ing spirit in the policy of both Governments. The state of them has been materially changed by the act of Congress passed at their last session, in alteration of the several acts imposing duties on imports, and by acts of more recent date of the British Parliament. The effect of the interdiction of direct trade, commenced by Great Britain, and reciprocated by the United States. has been, as was to be foreseen, only to substitute different channels for an exchange of commodities indispensable to the colonies, and profitable to a mumerous class of our fellow-citizens. The exports, the revenue, the navigation of the United States, have suffered no diminution by our exclusion from direct access to the British Colonies. The Colonies pay more dearly for the necessaries of life, which their Government burdens with the charges of double voyages, freight, insurance, and commission; and the profits of our exports are somewhat impaired, and more injuriously transferred from one portion of our citizens to another. The resumption of this old and otherwise exploded system of colonial exclusion, has not secured to the shipping interest of Great Britain the relief which, at the expense of the distant colonies, and of the United States, it was expected to afford. Other measures have been resorted to, more pointedly bearing upon the navigation of the United States, and which, unless modified by the construction given to the recent Acts of Parliament, will be manifestly incompatible with the positive stipulations of the commercial convention existing between the two countries. That convention, however, may be terminated, with twelve months' notice, at the option of either party.

A treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce, between the United States and his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, has been prepared for signature by the Secretary of State, and by the Baron de Lederer, intrusted with full powers of the Austrian Government. Independently of the new and friendly relations which may be thus commenced with one of the most eminent and powerful nations of the earth, the occasion has been taken in it, as in other recent Treaties concluded by the United States, to extend those principles of liberal intercourse and of fair reciprocity which intertwine with the exchanges of commerce the principles of justice and the feelings of mutual benevolence This system, first proclaimed to the world in the first commercial Treaty ever concluded by the United States, that of 6th February, 1778, with France, has been invariably the cherished policy of our Union. It is by treaties of commerce alone that it can be made ultimately to prevail as the established system of all civilized nations. With this principle, our fathers extended the hand of friendship to every nation of the globe, and to this policy our country has ever since adhered: whatever of regulation in our laws has ever been adopted unfavorable to the interest of any foreign nation, has been essentially defensive, and counteracting to similar regulations of theirs operating against us.

Immediately after the close of the war of Independence, Commissioners were appointed by the Congress of the Confederation, authorized to conclude treaties with every nation of Europe disposed to adopt them. Before the wars of the French revolution, such treaties had been consummated with the United Netherlands, Sweden, and Prussia. During those wars. treaties with Great Britain and Spain had been effected, and those with Prussia and France renewed. In all these, some concessions to the liberal principles of intercourse proposed by the United States had been

obtained; but as, in all the negotiations, they came occasionally in collision with previous internal regulations, or exclusive and excluding compacts of monopoly, with which the other parties had been trammelled, the advances made in them towards the freedom of trade were partial and imperfect. Colonial establishments, chartered companies, and ship-building influence, pervaded and encumbered the legislation of all the great commercial States; and the United States, in offering free trade and equal privilege to all. were compelled to acquiesce in many exceptions with each of the parties to their treaties, accommodated to their existing laws and anterior engagements.

The colonial system, by which this whole hemisphere was bound, has fallen into ruins. Totally abolished by revolutions, converting colonies into independent nations, throughout the two American Continents, excepting a portion of territory chiefly at the northern extremity of our own, and confined to the remnants of dominion retained by Great Britain over the insular Archipelago, geographically the appendages of our part of the globe. With all the rest we have free trade- even with the insular Colonies of all the European nations, except Great Britain. Her Government also had manifested approaches to the adoption of a free and liberal intercourse between her colonies and other nations, though, by a sudden and scarcely explained revulsion, the spirit of exclusion has been revived for operation upon the United States alone.

The conclusion of our last Treaty of Peace with Great Britain was shortly afterwards followed by a Commercial Convention, placing the direct intercourse between the two countries upon a footing of more equal reciprocity than had ever before been admitted. The same principle has since been much further extended by treaties with France, Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic Cities, Prussia in Europe, and with the Republics of Colombia, and of Central America, in this hemisphere. The mutual abolition of discriminating duties and charges, upon the navigation and commercial intercourse between the parties, is the general maxim which characterizes them all. There is reason to expect that it will, at no distant period, be adopted by other nations, both of Europe and America; and to hope, that, by its universal prevalence, one of the fruitful sources of wars of commercial competition will be extinguished.

Among the nations upon whose Governments many of our fellow-citizens have had long pending claims of indemnity for depredations upon their property during a period when the rights of neutral commerce were disregarded, was that of Denmark. They were, soon after the events occurred, the subject of a special mission from the United States, at the close of which, the assurance was given, by his Danish Majesty, that, at a pcriod of more tranquillity, and of less distress, they would be considered, examined, and decided upon, in a spirit of determined purpose for the dispensation of justice. I have much pleasure in informing Congress that the fulfilment of this honorable promise is now in progress; that a small por tion of the claims has already been settled, to the satisfaction of the claimants; and that we have reason to hope that the remainder will shortly be placed in a train of equitable adjustment. This result has always been confidently expected, from the character of personal integrity and of benevolence which the Sovereign of the Danish Dominions has, through every vicissitude of fortune, maintained.

The general aspect of the affairs of our neighboring American nations

of the South, has been rather of approaching than of settled tranquillity. Internal disturbances have been more frequent among them than their common friends would have desired. Our intercourse with all has continued to be that of friendship, and of mutual good will. Treaties of Commerce and of Boundaries with the United Mexican States have been negotiated, but, from various successive obstacles, not yet brought to a final conclusion. The civil war, which unfortunately still prevails in the Republics of Central America, has been unpropitious to the cultivation of our commercial relations with them; and the dissensions and revolutionary changes in the Republics of Colombia and of Peru have been seen with cordial regret by us, who would gladly contribute to the happiness of both. It is with great satisfaction, however, that we have witnessed the recent conclusion of a peace between the Governments of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil; and it is equally gratifying to observe that indemnity has been obtained for some of the injuries which our fellow-citizens had sustained in the latter of those countries. The rest are in a train of negotiation, which we hope may terminate to mutual satisfaction, and that it may be succeeded by a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation upon liberal principles, propitious to a great and growing commerce, already important to the interests of

our country.

The condition and prospects of the revenue are more favorable than our most sanguine expectations had anticipated. The balance in the Treasury, on the first of January last, exclusive of the moneys received under the Convention of 13th November, 1826, with Great Britain, was five millions eight hundred and sixty-one thousand nine hundred and seventytwo dollars and eighty-three cents. The receipts into the Treasury from the first of January to the 30th of September last, so far as they have been ascertained to form the basis of an estimate, amount to eighteen millions six hundred and thirty-three thousand five hundred and eighty dollars and twenty-seven cents, which, with the receipts of the present quarter, estimated at five millions four hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and eighty-three dollars and forty cents, form an aggregate of receipts during the year of twenty-four millions and ninety-four thousand eight hundred and sixty-three dollars and sixty-seven cents. The expenditures of the year may probably amount to twenty-five millions six hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-three cents; and leave in the Treasury, on the first of January next, the sum of five millions one hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred and thirty-eight dollars, fourteen cents.

The receipts of the present year have amounted to near two millions more than was anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.

The amount of duties secured on importations, from the first of January to the 30th of September, was about twenty-two millions nine hundred and ninety-seven thousand, and that of the estimated accruing revenue is five millions; forming an aggregate for the year of near twenty-eight millions. This is one million more than the estimate made last December for the accruing revenue of the present year, which, with allowances for drawbacks and contingent deficiencies, was expected to produce an actual revenue of twenty-two millions three hundred thousand dollars. Had these only been realized, the expenditures of the year would have been also proportionally reduced. For, of these twenty-four millions received, upwards of

nine millions have been applied to the extinction of public debt bearing an interest of six per cent. a year, and of course reducing the burden of interest annually payable in future, by the amount of more than half a million. The payments on account of interest during the current year exceed three millions of dollars; presenting an aggregate of more than twelve millions, applied during the year to the discharge of the public debt, the whole of which remaining due on the first of January next will amount only to fifty-eight millions three hundred and sixty-two thousand one hundred and thirty-five dollars, seventy-eight cents.

That the revenue of the ensuing year will not fall short of that received in the one now expiring, there are indications which can scarcely prove deceptive. In our country, an uniform experience of forty years has shown, that, whatever the tariff of duties upon articles imported from abroad has been, the amount of importations has always borne an average value nearly approaching to that of the exports, though occasionally differing in the balance, sometimes being more, and sometimes less. It is, indeed, a general law of prosperous commerce, that the real value of exports should, by a small, and only a small balance, exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the wealth of the nation. The extent of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports; and an important addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It has happened, in the vicissitudes of the seasons, that the harvests of all Europe have, in the late Summer and Autumn, fallen short of their usual average, A relaxation of the interdict upon the importation of grain and flour from abroad has ensued; a propitious market has been opened to the granaries of our country; and a new prospect of reward presented to the labors of the husbandman, which, for several years, has been denied. This accession to the profits of agriculture in the middle and western portions of our Union is accidental and temporary. It may continue only for a single year. It may be, as has been often experienced in the revolutions of time, but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We may consider it certain, that, for the approaching year, it has added an item of large amount to the value of our exports, and that it will produce a corresponding increase of importations. It may, therefore, confidently be foreseen that the revenue of 1829 will equal, and probably exceed, that of 1828, and will afford the means of extinguishing ten millions more of the principal of the public debt.

This new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural industry which is occupied in producing the first article of human subsistence, is of the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding from a cause which humanity will view with concern, the sufferings of scarcity in distant lands, it yields a consolatory reflection, that this scarcity is in no respect attributable to us. That it comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an instrument of good. That, far from contributing to this scarcity, our agency will be applied only to the alleviation of its se verity; and that, in pouring forth, from the abundance of our own garners, the supplies which will partially restore plenty to those who are in need, we shall ourselves reduce our stores, and add to the price of our own bread, so as in some degree to participate in the wants which it will be the good fortune of our country to relieve.

The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing nation are so linked in union together, that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them can operate without extending its influence to the others. All these interests are alike under the protecting power of the legislative authority; and the duties of the representative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together. So far as the object of taxation is to raise a revenue for discharging the debts and defraying the expenses of the community, its operation should be adapted, as much as possible, to suit the burden with equal hand upon all, in proportion with their ability of bearing it without oppression. But the legislation of one nation is sometimes intentionally made to bear heavily upon the interests of another. That legisla tion, adapted, as it is meant to be, to the special interests of its own people, will often press most unequally upon the several component interests of its neighbors. Thus, the legislation of Great Britain, when, as has recently been avowed, adapted to the depression of a rival nation, will naturally abound with regulations of interdict upon the productions of the soil or industry of the other, which come in competition with its own; and will present encouragement, perhaps even bounty, to the raw material of the other State, which it cannot produce itself, and which is essential for the use of its manufactures, competitors in the markets of the world with those of its commercial rival. Such is the state of the commercial legislation of Great Britain, as it bears upon our interests. It excludes, with interdicting duties, all importation (except in time of approaching famine) of the great staple productions of our Middle and Western States: it proscribes, with equal rigor, the bulkier lumber and live stock of the same portion, and also of the Northern and Eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the rice of the South, unless aggravated with a charge of duty upon the Northern carrier who brings it to them. But the cotton, indispensable for their looms, they will receive almost duty free, to weave it into a fabric for our own wear, to the destruction of our own manufactures, which they are enabled thus to undersell. Is the self-protecting energy of this nation so helpless, that there exists, in the political insti tutions of our country, no power to counteract the bias of this foreign legislation that the growers of grain must submit to this exclusion from the foreign markets of their produce; that the shippers must dismantle their ships, the trade of the North stagnate at the wharves, and the manufacturers starve at their looms, while the whole People shall pay tribute to foreign industry, to be clad in a foreign garb; that the Congress of the Union are impotent to restore the balance in favor of native industry, destroyed by the statutes of another realm? More just and more generous sentiments will, I trust, prevail If the tariff adopted at the last session of Congress shall be found, by experience, to bear oppressively upon the interests of any one section of the Union, it ought to be, and I cannot doubt will be, so modified as to alleviate its burden. To the voice of just complaint from any portion of their constituents, the Representatives of the States and of the People will never turn away their ears. But, so long as the duty of the foreign shall operate only as a bounty upon the domestic article-while the planter, and the merchant, and the shepherd, and the husbandman, shall be found thriving in their occupations under the duties imposed for the protection of domestic manufactures, they will not repine at the prosperity shared with themselves by their fellow-citizens of other professions, nor denounce, as violations of the Constitution,