HISTORIC SPEECHES
ANDREW JACKSON
1835 State of the Union Address
December 7, 1835
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In the discharge of my official duty the again devolves upon me of communicating
with a new Congress. The reflection that the representation of the Union has
been recently renewed, and that the constitutional term of its service will
expire with my own, heightens the solicitude with which I shall attempt to lay
before it the state of our national concerns and the devout hope which I cherish
that its labors to improve them may be crowned with success.
You are assembled at a period of profound interest to the American patriot.
The unexampled growth and prosperity of our country having given us a rank in
the scale of nations which removes all apprehension of danger to our integrity
and independence from external foes, the career of freedom is before us, with
an earnest from the past that if true to ourselves there can be no formidable
obstacle in the future to its peaceful and uninterrupted pursuit. Yet, in proportion
to the disappearance of those apprehensions which attended our weakness, as
once contrasted with the power of some of the States of the Old World, should
we now be solicitous as to those which belong to the conviction that it is to
our own conduct we must look for the preservation of those causes on which depend
the excellence and the duration of our happy system of government.
In the example of other systems founded on the will of the people we trace
to internal dissension the influences which have so often blasted the hopes
of the friends of freedom. The social elements, which were strong and successful
when united against external danger, failed in the more difficult task of properly
adjusting their own internal organization, and thus gave way the great principle
of self-government. Let us trust that this admonition will never be forgotten
by the Government or the people of the United States, and that the testimony
which our experience thus far holds out to the great human family of the practicability
and the blessings of free government will be confirmed in all time to come.
We have but to look at the state of our agriculture, manufactures, and commerce
and the unexampled increase of our population to feel the magnitude of the trust
committed to us. Never in any former period of our history have we had greater
reason than we now have to be thankful to Divine Providence for the blessings
fo health and general prosperity. Every branch of labor we see crowned with
the most abundant rewards. In every element of national resources and wealth
and of individual comfort we witness the most rapid and solid improvements.
With no interruptions to this pleasing prospect at home which will not yield
to the spirit of harmony and good will that so strikingly pervades the mass
of the people in every quarter, amidst all the diversity of interest and pursuits
to which they are attached, and with no cause of solicitude in regard to our
external affairs which will not, it is hoped, disappear before the principles
of simple justice and the forbearance that mark our intercourse with foreign
powers, we have every reason to feel proud of our beloved country.
The general state of our foreign relations has not materially changed since
my last annual message.
In the settlement of the question of the North Eastern boundary little progress
has been made. Great Britain has declined acceding to the proposition of the
United States, presented in accordance with the resolution of the Senate, unless
certain preliminary conditions were admitted, which I deemed incompatible with
a satisfactory and rightful adjustment of the controversy. Waiting for some
distinct proposal from the Government of Great Britain, which has been invited,
I can only repeat the expression of my confidence that, with the strong mutual
disposition which I believe exists to make a just arrangement, this perplexing
question can be settled with a due regard to the well-founded pretensions and
pac ific policy of all the parties to it. Events are frequently occurring on
the North Eastern frontier of a character to impress upon all the necessity
of a speedy and definitive termination of the dispute. This consideration, added
to the desire common to both to relieve the liberal and friendly relations so
happily existing between the two countries from all embarrassment, will no doubt
have its just influence upon both.
Our diplomatic intercourse with Portugal has been renewed, and it is expected
that the claims of our citizens, partially paid, will be fully satisfied as
soon as the condition of the Queen's Government will permit the proper attention
to the subject of them. That Government has, I am happy to inform you, manifested
a determination to act upon the liberal principles which have marked our commercial
policy. The happiest effects upon the future trade between the United States
and Portugal are anticipated from it, and the time is not thought to be remote
when a system of perfect reciprocity will be established.
The installments due under the convention with the King of the Two Sicilies
have been paid with that scrupulous fidelity by which his whole conduct has
been characterized, and the hope is indulged that the adjustment of the vexed
question of our claims will be followed by a more extended and mutually beneficial
intercourse between the two countries.
The internal contest still continues in Spain. Distinguished as this struggle
has unhappily been by incidents of the most sanguinary character, the obligations
of the late treaty of indemnification with us have been, never the less, faithfully
executed by the Spanish Government.
No provision having been made at the last session of Congress for the ascertainment
of the claims to be paid and the apportionment of the funds under the convention
made with Spain, I invite your early attention to the subject. The public evidences
of the debt have, according to the terms of the convention and in the forms
prescribed by it, been placed in the possession of the United States, and the
interest as it fell due has been regularly paid upon them. Our commercial intercourse
with Cuba stands as regulated by the act of Congress. No recent information
has been received as to the disposition of the Government of Madrid, and the
lamented death of our recently appointed minister on his way to Spain, with
the pressure of their affairs at home, renders it scarcely probable that any
change is to be looked for during the coming year.
Further portions of the Florida archives have been sent to the United States,
although the death of one of the commissioners at a critical moment embarrassed
the progress of the delivery of them. The higher officers of the local government
have recently shown an anxious desire, in compliance with the orders from the
parent Government, to facilitate the selection and delivery of all we have a
right to claim.
Negotiations have been opened at Madrid for the establishment of a lasting
peace between Spain and such of the Spanish American Governments of this hemisphere
as have availed themselves of the intimation given to all of them of the disposition
of Spain to treat upon the basis of their entire independence. It is to be regretted
that simultaneous appointments by all of ministers to negotiate with Spain had
not been made. The negotiation itself would have been simplified, and this long-standing
dispute, spreading over a large portion of the world, would have been brought
to a more speedy conclusion.
Our political and commercial relations with Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark
stand on the usual favorable bases. One of the articles of our treaty with Russia
in relation to the trade on the North-West coast of America having expired,
instructions have been given to our minister at St. Petersburg to negotiate
a renewal of it. The long and unbroken amity between the two Governments gives
every reason for supposing the article will be renewed, if stronger motives
do not exist to prevent it than with our view of the subject can be anticipated
here. I ask your attention to the message of my predecessor at the opening of
the second session fo the 19th Congress, relative to our commercial intercourse
with Holland, and to the documents connected with that subject, communicated
to the House of Representatives on the 10th of January, 1825, and 18th of January,
1827.
Coinciding in the opinion of my predecessor that Holland is not, under the regulations
of her present system, entitled to have her vessels and their cargoes received
into the United States on the footing of American vessels and cargoes as regards
duties of tonnage and impost, a respect for his reference of it to the Legislature
has alone prevented me from acting on the subject. I should still have waited
without comment for the action of Congress, but recently a claim has been made
by Belgian subjects to admission into our ports for their ships and cargoes
on the same footing as American, with the allegation we could not dispute that
our vessels received in their ports the identical treatment shewn to them in
the ports of Holland, upon whose vessels no discrimination is made in the ports
of the United States.
Given the same privileges the Belgians expected the same benefits -- benefits
that were, in fact, enjoyed when Belgium and Holland were united under one Government.
Satisfied with the justice of their pretension to be placed on the same footing
with Holland, I could not, never the less, without disregard to the principle
of our laws, admit their claim to be treated as Americans, and at the same time
a respect for Congress, to whom the subject had long since been referred, has
prevented me from producing a just equality by taking from the vessels of Holland
privileges conditionally granted by acts of Congress, although the condition
upon which the grant was made has, in my judgment, failed since 1822. I recommend,
therefore, a review of the act of 1824, and such modification of it as will
produce an equality on such terms as Congress shall think best comports with
our settled policy and the obligations of justice to two friendly powers.
With the Sublime Porte and all the Governments on the coast of Barbary our
relations continue to be friendly. The proper steps have been taken to renew
our treaty with Morocco.
The Argentine Republic has again promised to send within the current year a
minister to the United States.
A convention with Mexico for extending the time for the appointment of commissioners
to run the boundary line has been concluded and will be submitted to the Senate.
Recent events in that country have awakened the liveliest solicitude in the
United States. Aware of the strong temptations existing and powerful inducements
held out to the citizens of the United States to mingle in the dissensions of
our immediate neighbors, instructions have been given to the district attorneys
of the United States where indications warranted it to prosecute without respect
to persons all who might attempt to violate the obligations of our neutrality,
while at the same time it has been thought necessary to apprise the Government
of Mexico that we should require the integrity of our territory to be scrupulously
respected by both parties.
From our diplomatic agents in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Central America, Venezuela,
and New Granada constant assurances are received of the continued good understanding
with the Governments to which they are severally accredited. With those Governments
upon which our citizens have valid and accumulating claims, scarcely an advance
toward a settlement of them is made, owing mainly to their distracted state
or to the pressure of imperative domestic questions. Our patience has been and
will probably be still further severely tried, but our fellow citizens whose
interests are involved may confide in the determination of the Government to
obtain for them eventually ample retribution.
Unfortunately, many of the nations of this hemisphere are still self-tormented
by domestic dissensions. Revolution succeeds revolution; injuries are committed
upon foreigners engaged in lawful pursuits; much time el apses before a government
sufficiently stable is erected to justify expectation of redress; ministers
are sent and received, and before the discussions of past injuries are fairly
begun fresh troubles arise; but too frequently new injuries are added to the
old, to be discussed together with the existing government after it has proved
its ability to sustain the assaults made upon it, or with its successor if overthrown.
If this unhappy condition of things continues much longer, other nations will
be under the painful necessity of deciding whether justice to their suffering
citizens does not require a prompt redress of injuries by their own power, without
waiting for the establishment of a government competent and enduring enough
to discuss and to make satisfaction for them.
Since the last session of Congress the validity of our claims upon France,
as liquidated by the treaty of 1831, has been acknowledged by both branches
of her legislature, and the money has been appropriated for their discharge;
but the payment is, I regret to inform you, still withheld.
A brief recapitulation of the most important incidents in this protracted controversy
will shew how utterly untenable are the grounds upon which this course is attempted
to be justified.
On entering upon the duties of my station I found the United States an unsuccessful
applicant to the justice of France for the satisfaction of claims the validity
of which was never questionable, and has now been most solemnly admitted by
France herself. The antiquity of these claims, their high justice, and the aggravating
circumstances out of which they arose are too familiar to the American people
to require description. It is sufficient to say that for a period of 10 years
and upward our commerce was, with but little interruption, the subject of constant
aggression on the part of France -- aggressions the ordinary features of which
were condemnations of vessels and cargoes under arbitrary decrees, adopted in
contravention as well of the laws of nations as of treaty stipulations, burnings
on the high seas, and seizures and confiscations under special imperial rescripts
in the ports of other nations occupied by the armies or under the control of
France. Such it is now conceded is the character of the wrongs we suffered --
wrongs in many cases so flagrant that even their authors never denied our right
to reparation. Of the extent of these injuries some conception may be formed
from the fact that after the burning of a large amount at sea and the necessary
deterioration in other cases by long detention the American property so seized
and sacrificed at forced sales, excluding what was adjudged to privateers before
or without condemnation, brought into the French treasury upward of 24,000,000
francs, besides large custom house duties.
The subject had already been an affair of 20 years' uninterrupted negotiation,
except for a short time when France was overwhelmed by the military power of
united Europe. During this period, whilst other nations were extorting from
her payment of their claims at the point of the bayonet, the United States intermitted
their demand for justice out of respect to the oppressed condition of a gallant
people to whom they felt under obligations for fraternal assistance in their
own days of suffering and peril. The bad effects of these protracted and unavailing
discussions, were obvious, and the line of duty was to my mind equally so.
This was either to insist upon the adjustment of our claims within a reasonable
period or to abandon them altogether. I could not doubt that by this course
the interests and honor of both countries would be best consulted. Instructions
were therefore given in this spirit to the minister who was sent out once more
to demand reparation.
Upon the meeting of Congress in December, 1829, I felt it my duty to speak
of these claims and the delays of France in terms calculated to call the serious
attention of both countries to the subject. The then French ministry took exception
to the message on the ground of its conataining a menace, under it was not agreeable
to the French Government to negotiate. The American minister of his own accord
refuted the construction which was attempted to be put upon the message and
at the same time called to the recollection of the French ministry that the
President's message was a communication addressed, not to foreign governments,
but to the Congress of the United States, in which it was enjoined upon him
by the Constitution to lay before that body information of the state of the
Union, comprehending its foreign as well as its domestic relations, and that
if in the discharge of this duty he felt it indumbent upon him to summon the
attention of Congress in due time to what might be the possible consequences
of existing difficulties with any foreign government, he might fairly be supposed
to do so under a sense of his own Government, and not from any intention of
holding a menace over a foreign power.
The views taken by him received my approbation, the French Government was satisfied,
and the negotiation was continued. It terminated in the treaty of July 4, recognizing
the justice of our claims in part and promising payment to the amount of 25,000,000
francs in 6 annual installments.
The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged at Washington on the second
of February, 1832, and in 5 days thereafter it was laid before Congress, who
immediately passed the acts necessary on our part to secure to France the commercial
advantages conceded to her in the compact. The treaty had previously been solemnly
ratified by the King of the French in terms which are certainly not mere matters
of form, and of which the translation is as follows:
WE, approving the above convention in all and each of the dispositions
which are contained in it, do declare, by ourselves as well as by our heirs
and successors, that it is accepted, approved, ratified, and confirmed, and
by these presents, signed by our hand, we do accept, approve, ratify, and confirm
it; promising, on the faith and word of a king, to observe it and to cause it
to be observed inviolably, without ever contravening it or suffering it to be
contravened, directly or indirectly, for any cause or under any pretense whatsoever.
Official information of the exchange of ratifications in the United States reached
Paris whilst the Chambers were in session. The extraordinary and to us injurious
delays of the French Government in their action upon the subject of its fulfillment
have been heretofore stated to Congress, and I have no disposition to enlarge
upon them here. It is sufficient to observe that the then pending session was
allowed to expire without even an effort to obtain the necessary appropriations;
that the two succeeding ones were also suffered to pass away without anything
like a serious attempt to obtain a decision upon the subject, and that it was
not until the fourth session, almost three years after the conclusion of the treaty
and more than two years after the exchange of ratifications, that the bill for
the execution of the treaty was pressed to a vote and rejected.
In the mean time the Government of the United States, having full confidence
that a treaty entered into and so solemnly ratified by the French King would
be executed in good faith, and not doubting that provision would be made for
the payment of the first installment which was to become due on the second day
of February, 1833, negotiated a draft for the amount through the Bank of the
United States. When this draft was presented by the holder with the credentials
required by the treaty to authorize him to receive the money, the Government
of France allowed it to be protested. In addition to the injury in the nonpayment
of the money by France, conformably to her engagement, the United States were
exposed to a heavy claim on the part of the bank under pretense of damages,
in satisfaction of which that institution seized upon and still retains an equal
amount of the public money.
Congress was in session when the decision of the Chambers reached Washington,
and an immediate communication of this apparently final decision of France not
to fulfill the stipulation of the treaty was the course naturally to be expected
from the President. The deep tone of dissatisfaction which pervaded the public
mind and the correspondent excitement produced in Congress by only a general
knowledge of the result rendered it more than probable that a resort to immediate
measures of redress would be the consequence of calling the attention of that
body to the subject. Sincerely desirous of preserving the pacific relations
which had so long existed between the two countries, I was anxious to avoid
this course if I could be satisfied that by so neither the interests nor the
honor of my country would be compromitted. Without the fullest assurances on
that point, I could not hope to acquit myself of the responsibility to be incurred
in suffering Congress to adjourn without laying the subject before them. Those
received by me were believed to be of that character.
That the feelings produced in the United States by the news of the rejection
of the appropriation would be such as I have described them to have been was
foreseen by the French Government, and prompt measures were taken by it to prevent
the consequence. The King in person expressed through our minister at Paris
his profound regret at the decision of the Chambers, and promised to send forthwith
a ship with dispatches to his miniter here authorizing him to give such assurances
as would satisfy the Government and people of the United States that the treaty
would yet be faithfully executed by France.
The national ship arrived, and the minister received his instructions. Claiming
to act under the authority derived from them, he gave to this government in
the name of his the most solemn assurances that as soon after the new elections
as the charter would permit the French Chambers would be convened and the attempt
to procure the necessary appropriations renewed; that all the constitutional
powers of the King and his ministers should be put in requisition to accomplish
the object, and he was understood, and so expressly informed by this Government
at the time, to engage that the question should be pressed to a decision at
a period sufficiently early to permit information of the result to be communicated
to Congress at the commencement of their next session. Relying upon these assurances,
I incurred the responsibility, great as I regarded it to be, of suffering Congress
to separate without communicating with them upon the subject.
The expectations justly founded upon the promises thus solemnly made to this
Government by that of France were not realized. The French Chambers met on the
thirty-first of July, 1834, soon after the election, and although our minister
in Paris urged the French ministry to bring the subject before them, they declined
doing so. He next insisted that the Chambers, of prorogued without acting on
the subject, should be reassembled at a period so early that their action on
the treaty might be known in Washington prior to the meeting of Congress.
This reasonable request was not only declined, but the Chambers were prorogued
to the 29th of December, a day so late that their decision, however urgently
pressed, could not in all probability be obtained in time to reach Washington
before the necessary adjournment of Congress by the Constitution. The reasons
given by the ministry for refusing to convoke the Chambers at an earlier period
were afterwards shewn not to be insuperable by their actual convocation on the
first of December under a special call for domestic purposes, which fact, however,
did not become known to this Government until after the commencement of the
last session of Congress.
Thus disappointed in our just expectations, it became my imperative duty to
consult with Congress in regard to the expediency of a resort to retaliatory
measures in case the stipulations of the treaty should not be speedily complied
with, and to recommend such as in my judgment the occasion c alled for. To this
end an unreserved communication of the case in all its aspects became indispensable.
To have shrunk in making it from saying all that was necessary to its correct
understanding, and that the truth would justify, for fear of giving offense
to others, would have been unworthy of us. To have gone, on the other hand,
a single step further for the purpose of wounding the pride of a Government
and people with whom we had so many motives for cultivating relations of amity
and reciprocal advantage would have been unwise and improper.
Admonished by the past of the difficulty of making even the simplest statement
of our wrongs without disturbing the sensibilities of those who had by their
position become responsible for their redress, and earnestly desirous of preventing
further obstacles from that source, I went out of my way to preclude a construction
of the message by which the recommendation that was made to Congress might be
regarded as a menace to France in not only disavowing such a design, but in
declaring that her pride and her power were too well known to expect anything
from her fears. The message did not reach Paris until more than a month after
the Chambers had been in session, and such was the insensibility of the ministry
to our rightful claims and just expectations that our minister had been informed
that the matter when introduced would not be pressed as a cabinet measure.
Although the message was not officially communicated to the French Government,
and not withstanding the declaration to the contrary which it contained, the
French minstry decided to consider the conditional recommendation of reprisals
a menace and an insult which the honor of the nation made it incumbent on them
to resent. The measures resorted to by them to evince their sense of the supposed
indignity were the immediate recall of their minister at Washington, the offer
of passports to the American minister at Paris, and a public notice to the legislative
Chambers that all diplomatic intercourse with the United States had been suspended.
Having in this manner vindicated the dignity of France, they next proceeded
to illustrate her justice. To this end a bill was immediately introduced into
the Chamber of Deputies proposing to make the appropriations necessary to carry
into effect the treaty. As this bill subsequently passed into a law, the provisions
of which now constitute the main subject of difficulty between the two nations,
it becomes my duty, in order to place the subject before you in a clear light,
to trace the history of its passage and to refer with some particularity to
the proceedings and discussions in regard to it.
The minister of finance in his opening speech alluded to the measures which
had been adopted to resent the supposed indignity, and recommended the execution
of the treaty as a measure required by the honor and justice of France. He as
the organ of the ministry declared the message, so long as it had not received
the sanction of Congress, a mere expression of the personal opinion of the President,
for which neither the Government nor people of the United States were responsible,
and that an engagement had been entered into for the fulfillment of which the
honor of France was pledged. Entertaining these views, the single condition
which the French ministry proposed to annex to the payment of the money was
that it should not be made until it was ascertained that the Government of the
United States had done nothing to injure the interests of France, or, in other
words, that no steps had been authorized by Congress of a hostile character
toward France.
What the disposition of action of Congress might be was then unknown to the
French cabinet; but on the 14th day of January the Senate resolved that it was
at that time inexpedient to adopt any legislative measures in regard to the
state of affairs between the United States and France, and no action on the
subject had occurred in the House of Representatives. These facts were known
in Paris prior to the 28th of March, 1835, when the committee to whom the bill
of indemnification had been referred reported it to the Chamber of Deputies.
That committee substantially re-echoed the sentiments of the ministry, declared
that Congress had set aside the proposition of the President, and recommended
the passage of the bill without any other restriction than that originally proposed.
Thus was it known to the French ministry and Chambers that if the position assumed
by them, and which had been so frequently and solemnly announced as the only
one compatible with the honor of France, was maintained and the bill passed
as originally proposed, the money would be paid and there would be an end of
this unfortunate controversy.
But this cheering prospect was soon destroyed by an amendment introduced into
the bill at the moment of its passage, providing that the money should not be
paid until the French Government had received satisfactory explanations of the
President's message of the second December, 1834, and, what is still more extraordinary,
the president of the council of ministers adopted this amendment and consented
to its incorporation in the bill. In regard to a supposed insult which had been
formally resented by the recall of their minister and the offer of passports
to ours, they now for the first time proposed to ask explanations. Sentiments
and propositions which they had declared could not justly be imputed to the
Government or people of the United States are set up as obstacles to the performance
of an act of conceded justice to that Government and people. They had declared
that the honor of France required the fulfillment of the engagement into which
the King had entered, unless Congress adopted the recommendations of the message.
They ascertained that Congress did not adopt them, and yet that fulfillment
is refused unless they first obtain from the President explanations of an opinion
characterized by themselves as personal and inoperative.
The conception that it was my intention to menace or insult the Government
of France is as unfounded as the attempt to extort from the fears of that nation
what her sense of justice may deny would be vain and ridiculous. But the Constitution
of the United States imposes on the President the duty of laying before Congress
the condition of the country in its foreign and domestic relations, and of recommending
such measures as may in his opinion be required by its interests. From the performance
of this duty he can not be deterred by the fear of wounding the sensibilities
of the people or government of whom it may become necessary to speak; and the
American people are incapble of submitting to an interference by any government
on earth, however powerful, with the free performance of the domestic duties
which the Constitution has imposed on their public functionaries.
The discussions which intervene between the several departments of our Government
being to ourselves, and for anything said in them our public servants are only
responsible to their own constituents and to each other. If in the course of
their consultations facts are erroneously stated or unjust deductions are made,
they require no other inducement to correct them, however informed of their
error, than their love of justice and what is due to their own character; but
they can never submit to be interrogated upon the subject as a matter of right
by a foreign power. When our discussions terminate in acts, our responsibility
to foreign powers commences, not as individuals, but as a nation. The principle
which calls in question the President for the language of his message would
equally justify a foreign power in demanding explanations of the language used
in the report of a committee or by a member in debate.
This is not the first time that the Government of France has taken exception
to the messages of American Presidents. President Washington and the first President
Adams in the performance of their duties to the American people fell under the
animadversions of the French Directory. The obj ection taken by the ministry
of Charles 10, and removed by the explanation made by our minister upon the
spot, has already been adverted to. When it was understood that the ministry
of the present King took exception to my message of last year, putting a construction
upon it which was disavowed on its face, our late minister at Paris, in answer
to the note which first announced a dissatisfaction with the language used in
the message, made a communication to the French Government under date of the
29th of January, 1835, calculated to remove all impressions which an unreasonable
susceptibility had created. He repeated and called the attention of the French
Government to the disavowal contained in the message itself of any intention
to intimidate by menace; he truly declared that it contained and was intended
to contain no charge of ill faith against the King of the French, and properly
distinguished between the right to complain in unexceptionable terms of the
omission to execute an agreement and an accusation of bad motives in withholding
such execution, and demonstrated that the necessary use of that right ought
not to be considered as an offensive imputation.
Although this communication was made without instructions and entirely on the
minister's own responsibility, yet it was afterwards made the act of this Government
by my full approbation, and that approbation was officially made known on the
25th of April, 1835, to the French Government. It, however, failed to have any
effect. The law, after this friendly explanation, passed with the obnoxious
amendment, supported by the King's ministers, and was finally approved by the
King.
The people of the United States are justly attached to a pacific system in
their intercourse with foreign nations. It is proper, therefore, that they should
know whether their Government has adhered to it. In the present instance it
has been carried to the utmost extent that was consistent with a becoming self-respect.
The note of the 29th of January, to which I have before alluded, was not the
only one which our minister took upon himself the responsibility of presenting
on the same subject and in the same spirit.
Finding that it was intended to make the payment of a just debt dependent on
the performance of a condition which he knew could never be complied with, he
thought it a duty to make another attempt to convince the French Government
that whilst self-respect and regard to the dignity of other nations would always
prevent us from using any language that ought to give offense, yet we could
never admit a right in any foreign government to ask explanations of or to interfere
in any manner in the communications which one branch of our public councils
made with another; that in the present case no such language had been used,
and that this had in a former note been fully and voluntarily state, before
it was contemplated to make the explantion a condition; and that there might
be no misapprehension he stated the terms used in that note, and he officially
informed them that it had been approved by the President, and that therefore
every explanation which could reasonably be asked or honorably given had been
already made; that the contemplated measure had been anticipated by a voluntary
and friendly declaration, and was therefore not only useless, but might be deemed
offensive, and certainly would not be complied with if annexed as a condition.
When this latter communication, to which I especially invite the attention
of Congress, was laid before me, I entertained the hope that the means it was
obviously intended to afford of an honorable and speedy adjustment of the difficulties
between the two nations would have been accepted, and I therefore did not hesitate
to give it my sanction and full approbation. This was due to the minister who
had made himself responsible for the act, and it was published to the people
of the United States and is now laid before their representatives to shew hos
far their Executive has gone in its endeavors to restore a good understanding
betwe en the two countries. It would have been at any time communicated to the
Government of France had it been officially requested.
The French Government having received all the explanation which honor and principle
permitted, and which could in reason be asked, it was hoped it would no longer
hesitate to pay the installments now due. The agent authorized to receive the
money was instructed to inform the French minister of his readiness to do so.
In reply to this notice he was told that the money could not then be paid, because
the formalities required by the act of the Chambers had not been arranged.
Not having received any official information of the intentions of the French
Government, and anxious to bring, as far as practicable, this unpleasant affair
to a close before the meeting of Congress, that you might have the whole subject
before you, I caused our charge' d'affaires at Paris to be instructed to ask
for the final determination of the French Government, and in the event of their
refusal to pay the installments now due, without further explanations to return
to the United States.
The result of this last application has not yet reached us, but is daily expected.
That it may be favorable is my sincere wish. France having now, through all
the branches of her Government, acknowledged the validity of our claims and
the obligation of the treaty of 1831, and there really existing no adequate
cause for further delay, will at length, it may be hoped, adopt the course which
the interests of both nations, not less than the principles of justice, so imperiously
require. The treaty being once executed on her part, little will remain to disturb
the friendly relations of the two countries -- nothing, indeed, which will not
yield to the suggestions of a pacific and enlightened policy and to the influence
of that mutual good will and of those generous recollections which we may confidently
expect will then be revived in all their ancient force.
In any event, however, the principle involved in the new aspect which has been
given to the controversy is so vitally important to the independent administration
of the Government that it can neither be surrendered nor compromitted without
national degradation. I hope it is unnecessary for me to say that such a sacrifice
will not be made through any agency of mine. The honor of my country shall never
be stained by an apology from me for the statement of truth and the performance
of duty; nor can I give any explanation of my official acts except such as is
due to integrity and justice and consistent with the principles on which our
institutions have been framed. This determination will, I am confident, be approved
by my constituents. I have, indeed, studied their character to but little purpose
if the sum of 25,000,000 francs will have the weight of a feather in the estimation
of what appertains to their national independence, and if, unhappily, a different
impression should at any time obtain in any quarter, they will, I am sure, rally
round the Government of their choice with alacrity and unanimity, and silence
for ever the degrading imputation.
Having thus frankly presented to you the circumstances which since the last
session of Congress have occurred in this interesting and important matter,
with the views of the Executive in regard to them, it is at this time only necessary
to add that when ever the advices now daily expected from our chargyyé
d'affaires shall have been received they will be made the subject of a special
communication.
The condition of the public finances was never more flattering than at the
present period.
Since my last annual communication all the remains of the public debt have
been redeemed, or money has been placed in deposit for this purpose when ever
the creditors choose to receive it. All the other pecuniary engagements of the
Government have been honorably and promptly fulfilled, and there will be a balance
in the Treasury at the close of the year of about $19,000,000. It is believed
that after meeting all outstanding and unexpended appropriations there will
remain near $11,000,000 to be applied to any new objects which Congress may
designate or to the more rapid execution of the works already in progress. In
aid of these objects, and to satisfy the current expenditures of the ensuing
year, it is estimated that there will be received from various sources $20,000,000
more in 1836.
Should Congress make new appropriations in conformity with the estimates which
will be submitted from the proper Departments, amounting to about $24,000,000,
still the available surplus at the close of the next year, after deducting all
unexpended appropriations, will probably not be less than $6,000,000. This sum
can, in my judgment, be now usefully applied to proposed improvements in our
navy yards, and to new national works which are not enumerated in the present
estimates or to the more rapid completion of those already begun. Either would
be constitutional and useful, and would render unnecessary any attempt in our
present peculiar condition to divide the surplus revenue or to reduce it any
faster than will be effected by the existing laws.
In any event, as the annual report from the Secretary of the Treasury will
enter into details, shewing the probability of some decrease in the revenue
during the next 7 years and a very considerable deduction in 1842, it is not
recommended that Congress should undertake to modify the present tariff so as
to disturb the principles on which the compromise act was passed. Taxation on
some of the articles of general consumption which are not in competition with
our own productions may be no doubt so diminished as to lessen to some extent
the source of this revenue, and the same object can also be assisted by more
liberal provisions for the subjects of public defense, which in the present
state of our prosperity and wealth may be expected to engage your attention.
If, however, after satisfying all the demands which can arise from these sources
the unexpended balance in the Treasury should still continue to increase, it
would be better to bear with the evil until the great changes contemplated in
our tariff laws have occurred and shall enable us to revise the system with
that care and circumspection which are due to so delicate and important a subject.
It is certainly our duty to diminish as far as we can the burdens of taxation
and to regard all the restrictions which are imposed on the trade and navigation
of our citizens as evils which we shall mitigate when ever we are not prevented
by the adverse legislation and policy of foreign nations or those primary duties
which the defense and independence of our country enjoin upon us. That we have
accomplished much toward the relief of our citizens by the changes which have
accompanied the payment of the public debt and the adoption of the present revenue
laws is manifest from the fact that compared to 1833 there is a diminution of
near $25,000,000 in the last two years, and that our expenditures, independently
of those for the public debt, have been reduced near $9,000,000 during the same
period. Let us trust that by the continued observance of economy and by harmonizing
the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce much more may
be accomplished to diminish the burdens of government and to increase still
further the enterprise and the patriotic affection of all classes of our citizens
and all the members of our happy Confederacy. As the data which the Secretary
of the Treasury will lay before you in regard to our financial resources are
full and extended, and will afford a safe guide in your future calculations,
I think it unnecessary to offer any further observations on that subject here.
Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity of the country, not the least
gratifying is that afforded by the receipts from the sales of the public lands,
which amount in the present year to the unexpected sum of $11,000,000. This
circumstance attests the rapidity with which agriculture, the first and most
important occupation of man, advances and contributes to the wealth and power
of our extended territory. Being still of the opinion that it is our best policy,
as far as we can consistently with the obligations under which those lands were
ceded to the United States, to promote their speedy settlement, I beg leave
to call the attention of the present Congress to the suggestions I have offered
respecting it in my former messages.
The extraordinary receipts from the sales of the public lands invite you to
consider what improvements the land system, and particularly the condition of
the General Land Office, may require. At the time this institution was organized,
near a quarter century ago, it would probably have been thought extravagant
to anticipate for this period such an addition to its business as has been produced
by the vast increase of those sales during the past and present years. It may
also be observed that since the year 1812 the land offices and surveying districts
have been greatly multiplied, and that numerous legislative enactments from
year to year since that time have imposed a great amount of new and additional
duties upon that office, while the want of a timely application of force commensurate
with the care and labor required has caused the increasing embarrassment of
accumulated arrears in the different branches of the establishment.
These impediments to the expedition of much duty in the General Land Office
induce me to submit to your judgment whether some modification of the laws relating
to its organization, or an organization of a new character, be not called for
at the present juncture, to enable the office to accomplish all the ends of
its institution with a greater degree of facility and promptitude than experience
has proved to be practicable under existing regulations. The variety of the
concerns and the magnitude and complexity of the details occupying and dividing
the attention of the Commissioner appear to render it difficult, if not impracticable,
for that officer by any possible assiduity to bestow on all the multifarious
subjects upon which he is called to act the ready and careful attention due
to their respective importance, unless the Legislature shall assist him by a
law providing, or enabling him to provide, for a more regular and economical
distribution of labor, with the incident responsibility among those employed
under his direction. The mere manual operation of affixing his signature to
the vast number of documents issuing from his office subtracts so largely from
the time and attention claimed by the weighty and complicated subjects daily
accumulating in that branch of the public service as to indicate the strong
necessity of revising the organic law of the establishment. It will be easy
for Congress hereafter to proportion the expenditure on account of this branch
of the service to its real wants by abolishing from time to time the offices
which can be dispensed with.
The extinction of the public debt having taken place, there is no longer any
use for the offices of Commissioners of Loans and of the Sinking Fund. I recommend,
therefore, that they be abolished, and that proper measures be taken for the
transfer to the Treasury Department of any funds, books, and papers connected
with the operations of those offices, and that the proper power be given to
that Department for closing finally any portion of their business which may
remain to be settled.
It is also incumbent on Congress in guarding the pecuniary interests of the
country to discontinue by such a law as was passed in 1812 the receipt of the
bills of the Bank of the United States in payment of the public revenue, and
to provide for the designation of an agent whose duty it shall be to take charge
of the books and stock of the United States in that institution, and to close
all connection with it after the 3d of March, 1836 1836-03-03, when its charter
expires. In making provision in regard to the disposition of this stock it will
be essential to define clearly and strictly the duties and powers of the officer
charged with that branch of the public service.
It will be seen from the correspondence which the Secretary of the Treasury
will lay before you that not withstanding the large amount of the stock which
the United States hold in that institution no information has yet been communicated
which will enable the Government to anticipate when it can receive any dividends
or derive any benefit from it.
Connected with the condition of the finances and the flourishing state of the
country in all its branches of industry, it is pleasing to witness the advantages
which have been already derived from the recent laws regulating the value of
the gold coinage. These advantages will be more apparent in the course of the
next year, when the branch mints authorized to be established in North Carolina,
Georgia, and Louisiana shall have gone into operation. Aided, as it is hoped
they will be, by further reforms in the banking systems of the States and by
judicious regulations on the part of Congress in relation to the custody of
the public moneys, it may be confidently anticipated that the use of gold and
silver as circulating medium will become general in the ordinary transactions
connected with the labor of the country.
The great desideratum in modern times is an efficient check upon the power
of banks, preventing that excessive issue of paper whence arise those fluctuations
in the standard of value which render uncertain the rewards of labor. It was
supposed by those who established the Bank of the United States that from the
credit given to it by the custody of the public moneys and other privileges
and the precautions taken to guard against the evils which the country had suffered
in the bankruptcy of many of the State institutions of that period we should
derive from that institution all the security and benefits of a sound currency
and every good end that was attainable under the provision of the Constitution
which authorizes Congress alone to coin money and regulate the value thereof.
But it is scarcely necessary now to say that these anticipations have not been
realized.
After the extensive embarrassment and distress recently produced by the Bank
of the United States, from which the country is now recovering, aggravated as
they were by pretensions to power which defied the public authority, and which
if acquiesced in by the people would have changed the whole character of our
Government, every candid and intelligent individual must admit that for the
attainment of the great advantages of a sound currency we must look to a course
of legislation radically different from that which created such an institution.
In considering the means of obtaining so important an end we must set aside
all calculations of temporary convenience, and be influenced by those only which
are in harmony with the true character and the permanent interests of the Republic.
We must recur to first principles and see what it is that has prevented the
legislation of Congress and the States on the subject of currency from satisfying
the public expectation and realizing results corresponding to those which have
attended the action of our system when truly consistent with the great principle
of equality upon which it rests, and with that spirit of forbearance and mutual
concession and generous patriotism which was originally, and must ever continue
to be, the vital element of our Union.
On this subject I am sure that I can not be mistaken in ascribing our want
of success to the undue countenance which has been afforded to the spirit of
monopoly. All the serious dangers which our system has yet encountered may be
traced to the resort to implied powers and the use of corporations clothed with
privileges, the effect of which is to advance the interests of the few at the
expense of the many.
We have felt but one class of these dangers exhibited in the contest waged
by the Bank of the United States against the Government for the last four years.
Happily they have been obviated for the present by the indignant resistance
of the people, but we should recollect that the principle whence they sprung
is an ever-active one, which will not fail to renew its effo rts in the same
and in other forms so long as there is a hope of success, founded either on
the inattention of the people or the treachery of their representatives to the
subtle progress of its influence.
The bank is, in fact, but one of the fruits of a system at war with the genius
of all our institutions -- a system founded upon a political creed the fundamental
principle of which is a distrust of the popular will as a safe regulator of
political power, and whose great ultimate object and inevitable result, should
it prevail, is the consolidation of all power in our system in one central government.
Lavish public disbursements and corporations with exclusive privileges would
be its substitutes for the original and as yet sound checks and balances of
the Constitution -- the means by whose silent and secret operation a control
would be exercised by the few over the political conduct of the many by first
acquiring that control over the labor and earnings of the great body of the
people. Wherever this spirit has effected an alliance with political power,
tyranny and despotism have been the fruit. If it is ever used for the ends of
government, it has to be incessantly watched, or it corrupts the sources of
the public virtue and agitates the country with questions unfavorable to the
harmonious and steady pursuit of its true interests.
We are now to see whether, in the present favorable condition of the country,
we can not take an effectual stand against thei spirit of monopoly, and practically
prove in respect to the currency as well as other important interests that ther
is no necessity for so extensive a resort to it as that which has been heretofore
practiced. The experience of another year has confirmed the utter fallacy of
the idea that the Bank of the United States was necessary as a fiscal agent
of the Government. Without its aid as such, indeed, in despite of all the embarrassment
it was in its power to create, the revenue has been paid with punctuality by
our citizens, the business of exchange, both foreign and domestic, has been
conducted with convenience, and the circulating medium has been greatly improved.
By the use of the State banks, which do not derive their charters from the
General Government and are not controlled by its authority, it is ascertained
that the moneys of the United States can be collected and disbursed without
loss or inconvenience, and that all the wants of the community in relation to
exchange and currency are supplied as well as they have ever been before. If
under circumstances the most unfavorable to the steadiness of the money market
it has been found that the considerations on which the Bank of the United States
rested its claims to the public favor were imaginary and groundless, it can
not be doubted that the experience of the future will be more decisive against
them.
It has been seen that without the agency of a great moneyed monopoly the revenue
can be collected and conveniently and safely applied to all the purposes of
the public expenditure. It is also ascertained that instead of being necessarily
made to promote the evils of an unchecked paper system, the management of the
revenue can be made auxiliary to the reform which the legislatures of several
of the States have already commenced in regard to the suppression of small bills,
and which has only to be fostered by proper regulations on the part of Congress
to secure a practical return to the extent required for the security of the
currency to the constitutional medium.
Severed from the Government as political engines, and not susceptible of dangerous
extension and combination, the State banks will not be tempted, nor will they
have teh power, which we have seen exercised, to divert the public funds from
the legitimate purposes of the Government. The collection and custody of the
revenue, being, on the contrary, a source of credit to them, will increase the
security which the States provide for a faithful execution of their trusts by
multiplying the scrutinies to which their operations and accounts will be subjected.
Thus disposed, as well from interest as the obligations of their charters, it
can not be doubted that such conditions as Congress may see fit to adopt respecting
the deposits in these institutions, with a view to the gradual disuse, of the
small bills will be cheerfully complied with, and that we shall soon gain in
place of the Bank of the United States a practical reform in the whole paper
system of the country. If by this policy we can ultimately witness the suppression
of all bank bills below $20, it is apparent that gold and silver will take their
place and become the principal circulating medium in the common business of
the farmers and mechanics of the country. The attainment of such a result will
form an era in the history of our country which will be dwelt upon with delight
by every true friend of its liberty and independence. It will lighten the great
tax which our paper system has so long collected from the earnings of labor,
and do more to revive and perpetuate those habits of economy and simplicity
which are so congenial to the character of republicans than all the legislation
which has yet been attempted.
To this subject I feel that I can not too earnestly invite the special attention
of Congress, without the exercise of whose authority the opportunity to accomplish
so much public good must pass unimproved. Deeply impressed with its vital importance,
the Executive has taken all the steps within his constitutional power to guard
the public revenue and defeat the expectation which the Bank of the United States
indulged of renewing and perpetuating its monopoly on the ground of its necessity
as a fiscal agent and as affording a sounder currency than could be obtained
without such an institution.
In the performance of this duty much responsibility was incurred which would
have been gladly avoided if the stake which the public had in the question could
have been otherwise preserved. Although clothed with the legal authority and
supported by precedent, I was aware that there was in the act of the removal
of the deposits a liability to excite that sensitiveness to Executive power
which it is characteristic and the duty of free men to indulge; but I relied
on this feeling also, directed by patriotism and intelligence, to vindicate
the conduct which in the end would appear to have been called for by the interests
of my country. The apprehensions natural to this feeling that there may have
been a desire, through the instrumentality of that measure, to extend the Executive
influence, or that it may have been prompted by motives not sufficiently free
from ambition, were not over-looked. Under the operation of our institutions
the public servant who is called on to take a step of high responsibility should
feel in the freedom which gives rise to such apprehensions his highest security.
When unfounded the attention which they arouse and the discussions they excite
deprive those who indulge them of the power to do harm; when just they but hasten
the certainty with which the great body of our citizens never fail to repel
an attempt to procure the sanction to any exercise of power inconsistent with
the jealous maintenance of their rights.
Under such convictions, and entertaining no doubt that my constitutional obligations
demanded the steps which were taken inreference to the removal of the deposits,
it was impossible for me to be deterred from the path of duty by a fear that
my motives could be misjudged or that political prejudices could defeat the
just consideration of the merits of my conduct. The result has shewn how safe
is this reliance upon the patriotic temper and enlightened discernment of the
people. That measure has now been before them and has stood the test of all
the severe analysis which its general importance, the interests it affected,
and the apprehensions it excited were calculated to produce, and it now remains
for Congress to consider what legislation has become necessary in consequence.
I need only add to what I have on former occasions said on this subject general
ly that in the regulations which Congress may prescribe respecting the custody
of the public moneys it is desirable that as little discretion as may be deemed
consistent with their safe-keeping should be given to the executive agents.
No one can be more deeply impressed than I am with the soundness of the doctrine
which restrains and limits, by specific provisions, executive discretion, as
far as it can be done consistently with the preservation of its constitutional
character. In respect to the control over the public money this doctrine is
peculiarly applicable, and is in harmony with the great principle which I felt
I was sustaining in the controversy with the Bank of the United States, which
has resulted in severing to some extent a dangerous connection between a moneyed
and political power. The duty of the Legislature to define, by clear and positive
enactments, the nature and extent of the action which it belongs to the Executive
to superintend springs out of a policy analogous to that which enjoins upon
all branches of the Federal Government an abstinence from the exercise of powers
not clearly granted.
In such a Government, possessing only limited and specific powers, the spirit
of its general administration can not be wise or just when it opposes the reference
of all doubtful points to the great source of authority, the States and the
people, whose number and diversified relations securing them against the influences
and excitements which may mis-lead their agents, make them the safest depository
of power. In its application to the Executive, with reference to the legislative
branch of the Government, the same rule of action should make the President
ever anxious to avoid the exercise of any discretionary authority which can
be regulated by Congress. The biases which may operate upon him will not be
so likely to extend to the representatives of the people in that body.
In my former messages to Congress I have repeatedly urged the propriety of
lessening the discretionary authority lodged in the various Departments, but
it has produced no effect as yet, except the discontinuance of extra allowances
in the Army and Navy and the substitution of fixed salaries in the latter. It
is believed that the same principles could be advantageously applied in all
cases, and would promote the efficiency and economy of the public service, at
the same tiem that greater satisfaction and more equal justice would be secured
to the public officers generally.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of War will put you in possession
of the operations of the Department confided to his care in all its diversified
relations during the past year.
I am gratified in being able to inform you that no occurrence has required
any movement of the military force, except such as is common to a state of peace.
The services of the Army have been limited to their usual duties at the various
garrisons upon the Atlantic and in-land frontier, with the exceptions states
by the Secretary of War. Our small military establishment appears to be adequate
to the purposes for which it is maintained, and it forms a nucleus around which
any additional force may be collected should the public exigencies unfortunately
require any increase of our military means.
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