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State of the Union Addresses
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
***