For the honor of the patriots who have gone before us, I can notɩdmit it. Men of the revolution who drew the sword against the oppressios of the mother-country, and pledged to Heaven "their lives, their fortues, and their sacred honor" to maintain their freedom, could never have been actuated by so unworthy a motive. They knew no weakness or fear where right or duty pointed the way, and it is a libel upon their far fame for us, while we enjoy the blessings for which they so nobly fought and bled, to insinuate it. The truth is, that the course which they pursued was dictated by a stern sense of international justice, by a statesmanlike prudence, and a far-seeing wisdom, looking not merely to the present necessities but to the permanent safety and interest of the country. They knew that the world is governed less by sympathy than by reason and force; that it was not possible for this nation to become a "propagandist" of free principles without arraying against it the combined powers of Europe; and that the result was more likely to be the overthrow of republican liberty here than its establishment there. History has been written in vain for those who can doubt this. France had no sooner established a republican form of government than she manifested a desire to force its blessings on all the world. Her own historian informs us that, hearing of some petty acts of tyranny in a neighboring principality, "The national convention declared that she would afford succor and fraternity to all nations who wished to recover their liberty; and she gave it in charge to the executive power to give orders to the generals of the French armies to aid all citizens who might have been or should be oppressed in the cause of liberty." Here was the false step which led to her subsequent misfortunes. She soon found herself involved in war with all the rest of Europe. In less than ten years her government was changed from a republic to an empire; and, finally, after shedding rivers of blood, foreign powers restored her exiled dynasty, and exhausted Europe sought peace and repose in the unquestioned ascendency of monarchical principles. Let us learn wisdom from her example. Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our revolution. They existed before. They were planted in the free charters of self-government under which the English colonies grew up, and our revolution only freed us from the dominion of a foreign power, whose government was at variance with those institutions. But European nations have had no such training for self-government, and every effort to establish it by bloody revolutions has been, and must, without that preparation, continue to be a failure. Liberty, unregulated by law, degenerates into anarchy, which soon becomes the most horrid of all despotisms. Our policy is wisely to govern ourselves, and thereby to set such an example of national justice, prosperity, and true glory, as shall teach to all nations the blessings of self-government, and the unparalleled enterprise and success of a free people.

We live in an age of progress, and ours is emphatically a country of progress. Within the last half-century the number of states in this Union has nearly doubled, the population has almost quadrupled, and our boundaries have been extended from the Mississippi to the Pacific. Ourterritory is chequered over with railroads, and furrowed with canals. The inventive talent of our country is excited to the highest pitch, and the numerous applications for patents for valuable improvements distinguish this age and this people from all others. The genius of one American has enabled our commerce to move against wind and tide, and that of

another has annihilated distance in the transmission of intelligence. The whole country is full of enterprise. Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the people, and our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life. This is in part owing to our peculiar position, to our fertile soil, and comparatively sparse population; but much of it is also owing to the popular institutions under which we live, to the freedom which every man feels to engage in any useful pursuit according to his taste or inclination, and to the entire confidence that his person and property will be protected by the laws. But, whatever may be the cause of this unparalleled growth in population, intelligence, and wealth, one thing is clear-that the government must keep pace with the progress of the people. It must participate in their spirit of enterprise, and while it exacts obedience to the laws, and restrains all unauthorized invasions of the rights of neighboring states, it should foster and protect home industry, and lend its powerful strength to the improvement of such means of intercommunication as are necessary to promote our internal commerce and strengthen the ties which bind us together as a people.

It is not strange, however much it may be regretted, that such an exuberance of enterprise should cause some individuals to mistake change for progress, and the invasion of the rights of others for national prowess and glory. The former are constantly agitating for some change in the organic law, or urging new and untried theories of human rights. The latter are ever ready to engage in any wild crusade against a neighboring people, regardless of the justice of the enterprise, and without looking at the fatal consequences to ourselves and to the cause of popular government. Such expeditions, however, are often stimulated by mercenary individuals, who expect to share the plunder or profit of the enterprise, without exposing themselves to danger, and are led on by some irresponsible foreigner, who abuses the hospitality of our own government, by seducing the young and ignorant to join in his scheme of personal ambition or revenge, under the false and delusive pretence of extending the area of freedom. These reprehensible aggressions but retard the true progress of our nation, and tarnish its fair fame. They should, therefore, receive the indignant frowns of every good citizen who sincerely loves his country and takes a pride in its prosperity and honor.

Our constitution, though not perfect, is doubtless the best that ever was formed. Therefore, let every proposition to change it be well weighed, and, if found beneficial, cautiously adopted. Every patriot will rejoice to see its authority so exerted as to advance the prosperity and honor of the nation, while he will watch with jealousy any attempt to mutilate this charter of our liberties, or pervert its powers to acts of aggression or injustice. Thus shall conservatism and progress blend their harmonious action in preserving the form and spirit of the constitution, and at the same time carry forward the great improvements of the country, with a rapidity and energy which freemen only can display.

In closing this, my last annual communication, permit me, fellow-citizens, to congratulate you on the prosperous condition of our beloved country. Abroad its relations with all foreign powers are friendly, its rights are respected, and its high place in the family of nations cheerfully recognised. At home we enjoy an amount of happiness, public and private, which has probably never fallen to the lot of any other people. Besides affording to our own citizens a degree of prosperity, of which on so large a scale I know of no other instance, our country is annually

affording a refuge and a home to multitudes, altogether without example, from the Old World.

We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy constitution and government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our children. We must all consider it a great distinction and privilege to have been chosen by the people to bear a part in the administration of such a government. Called by an unexpected dispensation to its highest trust at a season of embarrassment and alarm, I entered upon its arduous duties with extreme diffidence. I claim only to have discharged them to the best of an humble ability, with a single eye to the public good; and it is with devout gratitude, in retiring from office, that I leave the country in a state of peace and prosperity.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JANUARY 17, 1853.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I TRANSMIT, herewith, a communication lately received at the department of state from the minister of her most catholic majesty, accompanied by a letter of instructions from the Spanish government relative to the case of the "Amistad." In Mr. Calderon's communication reference is had to former letters addressed by him to the department of state on the same subject, copies of which are here with transmitted, and an earnest wish is expressed that a final settlement of this long-pending claim should be made. The tone of the letter of instructions from Mr. Manuel Bertran de Lis is somewhat more peremptory than could be wished; but this circumstance will not probably prevent Congress from giving his suggestions the attention to which they may be entitled.

The claim of the Spanish government, on behalf of its subjects interested in the "Amistad," was the subject of discussion during the administration of President Tyler, between the Spanish minister and Mr. Webster, then secretary of state. In an elaborate letter of the latter, addressed to the Chevalier d'Argais on the 1st of September 1841, the opinion is confidently maintained that the claim is unfounded. The administration of President Polk took a different view of the matter. The justice of the claim was recognised in a letter from the department of state to the Spanish minister, of the 19th of March, 1847; and in his annual message of the same year the president recommended its payment.

Under these circumstances the attention of Congress is again invited to the subject. Respect to the Spanish government demands that its urgent representations should be candidly and impartially weighed. If Congress should be of opinion that the claim is just, every consideration points to the propriety of its prompt recognition and payment; and if the two houses should come to the opposite conclusion, it is equally desirable that the result should be announced without unnecessary delay.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JANUARY 18, 1853.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I HAVE the honor herewith to transmit a report from the secretary of the interior, from which it appears that the efforts of that department to induce the Indians remaining in Florida to migrate to the country assigned to their tribe, west of the Mississippi, have been entirely unsuccessful. The only alternative that now remains is, either to compel them by force to comply with the treaty made with the tribe in May, 1832, by which they agreed to migrate within three years from that date, or to allow the arrangement made with them in 1842, referred to in the secretary's report, by which they were permitted to remain in the temporary occupancy of a portion of the peninsula until the government should see fit to remove them, to continue.

It can not be denied that the withholding of so large a portion of her territory from settlement is a serious injury to the state of Florida; and although, ever since the arrangement above referred to, the Indians have manifested a desire to remain at peace with the whites, the presence of a people who may at any time, and upon any real or fancied provocation, be driven to acts of hostility, is a source of constant anxiety and alarm to the inhabitants on that border.

There can be no doubt, also, that the welfare of the Indians would be promoted by their removal from a territory where frequent collisions between them and their more powerful neighbors are daily becoming more inevitable.

On the other hand, there is every reason to believe that any manifestation of a design to remove them by force, or to take possession of the territory allotted to them, would be immediately retaliated by acts of cruelty on the defenceless inhabitants.

The number of Indians now remaining in the state is, it is true, very inconsiderable (not exceeding, it is believed, five hundred); but, owing to the great extent of the country occupied by them, and its adaptation to their peculiar mode of warfare, a force very disproportioned to their numbers would be necessary to capture or expel them, or even to protect the white settlements from their incursions. The military force now stationed in that state would be inadequate to these objects; and if it should be determined to enforce their removal, or to survey the territory allotted to them, some additions to it would be necessary, as the government has but a small force available for that service. Additional appropriations for the support of the army would also, in that event, be necessary.

For these reasons I have deemed it proper to submit the whole matter to Congress for such action as they may deem best.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 7, 1853.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

HAVING, in my message to Congress at the opening of the session, adverted to the pending negotiations between this government and that of Great Britain relative to the fisheries and commercial reciprocity with the British American provinces, I transmit, for the information of Congress, the accompanying report from the department of state on the present state of the negotiations, and I respectfully invite the attention of the two houses to the suggestion in the latter part of the report.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 18, 1853.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I TRANSMIT a report from the secretary of state, embodying the substance of recent communications made by the minister of her Britannic Majesty to the department of state, on the subject of the inter-oceanic canal, by the Nicaragua route, which formed the chief object of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain, of the 19th April, 1850, and the relations of Great Britain to the protectorate of Mosquito, which she expresses herself desirous of relinquishing on terms consistent with her honorable engagements to the Indians of that name.

In consequence of these communications, and other considerations, stated in the report, it is deemed advisable by the department that our diplomatic relations with the states of Central America should be placed on a higher and more efficient footing, and this measure meets my approbation. The whole subject is one of so much delicacy and importance that I should have preferred, so near the close of my administration, not to make it the subject of an executive communication. But, inasmuch as the measure proposed can not, even if deemed expedient by my successor, take effect for near a twelvemonth, unless an appropriation is made by this Congress, I have thought it my duty to submit the report of the department to the two houses. The importance of the measure seemed to require an exposition somewhat in detail of the grounds on which it is recommended.