enough to see in former times their operation and some of their effects. Our fellow-citizens were undoubtedly prepared to meet every event which national honor or national security could render necessary. These, it is to be hoped, are secured at the cheapest and easiest rate; if not, they will be secured at more expense. I thank you, gentlemen, for your assurance that the various subjects recommended to your consideration shall receive your deliberate attention. No further evidence is wanting to convince me of the zeal and sincerity with which the House of Representatives regard the public good. I pray you, gentlemen, to accept of my best wishes for your health and happiness. JOHN ADAMS. SPECIAL MESSAGES. Gentlemen of the Senate: UNITED STATES, December 15, 1800. I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and decision, a convention, both in English and French, between the United States of America and the French Republic, signed at Paris on the 30th day of September last by the respective plenipotentiaries of the two powers. I also transmit to the Senate three manuscript volumes containing the journal of our envoys. JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, January 1, 1801. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I transmit to both Houses of Congress, for their information and consideration, copies of laws enacted by the governor and judges of the Mississippi Territory from the 30th of June until the 31st of December, A. D. 1799. JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, January 17, 1801. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I have received from Elias Boudinot, esq., Director of the Mint of the United States, a report of the 2d of January, representing the state of it, together with an abstract of the coins struck at the Mint from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 1800; an abstract of the expenditures of the Mint from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, inclusive; a statement of gain on copper coined at the Mint from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, 1800, and a certificate from Joseph Richardson, ver of the Mint, ascertaining the value of Spanish milled doubloons in portion to the gold coins of the United States to be no more than ents and parts of a cent for I pennyweight, or 28 grains and 1 s of a grain to one dollar. These papers I transmit to Congress fn, ther consideration, One of the Senate: JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, January 21, 1801. compliance with your request, signified in your resolution of the est day of this month, I transmit you a report made to me by the SecState on the same day, a letter of our late envoys to him of the October last, an extract of a letter from our minister plenipotenLondon to him of the 22d of November last, and an extract of letter from the minister to the Secretary of the 31st of October reasoning in the letter of our late envoys to France is so fully d by the writers on the law of nations, particularly by Vattel, as by his great masters, Grotius and Puffendorf, that nothing is be desired to settle the point that if there be a collision between ties made with two different powers the more ancient has the setage, for no engagement contrary to it can be entered into in the afterwards made; and if this last be found in any case incompate with the more ancient one its execution is considered as impossible, se the person promising had not the power of acting contrary to his wxient engagement. Although our right is very clear to negotiate es according to our own ideas of right and justice, honor and good th, yet it must always be a satisfaction to know that the judgment of nations with whom we have connection coincides with ours, and that we have no reason to apprehend that any disagreeable questions and discuswots are likely to arise. The letters from Mr. King will therefore be red by the Senate with particular satisfaction. The inconveniences to public officers and the mischiefs to the public aising from the publication of the dispatches of ministers abroad are so umerous and so obvious that I request of the Senate that these papers, especially the letters from Mr. King, be considered in close confidence. JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, January 30, 1801. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress for their consideration a letter from William Thornton, Alexander White, and William Cranch, esquires, commissioners of the city of Washington, with a representation of the affairs of the city made by them to the President of the United States, dated 28th of January, 1801, accompanied with a series of documents marked from A to H, inclusively, JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, February 16, 1801. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I wish to know the pleasure of Congress and request their direction concerning the disposition of the property of the United States now in my possession; whether I shall deliver it into the hands of the heads of Departments, or of the commissioners of the city of Washington, or of a committee of Congress, or to any other persons Congress may appoint, to be delivered into the hands of my successor, or whether I shall present it myself to the President of the United States on the 4th of March next. Any of these modes will be agreeable to me. JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, February 20, 1801. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress a report received this morning from Elias Boudinot, esq., Director of the Mint, dated February 13, 1801, which will require the attention and decision of Congress before the close of the session. Gentlemen of the Senate: JOHN ADAMS. UNITED STATES, March 2, 1801 I have considered the advice and consent of the Senate to the ratification of the convention with France under certain conditions. Although it would have been more conformable to my own judgment and inclination to have agreed to that instrument unconditionally, yet as in this point I found I had the misfortune to differ in opinion from so high a constitutional authority as the Senate, I judged it more consistent with the honor and interest of the United States to ratify it under the conditions prescribed than not at all. I accordingly nominated Mr. Bayard minister plenipotentiary to the French Republic, that he might proceed without delay to Paris to negotiate the exchange of ratifications; but as that gentleman has declined his appointment, for reasons equally applicable to every other person suitable for the service, I shall take no further measures relative to this business, and leave the convention, with all the documents, in the Office of State, that my successor may proceed with them according to his wisdom. JOHN ADAMS. PROCLAMATION. To the Senators of the United States, respectively. JANUARY 30, 1801. Sra: It appearing to me proper and necessary for the public service that the Senate of the United States should be convened on Wednesday, the 4th of March next, you are desired to attend in the Chamber of the Senate on that day, at 10 o'clock in the forenoon, to receive and act upon any communications which the President of the United States may then lay before you touching their interests, and to do and consider all other things which may be proper and necessary for the public service for the Senate to do and consider. JOHN ADAMS, President of the United States. Thomas Jefferson March 4, 1801, to March 4, 1809 SEE VOLUME XI. Volume eleven is not only an index to the other volumes, not only a key that unlocks the treasures of the entire publication, but it is in itself an alphabetically arranged brief history or story of the great controlling events constituting the History of the United States. Under its proper alphabetical classification the story is told of every great subject referred to by any of the Presidents in their official Messages, and at the end of each story the official utterances of the Presidents themselves are cited upon the subject, so that you may readily turn to the page in the body of the work itself for this original information. Next to the possession of knowledge is, the ability to turn at will to where knowledge is to be found. |