The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
 |
EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. |
 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
December 3, 1816.
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In reviewing the present state of our country, our attention
can not be withheld from the effect produced by peculiar
seasons which have very generally impaired the annual gifts
of the earth and threatened scarcity in particular districts.
products within our extensive limits that the aggregate
resources for subsistence are more than sufficient for the
aggregate wants. And as far as an economy of consumption,
more than usual, may be necessary, our thankfulness is due
to Providence for what is far more than a compensation, in
the remarkable health which has distinguished the present
year.
Amidst the advantages which have succeeded the peace
of Europe, and that of the United States with Great Britain,
in a general invigoration of industry among us and in the
extension of our commerce, the value of which is more and
more disclosing itself to commercial nations, it is to be regretted
that a depression is experienced by particular branches
of our manufactures and by a portion of our navigation. As
the first proceeds in an essential degree from an excess of
imported merchandise, which carries a check in its own tendency,
the cause in its present extent can not be of very long
duration. The evil will not, however, be viewed by Congress
without a recollection that manufacturing establishments,
if suffered to sink too low or languish too long, may not
revive after the causes shall have ceased, and that in the
vicissitudes of human affairs situations may recur in which
a dependence on foreign sources for indispensable supplies
may be among the most serious embarrassments.
The depressed state of our navigation is to be ascribed in a
material degree to its exclusion from the colonial ports of the
nation most extensively connected with us in commerce, and
from the indirect operation of that exclusion.
Previous to the late convention at London between the
United States and Great Britain the relative state of the navigation
laws of the two countries, growing out of the treaty
of 1794, had given to the British navigation a material
advantage over the American in the intercourse between the
American ports and British ports in Europe. The convention
of London equalized the laws of the two countries relating
to those ports, leaving the intercourse between our ports and
respective regulations of the parties. The British Government
enforcing now regulations which prohibit a trade between
its colonies and the United States in American vessels, whilst
they permit a trade in British vessels, the American navigation
loses accordingly, and the loss is augmented by the
advantage which is given to the British competition over the
American in the navigation between our ports and British
ports in Europe by the circuitous voyages enjoyed by the
one and not enjoyed by the other.
The reasonableness of the rule of reciprocity applied to one
branch of the commercial intercourse has been pressed on our
part as equally applicable to both branches; but it is ascertained
that the British cabinet declines all negotiation
on the subject, with a disavowal, however, of any disposition
to view in an unfriendly light whatever countervailing regulations
the United States may oppose to the regulations of
which they complain. The wisdom of the Legislature will
decide on the course which, under these circumstances, is
prescribed by a joint regard to the amicable relations between
the two nations and to the just interests of the United States.
I have the satisfaction to state, generally, that we remain
in amity with foreign powers.
An occurrence has indeed taken place in the Gulf of Mexico
which, if sanctioned by the Spanish Government, may make
an exception as to that power. According to the report of
our naval commander on that station, one of our public
armed vessels was attacked by an overpowering force under
a Spanish commander, and the American flag, with the
officers and crew, insulted in a manner calling for prompt
reparation. This has been demanded. In the meantime
a frigate and a smaller vessel of war have been ordered into
that Gulf for the protection of our commerce. It would be
improper to omit that the representative of His Catholic
Majesty in the United States lost no time in giving the strongest
assurances that no hostile order could have emanated
from his Government, and that it will be as ready to do as to
of the two countries shall be found to require.
The posture of our affairs with Algiers at the present moment
is not known. The Dey, drawing pretexts from circumstances
for which the United States were not answerable,
addressed a letter to this Government declaring the treaty
last concluded with him to have been annulled by our violation
of it, and presenting as the alternative war or a renewal
of the former treaty, which stipulated, among other things,
an annual tribute. The answer, with an explicit declaration
that the United States preferred war to tribute, required his
recognition and observance of the treaty last made, which
abolishes tribute and the slavery of our captured citizens.
The result of the answer has not been received. Should he
renew his warfare on our commerce, we rely on the protection
it will find in our naval force actually in the Mediterranean.
With the other Barbary States our affairs have undergone
no change.
The Indian tribes within our limits appear also disposed to
remain at peace. From several of them purchases of land,
have been made particularly favorable to the wishes and
security of our frontier settlements, as well as to the general
interests of the nation. In some instances the titles, though
not supported by due proof, and clashing those of one tribe
with the claims of another, have been extinguished by double
purchases, the benevolent policy of the United States preferring
the augmented expense to the hazard of doing injustice
or to the enforcement of justice against a feeble and
untutored people by means involving or threatening an
effusion of blood. I am happy to add that the tranquillity
which has been restored among the tribes themselves, as well
as between them and our own population, will favor the
resumption of the work of civilization which had made an
encouraging progress among some tribes, and that the facility
is increasing for extending that divided and individual ownership,
which exists now in movable property only, to the soil
itself, and of thus establishing in the culture and improvement
savage to the arts and comforts of social life.
As a subject of the highest importance to the national
welfare, I must again earnestly recommend to the consideration
of Congress a reorganization of the militia on a plan which
will form it into classes according to the periods of life more
or less adapted to military services. An efficient militia
is authorized and contemplated by the Constitution and
required by the spirit and safety of free government. The
present organization of our militia is universally regarded as
less efficient than it ought to be made, and no organization
can be better calculated to give to it its due force than a
classification which will assign the foremost place in the
defense of the country to that portion of its citizens whose
activity and animation best enable them to rally to its standard.
Besides the consideration that a time of peace is the time
when the change can be made with most convenience and
equity, it will now be aided by the experience of a recent war
in which the militia bore so interesting a part.
Congress will call to mind that no adequate provision has
yet been made for the uniformity of weights and measures
also contemplated by the Constitution. The great utility
of a standard fixed in its nature and founded on the easy
rule of decimal proportions is sufficiently obvious. It led
the Government at an early stage to preparatory steps for
introducing it, and a completion of the work will be a just
title to the public gratitude.
The importance which I have attached to the establishment
of a university within this District on a scale and for objects
worthy of the American nation induces me to renew my
recommendation of it to the favorable consideration of Congress.
And I particularly invite again their attention to
the expediency of exercising their existing powers, and, where
necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging
them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads
and canals, such as will have the effect of drawing more
closely together every part of our country, by promoting
of every part in the common stock of national prosperity.
Occurrences having taken place which shew that the
statutory provisions for the dispensation of criminal justice
are deficient in relation both to places and to persons under
the exclusive cognizance of the national authority, an amendment
of the law embracing such cases will merit the earliest
attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion
also for inquiring how far legislative interposition may be
further requisite in providing penalties for offenses designated
in the Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no
penalties are annexed or none with sufficient certainty. And
I submit to the wisdom of Congress whether a more enlarged
revisal of the criminal code be not expedient for the purpose
of mitigating in certain cases penalties which were adopted
into it antecedent to experiment and examples which justify
and recommend a more lenient policy.
The United States, having been the first to abolish within
the extent of their authority the transportation of the natives
of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of
slaves and by punishing their citizens participating in the
traffic, can not but be gratified at the progress made by
concurrent efforts of other nations toward a general suppression
of so great an evil. They must feel at the same time
the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own
regulations. With that view, the interposition of Congress
appears to be required by the violations and evasions which
it is suggested are chargeable on unworthy citizens who
mingle in the slave trade under foreign flags and with foreign
ports, and by collusive importations of slaves into the
United States through adjoining ports and territories. I present
the subject to Congress with a full assurance of their
disposition to apply all the remedy which can be afforded by
an amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended
to guard against abuses of a kindred character in
the trade between several States ought also to be rendered
more effectual for their humane object.
To these recommendations I add, for the consideration of
Congress, the expediency of a remodification of the judiciary
establishment, and of an additional department in the executive
branch of the Government.
The first is called for by the accruing business which necessarily
swells the duties of the Federal courts, and by the great
and widening space within which justice is to be dispensed
by them. The time seems to have arrived which claims for
members of the Supreme Court a relief from itinerary fatigues,
incompatible as well with the age which a portion of them
will always have attained as with the researches and preparations
which are due to their stations and to the juridical
reputation of their country. And considerations equally
cogent require a more convenient organization of the subordinate
tribunals, which may be accomplished without an
objectionable increase of the number or expense of the judges.
The extent and variety of executive business also accumulating
with the progress of our country and its growing
population call for an additional department, to be charged
with duties now overburdening other departments and with
such as have not been annexed to any department.
The course of experience recommends, as another improvement
in the executive establishment, that the provision for
the station of Attorney-General, whose residence at the seat
of Government, official connections with it, and the management
of the public business before the judiciary preclude an
extensive participation in professional emoluments, be made
more adequate to his services and his relinquishments, and
that, with a view to his reasonable accommodation and to a
proper depository of his official opinions and proceedings,
there be included in the provision the usual appurtenances
to a public office.
In directing the legislative attention to the state of the
finances it is a subject of great gratification to find that even
within the short period which has elapsed since the return
of peace the revenue has far exceeded all the current demands
upon the Treasury, and that under any probable diminution
may occasion it will afford an ample fund for the
effectual and early extinguishment of the public debt. It
has been estimated that during the year 1816 the actual
receipts of revenue at the Treasury, including the balance
at the commencement of the year, and excluding the proceeds
of loans and Treasury notes, will amount to about the
sum of $47,000,000; that during the same year the actual
payments at the Treasury, including the payment of the
arrearages of the War Department as well as the payment
of a considerable excess beyond the annual appropriations,
will amount to about the sum of $38,000,000, and that consequently
at the close of the year there will be a surplus in
the Treasury of about the sum of $9,000,000.
The operations of the Treasury continued to be obstructed
by difficulties arising from the condition of the national
currency, but they have nevertheless been effectual to a
beneficial extent in the reduction of the public debt and the
establishment of the public credit. The floating debt of
Treasury notes and temporary loans will soon be entirely discharged.
The aggregate of the funded debt, composed of
debts incurred during the wars of 1776 and 1812, has been
estimated with reference to the 1st of January next at a sum
not exceeding $110,000,000. The ordinary annual expenses
of the Government for the maintenance of all its institutions,
civil, military, and naval, have been estimated at a sum less
than $20,000,000, and the permanent revenue to be derived
from all the existing sources has been estimated at a sum
of about $25,000,000.
Upon this general view of the subject it is obvious that
there is only wanting to the fiscal prosperity of the Government
the restoration of an uniform medium of exchange.
The resources and the faith of the nation, displayed in the
system which Congress has established, insure respect and
confidence both at home and abroad. The local accumulations
of the revenue have already enabled the Treasury
to meet the public engagements in the local currency of most
produce the same effect throughout the Union; but for the
interests of the community at large, as well as for the purposes
of the Treasury, it is essential that the nation should
possess a currency of equal value, credit, and use wherever
it may circulate. The Constitution has intrusted Congress
exclusively with the power of creating and regulating a
currency of that description, and the measures which were
taken during the last session in execution of the power give
every promise of success. The Bank of the United States
has been organized under auspices the most favorable, and
can not fail to be an important auxiliary to those measures.
For a more enlarged view of the public finances, with a
view of the measures pursued by the Treasury Department
previous to the resignation of the late Secretary, I transmit
an extract from the last report of that officer. Congress will
perceive in it ample proofs of the solid foundation on which
the financial prosperity of the nation rests, and will do justice
to the distinguished ability and successful exertions with
which the duties of the Department were executed during
a period remarkable for its difficulties and its peculiar
perplexities.
The period of my retiring from the public service being at
little distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the
present for expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep sense
of the continued confidence and kind support which I have
received from them. My grateful recollection of these distinguished
marks of their favorable regard can never cease,
and with the consciousness that, if I have not served my
country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere
devotion will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.
Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theater
other sources, which those who love their country most will
best appreciate. I shall behold it blessed with tranquillity
and prosperity at home and with peace and respect abroad.
I can indulge the proud reflection that the American people
independent nation; that for nearly an entire generation they
have had experience of their present Constitution, the offspring
of their undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice;
that they have found it to bear the trials of adverse as well
as prosperous circumstances; to contain in its combination
of the federate and elective principles a reconcilement of
public strength with individual liberty, of national power
for the defense of national rights with a security against
wars of injustice, of ambition, and of vainglory in the fundamental
provision which subjects all questions of war to the
will of the nation itself, which is to pay its costs and feel its
calamities. Nor is it less a peculiar felicity of this Constitution,
so dear to us all, that it is found to be capable, without
losing its vital energies, of expanding itself over a spacious
territory with the increase and expansion of the community
for whose benefit it was established.
And may I not be allowed to add to this gratifying spectacle
that I shall read in the character of the American people,
in their devotion to true liberty and to the Constitution
which is its palladium, sure presages that the destined career
of my country will exhibit a Government pursuing the public
good as its sole object, and regulating its means by the great
principles consecrated in its charter, and by those moral
principles to which they are so well allied; a Government
which watches over the purity of elections, the freedom of
speech and of the press, the trial by jury, and the equal
interdict against encroachments and compacts between
religion and the state; which maintains inviolably the maxims
of public faith, the security of persons and property,
and encourages in every authorized mode that general diffusion
of knowledge which guarantees to public liberty its
permanency and to those who possess the blessing the true
enjoyment of it; a Government which avoids intrusions
on the internal repose of other nations, and repels them from
its own; which does justice to all nations with a readiness
equal to the firmness with which it requires justice from
every ingredient not congenial with the precepts of an enlightened
age and the sentiments of a virtuous people, seeks
by appeals to reason and by its liberal examples to infuse
into the law which governs the civilized world a spirit which
may diminish the frequency or circumscribe the calamities
of war, and meliorate the social and beneficent relations of
peace; a Government, in a word, whose conduct within and
without may bespeak the most noble of all ambitions—that
of promoting peace on earth and good will to man.
These contemplations, sweetening the remnant of my days,
will animate my prayers for the happiness of my beloved
country, and a perpetuity of the institutions under which
it is enjoyed.
| The writings of James Madison, | |