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tance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the present for expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep sense of the continued confidence and kind support which I have received from them. My grateful recollection of these distinguished marks of their favorable regard can never cease, and with the consciousness that, if I have not served my country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere devotion, will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.

Happily I shall carry with me from the public theatre other sources, which those who love their country most will best appreciate. I shall behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home, and with peace and respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection that the American people have reached, in safety and success, their fortieth year as an independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they have had experience of their present constitution, the offspring of their undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances; to contain in its combination of the federate and elective principles, a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of national power for the defence of national rights with a security against wars of injustice. of ambition, and of vain glory, in the fundamental provision which subjects all questions of war to the will of the nation itself, which is to pay its costs and feel its calamities. Nor is it less a peculiar felicity of this constitution, so dear to us all, that it is found to be capable, without losing its vital energies, of expanding itself over a spacious territory with the increase and expansion of the community for whose benefit it was established.

And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle, that I shall read in the character of the American people, in their devotion to true liberty and to the constitution which is its palladium, sure presages that the destined career of my country will exhibit a government pursuing the public good as its sole object, and regulating its means by the great principles consecrated by its charter and by those moral principles to which they are so well allied: a government which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of speech and of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal interdict against the encroachments and compacts between religion and state; which maintains inviolable the maxims of public faith, the security of persons and property, and encourages, in every authorized mode, that general diffusion of knowledge which guaranties to public liberty its permanency, and to those who possess the blessing the true enjoyment of it: a government which avoids intrusion on the internal repose of other nations, and repels them from its own; which does justice to all nations with a readiness equal to the firmness with which it requires justice from them; and which, while it refines its domestic code from every ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened age, and the sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks by appeals to reason and by its liberal examples, to infuse into the law which governs the civilized world a spirit which may diminish the frequency or circumscribe the calamities of war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of peace: a government, in a word, whose conduct, within and without, may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions-that of promoting peace on earth and good will to man.

These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days, will animate my prayers for the happiness of my beloved country, and a perpetuity of the institutions under which it is enjoyed.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

APRIL 11, 1816.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :WITH a view to the more convenient arrangement of the important and growing business connected with the grant of exclusive rights to inventors and authors, I recommend the establishment of a distinct office within the department of state, to be charged therewith, under a director, with a salary adequate to his services, and with the privilege of franking communications by mail from and to the office. I recommend, also, that further restraints be imposed on the issue of patents to wrongful claimants, and further guards provided against fraudulent exactions of fees by persons possessed of patents.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 6, 1816.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :THE ninth section of the act passed at the last session of Congress," to authorize the payment for property lost, captured, or destroyed by the enemy, while in the military services of the United States, and for other purposes," having received a construction giving it a scope of great and uncertain extent, I thought it proper that proceedings relative to claims under that part of the act should be suspended, until Congress should have an opportunity of defining more precisely the cases contemplated by them. With that view, I now recommend the subject to their consideration. They will have an opportunity, at the same time, of considering how far other provisions of the act may be rendered more clear and precise in their import.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 26, 1816.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :IT is found that the existing laws have not the efficacy necessary to prevent violations of the obligations of the United States as a nation at peace toward belligerent parties, and other unlawful acts on the high seas, by armed vessels equipped within the waters of the United States.

With a view to maintain, more effectually, the respect due to the laws, to the character, and to the neutral and pacific relations of the United States, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of such further legislative provisions as may be requisite for detaining vessels actually equipped, or in a course of equipment with a warlike force, within the jurisdiction of the United States; or, as the case may be, for obtaining from the owners or commanders of such vessels adequate securities against

the abuse of their armaments, with the exceptions in such provisions proper for the cases of merchant vessels furnished with the defensive armaments usual on distant and dangerous expeditions, and of a private commerce in military stores permitted by our laws, and which the law of nations does not require the United States to prohibit.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 3, 1817.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:THE government of Great Britain, induced by the posture of the relations with the United States, which succeeded the conclusion of the recent commercial convention, issued an order on the 17th day of August, 1815, discontinuing the discriminating duties payable in British ports on American vessels and their cargoes. It was not until the 22d of December following, that a corresponding discontinuance of discriminating duties on British vessels and their cargoes, in American ports, took effect, under the authority vested in the executive, by the act of March, 1816. During the period between those two dates there was, consequently, a failure of reciprocity, or equality, in the existing regulations of the two countries. I recommend to the consideration of Congress, the expediency of paying to the British government the amount of the duties remitted, during the period in question, to the citizens of the United States, subject to a deduction of the amount of whatever discriminating duties may have commenced in British ports after the signature of that convention, and been collected previous to the 17th of August, 1815.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 6, 1817.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:ON comparing the fourth section of the act of Congress, passed March 31, 1814, providing for the indemnification of certain claimants of public lands in the Mississippi territory, with the article of agreement and cession between the United States and state of Georgia, bearing date April 30, 1802, it appears that the engagement entered into with the claimants interfere with the rights and interests secured to that state. I recommend to Congress, that provision be made by law for payments to the state of Georgia, equal to the amount of Mississippi stock which shall be paid into the treasury, until the stipulated sum of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars shall be completed.

ADMINISTRATION OF MADISON.

On the fourth of March, 1809, James Madison was inaugurated as president of the United States. The oath of office was administered to him by Chief-Justice Marshall, in the capitol, at Washington in the presence of the ex-president, Mr. Jefferson, who sat at his right hand, the members of the late cabinet, many members of Congress, foreign ministers, and a large concourse of citizens. He was dressed in a plain suit of black, and delivered his inaugural address in a manner at once modest and dignified. The tone and sentiment of the address elicited general approbation, and hopes were entertained by the nation, that the gloomy aspect of affairs might be changed by the measures of the new administration with regard to our foreign relations. These anticipations of the people were doomed to disappointment.

Mr. Madison selected for his cabinet, Robert Smith, of Maryland, as secretary of state, William Eustis, of Massachusetts, secretary of war, Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina, secretary of the navy; Mr. Gallatin was continued as secretary of the treasury, as was Cesar A. Rodney, of Delaware, attorney-general.

The eleventh Congress met on the 22d of May, 1809, agreeably to a law passed by the previous Congress, in consequence of the critical state of the nation, and the apprehension of a war with Great Britain or France. The democratic ascendency in the house of representatives having been sustained at the recent elections, Joseph B. Varnum was re-elected speaker.

At this session, the non-intercourse act with Great Britain and France, which had been substituted for the embargo, by the last Congress, was continued, with some modifications. No very material alterations were made in the law, nor was any other very important measure adopted at this extra session, which lasted only about five weeks, and was terminated on the 28th of June.

Mr. Erskine, the British minister at Washington, considering the nonintercourse law as placing Great Britain and France on an equality, made a communication to the government of the United States, in April, informing it that he was authorized, by despatches received from his govern

ment, to make reparation for the Chesapeake affair; also that an envoy extraordinary would soon be sent to the United States to conclude a treaty on all questions between the two countries, and that the orders in council would be repealed as to the United States, on the president's renewing the intercourse between America and Great Britain. The president issued a proclamation to that effect, on the 19th of April, stating the withdrawal of the British orders on the 10th of June, when the commerce between the two countries would be renewed. But the British government refused to sanction the overture and arrangement made by their minister, who, they declared, had exceeded the authority of his instructions; and he admitted that he had done so, in a letter to his government, in which he says, that "nothing would have induced me to deviate, in any degree, from the orders I had received, but a thorough conviction that by so doing I should accomplish the object which his majesty had in view; when by too strictly adhering to the letter of my instructions, I might lose the opportunity of promoting essentially his majesty's interests and wishes."

The president thereupon issued a second proclamation, reciting the facts, and declaring the act of non-intercourse to be revived and in full effect. Mr. Erskine was soon after recalled, and another envoy appointed in his stead. This transaction caused great irritation in the public mind and hostility toward England, among the American people, and a declaration of war at this time with England, would probably have been popular.

Mr. Jackson, the British envoy who succeeded Mr. Erskine, arrived at Washington at the close of the year 1809. He was directed to state the reasons for a refusal by the British government to confirm the arrangement made Mr. Erskine, and was authorized to enter into negotiations for a commercial treaty. But far from displaying the mild and conciliatory spirit of his predecessor, he attempted to vindicate the honor of his own government by dealing in censures and criminations upon the government of the United States, in a style unusual in diplomatic correspondence. He insinuated that the president and secretary of state must have known that Mr. Erskine had deviated from his instructions, and transcended his powers; and after the secretary of state denied the charge, he repeated the insinuation, which was deemed highly improper and insulting to our government. The correspondence between Mr. Jackson and the secretary of state was continued in the same angry tone for several weeks, each party considering himself harshly treated, and the president finally directed the secretary of state to receive no further communication from the British envoy Mr. Jackson therefore left Washington, immediately on receiving notice to that effect, and took up his residence in New York. At the request of the president, communicated through the American minister in London, Mr. Jackson was recalled, but without being censured, or the offer of any

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