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State of the Union Addresses

Thomas Jefferson

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Section 1 of 2
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
December 8, 1801

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me that on meeting the
great council of our nation I am able to announce to them on grounds of
reasonable certainty that the wars and troubles which have for so many
years afflicted our sister nations have at length come to an end, and that
the communications of peace and commerce are once more opening among them.
Whilst we devoutly return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been
pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness, we
are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace
has been preserved through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted
quietly to cultivate the earth and to practice and improve those arts which
tend to increase our comforts. The assurances, indeed, of friendly
disposition received from all the powers with whom we have principle
relations had inspired a confidence that our peace with them would not have
been disturbed. But a cessation of irregularities which had affected the
commerce of neutral nations and of the irritations and injuries produced by
them can not but add to this confidence, and strengthens at the same time
the hope that wrongs committed on unoffending friends under a pressure of
circumstances will now be reviewed with candor, and will be considered as
founding just claims of retribution for the past and new assurance for the
future.

Among our Indian neighbors also a spirit of peace and friendship generally
prevails, and I am happy to inform you that the continued efforts to
introduce among them the implements and the practice of husbandry and the
household arts have not been without success; that they are becoming more
and more sensible of the superiority of this dependence for clothing and
subsistence over the precarious resources of hunting and fishing, and
already we are able to announce that instead of that constant diminution of
their numbers produced by their wars and their wants, some of them begin to
experience an increase of population.

To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only
exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States,
had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and
had permitted itself to denounce war on our failure to comply before a
given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer.

I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean, with assurances
to that power of our sincere desire to remain in peace, but with orders to
protect our commerce against the threatened attack. The measure was
seasonable and salutary. The Bey had already declared war. His cruisers
were out. Two had arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce in the Mediterranean
was blockaded and that of the Atlantic in peril.

The arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger. One of the Tripolitan
cruisers having fallen in with and engaged the small schooner Enterprise,
commanded by Lieutenant Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our larger
vessels, was captured, after a heavy slaughter of her men, without the loss
of a single one on our part. The bravery exhibited by our citizens on that
element will, I trust, be a testimony to the world that it is not the want
of that virtue which makes us seek their peace, but a conscientious desire
to direct the energies of our nation to the multiplication of the human
race, and not to its destruction. Unauthorized by the Constitution, without
the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of defense, the vessel,
being disabled from committing further hostilities, was liberated with its
crew.

The Legislature will doubtless consider whether, by authorizing measures of
offense also, they will place our force on an equal footing with that of
its adversaries. I communicate all material information on this subject,
that in the exercise of this important function confided by the
Constitution to the Legislature exclusively their judgment may form itself
on a knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of weight.

I wish I could say that our situation with all the other Barbary States was
entirely satisfactory. Discovering that some delays had taken place in the
performance of certain articles stipulated by us, I thought it my duty, by
immediate measures for fulfilling them, to vindicate to ourselves the right
of considering the effect of departure from stipulation on their side. From
the papers which will be laid before you you will be enabled to judge
whether our treaties are regarded by them as fixing at all the measure of
their demands or as guarding from the exercise of force our vessels within
their power, and to consider how far it will be safe and expedient to leave
our affairs with them in their present posture.

I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our inhabitants,
to a conformity with which we are now to reduce the ensuing ration of
representation and taxation. You will perceive that the increase of numbers
during the last 10 years, proceeding in geometric ratio, promises a
duplication in little more than 22 years. We contemplate this rapid growth
and the prospect it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries it may
enable us to do others in some future day, but to the settlement of the
extensive country still remaining vacant within our limits to the
multiplication of men susceptible of happiness, educated in the love of
order, habituated to self-government, and valuing its blessings above all
price.

Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers, have produced
an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption in a ratio far beyond
that of population alone; and though the changes in foreign relations now
taking place so desirably for the whole world may for a season affect this
branch of revenue, yet weighing all probabilities of expense as well as of
income, there is reasonable ground of confidence that we may now safely
dispense with all the internal taxes, comprehending excise, stamps,
auctions, licenses, carriages, and refined sugars, to which the postage on
news papers may be added to facilitate the progress of information, and
that the remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the
support of Government, to pay the interest of the public debts, and to
discharge the principals within shorter periods than the laws or the
general expectation had contemplated.

War, indeed, and untoward events may change this prospect of things and
call for expenses which imposts could not meet; but sound principles will
not justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate
treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not, perhaps,
happen but from the temptations offered by that treasure.

These views, however, of reducing our burthens are formed on the
expectation that a sensible and at the same time a salutary reduction may
take place in our habitual expenditures. For this purpose those of the
civil Government, the Army, and Navy will need revisal.

When we consider that this Government is charged with the external and
mutual relations only of these States; that the States themselves have
principal care of our persons, our property, and our reputation,
constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether
our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and
officers have not been multiplied unnecessarily and sometimes injuriously
to the service they were meant to promote.

I will cause to be laid before you an essay toward a statement of those
who, under public employment of various kinds, draw money from the Treasury
or from our citizens. Time has not permitted a perfect enumeration, the
ramifications of office being too multiplied and remote to be completely
traced in a first trial.

Among those who are dependent on Executive discretion I have begun the
reduction of what was deemed unnecessary. The expenses of diplomatic agency
have been considerably diminished. The inspectors of internal revenue who
were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution have been
discontinued. Several agencies created by Executive authorities, on
salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the
expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises
to legislative inspection and sanction.

Other reformations of the same kind will be pursued with that caution which
is requisite in removing useless things, not to injure what is retained.
But the great mass of public offices is established by law, and therefore
by law alone can be abolished. Should the Legislature think it expedient to
pass this roll in review and try all its parts by the test of public
utility, they may be assured of every aid and light which Executive
information can yield.

Considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies and
to increase expense to the ultimate term of burthen which the citizen can
bear, it behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion which presents
itself for taking off the surcharge, that it never may be seen here that
after leaving to labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can
subsist, Government shall itself consume the whole residue of what it was
instituted to guard.

In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted to our direction it
would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation by
appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose susceptible of
definition; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the
appropriation in object or transcending it in amount; by reducing the
undefined field of contingencies and thereby circumscribing discretionary
powers over money, and by bringing back to a single department all
accountabilities for money, where the examinations may be prompt,
efficacious, and uniform.

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, as prepared
by the Secretary of the Treasury, will, as usual, be laid before you. The
success which has attended the late sales of the public lands shews that
with attention they may be made an important source of receipt. Among the
payments those made in discharge of the principal and interest of the
national debt will shew that the public faith has been exactly maintained.
To these will be added an estimate of appropriations necessary for the
ensuing year. This last will, of course, be affected by such modifications
of the system of expense as you shall think proper to adopt.

A statement has been formed by the Secretary of War, on mature
consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be
expedient and of the number of men requisite for each garrison. The whole
amount is considerably short of the present military establishment. For the
surplus no particular use can be pointed out.

For defense against invasion their number is as nothing, nor is it
conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of
peace for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular
point in our circumference where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only
force which can be ready at every point and competent to oppose them is the
body of the neighboring citizens as formed into a militia. On these,
collected from the parts most convenient in numbers proportioned to the
invading force, it is best to rely not only to meet the first attack, but if
it threatens to be permanent to maintain the defense until regulars may be
engaged to relieve them. These considerations render it important that we
should at every session continue to amend the defects which from time to
time shew themselves in the laws for regulating the militia until they are
sufficiently perfect. Nor should we now or at any time separate until we
say we have done everything for the militia which we could do were an enemy
at our door.

The provision of military stores on hand will be laid before you, that you
may judge of the additions still requisite.

With respect to the extent to which our naval preparations should be
expected to appear, but just attention to the circumstances of every part
of the Union will doubtless reconcile all. A small force will probably
continue to be wanted for actual service in the Mediterranean. Whatever
annual sum beyond that you may think proper to appropriate to naval
preparations would perhaps be better employed in providing those articles
which may be kept without waste or consumption, and be in readiness when
any exigence calls them into use. Progress has been made, as will appear by
papers now communicated, in providing materials for 74-gun ships as
directed by law.

How far the authority given by the Legislature for procuring and
establishing sites for naval purposes has been perfectly understood and
pursued in the execution admits of some doubt. A statement of the expenses
already incurred on that subject is now laid before you. I have in certain
cases suspended or slackened these expenditures, that the Legislature might
determine whether so many yards are necessary as have been contemplated.

The works at this place are among those permitted to go on, and 5 of the 7
frigates directed to be laid up have been brought and laid up here, where,
besides the safety of their position, they are under the eye of the
Executive Administration, as well as of its agents, and where yourselves
also will be guided by your own view in the legislative provisions
respecting them which may from time to time be necessary. They are
preserved in such condition, as well the vessels as whatever belongs to
them, as to be at all times ready for sea on a short warning. Two others
are yet to be laid up so soon as they shall have received the repairs
requisite to put them also into sound condition. As a superintending
officer will be necessary at each yard, his duties and emoluments, hitherto
fixed by the Executive, will be a more proper subject for legislation. A
communication will also be made of our progress in the execution of the law
respecting the vessels directed to be sold.

The fortifications of our harbors, more or less advanced, present
considerations of great difficulty. While some of them are on a scale
sufficiently proportioned to the advantages of their position, to the
efficacy of their protection, and the importance of the points within it,
others are so extensive, will cost so much in their first erection, so much
in their maintenance, and require such a force to garrison them as to make
it questionable what is best now to be done. A statement of those commenced
or projected, of the expenses already incurred, and estimates of their
future cost, as far as can be foreseen, shall be laid before you, that you
may be enabled to judge whether any alteration is necessary in the laws
respecting this subject.

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our
prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual
enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes
be seasonably interposed. If in the course of your observations or
inquiries they should appear to need any aid within the limits of our
constitutional powers, your sense of their importance is a sufficient
assurance they will occupy your attention. We can not, indeed, but all feel
an anxious solicitude for the difficulties under which our carrying trade
will soon be placed. How far it can be relieved, otherwise than by time, is
a subject of important consideration.

The judiciary system of the United States, and especially that portion of
it recently erected, will of course present itself to the contemplation of
Congress, and, that they may be able to judge of the proportion which the
institution bears on the business it has to perform, I have caused to be
procured from the several States and now lay before Congress an exact
statement of all the causes decided since the first establishment of the
courts, and of those which were depending when additional courts and judges
were brought in to their aid.

And while on the judiciary organization it will be worthy your
consideration whether the protection of the inestimable institution of
juries has been extended to all the cases involving the security of our
persons and property. Their impartial selection also being essential to
their value, we ought further to consider whether that is sufficiently
secured in those States where they are named by a marshal depending on
Executive will or designated by the court or by officers dependent on
them.

I can not omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of
naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of
citizenship under a residence of 14 years is a denial to a great proportion
of those who ask it, and controls a policy pursued from their first
settlement by many of these States, and still believed of consequence to
their prosperity; and shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from
distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to
our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum
on this globe? The Constitution indeed has wisely provided that for
admission to certain offices of important trust a residence shall be
required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the
general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to
everyone manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes
permanently with us, with restrictions, perhaps, to guard against the
fraudulent usurpation of our flag, an abuse which brings so much
embarrassment and loss on the genuine citizen and so much danger to the
nation of being involved in war that no endeavor should be spared to detect
and suppress it?

These, fellow citizens, are the matters respecting the state of the nation
which I have thought of importance to be submitted to your consideration at
this time. Some others of less moment or not yet ready for communication
will be the subject of separate messages. I am happy in this opportunity of
committing the arduous affairs of our Government to the collected wisdom of
the Union. Nothing shall be wanting on my part to inform as far as in my
power the legislative judgment, nor to carry that judgment into faithful
execution.

The prudence and temperance of your discussions will promote within your
own walls that conciliation which so much befriends rational conclusion,
and by its example will encourage among our constituents that progress of
opinion which is tending to unite them in object and in will. That all
should be satisfied with any one order of things is not to be expected; but
I indulge the pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens will
cordially concur in honest and disinterested efforts which have for their
object to preserve the General and State Governments in their
constitutional form and equilibrium; to maintain peace abroad, and order
and obedience to the laws at home; to establish principles and practices of
administration favorable to the security of liberty and property, and to
reduce expenses to what is necessary for the useful purposes of Government.

***

State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
December 15, 1802

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

When we assemble together, fellow citizens, to consider the state of our
beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those pleasing
circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from whose favor they
flow and the large measure of thankfulness we owe for His bounty. Another
year has come around, and finds us still blessed with peace and friendship
abroad; law, order, and religion at home; good affection and harmony with
our Indian neighbors; our burthens lightened, yet our income sufficient for
the public wants, and the produce of the year great beyond example. These,
fellow citizens, are the circumstances under which we meet, and we remark
with special satisfaction those which under the smiles of Providence result
from the skill, industry, and order of our citizens, managing their own
affairs in their own way and for their own use, unembarrassed by too much
regulation, unoppressed by fiscal exactions.

On the restoration of peace in Europe that portion of the general carrying
trade which had fallen to our share during the war was abridged by the
returning competition of the belligerent powers. This was to be expected,
and was just. But in addition we find in some parts of Europe monopolizing
discriminations, which in the form of duties tend effectually to prohibit
the carrying thither our own produce in our own vessels. From existing
amities and a spirit of justice it is hoped that friendly discussion will
produce a fair and adequate reciprocity. But should false calculations of
interest defeat our hope, it rests with the Legislature to decide whether
they will meet inequalities abroad with countervailing inequalities at
home, or provide for the evil in any other way.

It is with satisfaction I lay before you an act of the British Parliament
anticipating this subject so far as to authorize a mutual abolition of the
duties and countervailing duties permitted under the treaty of 1794. It
shows on their part a spirit of justice and friendly accommodation which it
is our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations. Whether this
would produce a due equality in the navigation between the two countries is
a subject for your consideration.

Another circumstance which claims attention as directly affecting the very
source of our navigation is the defect or the evasion of the law providing
for the return of sea men, and particularly of those belonging to vessels
sold abroad. Numbers of them, discharged in foreign ports, have been thrown
on the hands of our consuls, who, to rescue them from the dangers into
which their distresses might plunge them and save them to their country,
have found it necessary in some cases to return them at the public charge.

The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana to France, which took
place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, make a
change in the aspect of our foreign relations which will doubtless have
just weight in any deliberations of the Legislature connected with that
subject.

There was reason not long since to apprehend that the warfare in which we
were engaged with Tripoli might be taken up by some other of the Barbary
Powers. A reenforcement, therefore, was immediately ordered to the vessels
already there. Subsequent information, however, has removed these
apprehensions for the present. To secure our commerce in that sea with the
smallest force competent, we have supposed it best to watch strictly the
harbor of Tripoli. Still, however, the shallowness of their coast and the
want of smaller vessels on our part has permitted some cruisers to escape
unobserved, and to one of these an American vessel unfortunately fell prey.
The captain, one American sea man, and two others of color remain prisoners
with them unless exchanged under an agreement formerly made with the
Bashaw, to whom, on the faith of that, some of his captive subjects had
been restored.

The convention with the State of Georgia has been ratified by their
legislature, and a repurchase from the Creeks has been consequently made of
a part of the Talasscee country. In this purchase has been also
comprehended a part of the lands within the fork of Oconee and Oakmulgee
rivers. The particulars of the contract will be laid before Congress so
soon as they shall be in a state for communication.

In order to remove every ground of difference possible with our Indian
neighbors, I have proceeded in the work of settling with them and marking
the boundaries between us. That with the Choctaw Nation is fixed in one
part and will be through the whole within a short time. The country to
which their title had been extinguished before the Revolution is sufficient
to receive a very respectable population, which Congress will probably see
the expediency of encouraging so soon as the limits shall be declared. We
are to view this position as an outpost of the United States, surrounded by
strong neighbors and distant from its support; and how far that monopoly
which prevents population should here be guarded against and actual
habitation made a condition of the continuance of title will be for your
consideration. A prompt settlement, too, of all existing rights and claims
within this territory presents itself as a preliminary operation.

In that part of the Indiana Territory which includes Vincennes the lines
settled with the neighboring tribes fix the extinction of their title at a
breadth of 24 leagues from east to west and about the same length parallel
with and including the Wabash. They have also ceded a tract of 4 miles
square, including the salt springs near the mouth of that river.

In the Department of Finance it is with pleasure I inform you, that the
receipts of external duties for the last 12 months have exceeded those of
any former year, and that the ration of increase has been also greater than
usual. This has enabled us to answer all the regular exigencies of
Government, to pay from the Treasury within one year upward of $8 millions,
principal and interest, of the public debt, exclusive of upward of $1
million paid by the sale of bank stock, and making in the whole a
reduction of nearly $5.5 millions of principal, and to have now in the
Treasury $4.5 millions which are in a course of application to the
further discharge of debt and current demands. Experience, too, so far,
authorizes us to believe, if no extraordinary event supervenes, and the
expenses which will be actually incurred shall not be greater than were
contemplated by Congress at their last session, that we shall not be
disappointed in the expectations then formed. But nevertheless, as the
effect of peace on the amount of duties is not yet fully ascertained, it
is the more necessary to practice every useful economy and to incur no
expense which may be avoided without prejudice.

The collection of the internal taxes having been completed in some of the
States, the officers employed in it are of course out of commission. In
others they will be so shortly. But in a few, where the arrangements for
the direct tax had been retarded, it will be some time before the system is
closed. It has not yet been thought necessary to employ the agent
authorized by an act of the last session for transacting business in Europe
relative to debts and loans. Nor have we used the power confided by the
same act of prolonging the foreign debt by reloans, and of redeeming
instead thereof an equal sum of the domestic debt. Should, however, the
difficulties of remittance on so large a scale render it necessary at any
time, the power shall be executed and the money thus employed abroad shall,
in conformity with that law, be faithfully applied here in an equivalent
extinction of domestic debt.

When effects so salutary result from the plans you have already sanctioned;
when merely by avoiding false objects of expense we are able, without a
direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing to make large and
effectual payments toward the discharge of our public debt and the
emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker, it is an
encouragement, fellow citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have
begun in substituting economy for taxation, and in pursuing what is useful
for a nation placed as we are, rather than what is practiced by others
under different circumstances. And when so ever we are destined to meet
events which shall call forth all the energies of our country-men, we have
the firmest reliance on those energies and the comfort of leaving for calls
like these the extraordinary resources of loans and internal taxes. In the
mean time, by payments of the principal of our debt, we are liberating
annually portions of the external taxes and forming from them a growing
fund still further to lessen the necessity of recurring to extraordinary
resources.

The usual account of receipts and expenditures for the last year, with an
estimate of the expenses of the ensuing one, will be laid before you by the
Secretary of the Treasury.

No change being deemed necessary in our military establishment, an estimate
of its expenses for the ensuing year on its present footing, as also of the
sums to be employed in fortifications and other objects within that
department, has been prepared by the Secretary of War, and will make a part
of the general estimates which will be presented you.

Considering that our regular troops are employed for local purposes, and
that the militia is our general reliance for great and sudden emergencies,
you will doubtless think this institution worthy of a review, and give it
those improvements of which you find it susceptible.

Estimates for the Naval Department, prepared by the Secretary of the Navy,
for another year will in like manner be communicated with the general
estimates. A small force in the Mediterranean will still be necessary to
restrain the Tripoline cruisers, and the uncertain tenure of peace with
some other of the Barbary Powers may eventually require that force to be
augmented. The necessity of procuring some smaller vessels for that service
will raise the estimate, but the difference in their maintenance will soon
make it a measure of economy.

Presuming it will be deemed expedient to expend annually a convenient sum
toward providing the naval defense which our situation may require, I can
not but recommend that the first appropriations for that purpose may go to
the saving what we already possess. No cares, no attentions, can preserve
vessels from rapid decay which lie in water and exposed to the sun. These
decays require great and constant repairs, and will consume, if continued,
a great portion of the moneys destined to naval purposes. To avoid this
waste of our resources it is proposed to add to our navy-yard here a dock
within which our present vessels may be laid up dry and under cover from
the sun. Under these circumstances experience proves that works of wood
will remain scarcely at all affected by time. The great abundance of
running water which this situation possesses, at heights far above the
level of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock navigation,
furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels on a dry and
sheltered bed. And should the measure be found useful here, similar
depositories for laying up as well as for building and repairing vessels
may hereafter be undertaken at other navy-yards offering the same means.
The plans and estimates of the work, prepared by a person of skill and
experience, will be presented to you without delay, and from this it will
be seen that scarcely more than has been the cost of one vessel is necessary
to save the whole, and that the annual sum to be employed toward its
completion may be adapted to the views of the Legislature as to naval
expenditure. To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all
their lawful enterprises; to foster our fisheries as nurseries of
navigation and for the nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted
to our circumstances; to preserve the faith of the nation by an exact
discharge of its debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same
care and economy we would practice with our own, and impose on our citizens
no unnecessary burthens; to keep in all things within the pale of our
constitutional powers, and cherish the federal union as the only rock of
safety--these, fellow citizens, are the land-marks by which we are to
guide ourselves in all proceedings. By continuing to make these the rule of
our action we shall endear to our country-men the true principles of their
Constitution and promote an union of sentiment and of action equally
auspicious to their happiness and safety. On my part, you may count on a
cordial concurrence in every measure for the public good and on all the
information I possess which may enable you to discharge to advantage the
high functions with which you are invested by your country.

TH. JEFFERSON

***

State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
October 17, 1803

To The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

In calling you together, fellow citizens, at an earlier day than was
contemplated by the act of the last session of Congress, I have not been
insensible to the personal inconveniences necessarily resulting from an
unexpected change in your arrangements, but matters of great public
concernment have rendered this call necessary, and the interests you feel
in these will supersede in your minds all private considerations.

Congress witnessed at their late session the extraordinary agitation
produced in the public mind by the suspension of our right of deposit at
the port of New Orleans, no assignment of another place having been made
according to treaty. They were sensible that the continuance of that
privation would be more injurious to our nation than any consequences which
could flow from any mode of redress, but reposing just confidence in the
good faith of the Government whose officer had committed the wrong,
friendly and reasonable representations were resorted to, and the right of
deposit was restored.

Previous, however, to this period we had not been unaware of the danger to
which our peace would be perpetually exposed whilst so important a key to
the commerce of the Western country remained under foreign power.
Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves as to the navigation of other
streams which, arising within our territories, pass through those adjacent.
Propositions had therefore been authorized for obtaining on fair conditions
the sovereignty of New Orleans and of other possessions in that quarter
interesting to our quiet to such extent as was deemed practicable, and the
provisional appropriation of $2 millions to be applied and accounted
for by the President of the United States, intended as part of the price,
was considered as conveying the sanction of Congress to the acquisition
proposed. The enlightened Government of France saw with just discernment
the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangements as might best
and permanently promote the peace, friendship, and interests of both, and
the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana which had been restored to
them have on certain conditions been transferred to the United States by
instruments bearing date the 30th of April last. When these shall have
received the constitutional sanction of the Senate, they will without delay
be communicated to the Representatives also for the exercise of their
functions as to those conditions which are within the powers vested by the
Constitution in Congress.

Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters
secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States and an
uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from collision
with other powers and the dangers to our peace from that source, the
fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise in due season
important aids to our Treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and a
wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal laws.

With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior measures
which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary
government of the country; for its incorporation into our Union; for
rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted
brethren; for securing to them the rights of conscience and of property;
for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and
self-government, establishing friendly and commercial relations with them,
and for ascertaining the geography of the country acquired. Such materials,
for your information, relative to its affairs in general as the short space
of time has permitted me to collect will be laid before you when the
subject shall be in a state for your consideration.

Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since the
last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians, with
which we have never had a difference, reduced by the wars and wants of
savage life to a few individuals unable to defend themselves against the
neighboring tribes, has transferred its country to the United States,
reserving only for its members what is sufficient to maintain them in an
agricultural way. The considerations stipulated are that we shall extend to
them our patronage and protection and give them certain annual aids in
money, in implements of agriculture, and other articles of their choice.
This country, among the most fertile within our limits, extending along the
Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois to and up to the Ohio, though
not so necessary as a barrier since the acquisition of the other bank, may
yet be well worthy of being laid open to immediate settlement, as its
inhabitants may descend with rapidity in support of the lower country
should future circumstances expose that to foreign enterprise. As the
stipulations in this treaty involve matters with the competence of both
Houses only, it will be laid before Congress as soon as the Senate shall
have advised its ratification.

With many of the other Indian tribes improvements in agriculture and
household manufacture are advancing, and with all our peace and friendship
are established on grounds much firmer than heretofore. The measure adopted
of establishing trading houses among them and of furnishing them
necessaries in exchange for their commodities at such moderate prices as
leave no gain, but cover us from loss, has the most conciliatory and useful
effect on them, and is that which will best secure their peace and good
will.

The small vessels authorized by Congress with a view to the Mediterranean
service have been sent into that sea, and will be able more effectually to
confine the Tripoline cruisers within their harbors and supersede the
necessity of convoy to our commerce in that quarter. They will sensibly
lessen the expenses of that service the ensuing year.

A further knowledge of the ground in the northeastern and northwestern
angles of the United States has evinced that the boundaries established by
the treaty of Paris between the British territories and ours in those parts
were too imperfectly described to be susceptible of execution. It has
therefore been thought worthy of attention for preserving and cherishing
the harmony and useful intercourse subsisting between the two nations to
remove by timely arrangements what unfavorable incidents might otherwise
render a ground of future misunderstanding. A convention has therefore been
entered into which provides for a practicable demarcation of those limits
to the satisfaction of both parties.

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the year ending the 30th of
September last, with the estimates for the service of the ensuing year,
will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury so soon as the
receipts of the last quarter shall be returned from the more distant
States. It is already ascertained that the amount paid into the Treasury
for that year has been between $11 millions and $12 millions, and that the
revenue accrued during the same term exceeds the sum counted on as
sufficient for our current expenses and to extinguish the public debt
within the period heretofore proposed.

The amount of debt paid for the same year is about $3.1 millions exclusive
of interest, and making, with the payment of the preceding year, a
discharge of more than $8.5 millions of the principal of that debt,
besides the accruing interest; and there remain in the Treasury nearly
$6 millions. Of these, $880 thousands have been reserved for payment of
the first installment due under the British convention of January 8th,
1802, and $2 millions are what have been before mentioned as placed by
Congress under the power and accountability of the President toward the
price of New Orleans and other territories acquired, which, remaining
untouched, are still applicable to that object and go in diminution of
the sum to be funded for it.

Should the acquisition of Louisiana be constitutionally confirmed and
carried into effect, a sum of nearly $13 millions will then be added to
our public debt, most of which is payable after fifteen years, before
which term the present existing debts will all be discharged by the
established operation of the sinking fund. When we contemplate the
ordinary annual augmentation of impost from increasing population and
wealth, the augmentation of the same revenue by its extension to the new
acquisition, and the economies which may still be introduced into our
public expenditures, I can not but hope that Congress in reviewing
their resources will find means to meet the intermediate interest of
this additional debt without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this
object only the ordinary progression of our revenue. Its extraordinary
increase in times of foreign war will be the proper and sufficient fund
for any measures of safety or precaution which that state of things may
render necessary in our neutral position.

Remittances for the installments of our foreign debt having been found
practicable without loss, it has not been thought expedient to use the
power given by a former act of Congress of continuing them by reloans, and
of redeeming instead thereof equal sums of domestic debt, although no
difficulty was found in obtaining that accommodation.

The sum of $50 thousands appropriated by Congress for providing gun boats
remains unexpended. The favorable and peaceable turn of affairs on the
Mississippi rendered an immediate execution of that law unnecessary, and
time was desirable in order that the institution of that branch of our
force might begin on models the most approved by experience. The same
issue of events dispensed with a resort to the appropriation of $1.5
millions, contemplated for purposes which were effected by happier means.

We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up again in
Europe, and nations with which we have the most friendly and useful
relations engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret the miseries in
which we see others involved, let us bow with gratitude to that kind
Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and moderation our late legislative
councils while placed under the urgency of the greatest wrongs guarded us
from hastily entering into the sanguinary contest and left us only to look
on and pity its ravages.

These will be heaviest on those immediately engaged. Yet the nations
pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil.

In the course of this conflict let it be our endeavor, as it is our
interest and desire, to cultivate the friendship of the belligerent nations
by every act of justice and of innocent kindness; to receive their armed
vessels with hospitality from the distresses of the sea, but to administer
the means of annoyance to none; to establish in our harbors such a police
as may maintain law and order; to restrain our citizens from embarking
individually in a war in which their country takes no part; to punish
severely those persons, citizens or alien, who shall usurp the cover of our
flag for vessels not entitled to it, infecting thereby with suspicion those
of real Americans and committing us into controversies for the redress of
wrongs not our own; to exact from every nation the observance toward our
vessels and citizens of those principles and practices which all civilized
people acknowledge; to merit the character of a just nation, and maintain
that of an independent one, preferring every consequence to insult and
habitual wrong. Congress will consider whether the existing laws enable us
efficaciously to maintain this course with our citizens in all places and
with others while within the limits of our jurisdiction, and will give them
the new modifications necessary for these objects. Some contraventions of
right have already taken place, both within our jurisdictional limits and
on the high seas. The friendly disposition of the Governments from whose
agents they have proceeded, as well as their wisdom and regard for justice,
leave us in reasonable expectation that they will be rectified and
prevented in future, and that no act will be countenanced by them which
threatens to disturb our friendly intercourse.

Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe and from the political
interests which entangle them together, with productions and wants which
render our commerce and friendship useful to them and theirs to us, it can
not be the interest of any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them. We
should be most unwise, indeed, were we to cast away the singular blessings
of the position in which nature has placed us, the opportunity she has
endowed us with of pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions, the
paths of industry, peace, and happiness, of cultivating general friendship,
and of bringing collisions of interest to the umpirage of reason rather
than of force.

How desirable, then, must it be in a Government like ours to see its
citizens adopt individually the views, the interests, and the conduct which
their country should pursue, divesting themselves of those passions and
partialities which tend to lessen useful friendships and to embarrass and
embroil us in the calamitous scenes of Europe. Confident, fellow citizens,
that you will duly estimate the importance of neutral dispositions toward
the observance of neutral conduct, that you will be sensible how much it is
our duty to look on the bloody arena spread before us with commiseration
indeed, but with no other wish than to see it closed, I am persuaded you
will cordially cherish these dispositions in all discussions among
yourselves and in all communications with your constituents; and I
anticipate with satisfaction the measures of wisdom which the great
interests now committed to you will give you an opportunity of providing,
and myself that of approving and carrying into execution with the fidelity
I owe to my country.

TH. JEFFERSON

***

State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
November 8, 1804

The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

To a people, fellow citizens, who sincerely desire the happiness and
prosperity of other nations; to those who justly calculate that their own
well-being is advanced by that of the nations with which they have
intercourse, it will be a satisfaction to observe that the war which was
lighted up in Europe a little before our last meeting has not yet extended
its flames to other nations, nor been marked by the calamities which
sometimes stain the foot-steps of war. The irregularities, too, on the
ocean, which generally harass the commerce of neutral nations, have, in
distant parts, disturbed ours less than on former occasions; but in the
American seas they have been greater from peculiar causes, and even within
our harbors and jurisdiction infringements on the authority of the laws
have been committed which have called for serious attention. The friendly
conduct of the Governments from whose officers and subjects these acts have
proceeded, in other respects and in places more under their observation and
control, gives us confidence that our representations on this subject will
have been properly regarded.

While noticing the irregularities committed on the ocean by others, those
on our own part should not be omitted nor left unprovided for. Complaints
have been received that persons residing within the United States have
taken on themselves to arm merchant vessels and to force a commerce into
certain ports and countries in defiance of the laws of those countries.
That individuals should undertake to wage private war, independently of the
authority of their country, can not be permitted in a well-ordered society.
Its tendency to produce aggression on the laws and rights of other nations
and to endanger the peace of our own is so obvious that I doubt not you
will adopt measures for restraining it effectually in future.

Soon after the passage of the act of the last session authorizing the
establishment of a district and port of entry on the waters of the Mobile
we learnt that its object was misunderstood on the part of Spain. Candid
explanations were immediately given and assurances that, reserving our
claims in that quarter as a subject of discussion and arrangement with
Spain, no act was meditated in the mean time inconsistent with the peace
and friendship existing between the two nations, and that conformably to
these intentions would be the execution of the law. That Government had,
however, thought proper to suspend the ratification of the convention of
1802; but the explanations which would reach them soon after, and still
more the confirmation of them by the tenor of the instrument establishing
the port and district, may reasonably be expected to replace them in the
dispositions and views of the whole subject which originally dictated the
convention.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the objections which had been
urged by that Government against the validity of our title to the country
of Louisiana have been withdrawn, its exact limits, however, remaining
still to be settled between us; and to this is to be added that, having
prepared and delivered the stock created in execution of the convention of
Paris of April 30th, 1803, in consideration of the cession of that
country, we have received from the Government of France an acknowledgment,
in due form, of the fulfillment of that stipulation.

With the nations of Europe in general our friendship and intercourse are
undisturbed, and from the Governments of the belligerent powers especially
we continue to receive those friendly manifestations which are justly due
to an honest neutrality and to such good offices consistent with that as we
have opportunities of rendering.

The activity and success of the small force employed in the Mediterranean
in the early part of the present year, the reenforcements sent into that
sea, and the energy of the officers having command in the several vessels
will, I trust, by the sufferings of war, reduce the barbarians of Tripoli
to the desire of peace on proper terms. Great injury, however, ensues to
ourselves, as well as to others interested, from the distance to which
prizes must be brought for adjudication and from the impracticability of
bringing hither such as are not sea worthy.

The Bey of Tunis having made requisitions unauthorized by our treaty, their
rejection has produced from him some expressions of discontent, but to
those who expect us to calculate whether a compliance with unjust demands
will not cost us less than a war we must leave as a question of calculation
for them also whether to retire from unjust demands will not cost them less
than a war. We can do to each other very sensible injuries by war, but the
mutual advantages of peace make that the best interest of both.

Peace and intercourse with the other powers on the same coast continue on
the footing on which they are established by treaty.

In pursuance of the act providing for the temporary government of
Louisiana, the necessary officers for the Territory of Orleans were
appointed in due time to commence the exercise of their functions on the
first day of October. The distance, however, of some of them and
indispensable previous arrangements may have retarded its commencement in
some of its parts. The form of government thus provided having been
considered but as temporary, and open to such future improvements as
further information of the circumstances of our brethren there might
suggest, it will of course be subject to your consideration.

In the district of Louisiana it has been thought best to adopt the division
into subordinate districts which had been established under its former
government. These being five in number, a commanding officer has been
appointed to each, according to the provisions of the law, and so soon as
they can be at their stations that district will also be in its due state
of organization. In the mean time, their places are supplied by the
officers before commanding there, and the function of the governor and
judges of Indiana having commenced, the government, we presume, is
proceeding in its new form. The lead mines in that district offer so rich a
supply of that metal as to merit attention. The report now communicated
will inform you of their state and of the necessity of immediate inquiry
into their occupation and titles.

With the Indian tribes established within our newly acquired limits, I have
deemed it necessary to open conferences for the purpose of establishing a
good understanding and neighborly relations between us. So far as we have
yet learned, we have reason to believe that their dispositions are
generally favorable and friendly; and with these dispositions on their
part, we have in our own hands means which can not fail us for preserving
their peace and friendship. By pursuing an uniform course of justice toward
them, by aiding them in all the improvements which may better their
condition, and especially by establishing a commerce on terms which shall
be advantageous to them and only not losing to us, and so regulated as that
no incendiaries of our own or any other nation may be permitted to disturb
the natural effects of our just and friendly offices, we may render
ourselves so necessary to their comfort and prosperity that the protection
of our citizens from their disorderly members will become their interest
and their voluntary care. Instead, therefore, of an augmentation of
military force proportioned to our extension of frontier, I propose a
moderate enlargement of the capital employed in that commerce as a more
effectual, economical, and humane instrument for preserving peace and good
neighborhood with them.

On this side of the Mississippi an important relinquishment of native title
has been received from the Delawares. That tribe, desiring to extinguish in
their people the spirit of hunting and to convert superfluous lands into
the means of improving what they retain, has ceded to us all the country
between the Wabash and Ohio south of and including the road from the rapids
toward Vincennes, for which they are to receive annuities in animals and
implements for agriculture and in other necessaries. This acquisition is
important, not only for its extent and fertility, but as fronting three
hundred miles on the Ohio, and near half that on the Wabash. The produce
of the settled country descending those rivers will no longer pass in
review of the Indian frontier but in a small portion, and, with the
cession heretofore made by the Kaskaskias, nearly consolidates our
possessions north of the Ohio, in a very respectable breadth--from Lake
Erie to the Mississippi. The Piankeshaws having some claim to the country
ceded by the Delawares, it has been thought best to quiet that by fair
purchase also. So soon as the treaties on this subject shall have received
their constitutional sanctions they shall be laid before both houses.

The act of Congress of February 28th, 1803, for building and employing a
number of gun boats, is now in a course of execution to the extent there
provided for. The obstacle to naval enterprise which vessels of this
construction offer for our sea port towns, their utility toward supporting
within our waters the authority of the laws, the promptness with which they
will be manned by the sea men and militia of the place in the moment they
are wanting, the facility of their assembling from different parts of the
coast to any point where they are required in greater force than ordinary,
the economy of their maintenance and preservation from decay when not in
actual service, and the competence of our finances to this defensive
provision without any new burthen are considerations which will have due
weight with Congress in deciding on the expediency of adding to their
number from year to year, as experience shall test their utility, until all
our important harbors, by these and auxiliary means, shall be secured
against insult and opposition to the laws.

No circumstance has arisen since your last session which calls for any
augmentation of our regular military force. Should any improvement occur in
the militia system, that will be always seasonable.

Accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, with estimates
for the ensuing one, will as usual be laid before you.

The state of our finances continues to fulfill our expectations. $11.5
millions, received in the course of the year ending the 30th of September
last, have enabled us, after meeting all the ordinary expenses of the
year, to pay upward of $3.6 millions of the public debt, exclusive of
interest. This payment, with those of the two preceding years, has
extinguished upward of $12 millions of the principal and a greater sum
of interest within that period, and by a proportionate diminution of
interest renders already sensible the effect of the growing sum yearly
applicable to the discharge of the principal.

It is also ascertained that the revenue accrued during the last year
exceeds that of the preceding, and the probable receipts of the ensuing
year may safely be relied on as sufficient, with the sum already in the
Treasury, to meet all the current demands of the year, to discharge upward
of $3.5 millions of the engagements incurred under the British and French
conventions, and to advance in the further redemption of the funded debt as
rapidly as had been contemplated.

These, fellow citizens, are the principal matters which I have thought it
necessary at this time to communicate for your consideration and attention.
Some others will be laid before you in the course of the session; but in
the discharge of the great duties confided to you by our country you will
take a broader view of the field of legislation.

Whether the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, or
navigation can within the pale of your constitutional powers be aided in
any of their relations; whether laws are provided in all cases where they
are wanting; whether those provided are exactly what they should be; whether
any abuses take place in their administration, or in that of the public
revenues; whether the organization of the public agents or of the public
force is perfect in all its parts; in fine, whether anything can be done to
advance the general good, are questions within the limits of your functions
which will necessarily occupy your attention. In these and all other
matters which you in your wisdom may propose for the good of our country,
you may count with assurance on my hearty cooperation and faithful
execution.

TH. JEFFERSON

***
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