HISTORIC SPEECHES
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
1826 State of the Union Address
December 5, 1826
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
The assemblage of the representatives of our Union in both Houses of the Congress
at this time occurs under circumstances calling for the renewed homage of our
grateful acknowledgments to the Giver of All Good. With the exceptions incidental
to the most felicitous condition of human existence, we continue to be highly
favored in all the elements which contribute to individual comfort and to national
prosperity. In the survey of our extensive country we have generally to observe
abodes of health and regions of plenty. In our civil and political relations
we have peace without and tranquillity within our borders. We are, as a people,
increasing with unabated rapidity in population, wealth, and national resources,
and whatever differences of opinion exist among us with regard to the mode and
the means by which we shall turn the beneficence of Heaven to the improvement
of our own condition, there is yet a spirit animating us all which will not
suffer the bounties of Providence to be showered upon us in vain, but will receive
them with grateful hearts, and apply them with unwearied hands to the advancement
of the general good.
Of the subjects recommended to Congress at their last session, some were then
definitively acted upon. Others, left unfinished, but partly matured, will recur
to your attention without needing a renewal of notice from me. The purpose of
this communication will be to present to your view the general aspect of our
public affairs at this moment and the measures which have been taken to carry
into effect the intentions of the Legislature as signified by the laws then
and heretofore enacted.
In our intercourse with the other nations of the earth we have still the happiness
of enjoying peace and a general good understanding, qualified, however, in several
important instances by collisions of interest and by unsatisfied claims of justice,
to the settlement of which the constitutional interposition of the legislative
authority may become ultimately indispensable.
By the decease of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, which occurred contemporaneously
with the commencement of the last session of Congress, the United States have
been deprived of a long tried, steady, and faithful friend. Born to the inheritance
of absolute power and trained in the school of adversity, from which no power
on earth, however absolute, is exempt, that monarch from his youth had been
taught to feel the force and value of public opinion and to be sensible that
the interests of his own Government would best be promoted by a frank and friendly
intercourse with this Republic, as those of his people would be advanced by
a liberal intercourse with our country. A candid and confidential interchange
of sentiments between him and the Government of the US upon the affairs of Southern
America took place at a period not long preceding his demise, and contributed
to fix that course of policy which left to the other Governments of Europe no
alternative but that of sooner or later recognizing the independence of our
southern neighbors, of which the example had by the United States already been
set.
The ordinary diplomatic communications between his successor, the Emperor Nicholas,
and the United States have suffered some interruption by the illness, departure,
and subsequent decease of his minister residing here, who enjoyed, as he merited,
the entire confidence of his new sovereign, as he had eminently responded to
that of his predecessor. But we have had the most satisfactory assurances that
the sentiments of the reigning Emperor toward the United States are altogether
conformable to those which had so long and constantly animated his imperial
brother, and we have reason to hope that they will serve to cement that harmony
and good understanding between the two nations which, founded in congenial interests,
can not but result in the advancement of the welfare and prosperity of both.
Our relations of commerce and navigation with France are, by the operation
of the convention of 1822-06-24, with that nation, in a state of gradual and
progressive improvement. Convinced by all our experience, no less than by the
principles of fair and liberal reciprocity which the United States have constantly
tendered to all the nations of the earth as the rule of commercial intercourse
which they would universally prefer, that fair and equal competition is most
conducive to the interests of both parties, the United States in the negotiation
of that convention earnestly contended for a mutual renunciation of discriminating
duties and charges in the ports of the two countries. Unable to obtain the immediate
recognition of this principle in its full extent, after reducing the duties
of discrimination so far as was found attainable it was agreed that at the expiration
of two years from 1822-10-01, when the convention was to go into effect, unless
a notice of 6 months on either side should be given to the other that the convention
itself must terminate, those duties should be reduced 1/4, and that this reducation
should be yearly repeated, until all discrimination should cease, while the
convention itself should continue in force. By the effect of this stipulation
3/4 of the discriminating duties which had been levied by each party upon the
vessels of the other in its ports have already been removed; and on the first
of next October, should the convention be still in force, the remaining 1/4
will be discontinued. French vessels laden with French produce will be received
in our ports on the same terms as our own, and ours in return will enjoy the
same advantages in the ports of France.
By these approximations to an equality of duties and of charges not only has
the commerce between the two countries prospered, but friendly dispositions
have been on both sides encouraged and promoted. They will continue to be cherished
and cultivated on the part of the United States. It would have been gratifying
to have had it in my power to add that the claims upon the justice of the French
Government, involving the property and the comfortable subsistence of many of
our fellow citizens, and which have been so long and so earnestly urged, were
in a more promising train of adjustment than at your last meeting; but their
condition remains unaltered.
With the Government of the Netherlands the mutual abandonment of discriminating
duties had been regulated by legislative acts on both sides. The act of Congress
of 1818-04-20, abolished all discriminating duties of impost and tonnage upon
the vessels and produce of the Netherlands in the ports of the United States
upon the assurance given by the Government of the Netherlands that all such
duties operating against the shipping and commerce of the United States in that
Kingdom had been abolished. These reciprocal regulations had continued in force
several years when the discriminating principle was resumed by the Netherlands
in a new and indirect form by a bounty of 10% in the shape of a return of duties
to their national vessels, and in which those of the United States are not permitted
to participate. By the act of Congress of 1824-01-07, all discriminating duties
in the United States were again suspended, so far as related to the vessels
and produce of the Netherlands, so long as the reciprocal exemption should be
extended to the vessels and produce of the United States in the Netherlands.
But the same act provides that in the event of a restoration of discriminating
duties to operate against the shipping and commerce of the United States in
any of the foreign countries referred to therein the suspension of discriminating
duties in favor of the navigation of such foreign country should cease and all
the provisions of the acts imposing discriminating foreign tonnage and impost
duties in the United States should revive and be in full force with regard to
that nation.
In the correspondence with the Government of the Netherlands upon this subject
they have contended that the favor shown to their own shipping by this bounty
upon their tonnage is not to be considered a discriminating duty; but it can
not be denied that it produces all the same effects. Had the mutual abolition
been stipulated by treaty, such a bounty upon the national vessels could scarcely
have been granted consistent with good faith. Yet as the act of Congress of
1824-01-07 has not expressly authorized the Executive authority to determine
what shall be considered as a revival of discriminating duties by a foreign
government to the disadvantage of the United States, and as the retaliatory
measure on our part, however just and necessary, may tend rather to that conflict
of legislation which we deprecate than to that concert to which we invite all
commercial nations, as most conducive to their interest and our own, I have
thought it more consistent with the spirit of our institutions to refer to the
subject again to the paramount authority of the Legislature to decide what measure
the emergency may require than abruptly by proclamation to carry into effect
the minatory provisions of the act of 1824.
During the last session of Congress treaties of amity, navigation, and commerce
were negotiated and signed at this place with the Government of Denmark, in
Europe, and with the Federation of Central America, in this hemisphere. These
treaties then received the constitutional sanction of the Senate, by the advice
and consent to their ratification. They were accordingly ratified on the part
of the US, and during the recess of Congress have been also ratified by the
other respective contracting parties. The ratifications have been exchanged,
and they have been published by proclamations, copies of which are herewith
communicated to Congress.
These treaties have established between the contracting parties the principles
of equality and reciprocity in their broadest and most liberal extent, each
party admitting the vessels of the other into its ports, laden with cargoes
the produce or manufacture of any quarter of the globe, upon the payment of
the same duties of tonnage and impost that are chargeable upon their own. They
have further stipulated that the parties shall hereafter grant no favor of navigation
or commerce to any other nation which shall not upon the same terms be granted
to each other, and that neither party will impose upon articles of merchandise
the produce or manufacture of the other any other or higher duties than upon
the like articles being the produce or manufacture of any other country. To
these principles there is in the convention with Denmark an exception with regard
to the colonies of that Kingdom in the arctic seas, but none with regard to
her colonies in the West Indies.
In the course of the last summer the term to which our last commercial treaty
with Sweden was limited has expired. A continuation of it is in the contemplation
of the Swedish Government, and is believed to be desirable on the part of the
United States. It has been proposed by the King of Sweden that pending the negotiation
of renewal the expired treaty should be mutually considered as still in force,
a measure which will require the sanction of Congress to be carried into effect
on our part, and which I therefore recommend to your consideration.
With Prussia, Spain, Portugal, and, in general, all the European powers between
whom and the United States relations of friendly intercourse have existed their
condition has not materially varied since the last session of Congress. I regret
not to be able to say the same of our commercial intercourse with the colonial
possessions of Great Britain in America. Negotiations of the highest importance
to our common interests have been for several years in discussion between the
two Governments, and on the part of the United States have been invariably pursued
in the spirit of candor and conciliation. Interests of great magnitude and delicacy
had been adjusted by the conventions of 1815 and 1818, while that of 1822, mediated
by the late Emperor Alexander, had promised a satisfactory compromise of claims
which the Government of the US, in justice to the rights of a numerous class
of their citizens, was bound to sustain.
But with regard to the commercial intercourse between the United States and
the British colonies in America, it has been hitherto found impracticable to
bring the parties to an understanding satisfactory to both. The relative geographical
position and the respective products of nature cultivated by human industry
had constituted the elements of a commercial intercourse between the United
States and British America, insular and continental, important to the inhabitants
of both countries; but it had been interdicted by Great Britain upon a principle
heretofore practiced upon by the colonizing nations of Europe, of holding the
trade of their colonies each in exclusive monopoly to herself.
After the termination of the late war this interdiction had been revived, and
the British Government declined including this portion of our intercourse with
her possessions in the negotiation of the convention of 1815. The trade was
then carried on exclusively in British vessels 'til the act of Congress, concerning
navigation, of 1818 and the supplemental act of 1820 met the interdict by a
corresponding measure on the part of the United States. These measures, not
of retaliation, but of necessary self defense, were soon succeeded by an act
of Parliament opening certain colonial ports to the vessels of the United States
coming directly from them, and to the importation from them of certain articles
of our produce burdened with heavy duties, and excluding some of the most valuable
articles of our exports. The United States opened their ports to British vessels
from the colonies upon terms as exactly corresponding with those of the act
of Parliament as in the relative position of the parties could be made, and
a negotiation was commenced by mutual consent, with the hope on our part that
a reciprocal spirit of accommodation and a common sentiment of the importance
of the trade to the interests of the inhabitants of the two countries between
whom it must be carried on would ultimately bring the parties to a compromise
with which both might be satisfied. With this view the Government of the United
States had determined to sacrifice something of that entire reciprocity which
in all commercial arrangements with foreign powers they are entitled to demand,
and to acquiesce in some inequalities disadvantageous to ourselves rather than
to forego the benefit of a final and permanent adjustment of this interest to
the satisfaction of Great Britain herself. The negotiation, repeatedly suspended
by accidental circumstances, was, however, by mutual agreement and express assent,
considered as pending and to be speedily resumed.
In the mean time another act of Parliament, so doubtful and ambiguous in its
import as to have been misunderstood by the officers in the colonies who were
to carry it into execution, opens again certain colonial ports upon new conditions
and terms, with a threat to close them against any nation which may not accept
those terms as prescribed by the British Government. This act, passed 1825-07,
not communicated to the Government of the US, not understood by the British
officers of the customs in the colonies where it was to be enforced, was never
the less submitted to the consideration of Congress at their last session. With
the knowledge that a negotiation upon the subject had long been in progress
and pledges given of its resumption at an early day, it was deemed expedient
to await the result of that negotiation rather than to subscribe implicitly
to terms the import of which was not clear and which the British authorities
themselves in this hemisphere were not prepared to explain.
Immediately after the close of the last session of Congress one of our most
distinguished citizens was dispatched as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary
to Great Britain, furnished with instructions which we could not doubt would
lead to a conclusion of this long controverted interest upon terms acceptable
to Great Britain. Upon his arrival, and before he had delivered his letters
of credence, he was bet by an order of the British council excluding from and
after the first of December now current the vessels of the United States from
all the colonial British ports excepting those immediately bordering on our
territories. In answer to his expostulations upon a measure thus unexpected
he is informed that according to the ancient maxims of policy of European nations
having colonies their trade is an exclusive possession of the mother country;
that all participation in it by other nations is a boon or favor not forming
a subject of negotiation, but to be regulated by the legislative acts of the
power owning the colony; that the British Government therefore declines negotiating
concerning it, and that as the US did not forthwith accept purely and simply
the terms offered by the act of Parliament of 1825-07, Great Britain would not
now admit the vessels of the United States even upon the terms on which she
has opened them to the navigation of other nations.
We have been accustomed to consider the trade which we have enjoyed with the
British colonies rather as an interchange of mutual benefits than as a mere
favor received; that under every circumstance we have given an ample equivalent.
We have seen every other nation holding colonies negotiate with other nations
and grant them freely admission to the colonies by treaty, and so far are the
other colonizing nations of Europe now from refusing to negotiate for trade
with their colonies that we ourselves have secured access to the colonies of
more than one of them by treaty. The refusal, however, of Great Britain to negotiate
leaves to the United States no other alternative than that of regulating or
interdicting altogether the trade on their part, according as either measure
may effect the interests of our own country, and with that exclusive object
I would recommend the whole subject to your calm and candid deliberations.
It is hoped that our unavailing exertions to accomplish a cordial good understanding
on this interest will not have an unpropitious effect upon the other great topics
of discussion between the two Governments. Our north-eastern and north-western
boundaries are still unadjusted. The commissioners under the 7th article of
the treaty of Ghent have nearly come to the close of their labors; nor can we
renounce the expectation, enfeebled as it is, that they may agree upon their
report to the satisfaction or acquiescence of both parties. The commission for
liquidating the claims for indemnity for slaves carried away after the close
of the war has been sitting, with doubtful prospects of success. Propositions
of compromise have, however, passed between the two Governments, the result
of which we flatter ourselves may yet prove unsatisfactory. Our own dispositions
and purposes toward Great Britain are all friendly and conciliatory; nor can
we abandon but with strong reluctance the belief that they will ultimately meet
a return, not of favors, which we neither as nor desire, but of equal reciprocity
and good will.
With the American Governments of this hemisphere we continue to maintain an
intercourse altogether friendly, and between their nations and ours that commercial
interchange of which mutual benefit is the source of mutual comfort and harmony
the result is in a continual state of improvement. The war between Spain and
them since the total expulsion of the Spanish military force from their continental
territories has been little more than nominal, and their internal tranquillity,
though occasionally menaced by the agitations which civil wars never fail to
leave behind them, has not been affected by any serious calamity.
The congress of ministers from several of those nations which assembled at
Panama, after a short session there, adjourned to meet again at a more favorable
season in the neighborhood of Mexico. The decease of one of our ministers on
his way to the Isthmus, and the impediments of the season, which delayed the
departure of the other, deprived United States of the advantage of being represented
at the first meeting of the congress. There is, however, no reason to believe
that any transactions of the congress were of a nature to affect injuriously
the interests of the United States or to require the interposition of our ministers
had they been present. Their absence has, indeed, deprived United States of
the opportunity of possessing precise and authentic information of the treaties
which were concluded at Panama; and the whole result has confirmed me in the
conviction of the expediency to the United States of being represented at the
congress. The surviving member of the mission, appointed during your last session,
has accordingly proceeded to his destination, and a successor to his distinguished
and lamented associate will be nominated to the Senate. A treaty of amity, navigation,
and commerce has in the course of the last summer been concluded by our minister
plenipotentiary at Mexico with the united states of that Confederacy, which
will also be laid before the Senate for their advice with regard to its ratification.
In adverting to the present condition of our fiscal concerns and to the prospects
of our revenue the first remark that calls our attention is that they are less
exuberantly prosperous than they were at the corresponding period of the last
year. The severe shock so extensively sustained by the commercial and manufacturing
interests in Great Britain has not been without a perceptible recoil upon ourselves.
A reduced importation from abroad is necessarily succeeded by a reduced return
to the Treasury at home. The net revenue of the present year will not equal
that of the last, and the receipts of that which is to come will fall short
of those in the current year. The diminution, however, is in part attributable
to the flourishing condition of some of our domestic manufactures, and so far
is compensated by an equivalent more profitable to the nation.
It is also highly gratifying to perceive that the deficiency in the revenue,
while it scarcely exceeds the anticipations of the last year's estimate from
the Treasury, has not interrupted the application of more than $11M during the
present year to the discharge of the principal and interest of the debt, nor
the reduction of upward of $7,000,000 of the capital of the debt itself. The
balance in the Treasury on the first of January last was $5,201,650.43; the
receipts from that time to the 30th of September last were $19,585,932.50; the
receipts of the current quarter, estimated at $6,000,000, yield, with the sums
already received, a revenue of about $25,500,000 for the year; the expenditures
for the first 3 quarters of the year have amounted to $18,714,226.66; the expenditures
of the current quarter are expected, including the $2,000,000 of the principal
of the debt to be paid, to balance the receipts; so that the expense of the
year, amounting to upward of $1,000,000 less than its income, will leave a proportionally
increased balance in the Treasury on 1827-01-01, over that of the first of January
last; instead of $5,200,000 there will be $6,400,000.
The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported from the commence of the
year 'til September 30 is estimated at $21,250,000, and the amount that will
probably accrue during the present quarter is estimated at $4,250,000, making
for the whole year $25,500,000, from which the draw-backs being deducted will
leave a clear revenue from the customs receivable in the year 1827 of about
$20,400,000, which, with the sums to be received from the proceeds of public
lands, the bank dividends, and other incidental receipts, will form an aggregate
of about $23,000,000, a sum falling short of the whole expenses of the present
year little more than the portion of those expenditures applied to the discharge
of the public debt beyond the annual appropriation of $10,000,000 by the act
of 1817-03-03. At the passage of that act the public debt amounted to $123,500,000.
On the first of January next it will be short of $74,000,000. In the lapse of
these 10 years $50,000,000 of public debt, with the annual charge of upward
of $3,000,000 of interest upon them, have been extinguished. At the passage
of tat act, of the annual appropriation of $10,000,000, $7,000,000 were absorbed
in the payment of interest, and not more than $3,000,000 went to reduce the
capital of the debt. Of the same $10,000,000, at this time scarcely $4,000,000
are applicable to the interest and upward of $6,000,000 are effective in melting
down the capital.
Yet our experience has proved that a revenue consisting so largely of imposts
and tonnage ebbs and flows to an extraordinary extent, with all the fluctuations
incident to the general commerce of the world. It is within our recollection
that even in the compass of the same last 10 years the receipts of the Treasury
were not adequate to the expenditures of the year, and that in two successive
years it was found necessary to resort to loans to meet the engagements of the
nation. The returning tides of the succeeding years replenished the public coffers
until they have again begun to feel the vicissitude of a decline. To produce
these alternations of fullness and exhaustion the relative operation of abundant
or unfruitful seasons, the regulations of foreign governments, political revolutions,
the prosperous or decaying condition of manufactures, commercial speculations,
and many other causes, not always to be traced, variously combine.
We have found the alternate swells and diminutions embracing periods of from
two to three years. The last period of depression to United States was from
1819 to 1822. The corresponding revival was from 1823 to the commencement of
the present year. Still, we have no cause to apprehend a depression comparable
to that of the former period, or even to anticipate a deficiency which will
intrench upon the ability to apply the annual $10M to the reduction of the debt.
It is well for us, however, to be admonished of the necessity of abiding by
the maxims of the most vigilant economy, and of resorting to all honorable and
useful expedients for pursuing with steady and inflexible perseverance the total
discharge of the debt.
Besides the $7,000,000 of the loans of 1813 which will have been discharged
in the course of the present year, there are $9,000,000 which by the terms of
the contracts would have been and are now redeemable. $13,000,000 more of the
loan of 1814 will become redeemable from and after the expiration of the present
month, and $9,000,000 other from and after the close of the ensuing year. They
constitute a mass of $31,000,000, all bearing an interest of 6%, more than $20,000,000
of which will be immediately redeemable, and the rest within little more than
a year. Leaving of this amount $15,000,000 to continue at the interest of 6%,
but to be paid off as far as shall be found practicable in the years 1827 and
1828, there is scarcely a doubt that the remaining $16,000,000 might within
a few months be discharged by a loan at not exceeding 5%, redeemable in the
years 1829 and 1830. By this operation a sum of nearly $500,000 may be saved
to the nation, and the discharge of the whole $31,000,000 within the 4 years
may be greatly facilitated if not wholly accomplished.
By an act of Congress of 1835-03-03, a loan for the purpose now referred to,
or a subscription to stock, was authorized, at an interest not exceeding 4.5%.
But at that time so large a portion of the floating capital of the country was
absorbed in commercial speculations and so little was left for investment in
the stocks that the measure was but partially successful. At the last session
of Congress the condition of the funds was still unpropitious to the measure;
but the change so soon afterwards occurred that, had the authority existed to
redeem the $9M now redeemable by an exchange of stocks or a loan at 5%, it is
morally certain that it might have been effected, and with it a yearly saving
of $90,000.
With regard to the collection of the revenue of imposts, certain occurrences
have within the last year been disclosed in one or two of our principal ports,
which engaged the attention of Congress at their last session and may hereafter
require further consideration. Until within a very few years the execution of
the laws for raising the revenue, like that of all our other laws, has been
insured more by the moral sense of the community than by the rigors of a jealous
precaution or by penal sanction. Confiding in the exemplary punctuality and
unsullied integrity of our importing merchants, a gradual relaxation from the
provisions of the collection laws, a close adherence to which have caused inconvenience
and expense to them, had long become habitual, and indulgences had been extended
universally because they had never been abused. It may be worthy of your serious
consideration whether some further legislative provision may not be necessary
to come in aid of this state of unguarded security.
From the reports herewith communicated of the Secretaries of War and of the
Navy, with the subsidiary documents annexed to them, will be discovered the
present condition and administration of our military establishment on the land
and on the sea. The organization of the Army having undergone no change since
its reduction to the present peace establishment in 1821, it remains only to
observe that it is yet found adequate to all the purposes for which a permanent
armed force in time of peace can be needed or useful. It may be proper to add
that, from a difference of opinion between the late President of the United
States and the Senate with regard to the construction of the act of Congress
of 1821-03-02, to reduce and fix the military peace establishment of the US,
it remains hitherto so far without execution that no colonel has been appointed
to command one of the regiments of artillery. A supplementary or explanatory
act of the Legislature appears to be the only expedient practicable for removing
the difficulty of this appointment.
In a period of profound peace the conduct of the mere military establishment
forms but a very inconsiderable portion of the duties devolving upon the administration
of the Department of War. It will be seen by the returns from the subordinate
departments of the Army that every branch of the service is marked with order,
regularity, and discipline; that from the commanding general through all the
gradations of superintendence the officers feel themselves to have been citizens
before they were soldiers, and that the glory of a republican army must consist
in the spirit of freedom, by which it is animated, and of patriotism, by which
it is impelled. It may be confidently stated that the moral character of the
Army is in a state of continual improvement, and that all the arrangements for
the disposal of its parts have a constant reference to that end.
But to the War Department are attributed other duties, having, indeed, relation
to a future possible condition of war, but being purely defensive, and in their
tendency contributing rather to the security and permanency of peace -- the
erection of the fortifications provided for by Congress, and adapted to secure
our shores from hostile invasion; the distribution of the fund of public gratitude
and justice to the pensioners of the Revolutionary war; the maintenance of our
relations of peace and protection with the Indian tribes, and the internal improvements
and surveys for the location of roads and canals, which during the last 3 sessions
of Congress have engaged so much of their attention, and may engross so large
a share of their future benefactions to our country.
By the act of 1824-04-30, suggested and approved by my predecessor, the sum
of $30K was appropriated for the purpose of causing to be made the necessary
surveys, plans, and estimates of the routes of such roads and canals as the
President of the United States might deem of national importance in a commercial
or military point of view, or necessary for the transportation of the public
mail. The surveys, plans, and estimates for each, when completed, will be laid
before Congress.
In execution of this act a board of engineers was immediately instituted, and
have been since most assiduously and constantly occupied in carrying it into
effect. The first object to which their labors were directed, by order of the
late President, was the examination of the country between the tide waters of
the Potomac, the Ohio, and Lake Erie, to ascertain the practicability of a communication
between them, to designate the most suitable route for the same, and to form
plans and estimates in detail of the expense of execution.
On 1825-02-03, they made their first report, which was immediately communicated
to Congress, and in which they declared that having maturely considered the
circumstances observed by them personally, and carefully studied the results
of such of the preliminary surveys as were then completed, they were decidedly
of opinion that the communication was practicable.
At the last session of Congress, before the board of engineers were enabled
to make up their second report containing a general plan and preparatory estimate
for the work, the Committee of the House of Representatives upon Roads and Canals
closed the session with a report expressing the hope that the plan and estimate
of the board of engineers might at this time be prepared, and that the subject
be referred to the early and favorable consideration of Congress at their present
session. That expected report of the board of engineers is prepared, and will
forthwith be laid before you.
Under the resolution of Congress authorizing the Secretary of War to have prepared
a complete system of cavalry tactics, and a system of exercise and instruction
of field artillery, for the use of the militia of the US, to be reported to
Congress at the present session, a board of distinguished officers of the Army
and of the militia has been convened, whose report will be submitted to you
with that of the Secretary of War. The occasion was thought favorable for consulting
the same board, aided by the results of a correspondence with the governors
of the several States and Territories and other citizens of intelligence and
experience, upon the acknowledged defective condition of our militia system,
and of the improvements of which it is susceptible. The report of the board
upon this subject is also submitted for your consideration.
In the estimates of appropriations for the ensuing year upward of $5M will
be submitted for the expenditures to be paid from the Department of War. Less
than 2/5 of this will be applicable to the maintenance and support of the Army.
$1,500,000, in the form of pensions, goes as a scarcely adequate tribute to
the services and sacrifices of a former age, and a more than equal sum invested
in fortifications, or for the preparations of internal improvement, provides
for the quiet, the comfort, and happier existence of the ages to come. The appropriations
to indemnify those unfortunate remnants of another race unable alike to share
in the enjoyments and to exist in the presence of civilization, though swelling
in recent years to a magnitude burdensome to the Treasury, are generally not
without their equivalents in profitable value, or serve to discharge the Union
from engagements more burdensome than debt.
In like manner the estimate of appropriations for the Navy Department will
present an aggregate sum of upward of $3,000,000M. About half of these, however,
covers the current expenditures of the Navy in actual service, and half constitutes
a fund of national property, the pledge of our future glory and defense. It
was scarcely one short year after the close of the late war, and when the burden
of its expenses and charges was weighing heaviest upon the country, that Congress,
by the act of 1816-04-29, appropriated $1,000,000 annually for 8 years to the
*gradual increase of the Navy*. At a subsequent period this annual appropriation
was reduced to $0,500,000 for 6 years, of which the present year is the last.
A yet more recent appropriation the last two years, for building 10 sloops of
war, has nearly restored the original appropriation of 1816 of $1,000,000 for
every year.
The result is before United States all. We have 12 line-of-battle ships, 20
frigates, and sloops of war in proportion, which, with a few months preparation,
may present a line of floating fortifications along the whole range of our coast
ready to meet any invader who might attempt to set foot upon our shores. Combining
with a system of fortifications upon the shores themselves, commenced about
the same time under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, and hitherto systematically
pursued, it has placed in our possession the most effective sinews of war and
has left us at once an example and a lesson from which our own duties may be
inferred.
The gradual increase of the Navy was the principle of which the act of 1816-04-29,
was the first development. It was the introduction of a system to act upon the
character and history of our country for an indefinite series of ages. It was
a declaration of that Congress to their constituents and to posterity that it
was the destiny and the duty of these confederated States to become in regular
process of time and by no petty advances a great naval power. That which they
proposed to accomplish in 8 years is rather to be considered as the measure
of their means that the limitation of their design. They looked forward for
a term of years sufficient for the accomplishment of a definite portion of their
purpose, and they left to their successors to fill up the canvas of which they
had traced the large and prophetic outline. The ships of the line and frigates
which they had in contemplation will be shortly completed. The time which they
had allotted for the accomplishment of the work has more than elapsed. It remains
for your consideration how their successors may contribute their portion of
toil and of treasure for the benefit of the succeeding age in the gradual increase
of our Navy.
There is perhaps no part of the exercise of the constitutional powers of the
Federal Government which has given more general satisfaction to the people of
the Union than this. The system has not been thus vigorously introduced and
hitherto sustained to be now departed from or abandoned. In continuing to provide
for the gradual increase of the Navy it may not be necessary or expedient to
add for the present any more to the number of our ships; but should you deem
it advisable to continue the yearly appropriation of $0.5M to the same objects,
it may be profitably expended in a providing a supply of timber to be seasoned
and other materials for future use in the construction of docks or in laying
the foundations of a school for naval education, as to the wisdom of Congress
either of those measures may appear to claim the preference.
Of the small portions of this Navy engaged in actual service during the peace,
squadrons have continued to be maintained in the Pacific Ocean, in the West
India seas, and in the Mediterranean, to which has been added a small armament
to cruise on the eastern coast of South America. In all they have afforded protection
to our commerce, have contributed to make our country advantageously known to
foreign nations, have honorably employed multitudes of our sea men in the service
of their country, and have inured numbers of youths of the rising generation
to lives of manly hardihood and of nautical experience and skill.
The piracies with which the West India seas were for several years infested
have been totally suppressed, but in the Mediterranean they have increased in
a manner afflictive to other nations, and but for the continued presence of
our squadron would probably have been distressing to our own.
The war which has unfortunately broken out between the Republic of Buenos Ayres
and the Brazilian Government has given rise to very great irregularities among
the naval officers of the latter, by whom principles in relation to blockades
and to neutral navigation have been brought forward to which we can not subscribe
and which our own commanders have found it necessary to resist. From the friendly
disposition toward the United States constantly manifested by the Emperor of
Brazil, and the very useful and friendly commercial intercourse between the
United States and his dominions, we have reason to believe that the just reparation
demanded for the injuries sustained by several of our citizens from some of
his officers will not be withheld. Abstracts from the recent dispatches of the
commanders of our several squadrons are communicated with the report of the
Secretary of the Navy to Congress.
A report from the PostMaster General is likewise communicated, presenting in
a highly satisfactory manner the result of a vigorous, efficient, and economical
administration of that Department. The revenue of the office, even of the year
including the latter half of 1824 and the first half of 1825, had exceeded its
expenditures by a sum of more than $45,000. That of the succeeding year has
been still more productive. The increase of the receipts in the year preceding
the first of July last over that of the year before exceeds $136,000, and the
excess of the receipts over the expenditures of the year has swollen from $45,000
to yearly $80,000.
During the same period contracts for additional transportation of the mail
in stages for about 260,000 miles have been made, and for 70,000 miles annually
on horse back. 714 new post offices have been established within the year, and
the increase of revenue within the last 3 years, as well as the augmentation
of the transportation by mail, is more than equal to the whole amount of receipts
and of mail conveyance at the commencement of the present century, when the
seat of the General Government was removed to this place. When we reflect that
the objects effected by the transportation of the mail are among the choicest
comforts and enjoyments of social life, it is pleasing to observe that the dissemination
of them to every corner of our country has out- stripped in their increase even
the rapid march of our population.
By the treaties with France and Spain, respectively ceding Louisiana and the
Floridas to the United States, provision was made for the security of land titles
derived from the Governments of those nations. Some progress has been made under
the authority of various acts of Congress in the ascertainment and establishment
of those titles, but claims to a very large extent remain unadjusted. The public
faith no less than the just rights of individuals and the interest of the community
itself appears to require further provision for the speedy settlement of those
claims, which I therefore recommend to the care and attention of the Legislature.
In conformity with the provisions of the act of 1825-05-20, to provide for
erecting a penitentiary in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes,
3 commissioners were appointed to select a site for the erection of a penitentiary
for the District, and also a site in the county of Alexandria for a county jail,
both of which objects have been effected. The building of the penitentiary has
been commenced, and is in such a degree of forwardness as to promise that it
will be completed before the meeting of the next Congress. This consideration
points to the expediency of maturing at the present session a system for the
regulation and government of the penitentiary, and of defining a system for
the regulation and government of the penitentiary, and of defining the class
of offenses which shall be punishable by confinement in this edifice.
In closing this communication I trust that it will not be deemed inappropriate
to the occasion and purposes upon which we are here assembled to indulge a momentary
retrospect, combining in a single glance the period of our origin as a national
confederation with that of our present existence, at the precise interval of
half a century from each other. Since your last meeting at this place the 50th
anniversary of the day when our independence was declared has been celebrated
throughout our land, and on that day, while every heart was bounding with joy
and every voice was tuned to gratulation, amid the blessings of freedom and
independence which the sires of a former age had handed down to their children,
two of the principal actors in that solemn scene -- the hand that penned the
ever memorable Declaration and the voice that sustained it in debate -- were
by one summons, at the distance of 700 miles from each other, called before
the Judge of All to account for their deeds done upon earth. They departed cheered
by the benedictions of their country, to whom they left the inheritance of their
fame and the memory of their bright example.
If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in the contrast
of the first and last day of that half century, how resplendent and sublime
is the transition from gloom to glory! Then, glancing through the same lapse
of time, in the condition of the individuals we see the first day marked with
the fullness and vigor of youth, in the pledge of their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor to the cause of freedom and of man-kind; and on the last,
extended on the bed of death, with but sense and sensibility left to breathe
a last aspiration to Heaven of blessing upon their country, may we not humbly
hope that to them too it was a pledge of transition from gloom to glory, and
that while their mortal vestments were sinking into the clod of the valley their
emancipated spirits were ascending to the bosom of their God!
<< Go
Back