To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, March 16, 1818. In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States of the 31st of December last, requesting the President to cause to be laid before them a statement of the proceedings which may have been had under the act of Congress passed on the 3d March, 1817, entitled "An act to set apart and dispose of certain public lands for the encouragement and cultivation of the vine and olive," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, containing all the information possessed by the Executive relating to the proceedings under the said act. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, March 16, 1818. In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States of the 3d of February last, requesting the President to cause to be laid before them "a statement of the progress made under the act to provide for surveying the coast of the United States, passed February 10, 1807, and any subsequent acts on the same subject, and the expenses incurred thereby," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury containing the information required. JAMES MONROE. MARCH 19, 1818. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: In the course of the last summer a negotiation was commenced with the Government of the Netherlands with a view to the revival and modification of the commercial treaty existing between the two countries, adapted to their present circumstances. The report from the Secretary of State which I now lay before Congress will show the obstacles which arose in the progress of the conferences between the respective plenipotentiaries, and which resulted in the agreement between them then to refer the subject to the consideration of their respective Governments. As the difficulties appear to be of a ua ture which may, perhaps, for the present be more easily removed by recip、 rocal legislative regulations, formed in the spirit of amity and conciliation, than by conventional stipulations, Congress may think it advisable to leave the subsisting treaty in its present state, and to meet the liberal exemption from discriminating tonnage duties which has been conceded in the Netherlands to the vessels of the United States by a similar exemption to the vessels of the Netherlands which have arrived, or may hereafter arrive, in our ports, commencing from the time when the exemption was granted to the vessels of the United States. I would further recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of extending the BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE July 25, 1814 After this engagement both parties left the field, and so both claimed the victory. It was fought by 2500 Americans under Gen. Scott, and 4500 British under Gen. Brown. At about sunset, Scott, with a reconnoitering party of 1200, collided with the British on a road called Lundy's Lane, which led from Niagara Falls to the end of Lake Ontario. The whole American force then rushed into the conflict, which continued until midnight. Though the British abandoned their artillery, baggage and ammunition, the Americans could not move it in the night, and when they returned for it at daybreak it was too strongly defended to be taken. The British lost 84 killed, 559 wounded, 193 missing, and 42 prisoners,— 878 all told, out of 4500. The Americans lost 171 killed, 571 wounded, and 110 missing, a total of 852 out of 2500. See the article entitled "Lundy's Lane, Battle of,” in the Encyclopedic Index. benefit of the same regulation, to commence from the passage of the law, to the vessels of Russia, Hamburg, and Bremen, and of making it prospectively general in favor of every nation in whose ports the vessels of the United States are admitted on the same footing as their own. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, March 23, 1818. I lay before the Senate a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the estimate of the expense which will be incurred by the establishment of two dockyards for repairing vessels of the largest size. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, March 25, 1818. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I now lay before Congress all the information in the possession of the Executive respecting the war with the Seminoles, and the measures which it has been thought proper to adopt for the safety of our fellow-citizens on the frontier exposed to their ravages. The inclosed documents show that the hostilities of this tribe were unprovoked, the offspring of a spirit long cherished and often manifested toward the United States, and that in the present instance it was extending itself to other tribes and daily assuming a more serious aspect. As soon as the nature and object of this combination were perceived the major-general commanding the Southern division of the troops of the United States was ordered to the theater of action, charged with the management of the war and vested with the powers necessary to give it effect. The season of the year being unfavorable to active operations, and the recesses of the country affording shelter to these savages in case of retreat, may prevent a prompt termination of the war; but it may be fairly presumed that it will not be long before this tribe and its associates receive the punishment which they have provoked and justly merited. As almost the whole of this tribe inhabits the country within the limits of Florida, Spain was bound by the treaty of 1795 to restrain them from committing hostilities against the United States. We have seen with regret that her Government has altogether failed to fulfill this obligation, nor are we aware that it made any effort to that effect. When we consider her utter inability to check, even in the slightest degree, the movements of this tribe by her very small and incompetent force in Florida, we are not disposed to ascribe the failure to any other cause. The inability, however, of Spain to maintain her authority over the territory and Indians within her limits, and in consequence to fulfill the treaty, ought not to expose the United States to other and greater injuries. When the authority of Spain ceases to exist there, the United States have a right to pursue their enemy on a principle of self-defense. In this instance the right is more complete and obvious because we shall perform only what Spain was bound to have performed herself. To the high obligations and privileges of this great and sacred right of self-defense will the movement of our troops be strictly confined. Orders have been given to the general in command not to enter Florida unless it be in pursuit of the enemy, and in that case to respect the Spanish authority wherever it is maintained; and he will be instructed to withdraw his forces from the Province as soon as he shall have reduced that tribe to order, and secure our fellowcitizens in that quarter by satisfactory arrangements against its unprovoked and savage hostilities in future. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, March 25, 1818. To the House of Representatives of the United States: In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 5th of December last, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with a copy of the documents which it is thought proper to communicate relating to the independence and political condition of the Provinces of Spanish America. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, March 26, 1818. To the House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to the House of Representatives, in compliance with their resolution of March 20, such information not heretofore communicated as is in the possession of the Executive relating to the occupation of Amelia Island. If any doubt had before existed of the improper conduct of the persons who authorized and of those who were engaged in the invasion and previous occupancy of that island, of the unfriendly spirit toward the United States with which it was commenced and prosecuted, and of its injurious effect on their highest interests, particularly by its tendency to compromit them with foreign powers in all the unwarrantable acts of the adventurers, it is presumed that these documents would remove it. It appears by the letter of Mr. Pazos, agent of Commodore Aury, that the project of seizing the Floridas was formed and executed at a time when it was understood that Spain had resolved to cede them to the United States, and to prevent such cession from taking effect. The whole proceeding in every stage and circumstance was unlawful. The commission to General M'Gregor was granted at Philadelphia in direct violation of a positive law, and all the measures pursued under it by him in collecting his force and directing its movements were equally unlawful. With the conduct of these persons I have always been unwilling to connect any of the colonial governments, because I never could believe that they had |