President John Quincy Adams on 16 January 1827 sent this message:
To the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States:
I communicate to both Houses of Congress copies of
a convention between the United States and Great Britain,
signed on the 13th of November last at London by the
respective plenipotentiaries of the two Governments,
for the final settlement and liquidation of certain claims of
indemnity of citizens of the United States which had
arisen under the first article of the treaty of Ghent.
It having been stipulated by this convention that the
exchange of the ratifications of the same should be
made at London, the usual proclamation of it here
can only be issued when that event shall have taken place,
the notice of which can scarcely be expected before
the close of the present session of Congress.
But it has been duly ratified on the part of the United States,
and by the report of the Secretary of State and the
accompanying certificate herewith also communicated it
will be seen that the first half of the stipulated payment has
been made by the minister of His Britannic Majesty residing
here, and has been deposited in the office of the Bank of the
United States at this place to await the disposal of Congress.
I recommend to their consideration the expediency of
such legislative measures as they may deem proper for
the distribution of the sum already paid, and of that
hereafter to be received, among the claimants who
may be found entitled to the indemnity.1
In his Memoirs John Quincy Adams described
the Cabinet meetings on January 27 and 29.
January 27, 1827.—Cabinet meeting.
Clay. Rush. Barbour. Southard.
The Creek Indians have arrested
the surveyors from Georgia.
Governor Troup has ordered out a troop of horse
to protect the surveyors and force the survey.
Question discussed, what is to be done?
Act of Congress of 30th March, 1802 consulted.
Section 5 forbids surveying.
Section 16 authorizes the military force of the U. S.
to apprehend any person trespassing upon the
Indian lands and convey him to the civil authority
in one of the three next adjoining districts.
Section 17 authorizes the seizure and trial of
trespassers found within any judicial district of the U. S.
It was proposed to order troops to the spot
to apprehend the surveyors and bring them in
for trial by authority of Section 16.
I have no doubt of the right,
but much of the expediency, of so doing.
Mr. Clay urged the necessity of protecting
the rights of the Indians by force.
Their rights must be protected, but I think
the civil process will be adequate to the purpose.
The Georgia surveyors act by authority
and order of the State.
To send troops against them must end in acts of violence.
The Act of 1802 was not made for the case,
and before coming to a conflict of arms
I should choose to refer the whole subject to Congress.
Governor Barbour proposed sending a confidential agent
to warn the Georgians against proceeding, and the
Cabinet meeting was adjourned to Monday, one P.M.
29th. Cabinet meeting.
Barbour’s answer to Crowell and letter to Governor Troup.
Modifications suggested.
To avoid all irritating expressions.
Proclamation not necessary.
Message to be prepared for Congress.
Sent two messages to the Senate: one with papers
relating to Panama mission; one an answer to resolution
of 4th April, 1826, on lands unfit for cultivation.
J. M. White wishes to be appointed
Chargé d’Affaires to Denmark.
Mrs. White very unwilling to go back to Florida.
He has no doubt of his own re-election,
but must fight his way there.
Barely escaped a duel the last time he was there.
Southard had an insolent letter from a Lieutenant Legaré,
at Pensacola under suspension and charges
of intemperance and misconduct for trial.
He tenders his resignation and talks of
oppression, abuses, and corruption.
I advised not to accept the resignation,
but to make a new charge against him for writing the letter.
I agreed to send a list of nominations for brevets
in the army for ten years’ service in one grade.2
New York Senator Martin Van Buren and Vice President Calhoun
met in the Virginia home of William H. Fitzhugh in December, and they agreed
to work together to elect Jackson president in 1828.
On 13 January 1827 Van Buren wrote a letter to Richmond Enquirer editor
Thomas Ritchie about a new Democratic party to revive the Jeffersonian coalition
that would include southern planters and northern Republicans.
Haden Edwards and his brother Benjamin Edwards had started a settlement in Texas,
and on 21 December 1826 they called it the “Republic of Fredonia.”
They hoped for American support. Stephen Austin led 275 men from his colony’s militia
and with the support of 100 Mexican soldiers they ended the Texas rebellion
against Mexican authority on 31 January 1827.
On 2 February 1827 the US Supreme Court ruled 7-0 in Martin v. Mott
that the President can mobilize state militias in the national interest.
President Adams wrote briefly in his Memoirs on February 2 and 3:
February 2nd. Cabinet meeting.
Clay. Rush. Barbour. Southard.
Draft of message to Congress on the Georgia surveyors
encroaching upon territories of Creek Indians.
Objection to statement that a conflict of force
between the military of the nation and of the State
would be a dissolution of the Union.
Higher motive than human authority—verbal.
3rd. Southard, S. L.
Letter from General Jackson; not that heretofore
threatened, but another, brought by General Houston.
The letter asks explanations of matters alleged to
have been spoken last summer by Mr. Southard
at a dinner-table at Mr. Welford’s at Petersburg in Virginia.
The General affects to consider this conversation
as in the nature of charges against him
by a member of the Government.3
President John Quincy Adams on 5 February 1827 sent this message:
To the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States:
I submit to the consideration of Congress a letter from
the agent of the United States with the Creek Indians,
who invoke the protection of the Government of the
United States in defense of the rights and territory
secured to that nation by the treaty concluded at
Washington, and ratified on the part of the
United States on the 22nd of April last.
The complaint set forth in this letter that
surveyors from Georgia have been employed
in surveying lands within the Indian Territory,
as secured by that treaty, is authenticated by the
information unofficially received from other quarters, and
there is reason to believe that one or more of the surveyors
have been arrested in their progress by the Indians.
Their forbearance, and reliance upon the good faith
of the United States will, it is hoped, avert scenes
of violence and blood which there is otherwise too much
cause to apprehend will result from these proceedings.
By the fifth section of the act of Congress of the
30th of March, 1802, to regulate trade and intercourse
with the Indian tribes and to preserve peace on the
frontiers, it is provided that if any citizen of or other
person resident in the United States shall make a settlement
on any lands belonging or secured or granted by treaty
with the United States to any Indian tribe, or shall survey,
or attempt to survey, such lands, or designate any of
the boundaries by marking trees or otherwise, such
offender shall forfeit a sum not exceeding $1,000
and suffer imprisonment not exceeding twelve months.
By the sixteenth and seventeenth sections
of the same statute two distinct processes are
prescribed, by either or both of which the above
enactment may be carried into execution.
By the first it is declared to be lawful for the military force
of the United States to apprehend every person found in
the Indian country over and beyond the boundary line
between the United States and the Indian tribes in
violation of any of the provisions or regulations of the act,
and immediately to convey them, in the nearest convenient
and safe route, to the civil authority of the United States
in some of the three next adjoining States or districts,
to be proceeded against in due course of law.
By the second it is directed that if any person charged
with the violation of any of the provisions or regulations
of the act shall be found within any of the United States
or either of their territorial districts such offender may
be there apprehended and brought to trial in the same
manner as if such crime or offense had been committed
within such State or district; and that it shall be the duty
of the military force of the United States, when called
upon by the civil magistrate or any proper officer or other
person duly authorized for that purpose and having a
lawful warrant, to aid and assist such magistrate, officer,
or other person so authorized in arresting such offender and
committing him to safe custody for trial according to law.
The first of these processes is adapted to the arrest
of the trespasser upon Indian territories on the spot
and in the act of committing the offense; but as it applies
the action of the Government of the United States to places
where the civil process of the law has no authorized course,
it is committed entirely to the functions of the military
force to arrest the person of the offender, and after
bringing him within the reach of the jurisdiction of
the courts there to deliver him into custody for trial.
The second makes the violator of the law amenable
only after his offense has been consummated, and when
he has returned within the civil jurisdiction of the Union.
This process in the first instance is merely of a civil
character, but may in like manner be enforced by
calling in, if necessary, the aid of the military force.
Entertaining no doubt that in the present case the resort
to either of these modes of process, or to both, was
within the discretion of the Executive authority, and
penetrated with the duty of maintaining the rights of the
Indians as secured both by the treaty and the law,
I concluded, after full deliberation, to have recourse on
this occasion in the first instance only to the civil process.
Instructions have accordingly been given by the Secretary
of War to the attorney and marshal of the United States
in the district of Georgia to commence prosecutions
against the surveyors complained of as having violated
the law, while orders have at the same time been forwarded
to the agent of the United States at once to assure the
Indians that their rights founded upon the treaty and the
law are recognized by this Government and will be
faithfully protected, and earnestly to exhort them, by
the forbearance of every act of hostility on their part,
to preserve unimpaired that right to protection secured to
them by the sacred pledge of the good faith of this nation.
Copies of these instructions and orders
are herewith transmitted to Congress.
In abstaining at this stage of the proceedings
from the application of any military force I have
been governed by considerations which will,
I trust, meet the concurrence of the Legislature.
Among them one of paramount importance has been
that these surveys have been attempted, and partly
effected, under color of legal authority from the State of
Georgia; that the surveyors are, therefore, not to be viewed
in the light of individual and solitary transgressors, but as
the agents of a sovereign State, acting in obedience to
authority which they believed to be binding upon them.
Intimations had been given that should they meet with
interruption they would at all hazards be sustained by
the military force of the State, in which event, if the
military force of the Union should have been employed
to enforce its violated law, a conflict must have ensued,
which would itself have inflicted a wound upon the
Union and have presented the aspect of one of
these confederated States at war with the rest.
Anxious above all to avert this state of things, yet at the
same time impressed with the deepest conviction of my
own duty to take care that the laws shall be executed and
the faith of the nation preserved, I have used of the means
entrusted to the Executive for that purpose only those which
without resorting to military force may vindicate the sanctity
of the law by the ordinary agency of the judicial tribunals.
It ought not, however, to be disguised that the act of
the legislature of Georgia, under the construction given
to it by the governor of that State, and the surveys made
or attempted by his authority beyond the boundary
secured by the treaty of Washington of April last to
the Creek Indians, are in direct violation of the supreme
law of this land, set forth in a treaty which has received
all the sanctions provided by the Constitution which
we have been sworn to support and maintain.
Happily distributed as the sovereign powers of the
people of this Union have been between their General
and State Governments, their history has already too
often presented collisions between these divided authorities
with regard to the extent of their respective powers.
No instance, however, has hitherto occurred in which
this collision has been urged into a conflict of actual force.
No other case is known to have happened in which the
application of military force by the Government of the
Union has been prescribed for the enforcement of a
law the violation of which has within any single State
been prescribed by a legislative act of the State.
In the present instance it is my duty to say that if the
legislative and executive authorities of the State of Georgia
should persevere in acts of encroachment upon the
territories secured by a solemn treaty to the Indians,
and the laws of the Union remain unaltered, a
superadded obligation even higher than that of human
authority will compel the Executive of the United States
to enforce the laws and fulfill the duties of the nation
by all the force committed for that purpose to his charge.
That the arm of military force will be resorted to
only in the event of the failure of all other
expedients provided by the laws, a pledge has been
given by the forbearance to employ it at this time.
It is submitted to the wisdom of Congress to
determine whether any further act of legislation
may be necessary or expedient to meet the
emergency which these transactions may produce.4
President John Quincy Adams on 8 February 1827 sent this message:
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their advice with regard to
its ratification a treaty between the United States and the
Mexican Confederation, signed by the plenipotentiaries
of the respective Governments on the 10th of July last.
It will be seen by its terms that if ratified by both parties
the ratifications are to be exchanged at this city
on or before the 10th day of next month.
The ratification on the part of the Government
of Mexico has not yet been received, though
it has probably before this been effected.
To avoid all unnecessary delay the treaty is now
communicated to the Senate, that it may receive
all the deliberation which, in their wisdom,
it may require, without pressing upon their time
at a near approach to the close of their session.
Should they advise and consent to its ratification,
that measure will still be withheld until the ratification
by the Mexican Government shall have been ascertained.
A copy of the treaty is likewise transmitted, together
with the documents appertaining to the negotiation.5
On February 13 President Adams wrote in his Memoirs:
13th. Mr. Lowrie brought me resolutions of the Senate,
advising and consenting to the appointments of Joel R.
Poinsett as joint Minister with John Sergeant to the Assembly
of American Nations at Tacubaya, transferred from Panama;
of John Boyle as Judge of the District of Kentucky; and of
Sidney Breese as U. S. Attorney for the District of Illinois.
These nominations have been for some time suspended.
General Harrison came to enquire
if I had decided upon the claim of Alexander Scott, Jr.
I told him I considered the claim as not only unwarranted
by law, but directly contrary to law, and sustained
by no precedent; although there had been one case
of an allowance of pay to a suspended officer for a
short time, but no reason assigned for the allowance.
He spoke with some uneasiness and dissatisfaction
of a resolution moved by J. T. Austin in the Senate
of Massachusetts, looking to a claim of public lands
for the benefit of the old States of the Union.
I told him I thought it would not meet with much support.
Mr. Brush came to take leave, returning to Ohio;
and said something of Mr. Clay’s being run for
Vice-President at the next election, which he thought might
be necessary to secure the States of Illinois and Missouri.
Mr. Southard told me that General Houston
had declined forwarding his answer to General
Jackson’s letter unless delivered to him open.
He thought, and I concurred with him, that his course
was to forward the answer to General Jackson
directly by another hand, apprising him that
General Houston declined forwarding it unless open.6
President John Quincy Adams on 19 February 1827 sent this message:
To the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States:
I transmit to both Houses of Congress copies
of the following treaties, which have been
ratified by and with the consent of the Senate:
1. A treaty with the Chippewa tribe of Indians,
signed at the Fond du Lac of Lake Superior
on the 5th of August, 1826.
2: A treaty with the Potawatamie tribe of Indians,
signed on the 16th of October 1826 near the mouth of
the Mississinawa upon the Wabash in the State of Indiana.
3. A treaty with the Miami tribe of Indians,
signed at the same place on the 23rd of October 1826.7
On 24 February 1827 President Adams sent this message:
To the Senate of the United States.
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration,
a conveyance by treaty from the Seneca tribe of
Indians to Robert Troup, Thomas L. Ogden, and
Benjamin W. Rogers, in the presence of Oliver Forward,
commissioner of the United States for holding the
said treaty, and of Nathaniel Gorham, superintendent
in behalf of the State of Massachusetts.
A letter from the grantees of this conveyance and a report
of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of
War, relating to this instrument, are also transmitted; and
with regard to the approval or ratification of the treaty itself,
it is submitted to the Senate for their advice and consent.8
On February 28 Vice President Calhoun broke a tie
in the Senate to reject a 50% tariff on wool.
President John Quincy Adams on 2 March 1827 sent this message:
To the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States:
I transmit to both Houses of Congress copies of
communications received yesterday by the Secretary of War
from the governor of Georgia and from Lieutenant Vinton.9
On 17 March 1827 President John Quincy Adams issued Proclamation 33—
Levying Discriminating Duties on British Vessels Trading
Between the United States and Certain British Colonies:
Whereas by the sixth section of an act of Congress entitled
“An act to regulate the commercial intercourse between the
United States and certain British colonial ports,” which was
approved on the 1st day of March, A. D. 1823, it is enacted
“that this act, unless repealed, altered, or amended by
Congress, shall be and continue in force so long as the
above-enumerated British colonial ports shall be open to the
admission of the vessels of the United States, conformably
to the provisions of the British act of Parliament of the
24th of June last, being the forty-fourth chapter of the acts
of the third year of George IV; but if at any time the trade
and intercourse between the United States and all or any of
the above-enumerated British colonial ports authorized by
the said act of Parliament should be prohibited by a British
order in council or by act of Parliament, then, from the day
of the date of such order in council or act of Parliament, or
from the time that the same shall commence to be in force,
proclamation to that effect having been made by the
President of the United States, each and every provision of
this act, so far as the same shall apply to the intercourse
between the United States and the above-enumerated
British colonial ports in British vessels, shall cease to
operate in their favor, and each and every provision of the
‘Act concerning navigation,’ approved on the 18th of April,
1818, and of the act supplementary thereto, approved on
the 15th of May, 1820, shall revive and be in full force;” and
Whereas by an act of the British Parliament which passed
on the 5th day of July, A. D. 1825, entitled “An act to repeal
the several laws relating to the customs,” the said act of
Parliament of the 24th of June, 1822, was repealed; and by
another act of the British Parliament, passed on the 5th day
of July, A. D. 1825, in the sixth year of the reign of
George IV, entitled “An act to regulate the trade of the
British possessions abroad;” and by an order of His Britannic
Majesty in council, bearing date the 27th of July, 1826,
the trade and intercourse authorized by the aforesaid
act of Parliament of the 24th of June, 1822, between the
United States and the greater part of the said British colonial
ports therein enumerated, have been prohibited upon
and from the 1st day of December last past, and the
contingency has thereby arisen on which the President
of the United States was authorized by the sixth section
aforesaid of the act of Congress of the 1st March, 1823,
to issue a proclamation to the effect therein mentioned:
Now, therefore, I, John Quincy Adams, President
of the United States of America, do hereby declare and
proclaim that the trade and intercourse authorized by
the said act of Parliament of the 24th of June, 1822,
between the United States and the British colonial ports
enumerated in the aforesaid act of Congress of the
1st of March, 1823, have been and are, upon and
from the 1st day of December, 1826, by the
aforesaid two several acts of Parliament of the
5th of July, 1825, and by the aforesaid British order
in council of the 27th day of July, 1826, prohibited.
Given under my hand, at the city of Washington,
this 17th day of March, A. D. 1827, and the
fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States.10
On 18 March 1827 President John Quincy Adams completed
a letter to Albert Gallatin, and on that day he also wrote in his Memoirs:
I read Mr. Huskisson’s speech in the House of Commons
on the 12th of May 1826 on the state of the
shipping interest and the navigation laws.
He admits that in substituting reciprocity for the old
exclusive principle of the Navigation Act they had
proceeded upon compulsion, under the retaliatory
discriminating duties of the United States.
His whole argument for the adoption of this
rule of reciprocity is necessity, imposed by the
countervailing regulations of other countries—
necessity, first, to compound with the United States;
and next to extend to other countries
the advantages already yielded to them.
The further step of taking back from them that which is
now conceded to others was taken more than two months
after the delivery of the speech, but the fear and jealousy
of the United States, which prompted to that measure, are
unequivocally disclosed in many passages of the speech.11
President Adams on March 20 in his Memoirs wrote:
20th. Mr. Clay came with a draft of instructions
to A. Gallatin, to be sent him with the proclamation
restoring the Navigation Acts of 1818 and 1820.
He directs him to make no further advance
to the British Government on the subject.
But if unexpectedly any should be made on their part,
he is authorized to agree upon the basis of
either of the two bills that were introduced
into the Senate and House of Representatives
by the respective Committees on Commerce.12
Adams on May 12 wrote briefly about Martin Van Buren in his Memoirs:
12th. Mr. Van Buren paid me a morning visit;
he is on his return from a tour through Virginia,
North and South Carolina, and Georgia with
C. C. Cambreleng since the session of Congress.
They are generally understood to have been electioneering,
and Van Buren is now the great electioneering
manager for General Jackson, as he was
before the last election for Mr. Crawford.13
On 7 June 1827 President Adams issued this Proclamation:
Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States
of the 7th of January 1824 entitled “An act concerning
discriminating duties of tonnage and impost,” it is provide
that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President
of the United States by the government of any foreign nation
that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are
imposed or levied within the ports of the said nation upon
vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States
or upon merchandise the produce or manufacture thereof
imported in the same, the President is thereby authorized
to issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign
discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the
United States are and shall be suspended and discontinued
so far as respects the vessels of the said nation and the
merchandise of its produce or manufacture imported into
the United States in the same, the said suspension to take
effect from the time of such notification being given to the
President of the United States and to continue so long as
the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens
of the United States and merchandise as aforesaid
therein laden shall be continued, and no longer; and
Whereas satisfactory evidence was given to the
President of the United States on the 30th day of May last
by Count Lucchesi, consul-general of His Holiness the Pope,
that all foreign and discriminating duties of tonnage
and impost within the dominions of His Holiness, so far
as respected the vessels of the United States and the
merchandise of their produce or manufacture imported
in the same, were suspended and discontinued:
Now, therefore, I, John Quincy Adams, President of the
United States, conformably to the fourth section of the act
of Congress aforesaid, do hereby proclaim and declare
that the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and
impost within the United States are and shall be
suspended and discontinued so far as respects the
vessels of the subjects of His Holiness the Pope
and the merchandise of the produce or manufacture
of his dominions imported into the United States in
the same, the said suspension to take effect from
the 30th of May aforesaid and to continue so long
as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging
to citizens of the United States and merchandise as
aforesaid therein laden shall be continued, and no longer.
Given under my hand at the city of Washington
this 7th day of June, 1827 and of the
Independence of the United States the fifty-first.14
South Carolina College’s President Thomas Cooper on July 2 warned that
protective tariffs favored northern industry at the expense of the agricultural south.
On the 30th after an anti-tariff rally at Columbia, South Carolina the
Pennsylvania Society led by protectionist Matthew Carey sponsored a national
convention with a hundred delegates from 13 states in Harrisburg to urge rising tariffs.
Pennsylvanians wanted their pig iron and rolled iron protected.
New England had hundreds of mills and factories.
Providence, Rhode Island had 30,000 people working in 150 factories
and claimed to be richest city of its size; but many Americans believed that
factories undermined morals and impoverished workers.
In five years the number of those working in factories
multiplied by ten to two million people.
On 10 September 1827 President Adams issued this proclamation:
Whereas Willis Anderson, of the County of Alexandria,
in the District of Columbia, is charged with having recently
murdered Gerrard Arnold, late of the said county; and
Whereas it is represented to me that the said
Willis Anderson has absconded and secretes himself,
so that he cannot be apprehended and brought to justice
for the offense of which he is so charged; and
Whereas the apprehension and trial of the said
Willis Anderson is an example due to justice and
humanity, and would be every way salutary in its influence:
Now, therefore, I have thought fit to issue this my
proclamation, hereby exhorting the citizens of the
United States, and particularly those of this District,
and requiring all officers, according to their respective
stations, to use their utmost endeavors to apprehend
and bring the said Willis Anderson to justice for the
atrocious crime with which he stands charged as aforesaid;
and I do moreover offer a reward of $250 for the
apprehension of the said Willis Anderson and his delivery
to an officer or officers of justice in the county aforesaid,
so that he may be brought to trial for the murder
aforesaid and be otherwise dealt with according to law.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed
my name and caused the seal of the United States
to be affixed to these presents.
Done at Washington this 10th day of September 1827, and
of the Independence of the United States the fifty-second.15
The 20th United States Congress convened on 3 December 1827
with a Jacksonian majority of Democratic-Republicans in both houses.
On that day the Jacksonian Andrew Stevenson of Virginia
was elected Speaker of the House 104-95.
President John Quincy Adams on December 14
presented his Third Annual Message to:
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and
of the House of Representatives:
A revolution of the seasons has nearly been
completed since the representatives of the people
and States of this Union were last assembled
at this place to deliberate and to act upon the
common important interests of their constituents.
In that interval the never slumbering eye of a wise
and beneficent Providence has continued its guardian
care over the welfare of our beloved country;
the blessing of health has continued generally to prevail
throughout the land; the blessing of peace with our brethren
of the human race has been enjoyed without interruption;
internal quiet has left our fellow citizens in the full
enjoyment of all their rights and in the free exercise of all
their faculties, to pursue the impulse of their nature and
the obligation of their duty in the improvement of their
own condition; the productions of the soil, the exchanges
of commerce, the vivifying labors of human industry, have
combined to mingle in our cup a portion of enjoyment as
large and liberal as the indulgence of Heaven has perhaps
ever granted to the imperfect state of man upon earth; and
as the purest of human felicity consists in its participation
with others, it is no small addition to the sum of our national
happiness at this time that peace and prosperity prevail to a
degree seldom experienced over the whole habitable globe,
presenting, though as yet with painful exceptions,
a foretaste of that blessed period of promise when the lion
shall lie down with the lamb and wars shall be no more.
To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the
sources and to direct in their most effective channels
the streams which contribute to the public weal
is the purpose for which Government was instituted.
Objects of deep importance to the welfare of
the Union are constantly recurring to demand
the attention of the Federal Legislature,
and they call with accumulated interest at the first
meeting of the two Houses after their periodical renovation.
To present to their consideration from time to time
subjects in which the interests of the nation are most deeply
involved, and for the regulation of which the legislative will
is alone competent, is a duty prescribed by the Constitution,
to the performance of which the first meeting of the
new Congress is a period eminently appropriate,
and which it is now my purpose to discharge.
Our relations of friendship with the other nations of the
earth, political and commercial, have been preserved
unimpaired, and the opportunities to improve them have
been cultivated with anxious and unremitting attention.
A negotiation upon subjects of high and delicate interest
with the Government of Great Britain has terminated
in the adjustment of some of the questions at issue
upon satisfactory terms and the postponement of
others for future discussion and agreement.
The purposes of the convention concluded at
St. Petersburg on 1822-07-12, under the mediation
of the late Emperor Alexander, have been carried
into effect by a subsequent convention, concluded
at London on 1826-11-13, the ratifications of which
were exchanged at that place on 1827-02-06.
A copy of the proclamations issued on 1827-03-19,
publishing this convention, is herewith
communicated to Congress.
The sum of $1,204,960, therein stipulated to be paid
to the claimants of indemnity under the first article
of the treaty of Ghent, has been duly received,
and the commission instituted, conformably to the act
of Congress of 1827-03-02, for the distribution of the
indemnity of the persons entitled to receive it are now in
session and approaching the consummation of their labors.
This final disposal of one of the most painful topics of
collision between the United States and Great Britain
not only affords an occasion of gratulation to ourselves,
but has had the happiest effect in promoting a friendly
disposition and in softening asperities upon other objects
of discussion; nor ought it to pass without the tribute
of a frank and cordial acknowledgment of the
magnanimity with which an honorable nation,
by the reparation of their own wrongs, achieves a triumph
more glorious than any field of blood can ever bestow.
The conventions of 1815-07-03 and of 1818-10-20
will expire by their own limitation on 1828-10-20.
These have regulated the direct commercial intercourse
between the United States and Great Britain upon terms
of the most perfect reciprocity; and they effected
a temporary compromise of the respective rights
and claims to territory westward of the Rocky Mountains.
These arrangements have been continued for an indefinite
period of time after the expiration of the above-mentioned
conventions, leaving each party the liberty of terminating
them by giving twelve months’ notice to the other.
The radical principle of all commercial
intercourse between independent nations
is the mutual interest of both parties.
It is the vital spirit of trade itself;
nor can it be reconciled to the nature of man
or to the primary laws of human society that any traffic
should long be willingly pursued of which all the advantages
are on one side and all the burdens on the other.
Treaties of commerce have been found by experience
to be among the most effective instruments for promoting
peace and harmony between nations whose interests,
exclusively considered on either side, are
brought into frequent collisions by competition.
In framing such treaties it is the duty of each party
not simply to urge with unyielding pertinacity that
which suits its own interest, but to concede liberally
to that which is adapted to the interest of the other.
To accomplish this, little more is generally required than
a simple observance of the rule of reciprocity, and were
it possible for the statesmen of 1 nation by stratagem
and management to obtain from the weakness or ignorance
of another an over-reaching treaty, such a compact would
prove an incentive to war rather than a bond of peace.
Our conventions with Great Britain
are founded upon the principles of reciprocity.
The commercial intercourse between the two countries
is greater in magnitude and amount than
between any two other nations on the globe.
It is for all purposes of benefit or advantage
to both as precious, and in all probability far
more extensive, than if the parties were still
constituent parts of one and the same nation.
Treaties between such States, regulating the intercourse
of peace between them and adjusting interests of such
transcendent importance to both, which have been found
in a long experience of years mutually advantageous,
should not be lightly cancelled or discontinued.
Two conventions for continuing in force those
above mentioned have been concluded between the
plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on 1827-08-06,
and will be forthwith laid before the Senate for the
exercise of their constitutional authority concerning them.
In the execution of the treaties of peace of 1782-11
and 1783-09, between the United States and Great Britain,
and which terminated the war of our independence,
a line of boundary was drawn as the demarcation of
territory between the two countries, extending over
nearly 20 degrees of latitude, and ranging overseas,
lakes, and mountains, then very imperfectly explored and
scarcely opened to the geographical knowledge of the age.
In the progress of discovery and settlement by both
parties since that time several questions of boundary
between their respective territories have arisen,
which have been found of exceedingly difficult adjustment.
At the close of the last war with Great Britain four of these
questions pressed themselves upon the consideration of the
negotiators of the treaty of Ghent, but without the means
of concluding a definitive arrangement concerning them.
They were referred to three separate commissions
consisting, of two commissioners, one appointed by each
party to examine and decide upon their respective claims.
In the event of a disagreement between the commissioners
it was provided that they should make reports
to their several Governments, and that the reports
should finally be referred to the decision of a
sovereign the common friend of both.
Of these commissions two have already
terminated their sessions and investigations,
one by entire and the other by partial agreement.
The commissioners of the 5th article of the treaty of
Ghent have finally disagreed, and made their
conflicting reports to their own Governments.
But from these reports a great difficulty has occurred
in making up a question to be decided by the arbitrator.
This purpose has, however, been effected by a
4th convention, concluded at London by the
plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on 1827-09-29.
It will be submitted, together with the others,
to the consideration of the Senate.
While these questions have been pending,
incidents have occurred of conflicting pretensions
and of dangerous character upon the territory
itself in dispute between the two nations.
By a common understanding between the Governments
it was agreed that no exercise of exclusive jurisdiction
by either party while the negotiation was pending
should change the state of the question
of right to be definitively settled.
Such collision has nevertheless recently taken place
by occurrences, the precise character of which,
has not yet been ascertained.
A communication from the governor of the State of Maine,
with accompanying documents, and a correspondence
between the Secretary of State and the minister of
Great Britain on this subject are now communicated.
Measures have been taken to ascertain the state of the
facts more correctly by the employment of a special agent
to visit the spot where the alleged outrages have occurred,
the result of those inquiries, when received,
will be transmitted to Congress.
While so many of the subjects of high interest to the
friendly relations between the two countries have been
so far adjusted, it is a matter of regret that their views
respecting the commercial intercourse between the
United States and the British colonial possessions
have not equally approximated to a friendly agreement.
At the commencement of the last session of Congress
they were informed of the sudden and unexpected
exclusion by the British Government of access in vessels
of the United States to all their colonial ports except
those immediately bordering upon our own territories.
In the amicable discussions which have succeeded the
adoption of this measure which, as it affected
harshly the interests of the United States,
became subject of expostulation on our part,
the principles, upon which its justification has been placed,
have been of a diversified character.
It has been at once ascribed to a mere recurrence to the
old, long established principle of colonial monopoly and at
the same time to a feeling of resentment because the offers
of an act of Parliament opening the colonial ports upon
certain conditions had not been grasped at with sufficient
eagerness by an instantaneous conformity to them.
At a subsequent period it has been intimated that the
new exclusion was in resentment because a prior act of
Parliament of 1822, opening certain colonial ports,
under heavy and burdensome restrictions, to vessels
of the United States, had not been reciprocated by an
admission of British vessels from the colonies, and their
cargoes without any restriction or discrimination whatever.
But be the motive for the interdiction what it may,
the British Government have manifested no disposition,
either by negotiation or by corresponding legislative
enactments, to recede from it, and we have been given
distinctly to understand that neither of the bills which
were under the consideration of Congress at their
last session would have been deemed sufficient
in their concessions to have been rewarded
by any relaxation from the British interdict.
It is one of the inconveniences inseparably connected with
the attempt to adjust by reciprocal legislation interests
of this nature that neither party can know what would be
satisfactory to the other, and that after enacting a statute
for the avowed and sincere purpose of conciliation, it will
generally be found utterly inadequate to the expectation of
the other party and will terminate in mutual disappointment.
The session of Congress having terminated without any
act upon the subject, a proclamation was issued on
1827-03-17, conformably to the provisions of the
6th section of the act of 1823-03-01 declaring the fact
that the trade and intercourse authorized by the British
act of Parliament of 1822-06-24, between the United States
and the British enumerated colonial ports had been,
by the subsequent acts of Parliament of 1825-07-05
and the order of council of 1826-07-27, prohibited.
The effect of this proclamation, by the terms of the
act under which it was issued, has been that
each and every provision of the act concerning
navigation of 1818-04-18, and of the act supplementary
thereto of 1820-05-15, revived and is in full force.
Such, then is the present condition of the trade that,
useful as it is to both parties, it can with a single momentary
exception, be carried on directly by the vessels of neither.
That exception itself is found in a proclamation of the
governor of the island of St. Christopher and of the
Virgin Islands, inviting for 3 months from 1827-08-28
the importation of the articles of the produce of the
United States which constitute their export portion
of this trade in the vessels of all nations.
That period having already expired, the state
of mutual interdiction has again taken place.
The British Government have not only declined
negotiation upon this subject, but by the principle
they have assumed with reference to it,
have precluded even the means of negotiation.
It becomes not the self-respect of the United States
either to solicit gratuitous favors or to accept as the grant
of a favor that for which an ample equivalent is exacted.
It remains to be determined by the respective Governments
whether the trade shall be opened
by acts of reciprocal legislation.
It is, in the meantime, satisfactory to know that
apart from the inconvenience resulting from a disturbance
of the usual channels of trade no loss has been sustained
by the commerce, the navigation, or the revenue of the
United States, and none of magnitude is to be
apprehended from this existing state of mutual interdict.
With the other maritime and commercial nations
of Europe our intercourse continues with little variation.
Since the cessation by the convention of 1822-06-24
of all discriminating duties upon the vessels of the
United States and of France in either country
our trade with that nation has increased and is increasing.
A disposition on the part of France has been manifested
to renew that negotiation, and in acceding to the proposal
we have expressed the wish that it might be extended to
other subjects upon which a good understanding between
the parties would be beneficial to the interests of both.
The origin of the political relations between the
United States and France is coeval with
the first years of our independence.
The memory of it is interwoven with that
of our arduous struggle for national existence.
Weakened as it has occasionally been since that time,
it can by us never be forgotten, and we should hail
with exultation the moment which should indicate a
recollection equally friendly in spirit on the part of France.
A fresh effort has recently been made by the minister
of the United States residing at Paris to obtain a
consideration of the just claims of citizens of the
United States to the reparation of wrongs
long since committed, many of them frankly
acknowledged and all of them entitled upon
every principle of justice to a candid examination.
The proposal last made to the French Government
has been to refer the subject which has formed
an obstacle to this consideration to the determination
of a sovereign the common friend of both.
To this offer no definitive answer has yet been received,
but the gallant and honorable spirit which has at all times
been the pride and glory of France will not ultimately permit
the demands of innocent sufferers to be extinguished
in the mere consciousness of the power to reject them.
A new treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce
has been concluded with the Kingdom of Sweden,
which will be submitted to the Senate
for their advice with regard to its ratification.
At a more recent date a minister plenipotentiary from
the Hanseatic Republics of Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen
has been received, charged with a special mission for the
negotiation of a treaty of amity and commerce between
that ancient and renowned league and the United States.
This negotiation has accordingly been commenced,
and is now in progress, the result of which will, if successful,
be also submitted to the Senate for their consideration.
Since the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the
imperial throne of all the Russias, the friendly dispositions
toward the United States so constantly manifested
by his predecessor have continued unabated,
and have been recently testified by the appointment
of a minister plenipotentiary to reside at this place.
From the interest taken by this Sovereign in behalf of the
suffering Greeks and from the spirit with which others
of the great European powers are cooperating with him
the friends of freedom and of humanity may indulge the
hope that they will obtain relief from that most unequal of
conflicts which they have so long and so gallantly sustained;
that they will enjoy the blessing of self-government,
which by their sufferings in the cause of liberty,
they have richly earned, and that their independence
will be secured by those liberal institutions of which
their country furnished the earliest examples in the
history of mankind, and which have consecrated
to immortal remembrance the very soil for which
they are now again profusely pouring forth their blood.
The sympathies which the people and Government of the
United States have so warmly indulged with their cause
have been acknowledged by their Government
in a letter of thanks, which I have received from
their illustrious President, a translation of which
is now communicated to Congress, the representatives
of that nation to whom this tribute of gratitude
was intended to be paid, and to whom it was justly due.
In the American hemisphere the cause of freedom
and independence has continued to prevail,
and if signalized by none of those splendid triumphs
which had crowned with glory some of the preceding years
it has only been from the banishment of all external force
against which the struggle had been maintained.
The shout of victory has been superseded by the expulsion
of the enemy over whom it could have been achieved.
Our friendly wishes and cordial good will,
which have constantly followed the southern nations of
America in all the vicissitudes of their war of independence,
are succeeded by a solicitude equally ardent and cordial
that by the wisdom and purity of their institutions
they may secure to themselves the choicest blessings
of social order and the best rewards of virtuous liberty.
Disclaiming alike all right and all intention of
interfering in those concerns which it is the
prerogative of their independence to regulate
as to them shall seem fit, we hail with joy
every indication of their prosperity, of their harmony,
of their persevering and inflexible homage to those
principles of freedom and of equal rights which are alone
suited to the genius and temper of the American nations.
It has been, therefore, with some concern that we have
observed indications of intestine divisions in some of the
Republics of the south, and appearances of less union
with one another than we believe to be the interest of all.
Among the results of this state of things has been that
the treaties concluded at Panama do not appear
to have been ratified by the contracting parties,
and that the meeting of the congress at Tacubaya
has been indefinitely postponed.
In accepting the invitations to be represented at this
congress, while a manifestation was intended on the part
of the United States of the most friendly disposition
toward the southern Republics by whom it had been
proposed, it was hoped that it would furnish an
opportunity for bringing all the nations of this hemisphere
to the common acknowledgment and adoption
of the principles in the regulation of their internal relations
which would have secured a lasting peace and harmony
between them and have promoted the cause
of mutual benevolence throughout the globe.
But as obstacles appear to have arisen to the
reassembling of the congress, one of the 2 ministers
commissioned on the part of the United States
has returned to the bosom of his country,
while the minister charged with the ordinary mission
to Mexico remains authorized to attend the conferences
of the congress whenever they may be resumed.
A hope was for a short time entertained that
a treaty of peace actually signed between the Government
of Buenos Aires and of Brazil would supersede
all further occasion for those collisions between
belligerent pretensions and neutral rights which are so
commonly the result of maritime war, and which have
unfortunately disturbed the harmony of the relations
between the United States and the Brazilian Governments.
At their last session Congress were informed that some
of the naval officers of that Empire had advanced
and practiced upon principles in relation to blockades
and to neutral navigation which we could not sanction,
and which our commanders found it necessary to resist.
It appears that they have not been sustained
by the Government of Brazil itself.
Some of the vessels captured under the assumed
authority of these erroneous principles have been restored,
and we trust that our just expectations will be realized
that adequate indemnity will be made to all the
citizens of the United States who have suffered
by the unwarranted captures which the Brazilian
tribunals themselves have pronounced unlawful.
In the diplomatic discussions at Rio de Janeiro
of these wrongs sustained by citizens of the United States
and of others which seemed as if emanating immediately
from that Government itself the chargé d’affaires of the
United States, under an impression that his representations
in behalf of the rights and interests of his countrymen were
totally disregarded and useless, deemed it his duty, without
waiting for instructions, to terminate his official functions,
to demand his passports, and return to the United States.
This movement, dictated by an honest zeal for the honor
and interests of his country—motives which operated
exclusively on the mind of the officer who resorted to it—
has not been disapproved by me.
The Brazilian Government, however, complained of it
as a measure for which no adequate intentional cause
had been given by them, and upon an explicit assurance
through their chargé d’affaires residing here that a
successor to the late representative of the United States
near that Government, the appointment of whom they
desired, should be received and treated with the respect
due to his character, and that indemnity should be promptly
made for all injuries inflicted on citizens of the United States
or their property contrary to the laws of nations,
a temporary commission as chargé d’affaires to that country
has been issued, which it is hoped will entirely restore the
ordinary diplomatic intercourse between the 2 Governments
and the friendly relations between their respective nations.
Turning from the momentous concerns of our Union
in its intercourse with foreign nations to those of the
deepest interest in the administration of our internal affairs,
we find the revenues of the present year corresponding
as nearly as might be expected with the anticipations
of the last, and presenting an aspect still more
favorable in the promise of the next.
The balance in the Treasury on 1827-01-01
was $6,358,686.18.
The receipts from that day to 1827-09-30, as near as
the returns of them yet received can show,
amount to $16,886,581.32.
The receipts of the present quarter,
estimated at $4,515,000, added to the above
form an aggregate of $21,400,000 of receipts.
The expenditures of the year may perhaps amount to
$22,300,000 presenting a small excess over the receipts.
But of these $22,000,000, upward of $6,000,000 have been
applied to the discharge of the principal of the public debt,
the whole amount of which, approaching $74,000,000 on
1827-01-01, will on 1828-01-01 fall short of $67,500,000.
The balance in the Treasury on 1828-01-01 it is expected
will exceed $5,450,000, a sum exceeding that of
1825-01-01, though falling short
of that exhibited on 1827-01-01.
It was foreseen that the revenue of the present year 1827
would not equal that of the last, which had itself
been less than that of the next preceding year.
But the hope has been realized which was entertained,
that these deficiencies would in no wise interrupt
the steady operation of the discharge of the public debt
by the annual $10,000,000 devoted to that object
by the act of 1817-03-03.
The amount of duties secured on merchandise
imported from the commencement of the year until
1827-09-30 is $21,226,000, and the probable amount
of that which will be secured during the remainder of the
year is $5,774,000, forming a sum total of $27,000,000.
With the allowances for draw-backs and contingent
deficiencies which may occur, though not specifically
foreseen, we may safely estimate the receipts of the
ensuing year at $22,300,000—a revenue for the next
equal to the expenditure of the present year.
The deep solicitude felt by our citizens of all
classes throughout the Union for the total
discharge of the public debt will apologize for the
earnestness with which I deem it my duty
to urge this topic upon the consideration of Congress—
of recommending to them again the observance of the
strictest economy in the application of the public funds.
The depression upon the receipts of the revenue which had
commenced with the year 1826 continued with increased
severity during the two first quarters of the present year.
The returning tide began to flow with the third quarter,
and, so far as we can judge from experience, may be
expected to continue through the course of the ensuing year.
In the meantime an alleviation from the burden of the
public debt will in the three years have been effected to the
amount of nearly $16,000,000, and the charge of annual
interest will have been reduced upward of $1,000,000.
But among the maxims of political economy which the
stewards of the public moneys should never suffer without
urgent necessity to be transcended is that of keeping the
expenditures of the year within the limits of its receipts.
The appropriations of the two last years, including
the yearly $10,000,000 of the sinking fund, have each
equaled the promised revenue of the ensuing year.
While we foresee with confidence that the public coffers
will be replenished from the receipts as fast as they will be
drained by the expenditures, equal in amount to those of
the current year, it should not be forgotten that they could
ill suffer the exhaustion of larger disbursements.
The condition of the Army and of all the branches
of the public service under the superintendence of the
Secretary of War will be seen by the report from that
officer and the documents with which it is accompanied.
During the last summer a detachment of
the Army has been usefully and successfully
called to perform their appropriate duties.
At the moment when the commissioners appointed
for carrying into execution certain provisions of the treaty
of 1825-08-19, with various tribes of the Northwestern
Indians were about to arrive at the appointed place
of meeting, the unprovoked murder of several citizens
and other acts of unequivocal hostility committed by a
party of the Winnebago tribe, one of those associated
in the treaty, followed by indications of a menacing
character among other tribes of the same region,
rendered necessary an immediate display of the
defensive and protective force of the Union in that quarter.
It was accordingly exhibited by the immediate
and concerted movements of the governors of the
State of Illinois and of the Territory of Michigan
and competent levies of militia, under their authority,
with a corps of 700 men of United States troops
under the command of General Atkinson, who,
at the call of Governor Cass, immediately repaired
to the scene of danger from their station at St. Louis.
Their presence dispelled the alarms of our fellow citizens
on those disorders, and overawed
the hostile purposes of the Indians.
The perpetrators of the murders were surrendered to the
authority and operation of our laws, and every appearance
of purposed hostility from those Indian tribes has subsided.
Although the present organization of the Army
and the administration of its various branches
of service are upon the whole, satisfactory,
they are yet susceptible of much improvement in particulars,
some of which have been heretofore submitted to the
consideration of Congress, and others are now first
presented in the report of the Secretary of War.
The expediency of providing for additional numbers
of officers in the two corps of engineers will in some
degree depend upon the number and extent of the
objects of national importance upon which Congress
may think it proper that surveys should be made
conformably to the act of 1824-04-30.
Of the surveys which before the last session of Congress
had been made under the authority of that act,
reports were made—
Of the Board of Internal Improvement,
on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.
On the continuation of the national road from Cumberland
to the tide waters within the District of Columbia.
On the continuation of the national road
from Canton to Zanesville.
On the location of the national road
from Zanesville to Columbus.
On the continuation of the same
to the seat of government in Missouri.
On a post road from Baltimore to Philadelphia.
Of a survey of Kennebec River (in part).
On a national road from Washington to Buffalo.
On the survey of Saugatuck Harbor and River.
On a canal from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River.
On surveys at Edgartown, Newburyport,
and Hyannis Harbor.
On survey of La Plaisance Bay in the Territory of Michigan.
And reports are now prepared
and will be submitted to Congress—
On surveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the
practicability of a canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic
with the Gulf of Mexico across that peninsula; and also of
the country between the bays of Mobile and of Pensacola,
with the view of connecting them together by a canal.
On surveys of a route for a canal to connect
the waters of James and Great Kenhawa rivers.
On the survey of the Swash, in Pamlico Sound, and that of
Cape Fear, below the town of Wilmington in North Carolina.
On the survey of the Muscle Shoals in the Tennessee River,
and for a route for a contemplated communication between
the Hiwassee and Coosa rivers in the State of Alabama.
Other reports of surveys upon objects pointed out
by the several acts of Congress of the last and preceding
sessions are in the progress of preparation, and most of
them may be completed before the close of this session.
All the officers of both corps of engineers with
several other persons duly qualified, have been
constantly employed upon these services from
the passage of the act of 1824-04-30 to this time.
Were no other advantage to accrue to the country from
their labors than the fund of topographical knowledge which
they have collected and communicated, that alone would
have been a profit to the Union more than adequate to all
the expenditures which have been devoted to the object;
but the appropriations for the repair and continuation of the
Cumberland road, for the construction of various other
roads, for the removal of obstructions from the rivers and
harbors, for the erection of light houses, beacons, piers,
and buoys, and for the completion of canals undertaken
by individual associations, but needing the assistance of
means and resources more comprehensive than individual
enterprise can command, may be considered rather as
treasures laid up from the contributions of the present age
for the benefit of posterity than as unrequited
applications of the accruing revenues of the nation.
To such objects of permanent improvement to the
condition of the country, of real addition to the wealth
as well as to the comfort of the people by whose authority
and resources they have been effected, from $3,000,000
to $4,000,000 of the annual income of the nation have,
by laws enacted at the three most recent sessions of
Congress, been applied, without intrenching upon the
necessities of the Treasury, without adding a dollar to the
taxes or debts of the community, without suspending even
the steady and regular discharge of the debts contracted
in former days, which within the same three years have
been diminished by the amount of nearly $16,000,000.
The same observations are in a great degree applicable
to the appropriations made for fortifications upon the coasts
and harbors of the United States, for the maintenance of the
Military Academy at West Point, and for the various objects
under the superintendence of the Department of the Navy.
The report from the Secretary of the Navy and those from
the subordinate branches of both the military departments
exhibit to Congress in minute detail the present condition
of the public establishments dependent upon them,
the execution of the acts of Congress relating to them,
and the views of the officers engaged in the several
branches of the service concerning the improvements
which may tend to their perfection.
The fortification of the coasts and the gradual increase
and improvement of the Navy are parts of a great system
of national defense which has been upward of 10 years
in progress, and which for a series of years to come
will continue to claim the constant and persevering
protection and superintendence of the legislative authority.
Among the measures which have emanated
from these principles the act of the last session
of Congress for the gradual improvement
of the Navy holds a conspicuous place.
The collection of timber for the future construction of vessels
of war, the preservation and reproduction of the species of
timber peculiarly adapted to that purpose, the construction
of dry docks for the use of the Navy, the erection of a
marine railway for the repair of the public ships, and the
improvement of the navy yards for the preservation
of the public property deposited in them have all
received from the Executive the attention required
by that act, and will continue to receive it,
steadily proceeding toward the execution of all its purposes.
The establishment of a naval academy, furnishing the
means of theoretic instruction to the youths who devote
their lives to the service of their country upon the ocean,
still solicits the sanction of the Legislature.
Practical seamanship and the art of navigation may be
acquired on the cruises of the squadrons which from
time to time are dispatched to distant seas, but a competent
knowledge even of the art of ship building, the higher
mathematics, and astronomy; the literature which can place
our officers on a level of polished education with the officers
of other maritime nations; the knowledge of the laws,
municipal and national, which in their intercourse with
foreign states and their governments are continually called
into operation, and, above all, that acquaintance with the
principles of honor and justice, with the higher obligations
of morals and of general laws, human and divine,
which constitutes the great distinction between the
warrior-patriot and the licensed robber and pirate—
these can be systematically taught and eminently
acquired only in a permanent school, stationed upon the
shore and provided with the teachers, the instruments,
and the books conversant with and adapted to the
communication of the principles of these respective
sciences to the youthful and inquiring mind.
The report from the Postmaster General exhibits
the condition of that Department as highly satisfactory
for the present and still more promising for the future.
Its receipts for the year ending 1827-07-01
amounted to $1,473,551, and exceeded its
expenditures by upward of $100,000.
It cannot be an over sanguine estimate to predict that
in less than 10 years, of which half have elapsed,
the receipts will have been more than doubled.
In the meantime a reduced expenditure upon
established routes has kept pace with increased facilities
of public accommodation and additional services
have been obtained at reduced rates of compensation.
Within the last year the transportation of the mail
in stages has been greatly augmented.
The number of post offices has been increased to 7,000,
and it may be anticipated that while the facilities of
intercourse between fellow citizens in person or by
correspondence will soon be carried to the door
of every villager in the Union, a yearly surplus of
revenue will accrue which may be applied as the wisdom
of Congress under the exercise of their constitutional
powers may devise for the further establishment
and improvement of the public roads, or by adding still
further to the facilities in the transportation of the mails.
Of the indications of the prosperous condition of our country,
none can be more pleasing than those presented by the
multiplying relations of personal and intimate intercourse
between the citizens of the Union dwelling
at the remotest distances from each other.
Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied
the earnest solicitude and attention of Congress is the
management and disposal of that portion of the property
of the nation which consists of the public lands.
The acquisition of them, made at the expense
of the whole Union, not only in treasury but in blood,
marks a right of property in them equally extensive.
By the report and statements from the General Land Office
now communicated it appears that under the present
Government of the United States a sum little short of
$33,000,000 has been paid from the common
Treasury for that portion of this property
which has been purchased from France and Spain,
and for the extinction of the aboriginal titles.
The amount of lands acquired is near
260,000,000 acres, of which on 1826-01-01,
about 139,000,000 acres had been surveyed,
and little more than 19,000,000 acres had been sold.
The amount paid into the Treasury by the purchasers
of the public lands sold is not yet equal to the sums paid
for the whole, but leaves a small balance to be refunded.
The proceeds of the sales of the lands have long been
pledged to the creditors of the nation, a pledge
from which we have reason to hope that
they will in a very few years be redeemed.
The system upon which this great national interest
has been managed was the result of long,
anxious, and persevering deliberation.
Matured and modified by the progress of our population
and the lessons of experience,
it has been hitherto eminently successful.
More than 9/10 of the lands still remain the common
property of the Union, the appropriation and disposal
of which are sacred trusts in the hands of Congress.
Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed
under extended credits, which in the vicissitudes and
fluctuations in the value of lands and of their produce
became oppressively burdensome to the purchasers.
It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation
to wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits
of their industry and enterprise by holding them
to the rigorous import of disastrous engagements.
In 1821-03, a debt of $22,000,000, due by purchasers
of the public lands, had accumulated,
which they were unable to pay.
An act of Congress of 1821-03-02, came to their relief,
and has been succeeded by others, the latest being
the act of 1826-05-04, the indulgent provisions
of which expired on 1827-07-04.
The effect of these laws has been to reduce
the debt from the purchasers to a remaining balance
of about $4,300,000 due, more than 3/5 of which
are for lands within the State of Alabama.
I recommend to Congress the revival and continuance
for a further term of the beneficent accommodations
to the public debtors of that statute, and submit to their
consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the remission,
under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial
payments on account of purchases of the public lands,
so far as to allow of their application to other payments.
There are various other subjects of deep interest
to the whole Union which have heretofore been
recommended to the consideration of Congress,
as well by my predecessors as, under the impression
of the duties devolving upon me, by myself.
Among these are the debt, rather of justice than gratitude,
to the surviving warriors of the Revolutionary war;
the extension of the judicial administration of the
Federal Government to those extensive and
important members of the Union, which,
having risen into existence since the organization
of the present judiciary establishment,
now constitute at least 1/3 of its territory,
power, and population; the formation of a
more effective and uniform system for the
government of the militia, and the amelioration
in some form or modification of the diversified
and often oppressive codes relating to insolvency.
Amidst the multiplicity of topics of great national
concernment which may recommend themselves to the calm
and patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice
to say that on these and all other measures which may
receive their sanction my hearty cooperation will be given,
conformably to the duties enjoined upon me and under the
sense of all the obligations prescribed by the Constitution.16
On 17 December 1827 President John Quincy Adams in his Memoirs wrote:
Mr. Clay called, and took the draft
of his address to the public.
I advised him to change entirely the concluding paragraph
which presented the idea of his retiring from public life
and being sacrificed as a victim to calumny.
He asked if my objection was that
it had an appearance of despondency.
I said yes; but that was not all.
I thought it highly probable that the base and profligate
combination against him and me would succeed in their
main object of bringing in General Jackson at the next
Presidential election, and that one of their principal means of
success will be the infamous slander which he had already
more than once branded with falsehood, and upon which he
would again stamp the lie by this address and its appendix.
The conspiracy would, nevertheless,
in all probability succeed.
When suspicion has been kindled into popular delusion,
truth and reason and justice spoke
as to the ears of an adder—
the sacrifice must be consummated
before they can be heard.
General Jackson will therefore be elected.
But it is impossible that his Administration
should give satisfaction to the people of this Union.
He is incompetent both by his ignorance
and by the fury of his passions.
He will be surrounded and governed by incompetent men,
whose ascendency over him will be secured
by their servility, and who will bring to the Government
of the nation nothing but their talent for intrigue.
Discordant in the materials of their composition,
rancorously hostile to each other, and all more skilled
to pack the cards than to play the game,
there will be no principle of cohesion among them;
they will crumble to pieces,
and the Administration will go to wreck and ruin.
Then too will come the recoil of public opinion
in favor of Mr. Clay, and it will be irresistible.
If human nature has not changed its character,
Kentucky and the Union will then
do justice to him and to his slanderers.
In the event of General Jackson’s election,
he would of course retire (he said he would resign
and not give the General the opportunity to remove him);
he would return to his home in Kentucky,
and there wait the course of events.
But I thought it would be better not to allude to it
in this publication, and particularly not to countenance
the idea of his intending it as a final retirement.
He said this reaction of public opinion he thought
very probable, but that it would be so long in coming
that it might go beyond his term of active life.
I said it might be very sudden and rapid,
and reminded him of the instantaneous effect in favor
of De Witt Clinton of the removal of him
by the Legislature as a Canal Commissioner.
I concluded, however, by remarking that I had only made
the suggestion relating to the closing paragraph
of his address, and he said it had already occurred
to him that it might be liable to such an objection.17
President Adams wrote in his Memoirs on 20 December 1827:
Mr. Barbour, the Secretary of War, brought a letter from
John Wilson, in the State of Missouri, giving information that
a band of seventy or eighty men had been collecting there
to go in the spring under the command of two men whom
he names, and commit robbery within the Mexican territory;
and perhaps upon the traders between Missouri and Mexico.
Mr. Barton, the Senator from Missouri, has received
the same information from another person.
Governor Barbour proposed to send the letter
from Mr. Wilson to the Secretary of State,
and that the purport of it should be communicated
to the Mexican Minister Obregon; which I approved.
It is further to be considered whether a movement of
troops shall be directed for the protection of the traders.
Mr. Barbour took the two applications for permission to sell
lands granted to two Indians named Dick and Burnett—
further information is necessary for a decision.
He also took the petition of almost all the militia officers
in the county of Alexandria that Major Thornton may be
appointed the brigadier-general in the place of Walter Jones,
who has resigned, in preference to the colonel
of the regiment, who is said to be negligent of duty.
I agreed to the appointment of Thornton.
I sent to the Senate messages Nos. 3 and 4,
containing nominations of officers appointed
during the recess, and army appointments.18
On December 22 President John Quincy Adams wrote in his Memoirs:
22nd. At one o’clock Mr. Clay presented
Baron Krudener, who delivered to me his
credential letter as Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary from the Emperor of Russia.
In presenting the letter he made, as usual, a short address,
declarative of the friendly dispositions of the
Emperor Nicholas to the United States, and of his own
personal disposition to execute with entire devotion his
instructions to cultivate the friendship of this Government;
which I answered by assuring him of the high gratification
with which I received him as the Minister of the Emperor;
of the earnestness with which the Government of the
United States would continue to cultivate good will
of his sovereign; and of my hope that his own residence
in this country would be satisfactory to himself.
I added that, having resided several years as the
Representative of my country at the Court of
the late Emperor Alexander, I had personal motives
of attachment to Russia, from the kindness that
I had experienced there, and that having been at
an earlier period at Berlin, when his father was
Minister of Russia at that Court, it was with
recollections of peculiar interest that I now
welcomed him in the same capacity here.19
On December 29 Henry Clay published a 61-page address to refute charges that
Jackson had made against him after the 1824 election.
Scandinavian nations and Hanseatic cities also agreed to commercial agreements in 1827.
On the last day of the year 1827 President Adams
wrote this in his Memoirs about the year:
Day and Year: The distribution of my time has been
as it was the preceding month, modified by the
circumstances attending the session of Congress.
This occasions more frequent visits, and the
occasional allowance of time for large dinners.
The year has been marked by many occurrences favorable
to the public interests and by some less propitious;
by favors of Heaven to my individual and domestic affairs;
with others which have tried me with afflictions,
and admonished me to be prepared for worse.My heart to God in praise and thanks ascends,
And low in prayer for future mercy bends.20
Notes
1. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, A 1789-1908,
Volume II ed. James D. Richardson, p. 369.
2. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams ed. Charles Francis Adams,
Volume VII, p. 219-220.
3. Ibid., p. 220.
4. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, A 1789-1908, Volume II, p. 370-373.
5. Ibid., p. 373.
6. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume VII, p. 224-225.
7. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, A 1789-1908, Volume II, p. 374.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., p. 375-376.
11. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume VII, p. 242.
12. Ibid., p. 243.
13. Ibid., p. 272.
14. Messages and Papers of the Presidents, A 1789-1908, Volume II, p. 376-377.
15. Ibid., p. 377-378.
16. Ibid., p. 378-392.
17. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume VII, p. 382-383.
18. Ibid., p. 386-387.
19. Ibid., p. 387.
20. Ibid., p. 393-394.
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