SPECIAL MESSAGE

APRIL 11, 1816.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :— WITH a view to the more convenient arrangement of the important and growing business connected with the grant of exclusive rights to inventors and authors, I recommend the establishment of a distinct office within the department of state, to be charged therewith, under a director, with a salary adequate to his services, and with the privilege of franking communications by mail from and to the office. I recommend, also, that further restraints be imposed on the issue of patents to wrongful claimants, and further guards provided against fraudulent exactions of fees by persons possessed of patents.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 6, 1816.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :— THE ninth section of the act passed at the last session of Congress, "to authorize the payment for property lost, captured, or destroyed by the enemy, while in the military services of the United States, and for other purposes," having received a construction giving it a scope of great and uncertain extent, I thought it proper that proceedings relative to claims under that part of the act should be suspended, until Congress should have an opportunity of defining more precisely the cases contemplated by them. With that view, I now recommend the subject to their consideration. They will have an opportunity, at the same time, of considering how far other provisions of the act may be rendered more clear and precise in their import.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 26, 1816.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:It is found that the existing laws have not the efficacy necessary to prevent violations of the obligations of the United States as a nation at peace toward belligerent parties, and other unlawful acts on the high seas, by armed vessels equipped within the waters of the United States.

With a view to maintain, more effectually, the respect due to the laws, to the character, and to the neutral and pacific relations of the United States, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of such further legislative provisions as may be requisite for detaining vessels actually equipped, or in a course of equipment with a warlike force, within the jurisdiction of the United States; or, as the case may be, for obtaining from the owners or commanders of such vessels adequate securities against

the abuse of their armaments, with the exceptions in such provisions proper for the cases of merchant vessels furnished with the defensive armaments usual on distant and dangerous expeditions, and of a private commerce in military stores permitted by our laws, and which the law of nations does not require the United States to prohibit.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 3, 1817.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:— THE government of Great Britain, induced by the posture of the relations with the United States, which succeeded the conclusion of the recent commercial convention, issued an order on the 17th day of August, 1815, discontinuing the discriminating duties payable in British ports on American vessels and their cargoes. It was not until the 22d of December following, that a corresponding discontinuance of discriminating duties on British vessels and their cargoes, in American ports, took effect, under the authority vested in the executive, by the act of March, 1816. During the period between those two dates there was, consequently, a failure of reciprocity, or equality, in the existing regulations of the two countries. I recommend to the consideration of Congress, the expediency of paying to the British government the amount of the duties remitted, during the period in question, to the citizens of the United States, subject to a deduction of the amount of whatever discriminating duties may have commenced in British ports after the signature of that convention, and been collected previous to the 17th of August, 1815.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 6, 1817.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:ON comparing the fourth section of the act of Congress, passed March 31, 1814, providing for the indemnification of certain claimants of public lands in the Mississippi territory, with the article of agreement and cession between the United States and state of Georgia, bearing date April 30, 1802, it appears that the engagement entered into with the claimants interfere with the rights and interests secured to that state. I recommend to Congress, that provision be made by law for payments to the state of Georgia, equal to the amount of Mississippi stock which shall be paid into the treasury, until the stipulated sum of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars shall be completed.

VETO MESSAGE.

MARCH 3, 1817.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

HAVING considered the bill this day presented to me, entitled "An act to set apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements," and which sets apart and pledges funds "for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water-courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several states, and to render more easy and less expensive the means and provisions for the common defence," I am constrained, by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the constitution of the United States, to return it, with that objection, to the house of representatives, in which it originated.

The legislative powers vested in Congress are specified and enumerated in the eighth section of the first article of the constitution; and it does not appear that the power proposed to be exercised by this bill is among the enumerated powers, or that it falls, by any just interpretation, within the power to make laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution those or other powers vested by the constitution in the government of the United States.

"The power to regulate commerce among the several states," can not include a power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the navigation of water-courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and secure such a commerce, without a latitude of construction, departing from the ordinary import of the terms, strengthened by the known inconveniences which doubtless led to the grant of this remedial power to Congress. To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for the common defence and general welfare," would be contrary to the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper. Such a view of the constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation, instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to them: the terms "common defence and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the purview of a legislative trust. It would have the effect of subjecting both the constitution and laws of the several states, in all cases not specifically exempted, to be superseded by laws of Congress; it being expressly declared, "that the constitution of the United States, and laws made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges of every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." Such a view of the constitution, finally, would have the effect of excluding the judicial authority of the United States from its participation in guarding the boundary between the legis lative powers of the general and of the state governments, inasmuch as questions relating to the general welfare, being questions of policy and expediency, are unsusceptible of judicial cognizance and decision.

A restriction of the power "to provide for the common defence and general welfare," to cases which are to be provided for by the expenditure of money, would still leave within the legislative power of Congress all the

great and most important measures of government, money being the ordinary and necessary means of carrying them into execution.

If a general power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the navigation of water-courses, with the train of powers incident thereto, be not possessed by Congress, the assent of the states, in the mode provided by the bill, can not confer the power. The only cases in which the consent and cession of particular states can extend the power of Congress, are those specified and provided for in the constitution.

I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals, and the improved navigation of water-courses, and that a power in the national legislature to provide for them, might be exercised with signal advantage to the general prosperity. But seeing that such a power is not expressly given by the constitution, and believing it can not be deduced from any part of it, without an inadmissible latitude of construction, and a reliance on insufficient precedents; believing, also, that the permanent success of the constitution depends on a definite partition of powers between the general and the state governments, and that no adequate landmarks would be left by the constructive extension of the powers of Congress, as proposed in the bill. I have no option but to withhold my signature from it, cherishing the hope that its beneficial object may be attained, by a resort, for the necessary powers, to the same wisdom and virtue in the nation which established the constitution in its actual form, and providently marked out, in the instrument itself, a safe and practicable mode of improving it, as experience might suggest.

ADMINISTRATION OF MADISON.

Ox the fourth of March, 1809, James Madison was inaugurated as president of the United States. The oath of office was administered to him by Chief-Justice Marshall, in the capitol, at Washington in the presence of the ex-president, Mr. Jefferson, who sat at his right hand, the members of the late cabinet, many members of Congress, foreign ministers, and a large concourse of citizens. He was dressed in a plain suit of black, and delivered his inaugural address in a manner at once modest and dignified. The tone and sentiment of the address elicited general approbation, and hopes were entertained by the nation, that the gloomy aspect of affairs might be changed by the measures of the new administration with regard to our foreign relations. These anticipations of the people were doomed to disappointment.

Mr. Madison selected for his cabinet, Robert Smith, of Maryland, as secretary of state, William Eustis, of Massachusetts, secretary of war, Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina, secretary of the navy; Mr. Gallatin was continued as secretary of the treasury, as was Cesar A. Rodney, of Delaware, attorney-general.

The eleventh Congress met on the 22d of May, 1809, agreeably to a law passed by the previous Congress, in consequence of the critical state of the nation, and the apprehension of a war with Great Britain or France. The democratic ascendency in the house of representatives having been sustained at the recent elections, Joseph B. Varnum was re-elected speaker.

At this session, the non-intercourse act with Great Britain and France, which had been substituted for the embargo, by the last Congress, was continued, with some modifications. No very material alterations were made in the law, nor was any other very important measure adopted at this extra session, which lasted only about five weeks, and was terminated on the 28th of June.

Mr. Erskine, the British minister at Washington, considering the nonintercourse law as placing Great Britain and France on an equality, made a communication to the government of the United States, in April, informing it that he was authorized, by despatches received from his govern