HISTORIC SPEECHES
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
1825 State of the Union Address
December 6, 1825
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In taking a general survey of the concerns of our beloved country, with reference
to subjects interesting to the common welfare, the first sentiment which impresses
itself upon the mind is of gratitude to the Omnipotent Disposer of All Good
for the continuance of the signal blessings of His providence, and especially
for that health which to an unusual extent has prevailed within our borders,
and for that abundance which in the vicissitudes of the seasons has been scattered
with profusion over our land. Nor ought we less to ascribe to Him the glory
that we are permitted to enjoy the bounties of His hand in peace and tranquillity
-- in peace with all the other nations of the earth, in tranquillity among our
selves. There has, indeed, rarely been a period in the history of civilized
man in which the general condition of the Christian nations has been marked
so extensively by peace and prosperity.
Europe, with a few partial and unhappy exceptions, has enjoyed 10 years of
peace, during which all her Governments, what ever the theory of their constitutions
may have been, are successively taught to feel that the end of their institution
is the happiness of the people, and that the exercise of power among men can
be justified only by the blessings it confers upon those over whom it is extended.
During the same period our intercourse with all those nations has been pacific
and friendly; it so continues. Since the close of your last session no material
variation has occurred in our relations with any one of them. In the commercial
and navigation system of Great Britain important changes of municipal regulation
have recently been sanctioned by acts of Parliament, the effect of which upon
the interests of other nations, and particularly upon ours, has not yet been
fully developed. In the recent renewal of the diplomatic missions on both sides
between the two Governments assurances have been given and received of the continuance
and increase of the mutual confidence and cordiality by which the adjustment
of many points of difference had already been effected, and which affords the
surest pledge for the ultimate satisfactory adjustment of those which still
remain open or may hereafter arise.
The policy of the United States in their commercial intercourse with other
nations has always been of the most liberal character. In the mutual exchange
of their respective productions they have abstained altogether from prohibitions;
they have interdicted themselves the power of laying taxes upon exports, and
when ever they have favored their own shipping by special preferences or exclusive
privileges in their own ports it has been only with a view to countervail similar
favors and exclusions granted by the nations with whom we have been engaged
in traffic to their own people or shipping, and to the disadvantage of ours.
Immediately after the close of the last war a proposal was fairly made by the
act of Congress of 1815-03-03, to all the maritime nations to lay aside the
system of retaliating restrictions and exclusions, and to place the shipping
of both parties to the common trade on a footing of equality in respect to the
duties of tonnage and impost. This offer was partially and successively accepted
by Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Hanseatic cities, Prussia, Sardinia,
the Duke of Oldenburg, and Russia. It was also adopted, under certain modifications,
in our late commercial convention with France, and by the act of Congress of
1824-01-08, it has received a new confirmation with all the nations who had
acceded to it, and has been offered again to all those who are or may here after
be willing to abide in reciprocity by it. But all these regulations, whether
established by treaty or by municipal enactments, are still subject to one important
restriction.
The removal of discriminating duties of tonnage and of impost is limited to
articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the country to which the
vessel belongs or to such articles as are most usually first shipped from her
ports. It will deserve the serious consideration of Congress whether even this
remnant of restriction may not be safely abandoned, and whether the general
tender of equal competition made in the act of 1824-01-08, may not be extended
to include all articles of merchandise not prohibited, of what country so ever
they may be the produce or manufacture. Propositions of this effect have already
been made to us by more than one European Government, and it is probable that
if once established by legislation or compact with any distinguished maritime
state it would recommend itself by the experience of its advantages to the general
accession of all.
The convention of commerce and navigation between the United States and France,
concluded on 1822-06-24, was, in the understanding and intent of both parties,
as appears upon its face, only a temporary arrangement of the points of difference
between them of the most immediate and pressing urgency. It was limited in the
first instance to two years from 1822-10-01, but with a proviso that it should
further continue in force 'til the conclusion of a general and definitive treaty
of commerce, unless terminated by a notice, 6 months in advance, of either of
the parties to the other. Its operation so far as it extended has been mutually
advantageous, and it still continues in force by common consent. But it left
unadjusted several objects of great interest to the citizens and subjects of
both countries, and particularly a mass of claims to considerable amount of
citizens of the United States upon the Government of France of indemnity for
property taken or destroyed under circumstances of the most aggravated and outrageous
character. In the long period during which continual and earnest appeals have
been made to the equity and magnanimity of France in behalf of these claims
their justice has not been, as it could not be, denied.
It was hoped that the accession of a new Sovereign to the throne would have
afforded a favorable opportunity for presenting them to the consideration of
his Government. They have been presented and urged hither to without effect.
The repeated and earnest representations of our minister at the Court of France
remain as yet even without an answer. Were the demands of nations upon the justice
of each other susceptible of adjudication by the sentence of an impartial tribunal,
those to which I now refer would long since have been settled and adequate indemnity
would have been obtained.
There are large amounts of similar claims upon the Netherlands, Naples, and
Denmark. For those upon Spain prior to 1819 indemnity was, after many years
of patient forbearance, obtained; and those upon Sweden have been lately compromised
by a private settlement, in which the claimants themselves have acquiesced.
The Governments of Denmark and of Naples have been recently reminded of those
yet existing against them, nor will any of them be forgotten while a hope may
be indulged of obtaining justice by the means within the constitutional power
of the Executive, and without resorting to those means of self-redress which,
as well as the time, circumstances, and occasion which may require them, are
within the exclusive competency of the Legislature.
It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear witness to the liberal
spirit with which the Republic of Colombia has made satisfaction for well-established
claims of a similar character, and among the documents now communicated to Congress
will be distinguished a treaty of commerce and navigation with that Republic,
the ratifications of which have been exchanged since the last recess of the
Legislature. The negotiation of similar treaties with all of the independent
South American States has been contemplated and may yet be accomplished. The
basis of them all, as proposed by the United States, has been laid in two principles
-- the one of entire and unqualified reciprocity, the other the mutual obligation
of the parties to place each other permanently upon the footing of the most
favored nation. These principles are, indeed, indispensable to the effectual
emancipation of the American hemisphere from the thralldom of colonizing monopolies
and exclusions, an event rapidly realizing in the progress of human affairs,
and which the resistance still opposed in certain parts of Europe to the acknowledgment
of the Southern American Republics as independent States will, it is believed,
contribute more effectually to accomplish. The time has been, and that not remote,
when some of those States might, in their anxious desire to obtain a nominal
recognition, have accepted of a nominal independence, clogged with burdensome
conditions, and exclusive commercial privileges granted to the nation from which
they have separated to the disadvantage of all others. They are all now aware
that such concessions to any European nation would be incompatible with that
independence which they have declared and maintained.
Among the measures which have been suggested to them by the new relations with
one another, resulting from the recent changes in their condition, is that of
assembling at the Isthmus of Panama a congress, at which each of them should
be represented, to deliberate upon objects important to the welfare of all.
The Republics of Colombia, of Mexico, and of Central America have already deputed
plenipotentiaries to such a meeting, and they have invited the United States
to be also represented there by their ministers. The invitation has been accepted,
and ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to attend
at those deliberations, and to take part in them so far as may be compatible
with that neutrality from which it is neither our intention nor the desire of
the other American States that we should depart.
The commissioners under the 7th article of the treaty of Ghent have so nearly
completed their arduous labors that, by the report recently received from the
agent on the part of the United States, there is reason to expect that the commission
will be closed at their next session, appointed for May 22 of the ensuing year.
The other commission, appointed to ascertain the indemnities due for slaves
carried away from the United States after the close of the late war, have met
with some difficulty, which has delayed their progress in the inquiry. A reference
has been made to the British Government on the subject, which, it may be hoped,
will tend to hasten the decision of the commissioners, or serve as a substitute
for it.
Among the powers specifically granted to Congress by the Constitution are those
of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United
States and of providing for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia
and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the services of the
United States. The magnitude and complexity of the interests affected by legislation
upon these subjects may account for the fact that, long and often as both of
them have occupied the attention and animated the debates of Congress, no systems
have yet been devised for fulfilling to the satisfaction of the community the
duties prescribed by these grants of power.
To conciliate the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of personal
liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts, is the difficult
problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are objects of the deepest
interest to society, affecting all that is precious in the existence of multitudes
of persons, many of them in the classes essentially dependent and helpless,
of the age requiring nurture, and of the sex entitled to protection from the
free agency of the parent and the husband. The organization of the militia is
yet more indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is only by an effective
militia that we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and bid defiance to foreign
aggression; it is by the militia that we are constituted an armed nation, standing
in perpetual panoply of defense in the presence of all the other nations of
the earth. To this end it would be necessary, if possible, so to shape its organization
as to give it a more united and active energy. There are laws establishing an
uniform militia throughout the United States and for arming and equipping its
whole body. But it is a body of dislocated members, without the vigor of unity
and having little of uniformity but the name. To infuse into this most important
institution the power of which it is susceptible and to make it available for
the defense of the Union at the shortest notice and at the smallest expense
possible of time, of life, and of treasure are among the benefits to be expected
from the persevering deliberations of Congress.
Among the unequivocal indications of our national prosperity is the flourishing
state of our finances. The revenues of the present year, from all their principal
sources, will exceed the anticipations of the last. The balance in the Treasury
on the first of January last was a little short of $2,000,000, exclusive of
$2,500,000, being the moiety of the loan of $5,000,000 authorized by the act
of 1824-05-26. The receipts into the Treasury from the first of January to the
30th of September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same loan, are estimated
at $16,500,000, and it is expected that those of the current quarter will exceed
$5,000,000, forming an aggregate of receipts of nearly $22,000,000, independent
of the loan. The expenditures of the year will not exceed that sum more than
$2,000,000. By those expenditures nearly $8,000,000 of the principal of the
public debt that have been discharged.
More than $1,500,000 has been devoted to the debt of gratitude to the warriors
of the Revolution; a nearly equal sum to the construction of fortifications
and the acquisition of ordnance and other permanent preparations of national
defense; $500,000 to the gradual increase of the Navy; an equal sum for purchases
of territory from the Indians and payment of annuities to them; and upward of
$1,000,000 for objects of internal improvement authorized by special acts of
the last Congress. If we add to these $4,000,000 for payment of interest upon
the public debt, there remains a sum of $7,000,000, which have defrayed the
whole expense of the administration of Government in its legislative, executive,
and judiciary departments, including the support of the military and naval establishments
and all the occasional contingencies of a government coextensive with the Union.
The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported since the commencement
of the year is about $25,500,000, and that which will accrue during the current
quarter is estimated at $5,500,000; from these $31,000,000, deducting the draw-backs,
estimated at less than $7,000,000, a sum exceeding $24,000,000 will constitute
the revenue of the year, and will exceed the whole expenditures of the year.
The entire amount of the public debt remaining due on the first of January next
will be short of $81,000,000.
By an act of Congress of the 3d of March last a loan of $12,000,000 was authorized
at 4.5%, or an exchange of stock to that amount of 4.5% for a stock of 6%, to
create a fund for extinguishing an equal amount of the public debt, bearing
an interest of 6%, redeemable in 1826. An account of the measures taken to give
effect to this act will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury.
As the object which it had in view has been but partially accomplished, it will
be for the consideration of Congress whether the power with which it clothed
the Executive should not be renewed at an early day of the present session,
and under what modifications.
The act of Congress of the 3d of March last, directing the Secretary of the
Treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United States, for
1,500 shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company,
has been executed by the actual subscription for the amount specified; and such
other measures have been adopted by that officer, under the act, as the fulfillment
of its intentions requires. The latest accounts received of this important undertaking
authorize the belief that it is in successful progress.
The payments into the Treasury from the proceeds of the sales of the public
lands during the present year were estimated at $1,000,000. The actual receipts
of the first two quarters have fallen very little short of that sum; it is not
expected that the second half of the year will be equally productive, but the
income of the year from that source may now be safely estimated at $1,500,000.
The act of Congress of 1824-05-18, to provide for the extinguishment of the
debt due to the United States by the purchasers of public lands, was limited
in its operation of relief to the purchaser to the 10th of April last. Its effect
at the end of the quarter during which it expired was to reduce that debt from
$10,000,000 to $7,000,000 By the operation of similar prior laws of relief,
from and since that of 1821-03-02, the debt had been reduced from upward of
$22,000,000 to $10,000,000.
It is exceedingly desirable that it should be extinguished altogether; and
to facilitate that consummation I recommend to Congress the revival for one
year more of the act of 1824-05-18, with such provisional modification as may
be necessary to guard the public interests against fraudulent practices in the
resale of the relinquished land.
The purchasers of public lands are among the most useful of our fellow citizens,
and since the system of sales for cash alone has been introduced great indulgence
has been justly extended to those who had previously purchased upon credit.
The debt which had been contracted under the credit sales had become unwieldy,
and its extinction was alike advantageous to the purchaser and to the public.
Under the system of sales, matured as it has been by experience, and adapted
to the exigencies of the times, the lands will continue as they have become,
an abundant source of revenue; and when the pledge of them to the public creditor
shall have been redeemed by the entire discharge of the national debt, the swelling
tide of wealth with which they replenish the common Treasury may be made to
reflow in unfailing streams of improvement from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Ocean.
The condition of the various branches of the public service resorting from
the Department of War, and their administration during the current year, will
be exhibited in the report of the Secretary of War and the accompanying documents
herewith communicated. The organization and discipline of the Army are effective
and satisfactory. To counteract the prevalence of desertion among the troops
it has been suggested to withhold from the men a small portion of their monthly
pay until the period of their discharge; and some expedient appears to be necessary
to preserve and maintain among the officers so much of the art of horsemanship
as could scarcely fail to be found wanting on the possible sudden eruption of
a war, which should take us unprovided with a single corps of cavalry.
The Military Academy at West Point, under the restrictions of a severe but
paternal superintendence, recommends itself more and more to the patronage of
the nation, and the numbers of meritorious officers which it forms and introduces
to the public service furnishes the means of multiplying the undertakings of
the public improvements to which their acquirements at that institution are
peculiarly adapted. The school of artillery practice established at Fortress
Monroe Hampton, VA is well suited to the same purpose, and may need the aid
of further legislative provision to the same end. The reports of the various
officers at the head of the administrative branches of the military service,
connected with the quartering, clothing, subsistence, health, and pay of the
Army, exhibit the assiduous vigilance of those officers in the performance of
their respective duties, and the faithful accountability which has pervaded
every part of the system.
Our relations with the numerous tribes of aboriginal natives of this country,
scattered over its extensive surface and so dependent even for their existence
upon our power, have been during the present year highly interesting. An act
of Congress of 1824-05-25, made an appropriation to defray the expenses of making
treaties of trade and friendship with the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi.
An act of 1825-03-03, authorized treaties to be made with the Indians for their
consent to the making of a road from the frontier of Missouri to that of New
Mexico, and another act of the same date provided for defraying the expenses
of holding treaties with the Sioux, Chippeways, Menomenees, Sauks, Foxes, etc.,
for the purpose of establishing boundaries and promoting peace between said
tribes.
The first and last objects of these acts have been accomplished, and the second
is yet in a process of execution. The treaties which since the last session
of Congress have been concluded with the several tribes will be laid before
the Senate for their consideration conformably to the Constitution. They comprise
large and valuable acquisitions of territory, and they secure an adjustment
of boundaries and give pledges of permanent peace between several tribes which
had been long waging bloody wars against each other.
On the 12th of February last a treaty was signed at the Indian Springs between
commissioners appointed on the part of the United States and certain chiefs
and individuals of the Creek Nation of Indians, which was received at the seat
of Government only a very few days before the close of the last session of Congress
and of the late Administration. The advice and consent of the Senate was given
to it on the 3d of March, too late for it to receive the ratification of the
then President of the United States; it was ratified on the 7th of March, under
the unsuspecting impression that it had been negotiated in good faith and in
the confidence inspired by the recommendation of the Senate. The subsequent
transactions in relation to this treaty will form the subject of a separate
communication.
The appropriations made by Congress for public works, as well in the construction
of fortifications as for purposes of internal improvement, so far as they have
been expended, have been faithfuly applied. Their progress has been delayed
by the want of suitable officers for superintending them. An increase of both
the corps of engineers, military and topographical, was recommended by my predecessor
at the last session of Congress. The reasons upon which that recommendation
was founded subsist in all their force and have acquired additional urgency
since that time. The Military Academy at West Point will furnish from the cadets
there officers well qualified for carrying this measure into effect.
The Board of Engineers for Internal Improvement, appointed for carrying into
execution the act of Congress of 1824-04-30, "to procure the necessary surveys,
plans, and estimates on the subject of roads and canals", have been actively
engaged in that service from the close of the last session of Congress. They
have completed the surveys necessary for ascertaining the practicability of
a canal from the Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River, and are preparing a full
report on that subject, which, when completed, will be laid before you. The
same observation is to be made with regard to the two other objects of national
importance upon which the Board have been occupied, namely, the accomplishment
of a national road from this city to New Orleans, and the practicability of
uniting the waters of Lake Memphramagog with Connecticut River and the improvement
of the navigation of that river. The surveys have been made and are nearly completed.
The report may be expected at an early period during the present session of
Congress.
The acts of Congress of the last session relative to the surveying, marking,
or laying out roads in the Territories of Florida, Arkansas, and Michigan, from
Missouri to Mexico, and for the continuation of the Cumberland road, are, some
of them, fully executed, and others in the process of execution. Those for completing
or commencing fortifications have been delayed only so far as the Corps of Engineers
has been inadequate to furnish officers for the necessary superintendence of
the works. Under the act confirming the statutes of Virginia and Maryland incorporating
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, three commissioners on the part of the
United States have been appointed for opening books and receiving subscriptions,
in concert with a like number of commissioners appointed on the part of each
of those States. A meeting of the commissioners has been post-poned, to await
the definitive report of the board of engineers.
The light-houses and monuments for the safety of our commerce and mariners,
the works for the security of Plymouth Beach and for the preservation of the
islands in Boston Harbor, have received the attention required by the laws relating
to those objects respectively. The continuation of the Cumberland road, the
most important of them all, after surmounting no inconsiderable difficulty in
fixing upon the direction of the road, has commenced under the most promising
of auspices, with the improvements of recent invention in the mode of construction,
and with advantage of a great reduction in the comparative cost of the work.
The operation of the laws relating to the Revolutionary pensioners may deserve
the renewed consideration of Congress. The act of 1818-03-18, while it made
provision for many meritorious and indigent citizens who had served in the War
of Independence, opened a door to numerous abuses and impositions. To remedy
this the act of 1820-05-01, exacted proofs of absolute indigence, which many
really in want were unable and all susceptible of that delicacy which is allied
to many virtues must be deeply reluctant to give. The result has been that some
among the least deserving have been retained, and some in whom the requisites
both of worth and want were combined have been stricken from the list. As the
numbers of these venerable relics of an age gone by diminish; as the decays
of body, mind, and estate of those that survive must in the common course of
nature increase, should not a more liberal portion of indulgence be dealt out
to them? May not the want in most instances be inferred from the demand when
the service can be proved, and may not the last days of human infirmity be spared
the mortification of purchasing a pittance of relief only by the exposure of
its own necessities? I submit to Congress the expediency of providing for individual
cases of this description by special enactment, or of revising the act of 1820-05-01,
with a view to mitigate the rigor of its exclusions in favor of persons to whom
charity now bestowed can scarcely discharge the debt of justice.
The portion of the naval force of the Union in actual service has been chiefly
employed on three stations -- the Mediterranean, the coasts of South America
bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and the West Indies. An occasional cruiser has
been sent to range along the African shores most polluted by the traffic of
slaves; one armed vessel has been stationed on the coast of our eastern boundary,
to cruise along the fishing grounds in Hudsons Bay and on the coast of Labrador,
and the first service of a new frigate has been performed in restoring to his
native soil and domestic enjoyments the veteran hero whose youthful blood and
treasure had freely flowed in the cause of our country's independence, and whose
whole life has been a series of services and sacrifices to the improvement of
his fellow men.
The visit of General Lafayette, alike honorable to himself and to our country,
closed, as it had commenced, with the most affecting testimonials of devoted
attachment on his part, and of unbounded gratitude of this people to him in
return. It will form here-after a pleasing incident in the annals of our Union,
giving to real history the intense interest of romance and signally marking
the unpurchasable tribute of a great nation's social affections to the disinterested
champion of the liberties of human-kind.
The constant maintenance of a small squadron in the Mediterranean is a necessary
substitute for the humiliating alternative of paying tribute for the security
of our commerce in that sea, and for a precarious peace, at the mercy of every
caprice of four Barbary States, by whom it was liable to be violated. An additional
motive for keeping a respectable force stationed there at this time is found
in the maritime war raging between the Greeks and the Turks, and in which the
neutral navigation of this Union is always in danger of outrage and depredation.
A few instances have occurred of such depredations upon our merchant vessels
by privateers or pirates wearing the Grecian flag, but without real authority
from the Greek or any other Government. The heroic struggles of the Greeks themselves,
in which our warmest sympathies as free men and Christians have been engaged,
have continued to be maintained with vicissitudes of success adverse and favorable.
Similar motives have rendered expedient the keeping of a like force on the
coasts of Peru and Chile on the Pacific. The irregular and convulsive character
of the war upon the shores has been extended to the conflicts upon the ocean.
An active warfare has been kept up for years with alternate success, though
generally to the advantage of the American patriots. But their naval forces
have not always been under the control of their own Governments. Blockades,
unjustifiable upon any acknowledged principles of international law, have been
proclaimed by officers in command, and though disavowed by the supreme authorities,
the protection of our own commerce against them has been made cause of complaint
and erroneous imputations against some of the most gallant officers of our Navy.
Complaints equally groundless have been made by the commanders of the Spanish
royal forces in those seas; but the most effective protection to our commerce
has been the flag and the firmness of our own commanding officers.
The cessation of the war by the complete triumph of the patriot cause has removed,
it is hoped, all cause of dissension with one party and all vestige of force
of the other. But an unsettled coast of many degrees of latitude forming a part
of our own territory and a flourishing commerce and fishery extending to the
islands of the Pacific and to China still require that the protecting power
of the Union should be displayed under its flag as well upon the ocean as upon
the land.
The objects of the West India Squadron have been to carry into execution the
laws for the suppression of the African slave trade; for the protection of our
commerce against vessels of piratical character, though bearing commissions
from either of the belligerent parties; for its protection against open and
unequivocal pirates. These objects during the present year have been accomplished
more effectually than at any former period. The African slave trade has long
been excluded from the use of our flag, and if some few citizens of our country
have continued to set the laws of the Union as well as those of nature and humanity
at defiance by persevering in that abominable traffic, it has been only by sheltering
themselves under the banners of other nations less earnest for the total extinction
of the trade of ours.
The active, persevering, and unremitted energy of Captain Warrington and of
the officers and men under his command on that trying and perilous service have
been crowned with signal success, and are entitled to the approbation of their
country. But experience has shown that not even a temporary suspension or relaxation
from assiduity can be indulged on that station without reproducing piracy and
murder in all their horrors; nor is it probably that for years to come our immensely
valuable commerce in those seas can navigate in security without the steady
continuance of an armed force devoted to its protection.
It were, indeed, a vain and dangerous illusion to believe that in the present
or probable condition of human society a commerce so extensive and so rich as
ours could exist and be pursued in safety without the continual support of a
military marine -- the only arm by which the power of this Confederacy can be
estimated or felt by foreign nations, and the only standing military force which
can never be dangerous to our own liberties at home. A permanent naval peace
establishment, therefore, adapted to our present condition, and adaptable to
that gigantic growth with which the nation is advancing in its career, is among
the subjects which have already occupied the foresight of the last Congress,
and which will deserve your serious deliberations. Our Navy, commenced at an
early period of our present political organization upon a scale commensurate
with the incipient energies, the scanty resources, and the comparative indigence
of our infancy, was even then found adequate to cope with all the powers of
Barbary, save the first, and with one of the principle maritime powers of Europe.
At a period of further advancement, but with little accession of strength,
it not only sustained with honor the most unequal of conflicts, but covered
itself and our country with unfading glory. But it is only since the close of
the late war that by the numbers and force of the ships of which it was composed
it could deserve the name of a navy. Yet it retains nearly the same organization
as when it consisted only of 5 frigates. The rules and regulations by which
it is governed earnestly call for revision, and the want of a naval school of
instruction, corresponding with the Military Academy at West Point, for the
formation of scientific and accomplished officers, is felt with daily increasing
aggravation.
The act of Congress of 1824-05-26, authorizing an examination and survey of
the harbor of Charleston, in South Carolina, of St. Marys, in Georgia, and of
the coast of Florida, and for other purposes, has been executed so far as the
appropriation would admit. Those of the 3d of March last, authorizing the establishment
of a navy yard and depot on the coast of Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, and
authorizing the building of ten sloops of war, and for other purposes, are in
the course of execution, for the particulars of which and other objects connected
with this Department I refer to the report of the Secretary of the Navy, herewith
communicated.
A report from the PostMaster General is also submitted, exhibiting the present
flourishing condition of that Department. For the first time for many years
the receipts for the year ending on the first of July last exceeded the expenditures
during the same period to the amount of more than $45,000. Other facts equally
creditable to the administration of this Department are that in two years from
1823-07-01, an improvement of more than $185,000 in its pecuniary affairs has
been realized; that in the same interval the increase of the transportation
of the mail has exceeded 1,500,000 miles annually, and that 1,040 new post offices
have been established. It hence appears that under judicious management the
income from this establishment may be relied on as fully adequate to defray
its expenses, and that by the discontinuance of post roads altogether unproductive,
others of more useful character may be opened, 'til the circulation of the mail
shall keep pace with the spread of our population, and the comforts of friendly
correspondence, the exchanges of internal traffic, and the lights of the periodical
press shall be distributed to the remotest corners of the Union, at a charge
scarcely perceptible to any individual, and without the cost of a dollar to
the public Treasury.
Upon this first occasion of addressing the Legislature of the Union, with which
I have been honored, in presenting to their view the execution so far as it
has been effected of the measures sanctioned by them for promoting the internal
improvement of our country, I can not close the communication without recommending
to their calm and persevering consideration the general principle in a more
enlarged extent. The great object of the institution of civil government is
the improvement of the condition of those who are parties to the social compact,
and no government, in what ever form constituted, can accomplish the lawful
ends of its institution but in proportion as it improves the condition of those
over whom it is established. Roads and canals, by multiplying and facilitating
the communications and intercourse between distant regions and multitudes of
men, are among the most important means of improvement. But moral, political,
intellectual improvement are duties assigned by the Author of Our Existence
to social no less than to individual man.
For the fulfillment of those duties governments are invested with power, and
to the attainment of the end -- the progressive improvement of the condition
of the governed -- the exercise of delegated powers is a duty as sacred and
indispensable as the usurpation of powers not granted is criminal and odious.
Among the first, perhaps the very first, instrument for the improvement of
the condition of men is knowledge, and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge
adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments of human life public institutions
and seminaries of learning are essential. So convinced of this was the first
of my predecessors in this office, now first in the memory, as, living, he was
first in the hearts, of our country- men, that once and again in his addresses
to the Congresses with whom he cooperated in the public service he earnestly
recommended the establishment of seminaries of learning, to prepare for all
the emergencies of peace and war -- a national university and a military academy.
With respect to the latter, had he lived to the present day, in turning his
eyes to the institution at West Point he would have enjoyed the gratification
of his most earnest wishes; but in surveying the city which has been honored
with his name he would have seen the spot of earth which he had destined and
bequeathed to the use and benefit of his country as the site for a university
still bare and barren.
In assuming her station among the civilized nations of the earth it would seem
that our country had contracted the engagement to contribute her share of mind,
of labor, and of expense to the improvement of those parts of knowledge which
lie beyond the reach of individual acquisition, and particularly to geographical
and astronomical science. Looking back to the history only of the half century
since the declaration of our independence, and observing the generous emulation
with which the Governments of France, Great Britain, and Russia have devoted
the genius, the intelligence, the treasures of their respective nations to the
common improvement of the species in these branches of science, is it not incumbent
upon us to inquire whether we are not bound by obligations of a high and honorable
character to contribute our portion of energy and exertion to the common stock?
The voyages of discovery prosecuted in the course of that time at the expense
of those nations have not only redounded to their glory, but to the improvement
of human knowledge.
We have been partakers of that improvement and owe for it a sacred debt, not
only of gratitude, but of equal or proportional exertion in the same common
cause. Of the cost of these undertakings, if the mere expenditures of outfit,
equipment, and completion of the expeditions were to be considered the only
charges, it would be unworthy of a great and generous nation to take a second
thought. One hundred expeditions of circumnavigation like those of Cook and
La Prouse would not burden the exchequer of the nation fitting them out so much
as the ways and means of defraying a single campaign in war. but if we take
into account the lives of those benefactors of man-kind of which their services
in the cause of their species were the purchase, how shall the cost of those
heroic enterprises be estimated, and what compensation can be made to them or
to their countries for them? Is it not by bearing them in affectionate remembrance?
Is it not still more by imitating their example -- by enabling country-men of
our own to pursue the same career and to hazard their lives in the same cause?
In inviting the attention of Congress to the subject of internal improvements
upon a view thus enlarged it is not my desire to recommend the equipment of
an expedition for circumnavigating the globe for purposes of scientific research
and inquiry. We have objects of useful investigation nearer home, and to which
our cares may be more beneficially applied. The interior of our own territories
has yet been very imperfectly explored. our coasts along many degrees of latitude
upon the shores of the Pacific Ocean, though much frequented by our spirited
commercial navigators, have been barely visited by our public ships. The River
of the West, first fully discovered and navigated by a country-man of our own,
still bears the name of the ship in which he ascended its waters, and claims
the protection of our armed national flag at its mouth. With the establishment
of a military post there or at some other point of that coast, recommended by
my predecessor and already matured in the deliberations of the last Congress,
I would suggest the expediency of connecting the equipment of a public ship
for the exploration of the whole north-west coast of this continent.
The establishment of an uniform standard of weights and measures was one of
the specific objects contemplated in the formation of our Constitution, and
to fix that standard was on of the powers delegated by express terms in that
instrument to Congress. The Governments of Great Britain and France have scarcely
ceased to be occupied with inquiries and speculations on the same subject since
the existence of our Constitution, and with them it has expanded into profound,
laborious, and expensive researches into the figure of the earth and the comparative
length of the pendulum vibrating seconds in various latitudes from the equator
to the pole. These researches have resulted in the composition and publication
of several works highly interesting to the cause of science. The experiments
are yet in the process of performance. Some of them have recently been made
on our own shores, within the walls of one of our own colleges, and partly by
one of our own fellow citizens. It would be honorable to our country if the
sequel of the same experiments should be countenanced by the patronage of our
Government, as they have hitherto been by those of France and Britain.
Connected with the establishment of an university, or separate from it, might
be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for
the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance of observation upon
the phenomena of the heavens, and for the periodical publication of his observances.
it is with no feeling of pride as an American that the remark may be made that
on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe there are existing
upward of 130 of these light-houses of the skies, while throughout the whole
American hemisphere there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries
which in the last four centuries have been made in the physical constitution
of the universe by the means of these buildings and of observers stationed in
them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation? And while scarcely
a year passes over our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery
to light, which we must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are we not
cutting ourselves off from the means of returning light for light while we have
neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe and the earth revolves
in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?
When, on 1791-10-25, the first President of the United States announced to
Congress the result of the first enumeration of the inhabitants of this Union,
he informed them that the returns gave the pleasing assurance that the population
of the United States bordered on 4,000,000 persons. At the distance of 30 years
from that time the last enumeration, 5 years since completed, presented a population
bordering on 10,000,000. Perhaps of all the evidence of a prosperous and happy
condition of human society the rapidity of the increase of population is the
most unequivocal. But the demonstration of our prosperity rests not alone upon
this indication.
Our commerce, our wealth, and the extent of our territories have increased
in corresponding proportions, and the number of independent communities associated
in our Federal Union has since that time nearly doubled. The legislative representation
of the States and people in the two Houses of Congress has grown with the growth
of their constituent bodies. The House, which then consisted of 65 members,
now numbers upward of 200. The Senate, which consisted of 26 members, has now
48. But the executive and, still more, the judiciary departments are yet in
a great measure confined to their primitive organization, and are now not adequate
to the urgent wants of a still growing community.
The naval armaments, which at an early period forced themselves upon the necessities
of the Union, soon led to the establishment of a Department of the Navy. But
the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior, which early after the
formation of the Government had been united in one, continue so united to this
time, to the unquestionable detriment of the public service. The multiplication
of our relations with the nations and Governments of the Old World has kept
pace with that of our population and commerce, while within the last 10 years
a new family of nations in our own hemisphere has arisen among the inhabitants
of the earth, with whom our intercourse, commercial and political, would of
itself furnish occupation to an active and industrious department.
The constitution of the judiciary, experimental and imperfect as it was even
in the infancy of our existing Government, is yet more inadequate to the administration
of national justice at our present maturity. Nine years have elapsed since a
predecessor in this office, now not the last, the citizen who, perhaps, of all
others throughout the Union contributed most to the formation and establishment
of our Constitution, in his valedictory address to Congress, immediately preceding
his retirement from public life, urgently recommended the revision of the judiciary
and the establishment of an additional executive department. The exigencies
of the public service and its unavoidable deficiencies, as now in exercise,
have added yearly cumulative weight to the considerations presented by him as
persuasive to the measure, and in recommending it to your deliberations I am
happy to have the influence of this high authority in aid of the undoubting
convictions of my own experience.
The laws relating to the administration of the Patent Office are deserving
of much consideration and perhaps susceptible of some improvement. The grant
of power to regulate the action of Congress upon this subject has specified
both the end to be obtained and the means by which it is to be effected, "to
promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times
to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries". If an honest pride might be indulged in the reflection that on
the records of that office are already found inventions the usefulness of which
has scarcely been transcended in the annals of human ingenuity, would not its
exultation be allayed by the inquiry whether the laws have effectively insured
to the inventors the reward destined to them by the Constitution -- even a limited
term of exclusive right to their discoveries?
On 1799-12-24, it was resolved by Congress that a marble monument should be
erected by the United States in the Capitol at the city of Washington; that
the family of General Washington should be requested to permit his body to be
deposited under it, and that the monument be so designed as to commemorate the
great events of his military and political life. In reminding Congress of this
resolution and that the monument contemplated by it remains yet without execution,
I shall indulge only the remarks that the works at the Capitol are approaching
to completion; that the consent of the family, desired by the resolution, was
requested and obtained; that a monument has been recently erected in this city
over the remains of another distinguished patriot of the Revolution, and that
a spot has been reserved within the walls where you are deliberating for the
benefit of this and future ages, in which the mortal remains may be deposited
of him whose spirit hovers over you and listens with delight to every act of
the representatives of his nation which can tend to exalt and adorn his and
their country.
The Constitution under which you are assembled is a charter of limited powers.
After full and solemn deliberation upon all or any of the objects which, urged
by an irresistible sense of my own duty, I have recommended to your attention
should you come to the conclusion that, however desirable in themselves, the
enactment of laws for effecting them would transcend the powers committed to
you by that venerable instrument which we are all bound to support, let no consideration
induce you to assume the exercise of powers not granted to you by the people.
But if the power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases what so ever
over the District of Columbia; if the power to lay and collect taxes, duties,
imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and
general welfare of the United States; if the power to regulate commerce with
foreign nations and among the several States and with the Indian tribes, to
fix the standard of weights and measures, to establish post offices and post
roads, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain
a navy, to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting
the territory or other property belonging to the United States, and to make
all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying these powers into
execution -- if these powers and others enumerated in the Constitution may be
effectually brought into action by laws promoting the improvement of agriculture,
commerce, and manufactures, the cultivation and encouragement of the mechanic
and of the elegant arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of
the sciences, ornamental and profound, to refrain from exercising them for the
benefit of the people themselves would be to hide in the earth the talent committed
to our charge -- would be treachery to the most sacred of trusts.
The spirit of improvement is abroad upon the earth. It stimulates the hearts
and sharpens the faculties not of our fellow citizens alone, but of the nations
of Europe and of their rulers. While dwelling with pleasing satisfaction upon
the superior excellence of our political institutions, let us not be unmindful
that liberty is power; that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty
must in proportion to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth, and
that the tenure of power by man is, in the moral purposes of his Creator, upon
condition that it shall be exercised to ends of beneficence, to improve the
condition of himself and his fellow men.
While foreign nations less blessed with that freedom which is power than ourselves
are advancing with gigantic strides in the career of public improvement, were
we to slumber in indolence or fold up our arms and proclaim to the world that
we are palsied by the will of our constituents, would it not be to cast away
the bounties of Providence and doom ourselves to perpetual inferiority? In the
course of the year now drawing to its close we have beheld, under the auspices
and at the expense of one State of this Union, a new university unfolding its
portals to the sons of science and holding up the torch of human improvement
to eyes that seek the light. We have seen under the persevering and enlightened
enterprise of another State the waters of our Western lakes mingle with those
of the ocean. If undertakings like these have been accomplished in the compass
of a few years by the authority of single members of our Confederation, can
we, the representative authorities of the whole Union, fall behind our fellow
servants in the exercise of the trust committed to us for the benefit of our
common sovereign by the accomplishment of works important to the whole and to
which neither the authority nor the resources of any one State can be adequate?
Finally, fellow citizens, I shall await with cheering hope and faithful cooperation
the result of your deliberations, assured that, without encroaching upon the
powers reserved to the authorities of the respective States or to the people,
you will, with a due sense of your obligations to your country and of the high
responsibilities weighing upon yourselves, give efficacy to the means committed
to you for the common good. And may He who searches the hearts of the children
of men prosper your exertions to secure the blessings of peace and promote the
highest welfare of your country.
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