suspended the intercourse in the vessels of the other, by a prohibition, which still exists. That the unsettled bank of a river so remote from the Spanish garrisons and population could give no protection to any party, in such a practice, is believed to be in strict accord with the law of nations. It would not have comported with a friendly policy, in Spain herself, to have established a custom-house there, since it could have subserved no other purpose than to elude our revenue law. But, the Government of Spain did not adopt that measure. On the contrary, it is understood that the Captain General of Cuba, to whom an application to that effect was made, by these adventurers, had not acceded to it. The condition of those provinces for many years before they were ceded to the United States, need not, now, be dwelt on. Inhabited by different tribes of The same conditions were offered to France, but Indians, and an inroad for every kind of adventurer, not accepted. Her Government has demanded other the jurisdiction of Spain may be said to have been, conditions more favorable to her navigation, and almost exclusively, confined to her garrisons. It cerwhich should also give extraordinary encouragement tainly could not extend to places where she had no to her manufactures and productions in ports of the authority. The rules, therefore, applicable to settled United States. To these it was thought improper to countries, governed by laws, could not be deemed so accede, and, in consequence, the restrictive regula- to the deserts of Florida, and to the occurrences tions, which had been adopted on her part, being there. It merits attention, also, that the territory countervailed on the part of the United States, the had then been ceded to the United States by a direct commerce between the two countries, in the treaty, the ratification of which had not been refused, vessels of each party, has been in a great measure and which has since been performed. Under any suspended. It is much to be regretted, that, although circumstances, therefore, Spain became less respona negotiation has been long pending, such is the di-sible for such acts committed there, and the United |