Sen. and H. of R.] Message of the President at the opening of the Session. [20th CONG. 2d SESS. ever concluded by the United States, that of 6th Feb- United States, at the close of which the assurance was ruary, 1778, with France, has been invariably the cherish-given, by His Danish Majesty, that, at a period of more ed policy of our Union. It is by treaties of commerce tranquillity, and of less distress, they would be consialone that it can be made ultimately to prevail as the esta- dered, examined, and decided upon, in a spirit of deterblished system of all civilized nations. With this princi-mined purpose for the dispensation of justice. I have ple our fathers extended the hand of friendship to every much pleasure in informing Congress that the fulfilment of nation of the globe, and to this policy our country has this honorable promise is now in progress; that a small ever since adhered; whatever of regulation in our laws portion of the claims has already been settled, to the satishas ever been adopted unfavorable to the interest of any faction of the claimants; and that we have reason to hope foreign nation, has been essentially defensive and coun- that the remainder will shortly be placed in a train of teracting to similar regulations of theirs operating equitable adjustment. This result has always been conagainst us. fidently expected, from the character of personal inteImmediately after the close of the war of independence, grity and of benevolence which the Sovereign of the Dacommissioners were appointed by the Congress of the nish dominions has, through every vicissitude of fortune, Confederation, authorized to conclude treaties with every maintained. nation of Europe disposed to adopt them. Before the wars The general aspect of the affairs of our neighboring of the French Revolution, such treaties had been consum- American nations of the South has been rather of apmated with the United Netherlands, Sweden, and Prus- proaching than of settled tranquillity. Internal distursia. During those wars, treaties with Great Britain and bances have been more frequent among them than their Spain had been effected, and those with Russia and France common friends would have desired. Our intercourse renewed. In all these, some concessions to the liberal with all has continued to be that of friendship, and of principles of intercourse proposed by the United States had mutual good will. Treaties of commerce and of bounbeen obtained; but as, in all the negotiations, they came daries with the United Mexican States have been negooccasionally in collision with previous internal regulations, tiated, but, from various successive obstacles, not yet or exclusive and excluding compacts of monopoly, with brought to a final conclusion. The civil war which unwhich the other parties had been trammelled, the advances fortunately still prevails in the republic of Central Amemade in them towards the freedom of trade were partial rica has been unpropitious to the cultivation of our comand imperfect. Colonial establishments, chartered com-mercial relations with them; and the dissensions and repanies, and ship building influence, pervaded and encum-volutionary changes in the republics of Colombia and of bered the legislation of all the great commercial States; Peru, have been seen with cordial regret by us, who and the United States, in offering free trade and equal privi- would gladly contribute to the happiness of both. It is lege to all, were compelled to acquiesce in many excep- with great satisfaction, however, that we have witnessed tions with each of the parties to their treaties, accommo- the recent conclusion of a peace between the Govern dated to their existing laws and anterior engagements. ments of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil; and it is equally The colonial system by which this whole hemisphere gratifying to observe that indemnity has been obtained was bound has fallen into ruins: totally abolished by for some of the injuries which our fellow-citizens had revolutions, converting colonies into independent nations, sustained in the latter of those countries. The rest are throughout the two American continents, excepting a in a train of negotiation, which we hope may terminate portion of territory chiefly at the northern extremity of to mutual satisfaction, and that it may be succeeded by a our own, and confined to the remnants of dominion re-treaty of commerce and navigation upon liberal princitained by Great Britain over the insular Archipelago, geo- ples, propitious to a great and growing commerce, algraphically the appendages of our part of the globe. ready important to the interests of our country. With all the rest we have free trade; even with the in- The condition and prospects of the revenue are more sular colonies of all the European nations, except Great favorable than our most sanguine expectations had antiBritain. Her Government also had manifested approach-cipated. The balance in the treasury on the first of es to the adoption of a free and liberal intercourse be- January last, exclusive of the moneys received under the tween her colonies and other nations, though, by a sud-convention of 13th November, 1826, with Great Britain, den and scarcely explained revulsion, the spirit of exclu- was five millions eight hundred and sixty-one thousand sion has been revived for operation upon the United States nine hundred and seventy-two dollars and eighty-three alone. cents. The receipts into the treasury from the first of The conclusion of our last treaty of peace with Great January to the 30th of September last, so far as they Britain was shortly afterwards followed by a commercial have been ascertained, to form the basis of an estimate, convention, placing the direct intercourse between the amount to eighteen millions six hundred and thirty-three two countries upon a footing of more equal reciprocity thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars and twentythan had ever before been admitted. The same princi-seven cents, which, with the receipts of the present quarple has since been much farther extended, by trea- ter, estimated at five millions four hundred and sixty-one ties with France, Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic ci- thousand two hundred and eighty-three dollars and forty ties, Prussia in Europe, and with the Republics of Colom-cents, form an aggregate of receipts during the year of bia and of Central America, in this hemisphere. The twenty-four millions and ninety-four thousand eight hunmutual abolition of discriminating duties and charges, up-dred and sixty-three dollars and sixty-seven cents. The on the navigation and commercial intercourse between the expenditures of the year may probably amount to twentyparties, is the general maxim which characterizes them all. five millions six hundred and thirty-seven thousand five There is reason to expect that it will, at no distant period, hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-three cents; and 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. 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 and 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. 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 The amount of duties secured on importations from the period when the rights of neutral commerce were disre- 1st of January to the 30th of September, was about twenty garded, was that of Denmark. They were, soon after the two millions nine hundred and ninety-seven thousand, and events occurred, the subject of a special mission from the that of the estimated accruing revenue is five millions, 20th CONG. 2d SESS.] Message of the President at the opening of the Session. [Sen. and H. of R. leaving an aggregate for the year of near twenty-eight so as, in some degree, to participate in the wants which it millions. This is one million more than the estimate made will be the good fortune of our country to relieve. last December for the accruing revenue of the present The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and year, which, with allowances for drawbacks, and contin- manufacturing nation, are so linked in union together, gent deficiencies, was expected to produce an actual re- that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them can venue of twenty-two millions three hundred thousand dol- operate without extending its influence to the others. lars. Had these only been realized, the expenditures of All these interests are alike under the protecting power the year would have been also proportionally reduced. of the legislative authority; and the duties of the represenFor, of these twenty-four millions received, upwards of tative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together. nine millions have been applied to the extinction of public So far as the object of taxation is to raise a revenue for debt bearing an interest of six per cent. a year, and, of discharging the debts, and defraying the expenses, of the course, reducing the burthen of interest annually payable, community, it should, as much as possible, suit the burin future, by the amount of more than half a million. The then with equal hand upon all, in proportion to their payments on account of interest, during the current year, ability of bearing it, without oppression. But the legislaexceed three millions of dollars; presenting an aggregate tion of one nation is sometimes intentionally made to bear of more than twelve millions applied, during the year, to heavily upon the interests of another. That legislation, the discharge of the public debt; the whole of which re-adapted, as it is meant to be, to the special interests of its maining due, on the 1st of January next, will amount only own people, will often press most unequally upon the several to fifty-eight millions three hundred and sixty-two thou- component interests of its neighbors. Thus, the legislasand one hundred and thirty-five dollars and seventy- tion of Great Britain, when, as has been recently avowed, eight cents. adapted to the depression of a rival nation, will naturally That the revenue of the ensuing year will not fall short of abound with regulations of interdict upon the productions that received in the one now expiring, there are indications of the soil or industry of the other, which come in compewhich can scarcely prove deceptive. In our country, a uni- tition with its own, and will present encouragement, perform experience of forty years has shown that, whatever haps even bounty, to the raw material of the other State, the tariff of duties, upon articles imported from abroad, which it cannot produce itself, and which is essential for has been, the amount of importations has always borne an the use of its manufactures, competitors, in the markets average value nearly approaching to that of the exports, of the world, with those of its commercial rival. Such is though occasionally differing in the balance, sometimes the state of the commercial legislation of Great Britain, as being more, and sometimes less. It is, indeed, a general it bears upon our interests. It excludes, with interdictlaw of prosperous commerce, that the real value of ex-ing duties, all importation (except in time of approaching ports should, by a small, and only a small balance, ex- famine) of the great staple productions of our Middle and ceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent ad- Western States; it proscribes, with equal rigor, the bulkier dition to the wealth of the nation. The extent of the lumber and live stock of the same portion, and also of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated by northern and eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the amount of its exports; and an important addition to the the rice of the South, unless aggravated with a charge of duty value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of upon the northern carrier who brings it to them. But importations. It has happened, in the vicissitudes of the the cotton, indispensable for their looms, they will receive seasons, that the harvests of all Europe have, in the late almost duty free, weave it into a fabric for our own wear, summer and autumn, fallen short of their usual average. to the destruction of our own manufactures, which they A relaxation of the interdict upon the importation of grain are enabled thus to undersell. Is the self-protecting enerand flour from abroad, has ensued; a propitious market gy of this nation so helpless that there exists, in the politihas been opened to the granaries of our country, and a cal institutions of our country, no power to counteract the new prospect of reward presented to the labors of the bias of this foreign legislation? that the growers of grain husbandman, which, for several years, has been denied. must submit to this exclusion from the foreign markets of This accession to the profits of agriculture, in the middle their produce? that the shippers must dismantle their and western portions of our Union, is accidental and tem- ships, the trade of the North must stagnate at the wharves, porary. It may continue for a single year. It may be, and the manufacturers starve at their looms, while the as has been often experienced, in the revolutions of time, whole people shall pay tribute to foreign industry to be but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We clad in a foreign garb that the Congress of the Union are may consider it certain that, for the approaching year, impotent to restore the balance in favor of native industry it has added an item of large amount to the value of our destroyed by the statutes of another realm? More just exports, and that it will produce a corresponding increase and more generous sentiments will, I trust, prevail. of importations. It may, therefore, confidently be fore- If the tariff adopted at the last session of Congress shall seen, that the revenue of 1829 will equal, and probably be found, by experience, to bear oppressively upon the exceed, that of 1828, and will afford the means of extin-interests of any one section of the Union, it ought to be, guishing ten millions more of the principal of the public and I cannot doubt will be, so modified as to alleviate its debt. burthen. To the voice of just complaint from any por This new element of prosperity to that part of our agri-tion of their constituents, the Representatives of the States cultural industry which is occupied in producing the first and people will never turn away their cars. article of human subsistence, is of the most cheering cha- long as the duty of the foreign shall operate only as a racter to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding from a bounty upon the domestic article; while the planter, and cause which humanity will view with concern, the suffer- the merchant, and the shepherd, and the husbandman, ings of scarcity in distant lands, it yields a consolatory reflec- shall be found thriving in their occupations, under the tion that this scarcity is, in no respect, attributable to us: that duties imposed for the protection of domestic manufacit comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in wis-tures, they will not repine at the prosperity shared with dom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an in- themselves, by their fellow-citizens of other professions, strument of good: that, far from contributing to this scarcity, nor denounce as violations of the constitution the deliberour agency will be applied only to the alleviation of its ate acts of Congress to shield from the wrongs of foreign severity; and that, in pouring forth, from the abundance laws the native industry of the Union. While the tariff of our own garners, the supplies which will partially re- of the last session of Congress was a subject of legislative store plenty to those who are in need, we shall ourselves deliberation, it was foretold, by some of its opposers, that reduce our stores, and add to the price of our own bread; one of its necessary consequences would be to impair the But so Sen. and H. of R.] Message of the President at the opening of the Session. [20th CONG. 2d SESS. revenue. It is yet too soon to pronounce with confidence current year. The present state of the army, and the disthat this prediction was erroneous. The obstruction of tribution of the force of which it is composed, will be seen one avenue of trade not unfrequently opens an issue to from the report of the Major General. Several alteraanother. The consequence of the tariff will be to in- tions in the disposal of the troops have been found expecrease the exportation, and to diminish the importation of dient in the course of the year, and the discipline of the some specific articles. But, by the general law of trade, army, though not entirely free from exception, has been the increase of exportation of one article will be followed generally good. The attention of Congress is particularly invited to that by an increased importation of others, the duties upon which will supply the deficiencies which the diminished part of the report of the Secretary of War which conimportation would otherwise occasion. The effect of cerns the existing system of our relations with the Indian tribes. At the establishment of the Federal Government, taxation upon revenue can seldom be foreseen with certainty. It must abide the test of experience. As yet, no under the present constitution of the United States, the symptoms of diminution are perceptible in the receipts of principle was adopted of considering them as foreign and the treasury. As yet, little addition of cost has even been independent Powers; and also as proprietors of lands. experienced upon the articles burthened with heavier du- They were, moreover, considered as savages, whom it ties by the last tariff. The domestic manufacturer sup- was our policy and our duty to use our influence in conplies the same or a kindred article at a diminished price,verting to Christianity, and in bringing within the pale of and the consumer pays the same tribute to the labor of his own countrymen, which he must otherwise have paid to foreign industry and toil. civilization. treaties; as proprietors, we purchased of them all the lands As independent Powers, we negotiated with them by The tariff of the last session was, in its details, not ac- the human race, rude and ignorant, we endeavored to which we could prevail upon them to sell; as brethren of ceptable to the great interests of any portion of the Union, bring them to the knowledge of religion and of letters. not even to the interest which it was specially intended to The ultimate design was to incorporate in our own institusubserve. Its object was to balance the burthens upon tions that portion of them which could be converted to the native industry imposed by the operation of foreign laws; state of civilization. In the practice of European States, but not to aggravate the burthens of one section of the before our Revolution, they had been considered as chilUnion by the relief afforded to another. To the great dren to be governed; as tenants at discretion, to be disprinciple sanctioned by that act, one of those upon which the constitution itself was formed, I hope and trust the possessed as occasion might require; as hunters, to be indemnified by trifling concessions for removal from the authorities of the Union will adhere. But if any of the duties imposed by the act only relieve the manufacturer grounds upon which their game was extirpated. In changing the system, it would seem as if a full contemplation of by aggravating the burthen of the planter, let a careful the consequences of the change had not been taken. We revisal of its provisions, enlightened by the practical ex- have been far more successful in the acquisition of their perience of its effects, be directed to retain those which lands than in imparting to them the principles, or inspirimpart protection to native industry, and remove or sup-ing them with the spirit, of civilization. But in appropriply the place of those which only alleviate one great na-ating to ourselves their hunting-grounds, we have brought tional interest by the depression of another. upon ourselves the obligation of providing them with subsistence; and when we have had the rare good fortune of teaching them the arts of civilization, and the doctrines of Christianity, we have unexpectedly found them forming, in the midst of ourselves, communities claiming to be independent of ours, and rivals of sovereignty, within the territories of the members of our Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be provided-a remedy which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a project to that effect, the views presented in the report of the Secretary of War are recommended to the consideration of Congress. The United States of America, and the people of every State of which they are composed, are each of them sovereign Powers. The legislative authority of the whole is exercised by Congress, under authority granted them in the common constitution. The legislative power of each State is exercised by assemblies deriving their authority from the constitution of the State. Each is sovereign within its own province. The distribution of power between them presupposes that these authorities will move in harmony with each other. The members of the State and General Governments are all under oath to support both, and allegiance is due to the one and to the other. The case of a conflict between these two powers has not been supposed; nor has any provision been made for it in our The report from the Engineer Department presents a institutions-as a virtuous nation of ancient times existed more than five centuries without a law for the punishment of parricide. comprehensive view of the progress which has been made in the great systems promotive of the public interest, commenced and organized under the authority of Congress, and the effects of which have already contributed to the security, as they will hereafter largely contribute to the honor and dignity of the nation. More than once, however, in the progress of our history, have the people and Legislatures of one or more States, in moments of excitement, been instigated to this conflict; and the means of effecting this impulse have been allega- The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, tions that the acts of Congress to be resisted were uncon- commenced immediately after the close of our last war, stitutional. The people of no one State have ever dele- under the salutary experience which the events of that gated to their Legislature the power of pronouncing an war had impressed upon our countrymen of its necessity. act of Congress unconstitutional; but they have delegated Introduced under the auspices of my immediate predecesto them powers, by the exercise of which the execution sor, it has been continued with the persevering and liberal of the laws of Congress within the State may be resist- encouragement of the Legislature; and combined with ed. If we suppose the case of such conflicting legislation corresponding exertions for the gradual increase and imsustained by the corresponding Executive and Judicial au- provement of the navy, prepares for our extensive counthorities, patriotism and philanthropy turn their eyes from try a condition of defence, adapted to any critical emerthe condition in which the parties would be placed, and gency, which the varying course of events may bring forth. from that of the people of both, which must be its victims. Our advances in these concerted systems have for the last The reports from the Secretary of War and from the ten years been steady and progressive, and in a few years various subordinate offices of the resort of that Depart- more will be so completed, as to leave no cause for apprement present an exposition of the public administration hension that our sea-coast will ever again offer a theatre of of affairs connected with them, through the course of the hostile invasion. 20th CONG. 2d SESS.] Message of the President at the opening of the Session. [Sen. and H. of R. The next of these cardinal measures of policy is the pre-violence, and even plundered under legal pretences, are liminary to great and lasting works of public improvement, disorders never separable from the conflicts of war upon in the surveys of roads, examination for the course of ca- the ocean. With a portion of them, the correspondence nals, and labors for the removal of the obstructions of ri- of our commanders on the Eastern aspect of the South vers and harbors, first commenced by the act of Congress American coast, and among the Islands of Greece, discoof 30th April, 1824. ver how far we have been involved. In these, the honor The report exhibits in one table the funds appropriat- of our country and the rights of our citizens have been ased at the last and preceding sessions of Congress, for all serted and vindicated. The appearance of new squadrons these fortifications, surveys, and works of public improve- in the Mediterranean, and the blockade of the Dardanelles, ment: the manner in which these funds have been applied, indicate the danger of other obstacles to the freedom the amount expended upon the several works under con- of commerce, and the necessity of keeping our naval force struction, and the further sums which may be necessary to in those seas. To the suggestions repeated in the report complete them. In a second, the works projected by the of the Secretary of the Navy, and tending to the permaBoard of Engineers, which have not been commenced, and nent improvement of this institution, I invite the favorable the estimate of their cost. consideration of Congress. dollars. In a third, the report of the annual Board of Visiters at The resolution of the House of Representatives, requestthe Military Academy at West Point. For thirteen forti-ing that one of our small public vessels should be sent fications erecting on various points of our Atlantic coast, to the Pacific Ocean and South Sea, to examine the coasts, from Rhode Island to Louisiana, the aggregate expendi- islands, harbors, shoals, and reefs, in those seas, and to asture of the year has fallen a little short of one million of certain their true situation and description, has been put in a train of execution. The vessel is nearly ready to depart; For the preparation of five additional reports of recon- the successful accomplishment of the expedition may be noissances and surveys since the last session of Congress; greatly facilitated by suitable legislative provisions; and parfor the civil constructions upon thirty-seven different pub- ticularly by an appropriation to defray its necessary exlic works commenced; eight others for which specific ap- pense. The addition of a second, and, perhaps, a third propriations have been made by acts of Congress, and vessel, with a slight aggravation of the cost, would contwenty other incipient surveys under the authority given tribute much to the safety of the citizens embarked on by the act of 30th April, 1824, about one million more of this undertaking, the results of which may be of the dollars have been drawn from the treasury. deepest interest to our country. To these two millions of dollars are to be added the ap- With the report of the Secretary of the Navy will be propriation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to submitted, in conformity to the act of Congress, of third commence the erection of a breakwater near the mouth March, 1827, for the gradual improvement of the navy of of the Delaware river; the subscriptions to the Delaware the United States, statements of the expenditures under and Chesapeake, the Louisville and Portland, the Dismal that act, and of the measures taken for carrying the same Swamp, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal; the large do- into effect. Every section of that statute contains a nations of lands to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and distinct provision, looking to the great object of the Alabama, for objects of improvements within those States, whole--the gradual improvement of the navy. Under its and the sums appropriated for light houses, buoys, and salutary sanction, stores of ship-timber have been procurpiers, on the coast; and a full view will be taken of the mu-ed, and are in process of seasoning and preservation for nificence of the nation in the application of its resources to the future uses of the navy. Arrangements have been the improvement of its own condition. made for the preservation of the live oak timber growing Of these great national undertakings, the Academy at on the lands of the United States, and for its re-producWest Point is among the most important in itself, and the tion, to supply, at future and distant days, the waste of most comprehensive in its consequences. In that institu- that most valuable material for ship building, by the great, tion, a part of the revenue of the nation is applied to de- consumption of it, yearly, for the commercial as well fray the expense of educating a competent portion of her as for the military marine of our country. The conyouth, chiefly to the knowledge and the duties of military struction of the two dry docks at Charlestown and at Norlife. It is the living armory of the nation. While the oth-folk, is making satisfactory progress towards a durable er works of improvement enumerated in the reports now establishment. The examinations, and inquiries to ascerpresented to the attention of Congress, are destined to tain the practicability and expediency of a marine railameliorate the face of nature; to multiply the facilities of way at Pensacola, though not yet accomplished, have communication between the different parts of the Union; been postponed but to be the more effectually made. to assist the labors, increase the comforts, and enhance the The navy yards of the United States have been examinenjoyments of individuals--the instruction acquired at West ed, and plans for their improvement, and the preservation Point enlarges the dominion and expands the capacities of of the public property therein, at Portsmouth, Charlestown, the mind. Its beneficial results are already experienced Philadelphia, Washington, and Gosport, and to which in the composition of the army, and their influence is felt two others are to be added, have been prepared, and in the intellectual progress of society. The institution is received my sanction; and no other portion of my public susceptible still of great improvement from benefactions duties has been performed with a more intimate conviction proposed by several successive Boards of Visiters, to of its importance to the future welfare and security of the whose earnest and repeated recommendations I cheerfully Union. add my own. With the report from the Postmaster General is exhiWith the usual annual reports from the Secretary of the bited a comparative view of the gradual increase of that Navy and the Board of Commissioners, will be exhibited establishment, from five to five years, since 1792, till this to the view of Congress, the execution of the laws relating time, in the number of post offices, which has grown to that department of the public service. The repression from less than two hundred to nearly eight thousand; in of piracy in the West Indian and in the Grecian seas has the revenue yielded by them, which, from sixty-seven been effectually maintained with scarcely any exception. thousand dollars, has swollen to upwards of a million and During the war between the Governments of Buenos Ayres a half; and in the number of miles of post roads, which, and of Brazil, frequent collisions between belligerent acts from five thousand six hundred and forty-two, have mulof power and the rights of neutral commerce occurred. tiplied to one hundred and fourteen thousand five hunLicentious blockades, irregularly enlisted or impressed dred and thirty-six. While, in the same period of time, seamen, and the property of honest commerce seized with the population of the Union has about thrice doubled, the Sen. and H. of R.] Documents accompanying the President's Message. rate of increase of these offices is nearly forty, and of the revenue, and of travelled miles, from twenty to twentyfive for one. The increase of revenue, within the last five years, has been nearly equal to the whole revenue of the department in 1812. [20th CoNG. 2d SESS. lation to so late a period. That law, like those of the preceding enumerations, directed that the census should be taken by the Marshals of the several Districts and Territories, under instructions from the Secretary of State. The preparation and transmission to the marshals of those The expenditures of the department, during the year instructions required more time than was then allowed bewhich ended on the first of July last, have exceeded the tween the passage of the law and the day when the enumerareceipts by a sum of about twenty-five thousand dollars. tion was to commence. The term of six months, limited for The excess has been occasioned by the increase of mail the returns of the marshals, was also found even then too conveyances and facilities, to the extent of near eight short, and must be more so now, when an additional popuhundred thousand miles. It has been supplied by collec- lation of at least three millions must be presented upon tions from the Postmasters, of the arrearages of preceding the returns. As they are to be made at the short session years. While the correct principle seems to be, that the of Congress, it would, as well as from other considerincome levied by the department should defray all its ex-ations, be more convenient to commence the enumeration penses, it has never been the policy of this Government to from an earlier period of the year than the first of August. raise from this establishment any revenue to be applied The most favorable season would be the spring. On to any other purposes. The suggestion of the Postmaster a review of the former enumerations, it will be found General, that the insurance of the safe transmission of that the plan for taking every census has contained immoneys by the mail, might be assumed by the department, provements upon that of its predecessor. The last is still for a moderate and competent remuneration, will deserve susceptible of much improvement. The third census was the consideration of Congress. the first at which any account was taken of the manufac A report from the Commissioner of the Public Build-tures of the country. It was repeated at the last enumeraings in this city exhibits the expenditures upon them in tion, but the returns in both cases were necessarily very the course of the current year. It will be seen that the imperfect. They must always be so, resting of course humane and benevolent intentions of Congress in pro- only on the communications voluntarily made by individuals viding, by the act of 20th May, 1826, for the erection of interested in some of the manufacturing establishments. a Penitentiary in this District, have been accomplished. The authority of farther legislation is now required for the removal to this tenement of the offenders against the laws, sentenced to atone by personal confinement for their crimes, and to provide a code for their employment and government while thus confined. Yet they contained much valuable information, and may, by some supplementary provision of the law, be rendered more effective. The columns of age, commencing from infancy, have hitherto been confined to a few periods, all under the number of forty-five years. Important knowledge would be obtained by extending those columns, in The commissioners appointed conformably to the act intervals of ten years, to the utmost boundaries of human of 2d March, 1827, to provide for the adjustment of life. The labor of taking them would be a trifling addition claims of persons entitled to indemnification under the to that already prescribed, and the result would exhibit first article of the treaty of Ghent, and for the distribu- comparative tables of longevity highly interesting to the tion among such claimants of the sum paid by the Government of Great Britain under the convention of 13th November, 1826, closed their labors on the 30th of August last, by awarding the claimants the sum of one million one hundred and ninety-seven thousand four hundred and twenty-two dollars and eighteen cents; leaving a balance of seven thousand five hundred and thirty-seven dollars and eighty-two cents, which was distributed ratably amongst all the claimants to whom awards had been made, according to the directions of the act. country. I deem it my duty farther to observe, that much of the imperfections in the returns of the last and perhaps of preceding enumerations, proceeded from the inadequateness of the compensations allowed to the marshals and their assistants in taking them. In closing this communication, it only remains for me to assure the Legislature of my continued earnest wish for the adoption of measures recommended by me heretofore, and yet to be acted on by them; and of the cordial concurrence on my part, in every constitutional provision which may receive their sanction during the session, tending to the general welfare. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. The exhibits appended to the report from the Commissioner of the General Land Office present the actual condition of that common property of the Union. The amount paid into the treasury from the proceeds of lands, during the year 1827, and the first half of 1828, falls little short of two millions of dollars. The propriety of further extending the time for the extinguishment of the debt due to the United States by the purchasers of the public lands, limited, by the act of 21st March last, to the fourth of July next, will claim the consideration of Congress, to whose vigilance and careful attention, the SIR: I have the honor herewith to transmit, for your regulation, disposal, and preservation, of this great na-information, the annual reports of the officers who supertional inheritance, has, by the people of the United States, been intrusted. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR. intend the several branches of the public service entrusted to this Department; showing, in detail, the operations Among the important subjects to which the attention of each during the past year, and the state of the funds of the present Congress has already been invited, and appropriated and applicable to those services respectively. which may occupy their further and deliberate discussion, The report of the Major General of the army, with its will be the provision to be made for taking the fifth census accompanying documents, exhibits the present number, or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States. station, organization, and discipline, of our military force. The constitution of the United States requires that this From this report it will appear that some important chanenumeration should be made within every term of ten ges have been made, during the past year, in the distribuyears, and the date from which the last enumeration tion of the troops; and that one of the effects of this discommenced, was the first Monday of August, of the year tribution has been, considerably to diminish the numeri 1820. The laws under which the former enumerations cal force of the two Military Schools of Practice. The were taken, were enacted at the session of Congress value of these institutions is fully appreciated by the Deimmediately preceding the operation. But considerable partment, although some of the principal benefits anticiinconveniences were experienced from the delay of legis-pated from the concentration of so large portions of the |