The writings of James Madison, comprising his public papers and his private correspondence, including numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed. |
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THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE. |
 | The writings of James Madison, |  |
THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
In calling you together sooner than a separation from
your homes would otherwise have been required I yielded
to considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign
affairs, and in fixing the present for the time of your meeting
regard was had to the probability of further developments
of the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country
which might the more unite the national councils in the
measures to be pursued.
At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped
that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the
French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce,
would have induced the Government of Great Britain to
repeal its orders in council, and thereby authorize a removal
of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United
States.
Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and
friendship between the two nations, the orders were, at a
moment when least to have been expected, put into more
rigorous execution; and it was communicated through the
British envoy just arrived that whilst the revocation of the
edicts of France, as officially made known to the British
Government, was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable
condition of the repeal of the British orders that
commerce should be restored to a footing that would admit
the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when
owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her
enemy, the United States being given to understand that in
the meantime a continuance of their non-importation act
would lead to measures of retaliation.
At a later date it has indeed appeared that a communication
the French decrees against our neutral trade was followed
by an intimation that it had been transmitted to the British
plenipotentiary here in order that it might receive full consideration
in the depending discussions. This communication
appears not to have been received; but the transmission
of it hither, instead of founding on it an actual repeal of the
orders or assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not
permit us to rely on any effective change in the British cabinet.
To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory proofs of
such a change, and to proceed in the meantime in adapting our
measures to the views which have been disclosed through that
minister will best consult our whole duty.
In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures indemnity
and redress for other wrongs have continued to be withheld,
and our coasts and the mouths of our harbors have again
witnessed scenes not less derogatory to the dearest of our
national rights than vexatious to the regular course of our
trade.
Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British
ships of war hovering on our coasts was an encounter between
one of them and the American frigate commanded by Captain
Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on the part of the latter
by a fire commenced without cause by the former, whose
commander is therefore alone chargeable with the blood
unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the American
flag. The proceedings of a court of inquiry requested by
Captain Rodgers are communicated, together with the correspondence
relating to the occurrence, between the Secretary
of State and His Britannic Majesty's envoy. To these are
added the several correspondences which have passed on the
subject of the British orders in council, and to both the
correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which Congress
will be made acquainted with the interposition which the
Government of Great Britain has thought proper to make
against the proceeding of the United States.
The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the
part of the United States toward France, both before and
since the revocation of her decrees, authorized an expectation
that her Government would have followed up that measure by
all such others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well
as dictated by its amicable professions. No proof, however,
is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs done
to the United States, and particularly to restore the great
amount of American property seized and condemned under
edicts which, though not affecting our neutral relations, and
therefore not entering into questions between the United
States and other belligerents, were nevertheless founded in
such unjust principles that the reparation ought to have
been prompt and ample.
In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that
nation, the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied
with the rigorous and unexpected restrictions to which their
trade with the French dominion has been subjected, and
which, if not discontinued, will require at least corresponding
restrictions on importations from France into the United
States.
On all those subjects our minister plenipotentiary lately
sent to Paris has carried with him the necessary instructions,
the result of which will be communicated to you, and, by
ascertaining the ulterior policy of the French Government
toward the United States, will enable you to adapt to it that
of the United States toward France.
Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable
changes. With Russia they are on the best footing of friendship.
The ports of Sweden have afforded proofs of friendly
dispositions toward our commerce in the councils of that
nation also, and the information from our special minister
to Denmark shews that the mission had been attended with
valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had been so
extensively violated and endangered by cruisers under the
Danish flag.
Under the ominous indications which commanded attention
it became a duty to exert the means committed to the
executive department in providing for the general security.
The works of defense on our maritime frontier have accordingly
been prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be added for
the completion of the most important ones, and, as particularly
suited for co-operation in emergencies, a portion of the
gunboats have in particular harbors been ordered into use.
The ships of war before in commission, with the addition
of a frigate, have been chiefly employed as a cruising guard
to the rights of our coast, and such a disposition has been
made of our land forces as was thought to promise the services
most appropriate and important. In this disposition is included
a force consisting of regulars and militia, embodied
in the Indiana Territory and marched toward our northwestern
frontier. This measure was made requisite by
several murders and depredations committed by Indians,
but more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect
of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence
and direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these
exceptions the Indian tribes retain their peaceable dispositions
toward us, and their usual pursuits.
I must now add that the period is arrived which claims
from the legislative guardians of the national rights a system
of more ample provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding
the scrupulous justice, the protracted moderation,
and the multiplied efforts on the part of the United States
to substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of
the two countries all the mutual advantages of re-established
friendship and confidence, we have seen that the British
cabinet perseveres not only in withholding a remedy for
other wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for it, but in the
execution, brought home to the threshold of our territory,
of measures which under existing circumstances have the
character as well as the effect of war on our lawful
commerce.
With this evidence of hostile inflexibility in trampling on
rights which no independent nation can relinquish, Congress
will feel the duty of putting the United States into an armor
and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding
with the national spirit and expectations.
I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made
for filling the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the
regular troops; for an auxiliary force to be engaged for a more
limited term; for the acceptance of volunteer corps, whose
patriotic ardor may court a participation in urgent services;
for detachments as they may be wanted of other portions of
the militia, and for such a preparation of the great body as
will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic capacities. Nor
can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of those
military seminaries which in every event will form a valuable
and frugal part of our military establishment.
The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded
with due success, and the stock and resources of all the
necessary munitions are adequate to emergencies. It will
not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to authorize an
enlargement of them.
Your attention will of course be drawn to such provisions
on the subject of our naval force as may be required for the
services to which it may be best adapted. I submit to Congress
the seasonableness also of an authority to augment
the stock of such materials as are imperishable in their nature,
or may not at once be attainable.
In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous
epoch, and estimating their claims to our attention, it
is impossible to overlook those developing themselves among
the great communities which occupy the southern portion
of our own hemisphere and extend into our neighborhood.
An enlarged philanthropy and an enlightened forecast concur
in imposing on the national councils an obligation to take a
deep interest in their destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments
of good will, to regard the progress of events, and not to be
established.
Under another aspect of our situation the early attention
of Congress will be due to the expediency of further guards
against evasions and infractions of our commercial laws.
The practice of smuggling, which is odious everywhere, and
particularly criminal in free governments, where, the laws
being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed
on every individual as well as on the state, attains its utmost
guilt when it blends with a pursuit of ignominious gain a
treacherous subserviency, in the transgressors, to a foreign
policy adverse to that of their own country. It is then that
the virtuous indignation of the public should be enabled
to manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the
most competent laws.
To secure greater respect to our mercantile flag, and to the
honest interests which it covers, it is expedient also that it
be made punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from
foreign governments for a trade unlawfully interdicted by
them to other American citizens, or to trade under false
colors or papers of any sort.
A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance
by our citizens of special licenses to be used in a trade with
the United States, and against the admission into particular
ports of the United States of vessels from foreign countries
authorized to trade with particular ports only.
Although other subjects will press more immediately on
your deliberations, a portion of them can not but be well
bestowed on the just and sound policy of securing to our
manufactures the success they have attained, and are still
attaining, in some degree, under the impulse of causes not
permanent, and to our navigation, the fair extent of which
is at present abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign
governments.
Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufacturers
from sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring
such articles at least as belong to our defense and our primary
wants, we should not be left in unnecessary dependence
on external supplies. And whilst foreign governments adhere
to the existing discriminations in their ports against our
navigation, and an equality or lesser discrimination is enjoyed
by their navigation in our ports, the effect can not be
mistaken, because it has been seriously felt by our shipping
interests; and in proportion as this takes place the advantages
of an independent conveyance of our products to foreign
markets and of a growing body of mariners trained by their
occupations for the service of their country in times of danger
must be diminished.
The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending
on the 30th of September last have exceeded $13,500,000,
and have enabled us to defray the current expenses, including
the interest on the public debt, and to reimburse more than
$5,000,000 of the principal without recurring to the loan
authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary
loan obtained in the latter end of the year 1810 has also been
reimbursed, and is not included in that amount.
The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our
commerce, and the extraordinary expenses which have and
may become necessary, must be taken into view in making
commensurate provisions for the ensuing year; and I recommend
to your consideration the propriety of insuring a
sufficiency of annual revenue at least to defray the ordinary
expenses of Government, and to pay the interest on the
public debt, including that on new loans which may be
authorized.
I cannot close this communication without expressing my
deep sense of the crisis in which you are assembled, my
confidence in a wise and honorable result to your deliberations,
and assurances of the faithful zeal with which my cooperating
duties will be discharged, invoking at the same
time the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country and on
and advancing its welfare.
| The writings of James Madison, | |