Jacksonian Democrats in 1835
Jackson’s Message on 7 December 1835
The last installment of the U. S. debt was paid in early January 1835,
and Jackson held a banquet to celebrate on the anniversary
of his victory at New Orleans on January 8.
Also on that day a House of Representatives report advised that
much corruption in the administration needed correction, writing,
Men in the highest walks of life,
of the most honorable pretensions,
and in whom the greatest confidence was reposed,
are among those who have largely participated
in drawing money from the Treasury,
by means of false papers, the grossest acts of forgery,
and the most willful and corrupt perjury.1
On January 30 the unemployed housepainter Richard Lawrence from England
tried to shoot Jackson from eight feet away with two pistols,
but both misfired, probably because of misty weather.
The President was restrained from using his cane, and the assassin,
who falsely accused Jackson of killing his father
and preventing him from becoming King of England, on April 11
was found not guilty by insanity and was confined to a mental hospital for the rest of his life.
The deficit of the U. S. Post Office reached $500,000 by 1834,
and a Senate report on June 9 charged “utter derangement” and “total disregard of the law.”
Democrats did not trust the Whigs’ report, but on 13 February 1835
the Democrats’ House report provided the documentary evidence.
In March 1835 Treasury Secretary Woodbury prohibited deposit banks
from accepting bank notes under $5 as payments owed to the U. S. Government.
Previously the sale of public land had never exceeded $5 million in a year,
but the land boom brought in $15 million in 1835 and $25 million in 1836.
Woodbury increased the specie requirements of the banks, and their loans
and discounts
went up from $47 million in January 1835 only to $65 million in February 1836.
Postmaster General William Barry resigned on 8 April 1835
and was replaced
on May 1 by Amos Kendall who created a surplus
of more than $100,000 by August to pay off old debts.
The Whigs in Ohio nominated the U. S. Supreme Court Justice John McLean,
their native son, for President, and in January 1835
Massachusetts Whigs nominated their U. S. Senator Daniel Webster.
On 25 April 1835 France authorized payment of its debt to the U. S.,
and the four installments were paid off by May 10.
The Democrats national convention began on May 20 with 615 delegates
including 171 from Maryland, but none came from
Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, and Illinois.
The convention unanimously nominated Vice President Martin Van Buren for President,
and they chose Richard M. Johnson from Kentucky
over Virginia’s William Rives for Vice President.
They assigned Andrew Stevenson to a committee that
included Silas Wright to formulate the party’s policies.
Johnson was scandalized for having the octoroon ex-slave Julia Chinn
as a common-law wife who bore him two daughters.
She died in 1833, and then he lived with another woman of African descent.
Jackson called out soldiers to control a race riot in Washington in August,
but he did not use them to protect free blacks.
U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall died on July 6.
Marshall’s conservative Federalist policies were carried on by Justice Joseph Story
who had published his Commentaries on the Constitution in 1833
along with James Kent’s Commentaries on American Law (1826-30).
They both defended common law.
Jacksonian Democratic ideas were more influential in elected constitutional conventions.
Attorney General Taney had kept his private law practice, and he even wrote
a brief
for Baltimore arguing against applying the Bill of Rights to the States in Barron v. Baltimore.
Taney believed that the U. S. Bank impinged against popular sovereignty.
In 1832 he had defended South Carolina’s law imprisoning free Negro sailors
while on shore leave, calling the African race “a degraded class” with “no political influence.”
Taney had freed his own slaves and supported African colonization, but his support for
white supremacy would exacerbate the slavery conflict with his Dred Scott decision in 1857.
President Jackson on 9 August 1835 wrote this
letter to Postmaster-General Amos Kendal:
I have read with sorrow and regret that such men live
in our happy country—I might have said monsters—
as to be guilty of the attempt to stir up among the South the
horrors of a servile war—Could they be reached, they ought
to be made to atone for this wicked attempt with their lives.
But we are the instruments of and executors of the law;
we have no power to prohibit anything from being
transported in the mail that is authorized by the law.
The only thing that can be done is what you have
suggested verbally to the postmaster in the city
to deliver to no person these inflammatory papers,
but those who are really subscribers for them;
and few men in society will be willing to acknowledge
that they are encouraging by subscribing for such papers
this horrid and most wicked procedure; and when they
are known, every moral and good citizen will unite
to put them in Coventry, and avoid their society.
This, if adopted, would put their circulation down
everywhere, for there are few so hardened in villainy,
as to withstand the frowns of all good men.
Sincerely regret the breaking open the Post-office
at Charleston, and seizing those inflammatory papers.
This spirit of mob-law is becoming too common and
must be checked, or ere long it will become as great
an evil as a servile war, and as the innocent will be
as much exposed to the cruelty and murderous as
in the midst of a servile war—the instigators of both
must be checked and punished, or we will soon have
no safety under our happy Government of laws.
But until Congress meets, and makes some arrangements
by law on this subject, we can do nothing more than
direct that those inflammatory papers be delivered to
none but who will demand them as subscribers; and in
every instance the Postmaster ought to take the names
down, and have them exposed through the public journals
as subscribers to this wicked plan of exciting the
negroes to insurrection and to massacre.
This would bring those in the South, who were
patronizing these incendiary works into such disrepute
with all the South, that they would be compelled
to desist, or move from the country.2
In New York City on 29 October 1835
radical Democrats took control of a party meeting.
After the conservatives left the meeting and turned out the gaslights, the radicals used
locofoco matches to light 50 candles to continue the meeting and elect their candidates.
They were called Locofocos, but Jackson criticized their “agrarianism”
and cancelled their New York Post’s federal printing contract.
At an anti-slavery convention in Utica, New York on October 21 Democrats
led by Congressman Samuel Beardsley disrupted the meeting and vandalized
the printing equipment of the abolitionist Oneida Standard and Democrat.
They had been pressured to do so by Vice President Van Buren and were defended
in the U. S. Senate by Silas Wright and William Marcy to forestall
the abolitionists from inciting rebellion in southern states.
Jackson in December criticized abolitionists for provoking the “passions of the slaves,
and he asked Congress to pass a law to prohibit
the circulation of “incendiary publications.”
Senator Calhoun opposed giving the federal government the power
to censor because he feared it would give them the power to abolish slavery.
Whig candidates in the state elections of 1835 did badly.
On December 16 the Anti-Mason Party held a convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
and nominated General William Henry Harrison of Ohio for U. S. President.
He was a military hero in the battle at Tippecanoe, Indiana in November 1811
and at the battle of Thames in 1813.
He governed the Indiana Territory 1801-12
and was the U. S. Senator from Ohio 1825-28.
Then he was the minister to Gran Colombia until Jackson replaced him in 1829.
President Andrew Jackson presented this 30-page
7th Annual Message to Congress on December 7 in 1835:
In the discharge of my official duty the task again
devolves upon me of communicating with a new Congress.
The reflection that the representation of the Union has
been recently renewed, and that the constitutional term of
its service will expire with my own, heightens the solicitude
with which I shall attempt to lay before it the state of our
national concerns and the devout hope which I cherish that
its labors to improve them may be crowned with success.
You are assembled at a period of profound
interest to the American patriot.
The unexampled growth and prosperity of our country
having given us a rank in the scale of nations which
removes all apprehension of danger to our integrity
and independence from external foes, the career of
freedom is before us, with an earnest from the past that
if true to ourselves there can be no formidable obstacle
in the future to its peaceful and uninterrupted pursuit.
Yet, in proportion to the disappearance of those
apprehensions which attended our weakness,
as once contrasted with the power of some of the
States of the Old World, should we now be solicitous
as to those which belong to the conviction that it is
to our own conduct we must look for the preservation
of those causes on which depend the excellence and
the duration of our happy system of government.
In the example of other systems founded on
the will of the people we trace to internal
dissension the influences which have so often
blasted the hopes of the friends of freedom.
The social elements, which were strong and
successful when united against external danger,
failed in the more difficult task of properly
adjusting their own internal organization, and thus
gave way the great principle of self-government.
Let us trust that this admonition will never be forgotten by
the Government or the people of the United States, and that
the testimony which our experience thus far holds out to the
great human family of the practicability and the blessings of
free government will be confirmed in all time to come.
We have but to look at the state of our agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce and the
unexampled increase of our population to feel
the magnitude of the trust committed to us.
Never in any former period of our history
have we had greater reason than we now
have to be thankful to Divine Providence for
the blessings of health and general prosperity.
Every branch of labor we see crowned
with the most abundant rewards.
In every element of national resources and
wealth and of individual comfort we witness
the most rapid and solid improvements.
With no interruptions to this pleasing prospect at home
which will not yield to the spirit of harmony and good will
that so strikingly pervades the mass of the people in every
quarter, amidst all the diversity of interest and pursuits to
which they are attached, and with no cause of solicitude
in regard to our external affairs which will not, it is hoped,
disappear before the principles of simple justice and the
forbearance that mark our intercourse with foreign powers,
we have every reason to feel proud of our beloved country.
The general state of our foreign relations has not
materially changed since my last annual message.
In the settlement of the question of the
northeastern boundary little progress has been made.
Great Britain has declined acceding to the proposition
of the United States, presented in accordance with
the resolution of the Senate, unless certain preliminary
conditions were admitted, which I deemed incompatible with
a satisfactory and rightful adjustment of the controversy.
Waiting for some distinct proposal from the Government
of Great Britain, which has been invited, I can only
repeat the expression of my confidence that, with the
strong mutual disposition which I believe exists to
make a just arrangement, this perplexing question
can be settled with a due regard to the well-founded
pretensions and pacific policy of all the parties to it.
Events are frequently occurring on the northeastern
frontier of a character to impress upon all the necessity
of a speedy and definitive termination of the dispute.
This consideration, added to the desire common to
both to relieve the liberal and friendly relations so happily
existing between the two countries from all embarrassment,
will no doubt have its just influence upon both.
Our diplomatic intercourse with Portugal has been
renewed, and it is expected that the claims of our
citizens, partially paid, will be fully satisfied as soon
as the condition of the Queen's Government will
permit the proper attention to the subject of them.
That Government has, I am happy to inform you,
manifested a determination to act upon the liberal
principles which have marked our commercial policy.
The happiest effects upon the future trade between
the United States and Portugal are anticipated from it,
and the time is not thought to be remote when a
system of perfect reciprocity will be established.
The installments due under the convention with
the King of the Two Sicilies have been paid with that
scrupulous fidelity by which his whole conduct has
been characterized, and the hope is indulged that
the adjustment of the vexed question of our claims
will be followed by a more extended and mutually
beneficial intercourse between the two countries.
The internal contest still continues in Spain.
Distinguished as this struggle has unhappily
been by incidents of the most sanguinary
character, the obligations of the late treaty of
indemnification with us have been, nevertheless,
faithfully executed by the Spanish Government.
No provision having been made at the last
session of Congress for the ascertainment of
the claims to be paid and the apportionment
of the funds under the convention made with
Spain, I invite your early attention to the subject.
The public evidences of the debt have, according to the
terms of the convention and in the forms prescribed by it,
been placed in the possession of the United States, and the
interest as it fell due has been regularly paid upon them.
Our commercial intercourse with Cuba
stands as regulated by the act of Congress.
No recent information has been received as to the
disposition of the Government of Madrid on this subject,
and the lamented death of our recently appointed
minister on his way to Spain, with the pressure of their
affairs at home, renders it scarcely probable that any
change is to be looked for during the coming year.
Further portions of the Florida archives have been
sent to the United States, although the death of one
of the commissioners at a critical moment
embarrassed the progress of the delivery of them.
The higher officers of the local government have
recently shown an anxious desire, in compliance with
the orders from the parent Government, to facilitate
the selection and delivery of all we have a right to claim.
Negotiations have been opened at Madrid for
the establishment of a lasting peace between Spain
and such of the Spanish American Governments
of this hemisphere as have availed themselves of
the intimation given to all of them of the disposition of
Spain to treat upon the basis of their entire independence.
It is to be regretted that simultaneous appointments by all
of ministers to negotiate with Spain had not been made.
The negotiation itself would have been simplified,
and this long-standing dispute, spreading over
a large portion of the world, would have been
brought to a more speedy conclusion.
Our political and commercial relations
with Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark
stand on the usual favorable bases.
One of the articles of our treaty with Russia in relation to
the trade on the northwest coast of America having expired,
instructions have been given to our minister at
St. Petersburg to negotiate a renewal of it.
The long and unbroken amity between the two
Governments gives every reason for supposing the article
will be renewed, if stronger motives do not exist to prevent
it than with our view of the subject can be anticipated here.
I ask your attention to the message of my predecessor
at the opening of the second session of the Nineteenth
Congress, relative to our commercial intercourse with
Holland, and to the documents connected with that subject,
communicated to the House of Representatives on the
10th of January, 1825, and 18th of January, 1827.
Coinciding in the opinion of my predecessor that
Holland is not, under the regulations of her present
system, entitled to have her vessels and their cargoes
received into the United States on the footing of American
vessels and cargoes as regards duties of tonnage and
impost, a respect for his reference of it to the Legislature
has alone prevented me from acting on the subject.
I should still have waited without comment for the
action of Congress, but recently a claim has been
made by Belgian subjects to admission into our ports for
their ships and cargoes on the same footing as American,
with the allegation we could not dispute that our vessels
received in their ports the identical treatment shown to
them in the ports of Holland, upon whose vessels no
discrimination is made in the ports of the United States.
Giving the same privileges the Belgians expected the
same benefits—benefits that were, in fact, enjoyed when
Belgium and Holland were united under one Government.
Satisfied with the justice of their pretension to be placed
on the same footing with Holland, I could not, nevertheless,
without disregard to the principle of our laws, admit their
claim to be treated as Americans, and at the same time
a respect for Congress, to whom the subject had long
since been referred, has prevented me from producing
a just equality by taking from the vessels of Holland
privileges conditionally granted by acts of Congress,
although the condition upon which the grant was
made has in my judgment failed since 1822.
I recommend, therefore, a review of the act of 1824, and
such a modification of it as will produce an equality on such
terms as Congress shall think best comports with our settled
policy and the obligations of justice to two friendly powers.
With the Sublime Porte and all the Governments on
the coast of Barbary our relations continue to be friendly.
The proper steps have been taken
to renew our treaty with Morocco.
The Argentine Republic has again promised to send
within the current year a minister to the United States.
A convention with Mexico for extending the time for the
appointment of commissioners to run the boundary line
has been concluded and will be submitted to the Senate.
Recent events in that country have awakened
the liveliest solicitude in the United States.
Aware of the strong temptations existing and powerful
inducements held out to the citizens of the United States
to mingle in the dissensions of our immediate neighbors,
instructions have been given to the district attorneys of
the United States where indications warranted it to
prosecute without respect to persons all who might
attempt to violate the obligations of our neutrality, while at
the same time it has been thought necessary to apprise the
Government of Mexico that we should require the integrity
of our territory to be scrupulously respected by both parties.
From our diplomatic agents in Brazil, Chile, Peru,
Central America, Venezuela, and New Granada
constant assurances are received of the continued
good understanding with the Governments
to which they are severally accredited.
With those Governments upon which our citizens
have valid and accumulating claims, scarcely an
advance toward a settlement of them is made,
owing mainly to their distracted state or to the
pressure of imperative domestic questions.
Our patience has been and will probably be still further
severely tried, but our fellow-citizens whose interests
are involved may confide in the determination of the
Government to obtain for them eventually ample retribution.
Unfortunately, many of the nations of this hemisphere
are still self-tormented by domestic dissensions.
Revolution succeeds revolution; injuries are committed upon
foreigners engaged in lawful pursuits; much time elapses
before a government sufficiently stable is erected to justify
expectation of redress; ministers are sent and received,
and before the discussions of past injuries are fairly begun
fresh troubles arise; but too frequently new injuries are
added to the old, to be discussed together with the existing
government after it has proved its ability to sustain the
assaults made upon it, or with its successor if overthrown.
If this unhappy condition of things continues much
longer, other nations will be under the painful
necessity of deciding whether justice to their
suffering citizens does not require a prompt redress
of injuries by their own power, without waiting for the
establishment of a government competent and enduring
enough to discuss and to make satisfaction for them.
Since the last session of Congress the validity of our
claims upon France, as liquidated by the treaty of 1831,
has been acknowledged by both branches of her legislature,
and the money has been appropriated for their discharge;
but the payment is, I regret to inform you, still withheld.
A brief recapitulation of the most important
incidents in this protracted controversy will show
how utterly untenable are the grounds upon
which this course is attempted to be justified.
On entering upon the duties of my station I found
the United States an unsuccessful applicant to the
justice of France for the satisfaction of claims the
validity of which was never questionable, and has
now been most solemnly admitted by France herself.
The antiquity of these claims, their high justice, and the
aggravating circumstances out of which they arose are
too familiar to the American people to require description.
It is sufficient to say that for a period of ten years and
upward our commerce was, with but little interruption,
the subject of constant aggressions on the part of France—
aggressions the ordinary features of which were
condemnations of vessels and cargoes under arbitrary
decrees, adopted in contravention as well of the laws of
nations as of treaty stipulations, burnings on the high seas,
and seizures and confiscations under special imperial
rescripts in the ports of other nations occupied
by the armies or under the control of France.
Such it is now conceded is the character of the wrongs
we suffered—wrongs in many cases so flagrant that
even their authors never denied our right to reparation.
Of the extent of these injuries some conception may
be formed from the fact that after the burning of a
large amount at sea and the necessary deterioration
in other cases by long detention the American property
so seized and sacrificed at forced sales, excluding what was
adjudged to privateers before or without condemnation,
brought into the French treasury upward of 24,000,000
francs, besides large custom-house duties.
The subject had already been an affair
of twenty years’ uninterrupted negotiation,
except for a short time when France was
overwhelmed by the military power of united Europe.
During this period, while other nations were extorting from
her payment of their claims at the point of the bayonet,
the United States intermitted their demand for justice out
of respect to the oppressed condition of a gallant people
to whom they felt under obligations for fraternal
assistance in their own days of suffering and of peril.
The bad effects of these protracted and unavailing
discussions, as well upon our relations with France
as upon our national character, were obvious,
and the line of duty was to my mind equally so.
This was either to insist upon the adjustment of our claims
within a reasonable period or to abandon them altogether.
I could not doubt that by this course the interests
and honor of both countries would be best consulted.
Instructions were therefore given in this spirit to the
minister who was sent out once more to demand reparation.
Upon the meeting of Congress in December, 1829,
I felt it my duty to speak of these claims and the
delays of France in terms calculated to call the
serious attention of both countries to the subject.
The then French ministry took exception to the message
on the ground of its containing a menace, under which it
was not agreeable to the French Government to negotiate.
The American minister of his own accord refuted the
construction which was attempted to be put upon the
message and at the same time called to the recollection
of the French ministry that the President’s message was
a communication addressed, not to foreign governments,
but to the Congress of the United States, in which it was
enjoined upon him by the Constitution to lay before that
body information of the state of the Union, comprehending
its foreign as well as its domestic relations, and that if in
the discharge of this duty he felt it incumbent upon him
to summon the attention of Congress in due time to what
might be the possible consequences of existing difficulties
with any foreign government, he might fairly be supposed
to do so under a sense of what was due from him in
a frank communication with another branch of his
own Government, and not from any intention of
holding a menace over a foreign power.
The views taken by him received my approbation
the French Government was satisfied,
and the negotiation was continued.
It terminated in the treaty of July 4, 1831, recognizing the
justice of our claims in part and promising payment to the
amount of 25,000,000 francs in six annual installments.
The ratifications of this treaty were exchanged at
Washington on the 2nd of February, 1832, and in five days
thereafter it was laid before Congress, who immediately
passed the acts necessary on our part to secure to France
the commercial advantages conceded to her in the compact.
The treaty had previously been solemnly ratified by the
King of the French in terms which are certainly not mere
matters of form, and of which the translation is as follows:
We, approving the above convention in all and
each of the dispositions which are contained in it,
do declare, by ourselves as well as by our heirs and
successors, that it is accepted, approved, ratified,
and confirmed, and by these presents, signed by our
hand, we do accept, approve, ratify, and confirm it;
promising, on the faith and word of a king,
to observe it and to cause it to be observed
inviolably, without ever contravening it or suffering
it to be contravened, directly or indirectly,
for any cause or under any pretense whatsoever.
Official information of the exchange of
ratifications in the United States reached
Paris while the Chambers were in session.
The extraordinary and to us injurious delays of the
French Government in their action upon the subject
of its fulfillment have been heretofore stated to Congress,
and I have no disposition to enlarge upon them here.
It is sufficient to observe that the then pending session
was allowed to expire without even an effort to obtain the
necessary appropriations; that the two succeeding ones
were also suffered to pass away without anything like a
serious attempt to obtain a decision upon the subject,
and that it was not until the fourth session, almost three
years after the conclusion of the treaty and more than two
years after the exchange of ratifications, that the bill for the
execution of the treaty was pressed to a vote and rejected.
In the meantime the Government of the United States,
having full confidence that a treaty entered into and so
solemnly ratified by the French King would be executed
in good faith, and not doubting that provision would be
made for the payment of the first installment which was to
become due on the 2d day of February, 1833, negotiated a
draft for the amount through the Bank of the United States.
When this draft was presented by the holder
with the credentials required by the treaty
to authorize him to receive the money, the
Government of France allowed it to be protested.
In addition to the injury in the nonpayment of the
money by France, conformably to her engagement,
the United States were exposed to a heavy claim
on the part of the bank under pretense of damages,
in satisfaction of which that institution seized upon
and still retains an equal amount of the public money.
Congress was in session when the decision of the
Chambers reached Washington, and an immediate
communication of this apparently final decision of
France not to fulfill the stipulations of the treaty was
the course naturally to be expected from the President.
The deep tone of dissatisfaction which pervaded
the public mind and the correspondent excitement
produced in Congress by only a general knowledge of
the result rendered it more than probable that a resort to
immediate measures of redress would be the consequence
of calling the attention of that body to the subject.
Sincerely desirous of preserving the pacific relations
which had so long existed between the two countries,
I was anxious to avoid this course if I could be satisfied
that by doing so neither the interests nor the honor
of my country would be compromitted.
Without the fullest assurances upon that point,
I could not hope to acquit myself of the responsibility
to be incurred in suffering Congress to adjourn
without laying the subject before them.
Those received by me were believed to be of that character.
That the feelings produced in the United States by the
news of the rejection of the appropriation would be such
as I have described them to have been was foreseen
by the French Government, and prompt measures
were taken by it to prevent the consequences.
The King in person expressed through our minister
at Paris his profound regret at the decision of the
Chambers, and promised to send forthwith a
national ship with dispatches to his minister here
authorizing him to give such assurances as would
satisfy the Government and people of the United States
that the treaty would yet be faithfully executed by France.
The national ship arrived, and the
minister received his instructions.
Claiming to act under the authority derived from them,
he gave to this Government in the name of his the most
solemn assurances that as soon after the new elections
as the charter would permit the French Chambers would
be convened and the attempt to procure the necessary
appropriations renewed; that all the constitutional powers
of the King and his ministers should be put in requisition
to accomplish the object, and he was understood,
and so expressly informed by this Government at the
time, to engage that the question should be pressed
to a decision at a period sufficiently early to permit
information of the result to be communicated to
Congress at the commencement of their next session.
Relying upon these assurances, I incurred the
responsibility, great as I regarded it to be,
of suffering Congress to separate without
communicating with them upon the subject.
The expectations justly founded upon
the promises thus solemnly made to this
Government by that of France were not realized.
The French Chambers met on the 31st of July, 1834,
soon after the election, and although our minister
in Paris urged the French ministry to bring the
subject before them, they declined doing so.
He next insisted that the Chambers, if prorogued without
acting on the subject, should be reassembled at a period
so early that their action on the treaty might be known
in Washington prior to the meeting of Congress.
This reasonable request was not only declined,
but the Chambers were prorogued to the 29th
of December, a day so late that their decision,
however urgently pressed, could not in all probability
be obtained in time to reach Washington before the
necessary adjournment of Congress by the Constitution.
The reasons given by the ministry for refusing to
convoke the Chambers at an earlier period were
afterwards shown not to be insuperable by their
actual convocation on the 1st of December under
a special call for domestic purposes, which fact,
however, did not become known to this Government until
after the commencement of the last session of Congress.
Thus disappointed in our just expectations, it became
my imperative duty to consult with Congress in regard
to the expediency of a resort to retaliatory measures
in case the stipulations of the treaty should not be
speedily complied with, and to recommend such
as in my judgment the occasion called for.
To this end an unreserved communication of
the case in all its aspects became indispensable.
To have shrunk in making it from saying all
that was necessary to its correct understanding,
and that the truth would justify, for fear of giving
offense to others, would have been unworthy of us.
To have gone, on the other hand, a single step
further for the purpose of wounding the pride of a
Government and people with whom we had so many
motives for cultivating relations of amity and reciprocal
advantage would have been unwise and improper.
Admonished by the past of the difficulty of making even
the simplest statement of our wrongs without disturbing
the sensibilities of those who had by their position become
responsible for their redress, and earnestly desirous of
preventing further obstacles from that source, I went out of
my way to preclude a construction of the message by which
the recommendation that was made to Congress might be
regarded as a menace to France in not only disavowing
such a design, but in declaring that her pride and her power
were too well known to expect anything from her fears.
The message did not reach Paris until more than
a month after the Chambers had been in session,
and such was the insensibility of the ministry to
our rightful claims and just expectations that our
minister had been informed that the matter when
introduced would not be pressed as a cabinet measure.
Although the message was not officially communicated
to the French Government, and notwithstanding the
declaration to the contrary which it contained, the French
ministry decided to consider the conditional recommendation
of reprisals a menace and an insult which the honor
of the nation made it incumbent on them to resent.
The measures resorted to by them to evince their
sense of the supposed indignity were the immediate
recall of their minister at Washington, the offer of
passports to the American minister at Paris, and a public
notice to the legislative Chambers that all diplomatic
intercourse with the United States had been suspended.
Having in this manner vindicated the dignity of
France, they next proceeded to illustrate her justice.
To this end a bill was immediately introduced into
the Chamber of Deputies proposing to make the
appropriations necessary to carry into effect the treaty.
As this bill subsequently passed into a law, the provisions
of which now constitute the main subject of difficulty
between the two nations, it becomes my duty, in order
to place the subject before you in a clear light, to trace the
history of its passage and to refer with some particularity
to the proceedings and discussions in regard to it.
The minister of finance in his opening speech
alluded to the measures which had been
adopted to resent the supposed indignity, and
recommended the execution of the treaty as a
measure required by the honor and justice of France.
He as the organ of the ministry declared the message,
so long as it had not received the sanction of Congress,
a mere expression of the personal opinion of the President,
for which neither the Government nor people of the
United States were responsible, and that an engagement
had been entered into for the fulfillment of which the honor
of France was pledged. Entertaining these views, the single
condition which the French ministry proposed to annex to
the payment of the money was that it should not be made
until it was ascertained that the Government of the United
States had done nothing to injure the interests of France,
or, in other words, that no steps had been authorized
by Congress of a hostile character toward France.
What the disposition or action of Congress might
be was then unknown to the French cabinet;
but on the 14th of January the Senate resolved
that it was at that time inexpedient to adopt any
legislative measures in regard to the state of affairs
between the United States and France, and no action on
the subject had occurred in the House of Representatives.
These facts were known in Paris prior to the
28th of March, 1835, when the committee to
whom the bill of indemnification had been
referred reported it to the Chamber of Deputies.
That committee substantially re-echoed the
sentiments of the ministry, declared that Congress
had set aside the proposition of the President,
and recommended the passage of the bill without
any other restriction than that originally proposed.
Thus was it known to the French ministry and
Chambers that if the position assumed by them,
and which had been so frequently and solemnly
announced as the only one compatible with the
honor of France, was maintained and the bill passed
as originally proposed, the money would be paid and
there would be an end of this unfortunate controversy.
But this cheering prospect was soon destroyed by an
amendment introduced into the bill at the moment of its
passage, providing that the money should not be paid
until the French Government had received satisfactory
explanations of the President's message of the 2nd
December, 1834, and, what is still more extraordinary,
the president of the council of ministers adopted this
amendment and consented to its incorporation in the bill.
In regard to a supposed insult which had been
formally resented by the recall of their minister
and the offer of passports to ours, they now for
the first time proposed to ask explanations.
Sentiments and propositions which they had declared could
not justly be imputed to the Government or people of the
United States are set up as obstacles to the performance of
an act of conceded justice to that Government and people.
They had declared that the honor of France
required the fulfillment of the engagement into
which the King had entered, unless Congress
adopted the recommendations of the message.
They ascertained that Congress did not adopt them,
and yet that fulfillment is refused unless they first
obtain from the President explanations of an opinion
characterized by themselves as personal and inoperative.
The conception that it was my intention to menace or
insult the Government of France is as unfounded as the
attempt to extort from the fears of that nation what her
sense of justice may deny would be vain and ridiculous.
But the Constitution of the United States imposes on
the President the duty of laying before Congress the
condition of the country in its foreign and domestic
relations, and of recommending such measures
as may in his opinion be required by its interests.
From the performance of this duty he cannot be
deterred by the fear of wounding the sensibilities
of the people or government of whom it may
become necessary to speak; and the American
people are incapable of submitting to an interference
by any government on earth, however powerful, with
the free performance of the domestic duties which the
Constitution has imposed on their public functionaries.
The discussions which intervene between the several
departments of our Government belong to ourselves,
and for anything said in them our public servants are
only responsible to their own constituents and to each other.
If in the course of their consultations facts are erroneously
stated or unjust deductions are made, they require no
other inducement to correct them, however informed of
their error, than their love of justice and what is due to their
own character; but they can never submit to be interrogated
upon the subject as a matter of right by a foreign power.
When our discussions terminate in acts,
our responsibility to foreign powers commences,
not as individuals, but as a nation.
The principle which calls in question the President for the
language of his message would equally justify a foreign
power in demanding explanation of the language used
in the report of a committee or by a member in debate.
This is not the first time that the Government
of France has taken exception to the
messages of American Presidents.
President Washington and the first President Adams in
the performance of their duties to the American people
fell under the animadversions of the French Directory.
The objection taken by the ministry of Charles X,
and removed by the explanations made by our
minister upon the spot, has already been adverted to.
When it was understood that the ministry of the present
King took exception to my message of last year, putting
a construction upon it which was disavowed on its face,
our late minister at Paris, in answer to the note which
first announced a dissatisfaction with the language
used in the message, made a communication to the
French Government under date of the 29th of January,
1835, calculated to remove all impressions which
an unreasonable susceptibility had created.
He repeated and called the attention of the French
Government to the disavowal contained in the message
itself of any intention to intimidate by menace;
he truly declared that it contained and was intended
to contain no charge of ill faith against the King of the
French, and properly distinguished between the right
to complain in unexceptionable terms of the omission
to execute an agreement and an accusation of
bad motives in withholding such execution, and
demonstrated that the necessary use of that right
ought not to be considered as an offensive imputation.
Although this communication was made without
instructions and entirely on the minister’s own
responsibility, yet it was afterwards made the act
of this Government by my full approbation, and
that approbation was officially made known on
the 25th of April, 1835, to the French Government.
It, however, failed to have any effect.
The law, after this friendly explanation, passed with
the obnoxious amendment, supported by the King’s
ministers, and was finally approved by the King.
The people of the United States are justly attached to
a pacific system in their intercourse with foreign nations.
It is proper, therefore, that they should know
whether their Government has adhered to it.
In the present instance it has been carried to the utmost
extent that was consistent with a becoming self-respect.
The note of the 29th of January, to which I have
before alluded, was not the only one which our
minister took upon himself the responsibility of
presenting on the same subject and in the same spirit.
Finding that it was intended to make the payment of a just
debt dependent on the performance of a condition which he
knew could never be complied with, he thought it a duty to
make another attempt to convince the French Government
that while self-respect and regard to the dignity of other
nations would always prevent us from using any language
that ought to give offense, yet we could never admit a right
in any foreign government to ask explanations of or to
interfere in any manner in the communications which one
branch of our public councils made with another; that in
the present case no such language had been used, and
that this had in a former note been fully and voluntarily
stated, before it was contemplated to make the explanation
a condition; and that there might be no misapprehension
he stated the terms used in that note, and he officially
informed them that it had been approved by the President,
and that therefore every explanation which could reasonably
be asked or honorably given had been already made;
that the contemplated measure had been anticipated by
a voluntary and friendly declaration, and was therefore not
only useless, but might be deemed offensive, and certainly
would not be complied with if annexed as a condition.
When this latter communication, to which I especially
invite the attention of Congress, was laid before me,
I entertained the hope that the means it was obviously
intended to afford of an honorable and speedy
adjustment of the difficulties between the two nations
would have been accepted, and I therefore did not
hesitate to give it my sanction and full approbation.
This was due to the minister who had made himself
responsible for the act, and it was published to the
people of the United States and is now laid before
their representatives to show how far their Executive
has gone in its endeavors to restore a good
understanding between the two countries.
It would have been at any time communicated to the
Government of France had it been officially requested.
The French Government having received all the
explanation which honor and principle permitted,
and which could in reason be asked, it was hoped it
would no longer hesitate to pay the installments now due.
The agent authorized to receive the money was instructed
to inform the French minister of his readiness to do so.
In reply to this notice he was told that the money could
not then be paid, because the formalities required by
the act of the Chambers had not been arranged.
Not having received any official information of the
intentions of the French Government, and anxious to bring,
as far as practicable, this unpleasant affair to a close before
the meeting of Congress, that you might have the whole
subject before you, I caused our chargé d’affaires at Paris
to be instructed to ask for the final determination of the
French Government, and in the event of their refusal
to pay the installments now due, without further
explanations to return to the United States.
The result of this last application has
not yet reached us, but is daily expected.
That it may be favorable is my sincere wish.
France having now, through all the branches of her
Government, acknowledged the validity of our claims and
the obligation of the treaty of 1831, and there really existing
no adequate cause for further delay, will at length, it may be
hoped, adopt the course which the interests of both nations,
not less than the principles of justice, so imperiously require.
The treaty being once executed on her part, little will
remain to disturb the friendly relations of the two
countries—nothing, indeed, which will not yield to the
suggestions of a pacific and enlightened policy and to
the influence of that mutual good will and of those
generous recollections which we may confidently
expect will then be revived in all their ancient force.
In any event, however, the principle involved in the
new aspect which has been given to the controversy
is so vitally important to the independent administration
of the Government that it can neither be surrendered
nor compromitted without national degradation.
I hope it is unnecessary for me to say that such a
sacrifice will not be made through any agency of mine.
The honor of my country shall never be stained
by an apology from me for the statement of truth
and the performance of duty; nor can I give any
explanation of my official acts except such as is
due to integrity and justice and consistent with the
principles on which our institutions have been framed.
This determination will, I am confident,
be approved by my constituents.
I have, indeed, studied their character to but little
purpose if the sum of 25,000,000 francs will have
the weight of a feather in the estimation of what
appertains to their national independence, and if,
unhappily, a different impression should at any time
obtain in any quarter, they will, I am sure, rally round
the Government of their choice with alacrity and
unanimity, and silence forever the degrading imputation.
Having thus frankly presented to you the circumstances
which since the last session of Congress have occurred in
this interesting and important matter, with the views of the
Executive in regard to them, it is at this time only necessary
to add that whenever the advice now daily expected from
our chargé d’affaires shall have been received, they will
be made the subject of a special communication.
The condition of the public finances was never
more flattering than at the present period.
Since my last annual communication all the
remains of the public debt have been redeemed,
or money has been placed in deposit for this
purpose whenever the creditors choose to receive it.
All the other pecuniary engagements of the
Government have been honorably and promptly
fulfilled, and there will be a balance in the Treasury
at the close of the present year of about $19,000,000.
It is believed that after meeting all outstanding and
unexpended appropriations there will remain near
eleven millions to be applied to any new objects
which Congress may designate or to the more
rapid execution of the works already in progress.
In aid of these objects, and to satisfy the current
expenditures of the ensuing year, it is estimated
that there will be received from various sources
twenty millions more in 1836.
Should Congress make new appropriations in
conformity with the estimates which will be submitted
from the proper Departments, amounting to about
twenty-four millions, still the available surplus at the
close of the next year, after deducting all unexpended
appropriations, will probably not be less than six millions.
This sum can, in my judgment, be now usefully
applied to proposed improvements in our navy-yards,
and to new national works which are not enumerated
in the present estimates or to the more
rapid completion of those already begun.
Either would be constitutional and useful, and would
render unnecessary any attempt in our present peculiar
condition to divide the surplus revenue or to reduce it
any faster than will be effected by the existing laws.
In any event, as the annual report from the Secretary
of the Treasury will enter into details, showing the
probability of some decrease in the revenue during
the next seven years and a very considerable deduction
in 1842, it is not recommended that Congress should
undertake to modify the present tariff so as to disturb
the principles on which the compromise act was passed.
Taxation on some of the articles of general consumption
which are not in competition with our own productions
may be no doubt so diminished as to lessen to some extent
the source of this revenue, and the same object can also
be assisted by more liberal provisions for the subjects of
public defense, which in the present state of our prosperity
and wealth may be expected to engage your attention.
If, however, after satisfying all the demands which
can arise from these sources, the unexpended balance
in the Treasury should still continue to increase,
it would be better to bear with the evil until the
great changes contemplated in our tariff laws
have occurred and shall enable us to revise the
system with that care and circumspection which
are due to so delicate and important a subject.
It is certainly our duty to diminish as far as we can
the burdens of taxation and to regard all the restrictions
which are imposed on the trade and navigation of our
citizens as evils which we shall mitigate whenever we
are not prevented by the adverse legislation and policy
of foreign nations or those primary duties which the
defense and independence of our country enjoin upon us.
That we have accomplished much toward the relief
of our citizens by the changes which have accompanied
the payment of the public debt and the adoption of
the present revenue laws is manifest from the fact
that compared with 1833 there is a diminution of
near twenty-five millions in the last two years,
and that our expenditures, independently of
those for the public debt, have been reduced
near nine millions during the same period.
Let us trust that by the continued observance of
economy and by harmonizing the great interests
of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce much
more may be accomplished to diminish the burdens
of government and to increase still further the
enterprise and the patriotic affection of all classes of our
citizens and all the members of our happy Confederacy.
As the data which the Secretary of the Treasury will
lay before you in regard to our financial resources
are full and extended, and will afford a safe guide
in your future calculations, I think it unnecessary
to offer any further observations on that subject here.
Among the evidences of the increasing prosperity of
the country, not the least gratifying is that afforded by the
receipts from the sales of the public lands, which amount
in the present year to the unexpected sum of $11,000,000.
This circumstance attests the rapidity with
which agriculture, the first and most important
occupation of man, advances and contributes
to the wealth and power of our extended territory.
Being still of the opinion that it is our best policy,
as far as we can consistently with the obligations
under which those lands were ceded to the United States,
to promote their speedy settlement, I beg leave to call
the attention of the present Congress to the suggestions
I have offered respecting it in my former messages.
The extraordinary receipts from the sales of
the public lands invite you to consider what
improvements the land system, and particularly
the condition of the General Land Office, may require.
At the time this institution was organized, near a quarter
of a century ago, it would probably have been thought
extravagant to anticipate for this period such an addition
to its business as has been produced by the vast increase
of those sales during the past and present years.
It may also be observed that since the year 1812
the land offices and surveying districts have been
greatly multiplied, and that numerous legislative
enactments from year to year since that time have
imposed a great amount of new and additional duties
upon that office, while the want of a timely application
of force commensurate with the care and labor required
has caused the increasing embarrassment of accumulated
arrears in the different branches of the establishment.
These impediments to the expedition of much duty
in the General Land Office induce me to submit to your
judgment whether some modification of the laws relating
to its organization, or an organization of a new character,
be not called for at the present juncture, to enable the
office to accomplish all the ends of its institution with a
greater degree of facility and promptitude than experience
has proved to be practicable under existing regulations.
The variety of the concerns and the magnitude
and complexity of the details occupying and dividing
the attention of the Commissioner appear to render
it difficult, if not impracticable, for that officer by any
possible assiduity to bestow on all the multifarious
subjects upon which he is called to act the ready and
careful attention due to their respective importance,
unless the Legislature shall assist him by a law providing,
or enabling him to provide, for a more regular and
economical distribution of labor, with the incident
responsibility among those employed under his direction.
The mere manual operation of affixing his signature
to the vast number of documents issuing from his office
subtracts so largely from the time and attention claimed
by the weighty and complicated subjects daily accumulating
in that branch of the public service as to indicate the strong
necessity of revising the organic law of the establishment.
It will be easy for Congress hereafter to proportion the
expenditure on account of this branch of the service
to its real wants by abolishing from time to time
the offices which can be dispensed with.
The extinction of the public debt having taken place,
there is no longer any use for the offices of
Commissioners of Loans and of the Sinking Fund.
I recommend, therefore, that they be abolished, and that
proper measures be taken for the transfer to the Treasury
Department of any funds, books, and papers connected
with the operations of those offices, and that the proper
power be given to that Department for closing finally any
portion of their business which may remain to be settled.
It is also incumbent on Congress in guarding the
pecuniary interests of the country to discontinue by
such a law as was passed in 1812 the receipt of the
bills of the Bank of the United States in payment of
the public revenue, and to provide for the designation
of an agent whose duty it shall be to take charge of
the books and stock of the United States in that
institution, and to close all connection with it after
the 3d of March, 1836, when its charter expires.
In making provision in regard to the disposition
of this stock it will be essential to define clearly
and strictly the duties and powers of the officer
charged with that branch of the public service.
It will be seen from the correspondence which the
Secretary of the Treasury will lay before you that
notwithstanding the large amount of the stock
which the United States hold in that institution no
information has yet been communicated which will
enable the Government to anticipate when it can
receive any dividends or derive any benefit from it.
Connected with the condition of the finances
and the flourishing state of the country in all its
branches of industry, it is pleasing to witness the
advantages which have been already derived from the
recent laws regulating the value of the gold coinage.
These advantages will be more apparent in the
course of the next year, when the branch mints
authorized to be established in North Carolina,
Georgia, and Louisiana shall have gone into operation.
Aided, as it is hoped they will be, by further reforms
in the banking systems of the States and by judicious
regulations on the part of Congress in relation to the
custody of the public moneys, it may be confidently
anticipated that the use of gold and silver as a
circulating medium will become general in the ordinary
transactions connected with the labor of the country.
The great desideratum in modern times is an
efficient check upon the power of banks,
preventing that excessive issue of paper whence
arise those fluctuations in the standard of value
which render uncertain the rewards of labor.
It was supposed by those who established the Bank
of the United States that from the credit given to it
by the custody of the public moneys and other privileges
and the precautions taken to guard against the evils
which the country had suffered in the bankruptcy of many
of the State institutions of that period we should derive
from that institution all the security and benefits of a sound
currency and every good end that was attainable under
that provision of the Constitution which authorizes Congress
alone to coin money and regulate the value thereof.
But it is scarcely necessary now to say that
these anticipations have not been realized.
After the extensive embarrassment and distress
recently produced by the Bank of the United States,
from which the country is now recovering, aggravated
as they were by pretensions to power which defied
the public authority, and which if acquiesced in by
the people would have changed the whole character
of our Government, every candid and intelligent
individual must admit that for the attainment of
the great advantages of a sound currency
we must look to a course of legislation radically
different from that which created such an institution.
In considering the means of obtaining so important
an end we must set aside all calculations of temporary
convenience, and be influenced by those only
which are in harmony with the true character
and the permanent interests of the Republic.
We must recur to first principles and see what it is that
has prevented the legislation of Congress and the States on
the subject of currency from satisfying the public expectation
and realizing results corresponding to those which have
attended the action of our system when truly consistent
with the great principle of equality upon which it rests,
and with that spirit of forbearance and mutual concession
and generous patriotism which was originally, and must
ever continue to be, the vital element of our Union.
On this subject I am sure that I cannot be mistaken in
ascribing our want of success to the undue countenance
which has been afforded to the spirit of monopoly.
All the serious dangers which our system has yet
encountered may be traced to the resort to implied
powers and the use of corporations clothed with
privileges, the effect of which is to advance the
interests of the few at the expense of the many.
We have felt but one class of these dangers exhibited
in the contest waged by the Bank of the United States
against the Government for the last four years.
Happily they have been obviated for the present by the
indignant resistance of the people, but we should recollect
that the principle whence they sprung is an ever-active one,
which will not fail to renew its efforts in the same and in
other forms so long as there is a hope of success, founded
either on the inattention of the people or the treachery of
their representatives to the subtle progress of its influence.
The bank is in fact but one of the fruits of a system
at war with the genius of all our institutions—
a system founded upon a political creed the fundamental
principle of which is a distrust of the popular will as a safe
regulator of political power, and whose great ultimate object
and inevitable result, should it prevail, is the consolidation
of all power in our system in one central government.
Lavish public disbursements and corporations with
exclusive privileges would be its substitutes for the
original and as yet sound checks and balances of the
Constitution—the means by whose silent and secret
operation a control would be exercised by the few over the
political conduct of the many by first acquiring that control
over the labor and earnings of the great body of the people.
Wherever this spirit has effected an alliance with political
power, tyranny and despotism have been the fruit.
If it is ever used for the ends of government, it has to be
incessantly watched, or it corrupts the sources of the public
virtue and agitates the country with questions unfavorable
to the harmonious and steady pursuit of its true interests.
We are now to see whether, in the present favorable
condition of the country, we cannot take an effectual
stand against this spirit of monopoly, and practically prove
in respect to the currency as well as other important
interests that there is no necessity for so extensive a
resort to it as that which has been heretofore practiced.
The experience of another year has confirmed the utter
fallacy of the idea that the Bank of the United States
was necessary as a fiscal agent of the Government.
Without its aid as such, indeed, in despite of all the
embarrassment it was in its power to create, the
revenue has been paid with punctuality by our citizens,
the business of exchange, both foreign and domestic,
has been conducted with convenience, and the
circulating medium has been greatly improved.
By the use of the State banks, which do not derive
their charters from the General Government and
are not controlled by its authority, it is ascertained
that the moneys of the United States can be
collected and disbursed without loss or
inconvenience, and that all the wants of the
community in relation to exchange and currency
are supplied as well as they have ever been before.
If under circumstances the most unfavorable to the
steadiness of the money market it has been found that
the considerations on which the Bank of the United States
rested its claims to the public favor were imaginary and
groundless, it cannot be doubted that the experience
of the future will be more decisive against them.
It has been seen that without the agency
of a great moneyed monopoly the revenue
can be collected and conveniently and safely
applied to all the purposes of the public expenditure.
It is also ascertained that instead of being necessarily
made to promote the evils of an unchecked paper system,
the management of the revenue can be made auxiliary
to the reform which the legislatures of several of the
States have already commenced in regard to the
suppression of small bills, and which has only to be
fostered by proper regulations on the part of Congress
to secure a practical return to the extent required for
the security of the currency to the constitutional medium.
Severed from the Government as political engines, and not
susceptible of dangerous extension and combination, the
State banks will not be tempted, nor will they have the
power, which we have seen exercised, to divert the public
funds from the legitimate purposes of the Government.
The collection and custody of the revenue, being,
on the contrary, a source of credit to them, will increase
the security which the States provide for a faithful
execution of their trusts by multiplying the scrutinies to
which their operations and accounts will be subjected.
Thus disposed, as well from interest as the obligations
of their charters, it cannot be doubted that such conditions
as Congress may see fit to adopt respecting the deposits
in these institutions, with a view to the gradual disuse,
of the small bills will be cheerfully complied with,
and that we shall soon gain in place of the
Bank of the United States a practical reform
in the whole paper system of the country.
If by this policy we can ultimately witness the
suppression of all bank bills below $20, it is apparent
that gold and silver will take their place and become
the principal circulating medium in the common
business of the farmers and mechanics of the country.
The attainment of such a result will form an era in the
history of our country which will be dwelt upon with
delight by every true friend of its liberty and independence.
It will lighten the great tax which our paper system
has so long collected from the earnings of labor,
and do more to revive and perpetuate those
habits of economy and simplicity which are so
congenial to the character of republicans than
all the legislation which has yet been attempted.
To this subject I feel that I cannot too earnestly
invite the special attention of Congress, without
the exercise of whose authority the opportunity to
accomplish so much public good must pass unimproved.
Deeply impressed with its vital importance, the Executive
has taken all the steps within his constitutional power to
guard the public revenue and defeat the expectation which
the Bank of the United States indulged of renewing and
perpetuating its monopoly on the ground of its necessity
as a fiscal agent and as affording a sounder currency
than could be obtained without such an institution.
In the performance of this duty much responsibility
was incurred which would have been gladly avoided
if the stake which the public had in the question
could have been otherwise preserved.
Although clothed with the legal authority and supported
by precedent, I was aware that there was in the act
of the removal of the deposits a liability to excite that
sensitiveness to Executive power which it is the
characteristic and the duty of freemen to indulge;
but I relied on this feeling also, directed by
patriotism and intelligence, to vindicate the
conduct which in the end would appear to have
been called for by the best interests of my country.
The apprehensions natural to this feeling that there
may have been a desire, through the instrumentality
of that measure, to extend the Executive influence,
or that it may have been prompted by motives not
sufficiently free from ambition, were not overlooked.
Under the operation of our institutions the public
servant who is called on to take a step of high
responsibility should feel in the freedom which gives
rise to such apprehensions his highest security.
When unfounded the attention which they arouse
and the discussions they excite deprive those
who indulge them of the power to do harm;
when just, they but hasten the certainty with
which the great body of our citizens never fail
to repel an attempt to procure their sanction
to any exercise of power inconsistent with
the jealous maintenance of their rights.
Under such convictions, and entertaining no doubt
that my constitutional obligations demanded the
steps which were taken in reference to the removal
of the deposits, it was impossible for me to be
deterred from the path of duty by a fear that
my motives could be misjudged or that
political prejudices could defeat the just
onsideration of the merits of my conduct.
The result has shown how safe is this reliance upon the
patriotic temper and enlightened discernment of the people.
That measure has now been before them and
has stood the test of all the severe analysis
which its general importance, the interests it affected,
and the apprehensions it excited were calculated to produce,
and it now remains for Congress to consider
what legislation has become necessary in consequence.
I need only add to what I have on former occasions
said on this subject generally that in the regulations
which Congress may prescribe respecting the custody
of the public moneys it is desirable that as little
discretion as may be deemed consistent with their
safe-keeping should be given to the executive agents.
No one can be more deeply impressed than I am
with the soundness of the doctrine which restrains
and limits by specific provisions executive discretion,
as far as it can be done consistently with the
preservation of its constitutional character.
In respect to the control over the public money
this doctrine is peculiarly applicable, and is in harmony
with the great principle which I felt I was sustaining
in the controversy with the Bank of the United States,
which has resulted in severing to some extent a dangerous
connection between a moneyed and political power.
The duty of the Legislature to define by clear and
positive enactments, the nature and extent of the
action which it belongs to the Executive to superintend
springs out of a policy analogous to that which enjoins
upon all the branches of the Federal Government an
abstinence from the exercise of powers not clearly granted.
In such a Government, possessing only limited
and specific powers, the spirit of its general
administration cannot be wise or just when it
opposes the reference of all doubtful points to
the great source of authority, the States and the people,
whose number and diversified relations, securing them
against the influences and excitements which may mislead
their agents, make them the safest depository of power.
In its application to the Executive with reference
to the legislative branch of the Government,
the same rule of action should make the President
ever anxious to avoid the exercise of any discretionary
authority which can be regulated by Congress.
The biases which may operate upon him will not be so likely
to extend to the representatives of the people in that body.
In my former messages to Congress I have repeatedly
urged the propriety of lessening the discretionary authority
lodged in the various Departments, but it has produced
no effect as yet, except the discontinuance of extra
allowances in the Army and Navy and the
substitution of fixed salaries in the latter.
It is believed that the same principles could be
advantageously applied in all cases, and would
promote the efficiency and economy of the public service,
at the same time that greater satisfaction and more equal
justice would be secured to the public officers generally.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of War
will put you in possession of the operations of the
Department confided to his care in all its
diversified relations during the past year.
I am gratified in being able to inform you that no
occurrence has required any movement of the military
force, except such as is common to a state of peace.
The services of the Army have been limited to their usual
duties at the various garrisons upon the Atlantic and inland
frontier, with the exceptions stated by the Secretary of War.
Our small military establishment appears to be adequate
to the purposes for which it is maintained,
and it forms a nucleus around which any additional
force may be collected should the public exigencies
unfortunately require any increase of our military means.
The various acts of Congress which have
been recently passed in relation to the Army
have improved its condition, and have
rendered its organization more useful and efficient.
It is at all times in a state for prompt and vigorous action,
and it contains within itself the power of extension
to any useful limit, while at the same time it preserves
that knowledge, both theoretical and practical,
which education and experience alone can give,
and which, if not acquired and preserved in time of peace,
must be sought under great disadvantages in time of war.
The duties of the Engineer Corps press heavily upon
that branch of the service, and the public interest
requires an addition to its strength.
The nature of the works in which the officers are engaged
renders necessary professional knowledge and experience,
and there is no economy in committing to them more duties
than they can perform or in assigning these to other
persons temporarily employed, and too often of necessity
without all the qualifications which such service demands.
I recommend this subject to your attention,
and also the proposition submitted at the last
session of Congress and now renewed,
for a reorganization of the Topographical Corps.
This reorganization can be effected without
any addition to the present expenditure
and with much advantage to the public service.
The branch of duties which devolves upon these
officers is at all times interesting to the community,
and the information furnished by them
is useful in peace and war.
Much loss and inconvenience have been
experienced in consequence of the failure of
the bill containing the ordinary appropriations
for fortifications which passed one branch of
the National Legislature at the last session,
but was lost in the other.
This failure was the more regretted not only
because it necessarily interrupted and delayed
the progress of a system of national defense,
projected immediately after the last war and
since steadily pursued, but also because it contained
a contingent appropriation, inserted in accordance
with the views of the Executive, in aid of this important
object and other branches of the national defense,
some portions of which might have been
most usefully applied during the past season.
I invite your early attention to that part of the report
of the Secretary of War which relates to this subject,
and recommend an appropriation sufficiently liberal
to accelerate the armament of the fortifications
agreeably to the proposition submitted by him,
and to place our whole Atlantic seaboard
in a complete state of defense.
A just regard to the permanent interests
of the country evidently requires this measure,
but there are also other reasons which at the
present juncture give it peculiar force and make it
my duty to call to the subject your special consideration.
The present system of military education has been
in operation sufficiently long to test its usefulness,
and it has given to the Army a valuable body of officers.
It is not alone in the improvement, discipline, and
operation of the troops that these officers are employed.
They are also extensively engaged in the administrative
and fiscal concerns of the various matters confided
to the War Department; in the execution of the staff duties
usually appertaining to military organization;
in the removal of the Indians and in the disbursement of the
various expenditures growing out of our Indian relations;
in the formation of roads and in the improvement of
harbors and rivers; in the construction of fortifications,
in the fabrication of much of the matériel required for
the public defense, and in the preservation, distribution,
and accountability of the whole, and in other
miscellaneous duties not admitting of classification.
These diversified functions embrace very heavy
expenditures of public money and require
fidelity, science, and business habits in their execution,
and a system which shall secure these qualifications
is demanded by the public interest.
That this object has been in a great measure
obtained by the Military Academy is shown by
the state of the service and by the prompt accountability
which has generally followed the necessary advances.
Like all other political systems, the present mode
of military education no doubt has its imperfections,
both of principle and practice; but I trust these
can be improved by rigid inspections and by
legislative scrutiny without destroying the institution itself.
Occurrences to which we as well as all other nations are
liable, both in our internal and external relations, point to
the necessity of an efficient organization of the militia.
I am again induced by the importance of the subject
to bring it to your attention.
To suppress domestic violence and to repel foreign invasion,
should these calamities overtake us, we must rely in the
first instance upon the great body of the community
whose will has instituted and whose power
must support the Government.
A large standing military force is not consonant to the spirit
of our institutions nor to the feelings of our countrymen,
and the lessons of former days and those also of our own
times show the danger as well as the enormous expense
of these permanent and extensive military organizations.
That just medium which avoids an inadequate preparation
on one hand and the danger and expense of a large force
on the other is what our constituents have
a right to expect from their Government.
This object can be attained only by the maintenance
of a small military force and by such an organization
of the physical strength of the country as may bring this
power into operation whenever its services are required.
A classification of the population offers the
most obvious means of effecting this organization.
Such a division may be made as will be just to all
by transferring each at a proper period of life from one class
to another and by calling first for the services of that class,
whether for instruction or action, which from age
is qualified for the duty and may be called to perform it
with least injury to themselves or to the public.
Should the danger ever become so imminent
as to require additional force, the other classes
in succession would be ready for the call.
And if in addition to this organization voluntary associations
were encouraged and inducements held out for their
formation, our militia would be in a state of efficient service.
Now, when we are at peace, is the proper time
to digest and establish a practicable system.
The object is certainly worth the experiment
and worth the expense.
No one appreciating the blessings of a republican
government can object to his share of the burden
which such a plan may impose.
Indeed, a moderate portion of the national funds
could scarcely be better applied than in carrying
into effect and continuing such an arrangement,
and in giving the necessary elementary instruction.
We are happily at peace with all the world.
A sincere desire to continue so and a fixed determination
to give no just cause of offense to other nations furnish,
unfortunately, no certain grounds of expectation
that this relation will be uninterrupted.
With this determination to give no offense is associated
a resolution, equally decided, tamely to submit to none.
The armor and the attitude of defense afford the
best security against those collisions which the ambition,
or interest, or some other passion of nations
not more justifiable is liable to produce.
In many countries it is considered unsafe to put arms
into the hands of the people and to instruct them
in the elements of military knowledge.
That fear can have no place here when it is
recollected that the people are the sovereign power.
Our Government was instituted and is supported
by the ballot box, not by the musket.
Whatever changes await it, still greater changes
must be made in our social institutions before
our political system can yield to physical force.
In every aspect, therefore, in which I can view the subject,
I am impressed with the importance of a
prompt and efficient organization of the militia.
The plan of removing the aboriginal people
who yet remain within the settled portions of the
United States to the country west of the
Mississippi River approaches its consummation.
It was adopted on the most mature consideration
of the condition of this race, and ought to be persisted in
till the object is accomplished, and prosecuted
with as much vigor as a just regard to their circumstances
will permit, and as fast as their consent can be obtained.
All preceding experiments for the improvement
of the Indians have failed.
It seems now to be an established fact
that they cannot live in contact with
a civilized community and prosper.
Ages of fruitless endeavors have at length brought us to a
knowledge of this principle of intercommunication with them.
The past we cannot recall,
but the future we can provide for.
Independently of the treaty stipulations into which
we have entered with the various tribes for the
usufructuary rights they have ceded to us,
no one can doubt the moral duty of the Government
of the United States to protect and if possible
to preserve and perpetuate the scattered remnants
of this race which are left within our borders.
In the discharge of this duty an extensive region in the West
has been assigned for their permanent residence.
It has been divided into districts and allotted among them.
Many have already removed and others are preparing to go,
and with the exception of two small bands
living in Ohio and Indiana, not exceeding 1,500 persons,
and of the Cherokees, all the tribes on the east side
of the Mississippi, and extending from Lake Michigan
to Florida, have entered into engagements
which will lead to their transplantation.
The plan for their removal and reestablishment
is founded upon the knowledge we have
gained of their character and habits,
and has been dictated by a spirit of enlarged liberality.
A territory exceeding in extent that
relinquished has been granted to each tribe.
Of its climate, fertility, and capacity to support an Indian
population the representations are highly favorable.
To these districts the Indians are removed at the
expense of the United States, and with certain supplies
of clothing, arms, ammunition, and other indispensable
articles; they are also furnished gratuitously
with provisions for the period of a year
after their arrival at their new homes.
In that time, from the nature of the country
and of the products raised by them, they can
subsist themselves by agricultural labor,
if they choose to resort to that mode of life;
if they do not, they are upon the skirts of the great prairies,
where countless herds of buffalo roam,
and a short time suffices to adapt their own habits
to the changes which a change of the animals
destined for their food may require.
Ample arrangements have also been made
for the support of schools; in some instances
council houses and churches are to be erected,
dwellings constructed for the chiefs,
and mills for common use.
Funds have been set apart for the maintenance of the poor;
the most necessary mechanical arts have been introduced,
and blacksmiths, gunsmiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, etc.,
are supported among them.
Steel and iron, and sometimes salt, are purchased for them,
and plows and other farming utensils, domestic animals,
looms, spinning wheels, cards, etc., are presented to them.
And besides these beneficial arrangements,
annuities are in all cases paid, amounting in some instances
to more than $30 for each individual of the tribe,
and in all cases sufficiently great, if justly divided
and prudently expended, to enable them,
in addition to their own exertions, to live comfortably.
And as a stimulus for exertion, it is now provided by law
that “in all cases of the appointment of interpreters
or other persons employed for the benefit of the Indians
a preference shall be given to persons of Indian descent,
if such can be found who are properly qualified
for the discharge of the duties.”
Such are the arrangements for the physical comfort
and for the moral improvement of the Indians.
The necessary measures for their political advancement
and for their separation from our citizens
have not been neglected.
The pledge of the United States has been given by Congress
that the country destined for the residence of this people
shall be forever “secured and guaranteed to them.”
A country west of Missouri and Arkansas has been
assigned to them, into which
the white settlements are not to be pushed.
No political communities can be formed in that
extensive region, except those which are established
by the Indians themselves or by the United States
for them and with their concurrence.
A barrier has thus been raised for their protection
against the encroachment of our citizens,
and guarding the Indians as far as possible from those evils
which have brought them to their present condition.
Summary authority has been given by law to destroy
all ardent spirits found in their country, without waiting
the doubtful result and slow process of a legal seizure.
I consider the absolute and unconditional interdiction
of this article among these people
as the first and great step in their melioration.
Halfway measures will answer no purpose.
These cannot successfully contend against the cupidity
of the seller and the overpowering appetite of the buyer.
And the destructive effects of the traffic are marked
in every page of the history of our Indian intercourse.
Some general legislation seems necessary for the
regulation of the relations which will exist in this new state
of things between the Government and people of the
United States and these transplanted Indian tribes,
and for the establishment among the latter,
and with their own consent, of some principles of
intercommunication which their juxtaposition will call for;
that moral may be substituted for physical force,
the authority of a few and simple laws for the tomahawk,
and that an end may be put to those bloody wars whose
prosecution seems to have made part of their social system.
After the further details of this arrangement are
completed, with a very general supervision over them,
they ought to be left to the progress of events.
These, I indulge the hope, will secure their prosperity
and improvement, and a large portion of the moral debt
we owe them will then be paid.
The report from the Secretary of the Navy,
showing the condition of that branch of the public service,
is recommended to your special attention.
It appears from it that our naval force at present
in commission, with all the activity which can be given to it,
is inadequate to the protection
of our rapidly increasing commerce.
This consideration and the more general one which
regards this arm of the national defense as our best security
against foreign aggressions strongly urge the continuance
of the measures which promote its gradual enlargement
and a speedy increase of the force which
has been heretofore employed abroad and at home.
You will perceive from the estimates which appear
in the report of the Secretary of the Navy that the
expenditures necessary to this increase of its force,
though of considerable amount, are small compared
with the benefits which they will secure to the country.
As a means of strengthening this national arm
I also recommend to your particular attention the
propriety of the suggestion which attracted the
consideration of Congress at its last session, respecting
the enlistment of boys at a suitable age in the service.
In this manner a nursery of skillful and able-bodied seamen
can be established, which will be of the greatest importance.
Next to the capacity to put afloat and arm the requisite
number of ships is the possession of the means
to man them efficiently, and nothing seems better
calculated to aid this object than the measure proposed.
As an auxiliary to the advantages derived from our
extensive commercial marine, it would furnish us
with a resource ample enough for all
the exigencies which can be anticipated.
Considering the state of our resources,
it cannot be doubted that whatever provision the liberality
and wisdom of Congress may now adopt with a view to
the perfect organization of this branch of our service
will meet the approbation of all classes of our citizens.
By the report of the Postmaster-General it appears
that the revenue of the Department during the year
ending on the 30th day of June last exceeded its
accruing responsibilities $236,206, and that the surplus
of the present fiscal year is estimated at $476,227.
It further appears that the debt of the Department
on the 1st day of July last, including the amount due
to contractors for the quarter then just expired,
was about $1,064,381, exceeding the available means
about $23,700; and that on the 1st instant about $597,077
of this debt had been paid—
$409,991 out of postages accruing before July
and $187,086 out of postages accruing since.
In these payments are included $67,000
of the old debt due to banks.
After making these payments the Department
had $73,000 in bank on the 1st instant.
The pleasing assurance is given that the Department
is entirely free from embarrassment, and that by
collection of outstanding balances and using the
current surplus the remaining portion of the bank debt
and most of the other debt will probably be paid
in April next, leaving thereafter a heavy amount to be
applied in extending the mail facilities of the country.
Reserving a considerable sum for the improvement
of existing mail routes, it is stated that the Department
will be able to sustain with perfect convenience
an annual charge of $300,000 for the support of new routes,
to commence as soon as they can
be established and put in operation.
The measures adopted by the Postmaster-General
to bring the means of the Department into action and to
effect a speedy extinguishment of its debt, as well as to
produce an efficient administration of its affairs, will be
found detailed at length in his able and luminous report.
Aided by a reorganization on the principles suggested
and such salutary provisions in the laws regulating its
administrative duties as the wisdom of Congress may
devise or approve, that important Department will soon
attain a degree of usefulness proportioned to the increase
of our population and the extension of our settlements.
Particular attention is solicited to that portion of the
report of the Postmaster-General which relates to the
carriage of the mails of the United States upon railroads
constructed by private corporations
under the authority of the several States.
The reliance which the General Government can place
on those roads as a means of carrying on its operations
and the principles on which the use of them is to be
obtained cannot too soon be considered and settled.
Already does the spirit of monopoly begin to exhibit its
natural propensities in attempts to exact from the public,
for services which it supposes cannot be obtained
on other terms, the most extravagant compensation.
If these claims be persisted in, the question may arise
whether a combination of citizens, acting under charters
of incorporation from the States, can, by a direct refusal
or the demand of an exorbitant price, exclude the
United States from the use of the established channels
of communication between the different sections
of the country, and whether the United States cannot,
without transcending their constitutional powers,
secure to the Post-Office Department the use of those roads
by an act of Congress which shall provide within itself some
equitable mode of adjusting the amount of compensation.
To obviate, if possible, the necessity of considering
this question, it is suggested whether it be not expedient
to fix by law the amounts which shall be offered to railroad
companies for the conveyance of the mails,
graduated according to their average weight,
to be ascertained and declared by the Postmaster-General.
It is probable that a liberal proposition
of that sort would be accepted.
In connection with these provisions in relation to the
Post-Office Department, I must also invite your attention
to the painful excitement produced in the South by
attempts to circulate through the mails inflammatory
appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves,
in prints and in various sorts of publications,
calculated to stimulate them to insurrection
and to produce all the horrors of a servile war.
There is doubtless no respectable portion of our
countrymen who can be so far misled as to feel
any other sentiment than that of indignant regret
at conduct so destructive of the harmony and peace
of the country, and so repugnant to the principles
of our national compact and to the
dictates of humanity and religion.
Our happiness and prosperity essentially depend upon
peace within our borders, and peace depends upon
the maintenance in good faith of those compromises
of the Constitution upon which the Union is founded.
It is fortunate for the country that the good sense,
the generous feeling, and the deep-rooted attachment
of the people of the nonslaveholding States to the Union
and to their fellow-citizens of the same blood
in the South have given so strong and impressive a tone
to the sentiments entertained against the proceedings
of the misguided persons who have engaged in these
unconstitutional and wicked attempts, and especially
against the emissaries from foreign parts who have
dared to interfere in this matter, as to authorize the
hope that those attempts will no longer be persisted in.
But if these expressions of the public will shall not be
sufficient to effect so desirable a result, not a doubt
can be entertained that the nonslaveholding States,
so far from countenancing the slightest interference
with the constitutional rights of the South, will be
prompt to exercise their authority in suppressing so far as
in them lies whatever is calculated to produce this evil.
In leaving the care of other branches of this interesting
subject to the State authorities, to whom they properly
belong, it is nevertheless proper for Congress to take
such measures as will prevent the Post-Office Department,
which was designed to foster an amicable intercourse
and correspondence between all the members
of the Confederacy, from being used
as an instrument of an opposite character.
The General Government, to which the great trust is
confided of preserving inviolate the relations created
among the States by the Constitution, is especially bound
to avoid in its own action anything that may disturb them.
I would therefore call the special attention of Congress
to the subject, and respectfully suggest the propriety of
passing such a law as will prohibit, under severe penalties,
the circulation in the Southern States, through the mail,
of incendiary publications intended
to instigate the slaves to insurrection.
I felt it to be my duty in the first message which
I communicated to Congress to urge upon its attention
the propriety of amending that part of the Constitution
which provides for the election of the President
and the Vice-President of the United States.
The leading object which I had in view was the adoption
of some new provisions which would secure to the people
the performance of this high duty
without any intermediate agency.
In my annual communications since I have enforced the
same views, from a sincere conviction that the best interests
of the country would be promoted by their adoption.
If the subject were an ordinary one, I should have regarded
the failure of Congress to act upon it as an indication
of their judgment that the disadvantages which belong to
the present system were not so great as those
which would result from any attainable substitute
that had been submitted to their consideration.
Recollecting, however, that propositions to introduce
a new feature in our fundamental laws cannot be too
patiently examined, and ought not to be received
with favor until the great body of the people are
thoroughly impressed with their necessity
and value as a remedy for real evils,
I feel that in renewing the recommendation
I have heretofore made on this subject I am not
transcending the bounds of a just deference to the
sense of Congress or to the disposition of the people.
However much we may differ in the choice of the measures
which should guide the administration of the Government,
there can be but little doubt in the minds of those who are
really friendly to the republican features of our system
that one of its most important securities consists in the
separation of the legislative and executive powers
at the same time that each is held responsible to the great
source of authority, which is acknowledged to be supreme,
in the will of the people constitutionally expressed.
My reflection and experience satisfy me that the framers
of the Constitution, although they were anxious to mark this
feature as a settled and fixed principle in the structure
of the Government, did not adopt all the precautions that
were necessary to secure its practical observance,
and that we cannot be said to have carried into
complete effect their intentions until the evils
which arise from this organic defect are remedied.
Considering the great extent of our Confederacy,
the rapid increase of its population, and the diversity
of their interests and pursuits, it cannot be disguised
that the contingency by which one branch of the
Legislature is to form itself into an electoral college
cannot become one of ordinary occurrence
without producing incalculable mischief.
What was intended as the medicine of the Constitution
in extreme cases cannot be frequently used
without changing its character
and sooner or later producing incurable disorder.
Every election by the House of Representatives is
calculated to lessen the force of that security which is
derived from the distinct and separate character of the
legislative and executive functions, and while it exposes
each to temptations adverse to their efficiency as organs
of the Constitution and laws, its tendency will be to unite
both in resisting the will of the people, and thus give a
direction to the Government antirepublican and dangerous.
All history tells us that a free people should be watchful
of delegated power, and should never acquiesce
in a practice which will diminish their control over it.
This obligation, so universal in its application to all the
principles of a republic, is peculiarly so in ours, where
the formation of parties founded on sectional interests
is so much fostered by the extent of our territory.
These interests, represented by candidates for the
Presidency, are constantly prone, in the zeal of party
and selfish objects, to generate influences unmindful of
the general good and forgetful of the restraints
which the great body of the people would enforce
if they were in no contingency to lose
the right of expressing their will.
The experience of our country from the formation
of the Government to the present day demonstrates
that the people cannot too soon adopt some stronger
safeguard for their right to elect the highest officers
known to the Constitution than is contained
in that sacred instrument as it now stands.
It is my duty to call the particular attention of Congress
to the present condition of the District of Columbia.
From whatever cause the great depression has arisen
which now exists in the pecuniary concerns of this District,
it is proper that its situation should be fully understood
and such relief or remedies provided as are
consistent with the powers of Congress.
I earnestly recommend the extension of every
political right to the citizens of this District
which their true interests require, and which
does not conflict with the provisions of the Constitution.
It is believed that the laws for the government of the District
require revisal and amendment, and that much good
may be done by modifying the penal code
so as to give uniformity to its provisions.
Your attention is also invited to the defects
which exist in the judicial system of the United States.
As at present organized the States of the Union derive
unequal advantages from the Federal judiciary,
which have been so often pointed out
that I deem it unnecessary to repeat them here.
It is hoped that the present Congress will extend
to all the States that equality in respect to the benefits
of the laws of the Union which can only be secured
by the uniformity and efficiency of the judicial system.
With these observations on the topics of general interest
which are deemed worthy of your consideration,
I leave them to your care, trusting that the
legislative measures they call for will be met
as the wants and the best interests
of our beloved country demand.3
Notes
1. House Report 37, 23d Cong. 2d sess., p. 2 quoted in The Jacksonians:
A Study in Administrative History 1829-1861 by Leonard D. White, p. 413.
2. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson Volume V 1833-1838
ed. John Spencer Bassett, p. 360-361.
3. Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908, Volume III,
ed. James D. Richardson, p. 147-177.
Andrew Jackson to 1812
Andrew Jackson & Wars 1813-15
Andrew Jackson & Indian Wars 1816-20
Andrew Jackson 1821-24
Andrew Jackson 1825-28
President Jackson in 1829
President Jackson & Indians 1829-36
President Jackson in 1830
President Jackson in 1831
Jackson’s Veto & Banks in 1832
President Jackson in 1833
President Jackson in 1834
President Jackson in 1835
President Jackson in 1836
Andrew Jackson 1837-45
Andrew Jackson Summary & Evaluation
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