President Jackson & Inaugural Address 1829
President Jackson March-December 1829
Jackson’s Message in December 1829
Andrew Jackson arrived in Washington on 11 February 1829,
and he wrote this letter to Martin Van Buren on February 14:
I am now at the seat of Government,
ready to enter on the high duties that my
country has so flatteringly assigned me.
My first and strong desire, is to have associated
with me in the discharge of my responsible trust,
men, in whom, under all exigencies, I can repose.
I have thought of you; and trusting in your
intelligence & sound Judgment, my desire is that
you shall take charge of the Department of State.
Do me the favor to say, if you will undertake it?
Were you here, I should defer any enquiries
on the subject, until the end of this month
but being at a distance my solicitude is to
know forthwith, if I may calculate on your aid.
If consistent with your feelings; it would afford me
great pleasure to have you here early as possible,
that I may consult with you on many and various
things pertaining to the general interest of the country.
As early as possible I shall be glad to hear from you;
and to know your determination when leisure permits,
to know your opinion as to the time when
you can be at the city of Washington.1
Andrew Jackson’s wife Rachel had died on 28 December 1828,
and at his inauguration on 4 March 1829 he was in mourning and dressed in black.
As he left for the Capitol the sun came out.
He pleased the crowd of 20,000 by bowing to them
before his 10-minute speech on reform.
This is his First Inaugural Address:
Fellow-Citizens:
About to undertake the arduous duties that
I have been appointed to perform by the choice
of a free people, I avail myself of this customary
and solemn occasion to express the gratitude
which their confidence inspires and to acknowledge
the accountability which my situation enjoins.
While the magnitude of their interests convinces me
that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they
have conferred, it admonishes me that the best
return I can make is the zealous dedication of my
humble abilities to their service and their good.
As the instrument of the Federal Constitution
it will devolve on me for a stated period to execute
the laws of the United States, to superintend their
foreign and their confederate relations, to manage
their revenue, to command their forces, and by
communications to the Legislature to watch over
and to promote their interests generally.
And the principles of action by which I shall
endeavor to accomplish this circle of duties
it is now proper for me briefly to explain.
In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep
steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent
of the Executive power trusting thereby to discharge
the functions of my office without transcending its authority.
With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace
and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms,
and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or
arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation
rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.
In such measures as I may be called on to pursue
in regard to the rights of the separate States I hope
to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign
members of our Union, taking care not to confound
the powers they have reserved to themselves with
those they have granted to the Confederacy.
The management of the public revenue—that searching
operation in all governments—is among the most delicate
and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course,
demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude.
Under every aspect in which it can be considered
it would appear that advantage must result from
the observance of a strict and faithful economy.
This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it will
facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the
unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real
independence, and because it will counteract that tendency
to public and private profligacy which a profuse expenditure
of money by the Government is but too apt to engender.
Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable end
are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom
of Congress for the specific appropriation of public money
and the prompt accountability of public officers.
With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of
impost with a view to revenue, it would seem to me
that the spirit of equity, caution and compromise
in which the Constitution was formed requires that
the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and
manufactures should be equally favored, and that perhaps
the only exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar
encouragement of any products of either of them that
may be found essential to our national independence.
Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge,
so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts
of the Federal Government, are of high importance.
Considering standing armies as dangerous to free
governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge
our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary
lesson of political experience which teaches that the
military should be held subordinate to the civil power.
The gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has
displayed in distant climes our skill in navigation and
our fame in arms; the preservation of our forts, arsenals,
and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive
improvements in the discipline and science of both
branches of our military service are so plainly prescribed
by prudence that I should be excused for omitting their
mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance.
But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia,
which in the present state of our intelligence
and population must render us invincible.
As long as our Government is administered for the
good of the people, and is regulated by their will;
as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of
property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be
worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending a
patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis.
Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be
subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of
the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe.
To any just system, therefore, calculated to
strengthen this natural safeguard of the country
I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.
It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe
toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal
policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention
to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the
habits of our Government and the feelings of our people.
The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes
on the list of Executive duties, in characters too legible
to be overlooked, the task of reform, which will require
particularly the correction of those abuses that have
brought the patronage of the Federal Government into
conflict with the freedom of elections, and the
counteraction of those causes which have disturbed
the rightful course of appointment and have placed
or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.
In the performance of a task thus generally delineated
I shall endeavor to select men whose diligence and
talents will insure in their respective stations able
and faithful cooperation, depending for the advancement
of the public service more on the integrity and zeal
of the public officers than on their numbers.
A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications
will teach me to look with reverence to the examples
of public virtue left by my illustrious predecessors,
and with veneration to the lights that flow from the mind
that founded and the mind that reformed our system.
The same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction
and aid from the coordinate branches of the Government,
and for the indulgence and support
of my fellow-citizens generally.
And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose
providence mercifully protected our national infancy,
and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes,
encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications
that He will continue to make our beloved country
the object of His divine care and gracious benediction.2
After the speech and the presidential oath, Jackson and some others on horses
rode to the White House while hundreds of people surged down
unpaved Pennsylvania Avenue that was muddy from melted snow.
In the White House the mud on their boots
damaged furniture as they tried to see the President.
The mob broke china and glasses until they finally moved the punch bowls
to the lawn to lure people out of the White House.
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story disliked the tumult that
he called “the reign of King Mob,” and he soon left.
Jackson shook hands with many people but eventually
needed to be protected by a ring of officers.
He did not retire until 4 in the afternoon and did not go
to the inaugural ball because he was in mourning.
A north portico and east and west wings were added to the White House in 1829.
That year anyone could walk in and ask to see President Jackson
who would talk to them if he was not engaged.
Most were office seekers, and he once said that he had 500 applicants for each office.
Duff Green of the United States Telegraph had promised that Jackson would
use patronage to “REWARD HIS FRIENDS AND PUNISH HIS ENEMIES.”
The United States had a depression in 1828-29, and it was difficult winter in the cities.
President Jackson made 68 civil appointments in his first nine days as President.
On that March 4 President Jackson sent this short note to Col. James A. Hamilton:
You are appointed to take charge of the Department
of State and to perform the duties of that office from
this time until Governor Van Buren arrives in this city.3
Jackson made his friend John Eaton Secretary of War
even though he had no war experience.
He could have named his friend Hugh Lawson White who was much more capable.
Postmaster General John McLean was committed to appointing men based on merit,
and Jackson removed him by nominating him for the United States Supreme Court.
Then his replacement William Barry used patronage.
Martin Van Buren had been elected Governor of New York in 1828,
and Jackson asked him to be Secretary of State.
He accepted if he could wait until the New York legislature
adjourned in late March; Jackson agreed.
Van Buren resigned on March 12 as Governor of New York
and had that office for only 71 days.
President Jackson wanted to give Pennsylvania a seat in his cabinet,
and he named Samuel D. Ingham of Pennsylvania to head the Treasury Department.
Another weak appointment was North Carolina Senator John Branch
to run the Navy Department.
Jackson’s friend John McPherson Berrien of Georgia was made Attorney General
of the United States because he favored Indian removal.
Jackson’s nephew Andrew Jackson Donelson served as his secretary,
and his young wife Emily became the White House hostess.
President Jackson had a group of unofficial advisors who were called the “kitchen cabinet”
that included the journalists Thomas Ritchie of the Richmond Enquirer, Duff Green,
Argus of Western America editor Amos Kendall of Kentucky,
New Hampshire Patriot editor Isaac Hill,
and Washington Globe editor Francis Preston Blair,
plus literary beacons Dabney Carr, Gideon Welles, and Nathaniel Greene.
President Andrew Jackson wrote this letter
to Brigadier-General John Coffee on March 19:
Since I have been here my time has constantly been
employed with a press of business left undone by the
preceding administration, and many things done by them,
intended no doubt to embarrass the present.
This with my late afflictive bereavement on my mind has
been as much as my debilitated constitution could well bear,
still I have to thank my God, my health still enables me
to attend to my duty, and I trust in him, will enable
me to perform it to the satisfaction of my country.
Great exertions have been made by Clay’s friends
to raise a clamor about my taking Major Eaton into
my cabinet, and some of my friends from Tennessee
weak enough to be duped by the artifice, were made
instruments; the object was to intimidate me from
the selection, and thereby destroy Major Eaton.
I had to assume sufficient energy to meet the crisis.
I did meet it, and Major Eaton will become one of the
most popular men in the Departments, be a great
comfort to me, and will manage the Dept. of War well.4
On March 16 Jackson learned that pirates had stormed the American
merchant ship Attentive on February 22 and murdered the captain and crew.
The New Priscilla was also attacked near Cuba,
and Jackson ordered the USS Natchez to patrol the Cuban coast.
Martin Van Buren of New York arrived on March 22 and quickly became
Jackson’s closest advisor by becoming Secretary of State on the 28th.
They shared Jefferson’s political philosophy, and both wanted reforms.
Van Buren found ways to prevent Jackson’s appointments of Littleton W. Tazewell
of Virginia to England and Edward Livingston of Louisiana to France.
Van Buren knew he had to yield to Jackson’s decisions,
but he offered criticisms such as a letter from Ritchie dated March 31
that warned against reforms which might injure the public.
Martin Van Buren gave it to Jackson with this letter:
On my return from your house last evening
I found the enclosed among some letters
I had not before been able to examine.
Upon a careful consideration of its contents
I find it to be so evidently written for your perusal
as to make it something like a duty on my part
to lay it before you; and I do that the more readily
from an entire consciousness that you wish to hear
all that may be said with decency in respect to your
administration by those interested in its success.
I have known Mr. Ritchie long and intimately
and am well satisfied that there is not
a man of purer public spirit in the Country.
The disinterestedness of his views with the great ability
that has characterized his paper has given it an influence
infinitely greater than any other press in the Union.
Whatever you may think of the wisdom or justice of the
opinions expressed by such a man I am quite sure that they
will receive from you a liberal and respectful consideration.
Not being certain from the great press that is made upon me
that I shall be able to see you today I have thought proper
to enclose it and will view it again at your perfect leisure.5
Also on 31 March 1829 President Jackson
wrote this letter on patronage to Martin Van Buren:
I have read the enclosed letter with attention,
and if the facts adverted to would warrant the
conclusion, the objections would be well founded.
There has been as yet, no important case of removal
except General Harrison; and I am sure if Mr. Richie
has read the instructions given to our ministers, who
were sent to Panama, he must think the recall of General
Harrison, not only a prudent measure, but one which the
interest of the country makes indispensably necessary.
I have referred to the case of General Harrison only,
because I cannot suppose Mr. Ritchie has any allusion
to the Auditors & Comptroller, who were dismissed,
not so much on account of their politics,
as for the want of moral honesty.
The Gentleman who has been selected to supply
the place of General Harrison is, I believe as well qualified,
if not better, than any other who would have
undertaken the mission to that country.
I would advise the answering of Mr. Richie’s letter;
and, in the most delicate manner, to put him on his
guard with respect to letter writers from Washington.
The letter he has extracted from, instead of being from
my friend, must be from some disappointed office hunter—
one who merely professes to be my friend;
or perhaps, from a friend of Mr. Clay’s in disguise.
How could this letter writer know
what changes were to be made?
How can he pretend to foretell, without knowing
who are to be appointed, that the changes
will be injurious to the public interest?
You may assure Mr. Richie that his Washington
correspondent knows nothing of what will be the course
of the President in appointments, or he would have
known that the President has not, nor will he ever,
make an appointment but with a view to the public good,
and the security of the fiscal concerns of the nation.
He never has, nor will he, appoint a personal friend
to office, unless by such appointment
the public will be faithfully served.
I cannot suppose Mr. Richie would have me
proscribe my friends, merely because they are so.
If my personal friends are qualified and patriotic, why
should I not be permitted to bestow a few offices on them?
For my own part I can see no well-founded objections to it.
In my Cabinet it is well known that there is but one
man with whom I have had an intimate and particular
acquaintance, though they are all my friends,
and in whom I have the greatest confidence.
But even if it were as Mr. Richie supposes,
I have only followed the examples of my
illustrious predecessors, Washington and Jefferson.
They took from their own state
bosom friends and placed them in the Cabinet.
Not only this, but General Washington went even farther—
besides placing two of his friends from Virginia near him,
he brought into his cabinet General Hamilton with whom,
if possible, he was upon more intimate terms
than I am with any member of my Cabinet.
I have drawn your attention to these facts
because I apprehend that our friend Mr. Richie
had not reflected upon the subject, or he would
not have suffered himself to be so easily alarmed.
I have, I assure you, none of those fears, and forebodings,
which appears to disturb the repose of Mr. Richie
and his Washington Correspondent.
I repeat, it would be well for you to write
Mr. Richie and endeavor to remove his
apprehension of difficulty & danger.
Say to him, before he condemns the Tree,
he ought to wait and see its fruit.
The people expect reform—they shall not be disappointed;
but it must be Judiciously done & upon principle.6
In his first year Jackson removed 252 of the 612 officers under executive control
and 919 of the 10,093 federal officials including 423 postmasters, 25 collectors,
23 registers and receivers, 13 district attorneys, and 9 marshals.
This was the second major turnover of government officials, the first being
when Jefferson replaced John Adams in 1801.
Jackson, like Jefferson, wanted to democratize the executive branch.
He wanted to simplify administration so that common men of intelligence could qualify.
He initiated term limits of four or six years for many positions,
and Jeremy Bentham wrote to him about his support for office rotation.
In the first two years the State Department changed almost three-quarters
of the printing contracts for federal laws from opposition newspapers to Jacksonians.
His most egregious appointment, which Van Buren had opposed,
was New York City fixer Samuel Swartwout to be collector of the New York Port
because later he managed to abscond with $1,222,705
in 1838 when Van Buren was President.
Jackson appointed Amos Kendall fourth auditor of the Treasury Department,
and he discovered that his predecessor, Tobias Watkins, had embezzled $7,000.
Kendall uncovered several frauds by former officials and customs agents,
catching eleven treasury agents short in their accounts.
By the end of 1829 they learned that the Treasury Department was missing about $280,000.
In the first year two collectors were removed, saving the government $51,271.
Navy agent Miles King was fired for stealing $40,000 over several years.
By removing the thieves the Navy Department saved $1 million in one year.
Jackson had many drunkards dismissed.
He made restoring honesty his top priority,
and he hoped that job rotation would perpetuate liberty.
The Working Men’s Party had formed at Philadelphia in 1828,
and in that city working men met in March 1829 near the
United States Bank to oppose the chartering of any more banks.
They believed that extending paper credit too greatly had brought about hard times,
and they formed a committee to report on the banking system that included
Philadelphia Gazette editor William M. Gouge, Free Trade Advocate
editor Condy Raguet, journalist William Duane and his lawyer son,
philanthropist Roberts Vaux, former Bank director Reuben M. Whitney,
and trade-union leaders William English and James Ronaldson.
One week later they concluded,
That banks are useful as offices of deposit and
transfer, we readily admit; but we cannot see
that the benefits they confer in this way are so
great as to compensate for the evils they produce,
in laying the foundation of artificial inequality of
wealth, and thereby of artificial inequality of power.
If the present system of banking and
paper money be extended and perpetuated,
the great body of the working people must give
over all hopes of ever acquiring any property.7
In 1829 Tennessee Governor Sam Houston had a brief marriage,
then resigned on April 16, and went to live again with the Cherokees who made him
a member of the tribe and sent him to Washington as their representative.
On 13 May 1829 President Jackson wrote in a letter to T. L. Miller:
You will recollect that in the recent political
contest it was said and truly said, to be a struggle
between the virtue of the American people and
the corrupting influence of executive patronage.
By no act, by no solicitation of mine; and apart
from any interference of myself, did the people
in their kindness present me as their candidate.
The different presses of the Country acting upon
their own impulses, espoused one side or the other,
as judgement or other causes operated.
Those who stepped forward and advocated
the question termed the side of the people,
were a part of the people and differing only in
this that they were the proprietors and conductors
of the press—in many cases purchased by themselves
expressly for the purpose of aiding in the “grand cause.”
And to what motive other than the love
of country and the exercise of a sound
judgement could their course be ascribed?
I was not abroad seeking popularity,
nor did I trammel or commit myself by pledges
to reward partisans in the event of success.
No one has ever accused me of doing so,
and hence we are bound to believe that
they were disinterested in their support of me.
Many maintained and believed, and especially
the politicians of the Country, that no efforts
of the people, would be found sufficient to
counteract the subsidizing influence of government.
Upon this ground then, whatever motive could arise
founded on self, was of a character to invite chiming
in with the powers that were then in existence.
Yet many Editors did not, and hence can we resist
the impression that they were actuated by the same
generous and patriotic impulse that the people were?
If these suggestions be founded in truth, why
should this class of citizens be excluded from offices
to which others, not more patriotic, nor presenting
stronger claims as to qualification may aspire?
To establish such a precedent would I apprehend,
have a powerful tendency to place the control and
management of the press into the hands of those who
might be destitute of principle; and who were prosecuting
their profession only as means of livelihood and hence,
would become mercenary, and to earn their penny would
abandon principle, which ought to be their rule of action.
The road to office and preferment, being accessible
alike to the rich and the poor, the farmer and the printer,
honesty, probity and capability constituting the
sole and exclusive test, will I am persuaded,
have the happiest tendency to preserve,
unimpaired, freedom of political action;
change it and let it be known that any class or
portion of citizens are and ought to be proscribed,
and discontent and dissatisfaction will be engendered.
Extend it to Editors of papers, and I reiterate, that men
of uncompromising and sterling integrity will no longer be
found in the ranks of those who edit our public journals.
I submit it then, to your good sense and calm reflection,
what must be the inevitable result of things in this country,
when the press and its freedom shall become so depressed
and degraded as to be found altogether under the control of
men wanting in principle and the proper feelings of men!8
Jackson wanted to acquire Texas and told Van Buren
to offer Mexico $5 million for the territory.
On August 13 they instructed the United States Minister to Mexico, Joel Poinsett,
to purchase Texas from the Mexican government,
and on the 23rd they met with land-speculator Col. Anthony Butler.
Jackson explained they needed Texas for national security,
for more land to relocate Indians, and with the Rio Grande as a natural boundary.
On September 15 the Guerrero Decree abolished slavery in Mexico, and in October
that government requested that the American envoy be withdrawn from Texas.
On December 2 President Guerrero exempted Texas on slavery.
By 1829 Jackson himself owned more than a hundred slaves.
The scandal that occupied most of Jackson’s time in 1829 was over the
promiscuous Margaret O’Neale Timberlake, whose first husband,
depressed by her infidelities, had died in April 1828.
Jackson had urged his friend Eaton to marry Peggy, and he did so on 1 January 1829.
This shocked other cabinet wives who snubbed her,
led by Vice President John Calhoun’s wife Floride.
Jackson believed in freedom of religion and government without religious influence.
Rev. Ezra Stiles Ely of Philadelphia wanted the federal delivery
of mail on Sundays stopped, but Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky
chaired the pertinent committee that decided against that, arguing,
The mail is the chief means by which intellectual
light irradiates to the extremes of the republic.
Stop it one day in seven, and you retard
one seventh of the advancement of our country.9
Jackson wanted to defend Mrs. Peggy Eaton as he had his wife Rachel,
and he called a cabinet meeting on September 10 without Eaton
that also included Ely and Rev. J. M. Campbell of Washington.
Campbell had presented evidence to Jackson that she had a miscarriage
that could not have been her husband Timberlake’s child because of his long absence.
In the meeting Jackson claimed that the miscarriage had been in 1821
when Timberlake was at home; but Campbell insisted he had said 1826.
Jackson ignored this and insisted that Peggy was chaste and pronounced her vindicated.
Calhoun’s wife was especially upset by Mrs. Eaton, and Jackson came to realize
that
Vice President Calhoun was opposing him through Duff Green’s United States Telegraph.
Jackson did not like Calhoun’s support for state nullification.
Van Buren organized dinners for the Eatons that other cabinet wives shunned,
and Van Buren became Jackson’s closest advisor and his presumed successor.
On 12 September 1829 to improve commerce Jackson ordered without the
usual Senate approval the Navy Secretary John Branch to permit the Mediterranean
commander to spend $20,000 for a mission to Sultan Mahmud II of Turkey
who had lost his fleet during the Greek revolution.
The new Congress was to meet on December 7.
Jackson’s party had a large majority in the House of Representatives 136-72
but only a 25-23 edge in the United States Senate.
The President had strong allies such as Speaker Andrew Stevenson of Virginia,
James Knox Polk of Tennessee, and Churchill C. Cambreleng of New York
in the House and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, Edward Livingston of Louisiana,
and Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire in the Senate.
Jackson had lost the 1824 election because of the Electoral College.
He worked on the issue and got help from Kendall on the Bank problem.
President Jackson’s First Annual Message to Congress
on 9 December 1829 is about 20 pages.
This is the entire document:
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and
of the House of Representatives:
It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings
to you on the occasion of your assembling at the seat of
Government to enter upon the important duties to which
you have been called by the voice of our country-men.
The task devolves on me, under a provision of the
Constitution, to present to you, as the Federal
Legislature of 24 sovereign States and 12,000,000
happy people, a view of our affairs, and to propose
such measures as in the discharge of my official
functions have suggested themselves as necessary
to promote the objects of our Union.
In communicating with you for the first time
it is to me a source of unfeigned satisfaction,
calling for mutual gratulation and devout thanks
to a benign Providence, that we are at peace with all
mankind, and that our country exhibits the most cheering
evidence of general welfare and progressive improvement.
Turning our eyes to other nations, our great desire is
to see our brethren of the human race secured in
the blessings enjoyed by ourselves, and advancing
in knowledge, in freedom, and in social happiness.
Our foreign relations, although in their general character
pacific and friendly, present subjects of difference
between us and other powers of deep interest as well
to the country at large as to many of our citizens.
To effect an adjustment of these shall continue
to be the object of my earnest endeavors,
and notwithstanding the difficulties of the task,
I do not allow myself to apprehend unfavorable results.
Blessed as our country is with everything which
constitutes national strength, she is fully adequate
to the maintenance of all her interests.
In discharging the responsible trust confided to the Executive
in this respect it is my settled purpose to ask nothing that
is not clearly right and to submit to nothing that is wrong;
and I flatter myself that, supported by the other branches
of the Government and by the intelligence and patriotism
of the people, we shall be able, under the protection
of Providence, to cause all our just rights to be respected.
Of the unsettled matters between the United States
and other powers, the most prominent are those
which have for years been the subject of
negotiation with England, France, and Spain.
The late periods at which our ministers to those
Governments left the United States render it impossible at
this early day to inform you of what has been done on the
subjects with which they have been respectively charged.
Relying upon the justice of our views in relation to the
points committed to negotiation and the reciprocal good
feeling which characterizes our intercourse with those
nations, we have the best reason to hope for a
satisfactory adjustment of existing differences.
With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace
and war, we may look forward to years of
peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition.
Everything in the condition and history of the two nations
is calculated to inspire sentiments of mutual respect
and to carry conviction to the minds of both that it is
their policy to preserve the most cordial relations.
Such are my own views, and it is not to be doubted that
such are also the prevailing sentiments of our constituents.
Although neither time nor opportunity has been afforded
for a full development of the policy which the present
cabinet of Great Britain designs to pursue toward this
country, I indulge the hope that it will be of a just
and pacific character; and if this anticipation be
realized we may look with confidence to a speedy
and acceptable adjustment of our affairs.
Under the convention for regulating the reference to
arbitration of the disputed points of boundary under the
5th article of the treaty of Ghent, the proceedings have
hitherto been conducted in that spirit of candor and liberality
which ought ever to characterize the acts of sovereign
States seeking to adjust by the most unexceptionable
means important and delicate subjects of contention.
The first sentiments of the parties have been
exchanged, and the final replication on our
part is in a course of preparation.
This subject has received the attention
demanded by its great and peculiar importance
to a patriotic member of this Confederacy.
The exposition of our rights already made is such as,
from the high reputation of the commissioners by
whom it has been prepared, we had a right to expect.
Our interests at the Court of the Sovereign who has
evinced his friendly disposition by assuming the
delicate task of arbitration have been committed
to a citizen of the State of Maine, whose character,
talents, and intimate acquaintance with the subject
eminently qualify him for so responsible a trust.
With full confidence in the justice of our cause
and in the probity, intelligence, and uncompromising
independence of the illustrious arbitrator,
we can have nothing to apprehend from the result.
From France, our ancient ally, we have a right
to expect that justice which becomes the sovereign
of a powerful, intelligent, and magnanimous people.
The beneficial effects produced by the commercial
convention of 1822, limited as are its provisions,
are too obvious not to make a salutary impression
upon the minds of those who are charged with
the administration of her Government.
Should this result induce a disposition to embrace to their
full extent the wholesome principles which constitute
our commercial policy, our minister to that Court will
be found instructed to cherish such a disposition and
to aid in conducting it to useful practical conclusions.
The claims of our citizens for depredations upon their
property, long since committed under the authority,
and in many instances by the express direction,
of the then existing Government of France,
remain unsatisfied, and must therefore continue
to furnish a subject of unpleasant discussion and
possible collision between the two Governments.
I cherish, however, a lively hope, founded as well on
the validity of those claims and the established policy
of all enlightened governments as on the known
integrity of the French Monarch, that the injurious delays
of the past will find redress in the equity of the future.
Our minister has been instructed to press these demands
on the French Government with all the earnestness which
is called for by their importance and irrefutable justice,
and in a spirit that will evince the respect which is due to
the feelings of those from whom the satisfaction is required.
Our minister recently appointed to Spain has been
authorized to assist in removing evils alike injurious
to both countries, either by concluding a commercial
convention upon liberal and reciprocal terms or by
urging the acceptance in their full extent of the
mutually beneficial provisions of our navigation acts.
He has also been instructed to make a further appeal
to the justice of Spain, in behalf of our citizens,
for indemnity for spoliations upon our commerce
committed under her authority—an appeal which
the pacific and liberal course observed on our part
and a due confidence in the honor of that Government
authorize us to expect will not be made in vain.
With other European powers our intercourse
is on the most friendly footing.
In Russia, placed by her territorial limits, extensive
population, and great power high in the rank of nations,
the United States have always found a steadfast friend.
Although her recent invasion of Turkey awakened
a lively sympathy for those who were exposed
to the desolation of war, we cannot but anticipate
that the result will prove favorable to the cause of
civilization and to the progress of human happiness.
The treaty of peace between these powers having been
ratified, we cannot be insensible to the great benefit
to be derived by the commerce of the United States from
unlocking the navigation of the Black Sea, a free passage
into which is secured to all merchant vessels bound to
ports of Russia under a flag at peace with the Porte.
This advantage, enjoyed upon conditions by most of the
powers of Europe, has hitherto been withheld from us.
During the past summer an antecedent but unsuccessful
attempt to obtain it was renewed under circumstances
which promised the most favorable results.
Although these results have fortunately been thus
in part attained, further facilities to the enjoyment
of this new field for the enterprise of our citizens are,
in my opinion, sufficiently desirable to insure
to them our most zealous attention.
Our trade with Austria, although of secondary importance,
has been gradually increasing, and is now so extended
as to deserve the fostering care of the Government.
A negotiation, commenced and nearly completed with
that power by the late Administration, has been
consummated by a treaty of amity, navigation,
and commerce, which will be laid before the Senate.
During the recess of Congress our diplomatic
relations with Portugal have been resumed.
The peculiar state of things in that country caused a
suspension of the recognition of the representative
who presented himself until an opportunity was
had to obtain from our official organ there information
regarding the actual and, as far as practicable,
prospective condition of the authority by which
the representative in question was appointed.
This information being received, the application
of the established rule of our Government
in like cases was no longer withheld.
Considerable advances have been made during
the present year in the adjustment of claims of
our citizens upon Denmark for spoliations,
but all that we have a right to demand from that
Government in their behalf has not yet been conceded.
From the liberal footing, however, upon which this subject
has, with the approbation of the claimants, been placed
by the Government, together with the uniformly just and
friendly disposition which has been evinced by His Danish
Majesty, there is a reasonable ground to hope that this
single subject of difference will speedily be removed.
Our relations with the Barbary Powers continue,
as they have long been, of the most favorable character.
The policy of keeping an adequate force in the
Mediterranean, as security for the continuance
of this tranquility, will be persevered in,
as well as a similar one for the protection
of our commerce and fisheries in the Pacific.
The southern Republics of our own hemisphere
have not yet realized all the advantages for
which they have been so long struggling.
We trust, however, that the day is not distant when
the restoration of peace and internal quiet, under
permanent systems of government, securing the liberty
and promoting the happiness of the citizens, will crown
with complete success their long and arduous efforts
in the cause of self-government, and enable us to salute
them as friendly rivals in all that is truly great and glorious.
The recent invasion of Mexico, and the effect
thereby produced upon her domestic policy,
must have a controlling influence upon the
great question of South American emancipation.
We have seen the fell spirit of civil dissension rebuked,
and perhaps forever stifled, in that Republic
by the love of independence.
If it be true, as appearances strongly indicate,
the spirit of independence is the master spirit,
and if a corresponding sentiment prevails in the
other States, this devotion to liberty cannot be without
a proper effect upon the counsels of the mother country.
The adoption by Spain of a pacific policy toward her former
colonies—an event consoling to humanity, and a blessing
to the world, in which she herself cannot fail largely
to participate—may be most reasonably expected.
The claims of our citizens upon the South American
Governments generally are in a train of settlement,
while the principal part of those upon Brazil have been
adjusted, and a decree in council ordering bonds to
be issued by the minister of the treasury for their amount
has received the sanction of His Imperial Majesty.
This event, together with the exchange of the ratifications
of the treaty negotiated and concluded in 1828, happily
terminates all serious causes of difference with that power.
Measures have been taken to place our commercial
relations with Peru upon a better footing than that upon
which they have hitherto rested, and if met by a proper
disposition on the part of that Government important
benefits may be secured to both countries.
Deeply interested as we are in the prosperity of our
sister Republics, and more particularly in that of our
immediate neighbor, it would be most gratifying to me
were I permitted to say that the treatment which we
have received at her hands has been as universally friendly
as the early and constant solicitude manifested by the
United States for her success gave us a right to expect.
But it becomes my duty to inform you that prejudices
long indulged by a portion of the inhabitants of Mexico
against the envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary of the United States have had an
unfortunate influence upon the affairs of the two countries,
and have diminished that usefulness to his own which
was justly to be expected from his talents and zeal.
To this cause, in a great degree, is to be imputed
the failure of several measures equally interesting
to both parties, but particularly that of the Mexican
Government to ratify a treaty negotiated and
concluded in its own capital and under its own eye.
Under these circumstances it appeared expedient to
give to Mr. Poinsett the option either to return or not,
as in his judgment the interest of his country might require,
and instructions to that end were prepared;
but before they could be dispatched a communication
was received from the Government of Mexico, through its
chargé d’affaires here, requesting the recall of our minister.
This was promptly complied with, and a representative
of a rank corresponding with that of the Mexican
diplomatic agent near this Government was appointed.
Our conduct toward that Republic has been uniformly of the
most friendly character, and having thus removed the only
alleged obstacle to harmonious intercourse, I cannot but
hope that an advantageous change will occur in our affairs.
In justice to Mr. Poinsett it is proper to say that my
immediate compliance with the application for his recall and
the appointment of a successor are not to be ascribed to any
evidence that the imputation of an improper interference by
him in the local politics of Mexico was well founded, nor to
a want of confidence in his talents or integrity, and to add
that the truth of the charges has never been affirmed by the
federal Government of Mexico in its communications with us.
I consider it one of the most urgent of my duties
to bring to your attention the propriety of amending
that part of the Constitution which relates to the
election of President and Vice-President.
Our system of government was by its framers deemed
an experiment, and they therefore consistently
provided a mode of remedying its defects.
To the people belongs the right of electing their Chief
Magistrate; it was never designed that their choice should
in any case be defeated, either by the intervention of
electoral colleges or by the agency confided, under
certain contingencies, to the House of Representatives.
Experience proves that in proportion as agents
to execute the will of the people are multiplied
there is danger of their wishes being frustrated.
Some may be unfaithful; all are liable to err.
So far, therefore, as the people can with convenience speak,
it is safer for them to express their own will.
The number of aspirants to the Presidency and the
diversity of the interests which may influence their claims
leave little reason to expect a choice in the first instance,
and in that event the election must devolve on the
House of Representatives, where it is obvious the will
of the people may not be always ascertained,
or, if ascertained, may not be regarded.
From the mode of voting by States the choice is to be
made by 24 votes, and it may often occur that one of
these will be controlled by an individual Representative.
Honors and offices are at the disposal
of the successful candidate.
Repeated balloting may make it apparent that
a single individual holds the cast in his hand.
May he not be tempted to name his reward?
But even without corruption, supposing the probity
of the Representative to be proof against the powerful
motives by which it may be assailed, the will of the
people is still constantly liable to be misrepresented.
One may err from ignorance of the wishes of his
constituents; another from a conviction that it is his duty
to be governed by his own judgment of the fitness of the
candidates; finally, although all were inflexibly honest,
all accurately informed of the wishes of their constituents,
yet under the present mode of election a minority
may often elect a President, and when this happens,
it may reasonably be expected that efforts will be
made on the part of the majority to rectify this
injurious operation of their institutions.
But although no evil of this character should result from
such a perversion of the first principle of our system—
that the majority is to govern—it must be very
certain that a President elected by a minority
cannot enjoy the confidence necessary
to the successful discharge of his duties.
In this as in all other matters of public concern
policy requires that as few impediments as possible
should exist to the free operation of the public will.
Let us, then, endeavor so to amend our system
that the office of Chief Magistrate may not be
conferred upon any citizen but in pursuance
of a fair expression of the will of the majority.
I would therefore recommend such an amendment
of the Constitution as may remove all intermediate
agency in the election of the President and Vice-President.
The mode may be so regulated as to preserve to each
State its present relative weight in the election, and a failure
in the first attempt may be provided for by confining the
second to a choice between the two highest candidates.
In connection with such an amendment it would seem
advisable to limit the service of the Chief Magistrate
to a single term of either 4 or 6 years.
If, however, it should not be adopted, it is worthy
of consideration whether a provision disqualifying
for office the Representatives in Congress on whom
such an election may have devolved would not be proper.
While members of Congress can be constitutionally
appointed to offices of trust and profit, it will be the practice,
even under the most conscientious adherence to duty,
to select them for such stations as they are believed
to be better qualified to fill than other citizens;
but the purity of our Government would doubtless
be promoted by their exclusion from all appointments
in the gift of the President, in whose election
they may have been officially concerned.
The nature of the judicial office and the necessity
of securing in the Cabinet and in diplomatic stations
of the highest rank the best talents and political experience
should perhaps except these from the exclusion.
There are, perhaps, few men who can for any great
length of time enjoy office and power without being
more or less under the influence of feelings unfavorable
to the faithful discharge of their public duties.
Their integrity may be proof against improper
considerations immediately addressed to themselves,
but they are apt to acquire a habit of looking with
indifference upon the public interests and of tolerating
conduct from which an unpracticed man would revolt.
Office is considered as a species of property,
and government rather as a means of promoting
individual interests than as an instrument
created solely for the service of the people.
Corruption in some and in others a perversion of
correct feelings and principles divert government
from its legitimate ends and make it an engine for
the support of the few at the expense of the many.
The duties of all public officers are, or at least
admit of being made, so plain and simple that
men of intelligence may readily qualify themselves
for their performance; and I cannot but believe that
more is lost by the long continuance of men in office
than is generally to be gained by their experience.
I submit, therefore, to your consideration whether the
efficiency of the Government would not be promoted and
official industry and integrity better secured by a general
extension of the law which limits appointments to four years.
In a country where offices are created solely for the
benefit of the people no one man has any more
intrinsic right to official station than another.
Offices were not established to give support
to particular men at the public expense.
No individual wrong is, therefore, done by removal,
since neither appointment to nor continuance
in office is a matter of right.
The incumbent became an officer with a view to
public benefits, and when these require his removal
they are not to be sacrificed to private interests.
It is the people, and they alone, who have a right to
complain when a bad officer is substituted for a good one.
He who is removed has the same means of obtaining a
living that are enjoyed by the millions who never held office.
The proposed limitation would destroy the idea of property
now so generally connected with official station,
and although individual distress may be some times
produced, it would, by promoting that rotation which
constitutes a leading principle in the republican creed,
give healthful action to the system.
No very considerable change has occurred
during the recess of Congress in the condition of
either our agriculture, commerce, or manufactures.
The operation of the tariff has not proved so injurious to the
two former or as beneficial to the latter as was anticipated.
Importations of foreign goods have not been sensibly
diminished, while domestic competition, under an
illusive excitement, has increased the production
much beyond the demand for home consumption.
The consequences have been low prices,
temporary embarrassment, and partial loss.
That such of our manufacturing establishments
as are based upon capital and are prudently
managed will survive the shock and be ultimately
profitable there is no good reason to doubt.
To regulate its conduct so as to promote equally
the prosperity of these three cardinal interests is
one of the most difficult tasks of Government;
and it may be regretted that the complicated
restrictions which now embarrass the intercourse
of nations could not by common consent be abolished,
and commerce allowed to flow in those channels to which
individual enterprise, always its surest guide, might direct it.
But we must ever expect selfish legislation in other nations,
and are therefore compelled to adapt our own to their
regulations in the manner best calculated to avoid serious
injury and to harmonize the conflicting interests of our
agriculture, our commerce, and our manufactures.
Under these impressions I invite your attention
to the existing tariff, believing that
some of its provisions require modification.
The general rule to be applied in graduating the duties
upon articles of foreign growth or manufacture is that
which will place our own in fair competition with those of
other countries; and the inducements to advance even a
step beyond this point are controlling in regard to those
articles which are of primary necessity in time of war.
When we reflect upon the difficulty and delicacy
of this operation, it is important that it should
never be attempted but with the utmost caution.
Frequent legislation in regard to any branch of industry,
affecting its value, and by which its capital may be
transferred to new channels, must always be
productive of hazardous speculation and loss.
In deliberating, therefore, on these interesting
subjects local feelings and prejudices should be
merged in the patriotic determination to
promote the great interests of the whole.
All attempts to connect them with the party conflicts
of the day are necessarily injurious,
and should be discountenanced.
Our action upon them should be under
the control of higher and purer motives.
Legislation subjected to such influences can never be just,
and will not long retain the sanction of a people whose
active patriotism is not bounded by sectional limits nor
insensible to that spirit of concession and forbearance
which gave life to our political compact and still sustains it.
Discarding all calculations of political ascendancy, the North,
the South, the East, and the West should unite in diminishing
any burden of which either may justly complain.
The agricultural interest of our country is
so essentially connected with every other and
so superior in importance to them all that it is scarcely
necessary to invite to it your particular attention.
It is principally as manufactures and commerce tend
to increase the value of agricultural productions and to
extend their application to the wants and comforts of society
that they deserve the fostering care of Government.
Looking forward to the period, not far distant, when a
sinking fund will no longer be required, the duties on those
articles of importation which cannot come in competition
with our own productions are the first that should engage
the attention of Congress in the modification of the tariff.
Of these, tea and coffee are the most important.
They enter largely into the consumption of the country,
and have become articles of necessity to all classes.
A reduction, therefore, of the existing duties will be felt
as a common benefit, but like all other legislation
connected with commerce, to be efficacious and
not injurious, it should be gradual and certain.
The public prosperity is evinced in the increased revenue
arising from the sales of the public lands and in the
steady maintenance of that produced by imposts
and tonnage, notwithstanding the additional duties
imposed by the act of 19th May 1828, and the
unusual importations in the early part of that year.
The balance in the Treasury
on January 1, 1829 was $5,972,435.81.
The receipts of the current year are estimated at
$24,602,230 and the expenditures for the same time
at $26,164,595, leaving a balance in the Treasury
on the 1st of January next of $4,410,070.81.
There will have been paid on account of the public
debt during the present year the sum of $12,405,005.80,
reducing the whole debt of the Government on
1st of January next to $48,565,406.50, including
seven millions of the 5 percent stock
subscribed to the Bank of the United States.
The payment on account of public debt made
on the 1st of July last was $8,715,462.87.
It was apprehended that the sudden withdrawal of so large
a sum from the banks in which it was deposited, at a time
of unusual pressure in the money market, might cause much
injury to the interests dependent on bank accommodations.
But this evil was wholly averted by an early anticipation
of it at the Treasury, aided by the judicious arrangements
of the officers of the Bank of the United States.
This state of the finances exhibits the resources
of the nation in an aspect highly flattering to its
industry and auspicious of the ability of Government
in a very short time to extinguish the public debt.
When this shall be done our population will be relieved
from a considerable portion of its present burdens,
and will find not only new motives to patriotic affection,
but additional means for the display of individual enterprise.
The fiscal power of the States will also be increased,
and may be more extensively exerted in favor of
education and other public objects, while ample means
will remain in the Federal Government to promote the
general wealth in all the modes permitted to its authority.
After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable
that any adjustment of the tariff upon principles
satisfactory to the people of the Union will until a
remote period, if ever, leave the Government
without a considerable surplus in the Treasury
beyond what may be required for its current service.
As, then, the period approaches when the application
of the revenue to the payment of debt will cease,
the disposition of the surplus will present a subject
for the serious deliberation of Congress; and it may
be fortunate for the country that it is yet to be decided.
Considered in connection with the difficulties which have
heretofore attended appropriations for purposes of internal
improvement, and with those which this experience tells
us will certainly arise whenever power over such
subjects may be exercised by the Central Government,
it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some
plan which will reconcile the diversified interests of
the States and strengthen the bonds which unite them.
Every member of the Union, in peace and in war,
will be benefited by the improvement of inland navigation
and the construction of highways in the several States.
Let us, then, endeavor to attain this benefit
in a mode which will be satisfactory to all.
That hitherto adopted has by many of our fellow citizens
been deprecated as an infraction of the Constitution,
while by others it has been viewed as inexpedient.
All feel that it has been employed at the expense
of harmony in the legislative councils.
To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe,
just, and federal disposition which could be made of the
surplus revenue would be its apportionment among the
several States according to their ratio of representation,
and should this measure not be found warranted by the
Constitution that it would be expedient to propose
to the States an amendment authorizing it.
I regard an appeal to the source of power
in cases of real doubt, and where its exercise
is deemed indispensable to the general welfare,
as among the most sacred of all our obligations.
Upon this country more than any other has, in the
providence of God, been cast the special guardianship
of the great principle of adherence to written constitutions.
If it fail here, all hope in regard to it will be extinguished.
That this was intended to be a government of limited
and specific, and not general, powers must be
admitted by all, and it is our duty to preserve for it
the character intended by its framers.
If experience points out the necessity for an enlargement
of these powers, let us apply for it to those for whose
benefit it is to be exercised, and not undermine the
whole system by a resort to over-strained constructions.
The scheme has worked well.
It has exceeded the hopes of those who devised it,
and become an object of admiration to the world.
We are responsible to our country and to the glorious cause
of self-government for the preservation of so great a good.
The great mass of legislation relating to our internal affairs
was intended to be left where the Federal Convention
found it—in the State governments.
Nothing is clearer, in my view, than that we are
chiefly indebted for the success of the Constitution
under which we are now acting to the watchful
and auxiliary operation of the State authorities.
This is not the reflection of a day, but belongs
to the most deeply rooted convictions of my mind.
I cannot, therefore, too strongly or too
earnestly, for my own sense of its importance,
warn you against all encroachments upon
the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty.
Sustained by its healthful and invigorating
influence the federal system can never fall.
In the collection of the revenue the long credits authorized
on goods imported from beyond the Cape of Good Hope
are the chief cause of the losses at present sustained.
If these were shortened to 6, 9, and 12 months,
and warehouses provided by Government sufficient
to receive the goods offered in deposit for security
and for debenture, and if the right of the United States
to a priority of payment out of the estates of its
insolvent debtors were more effectually secured,
this evil would in a great measure be obviated.
An authority to construct such houses is therefore,
with the proposed alteration of the credits,
recommended to your attention.
It is worthy of notice that the laws for the
collection and security of the revenue arising
from imposts were chiefly framed when the
rates of duties on imported goods presented much
less temptation for illicit trade than at present exists.
There is reason to believe that these laws are in
some respects quite insufficient for the proper
security of the revenue and the protection of the
interests of those who are disposed to observe them.
The injurious and demoralizing tendency of a successful
system of smuggling is so obvious as not to require
comment, and cannot be too carefully guarded against.
I therefore suggest to Congress the propriety of
adopting efficient measures to prevent this evil,
avoiding, however, as much as possible,
every unnecessary infringement of individual liberty
and embarrassment of fair and lawful business.
On an examination of the records of the Treasury
I have been forcibly struck with the large amount
of public money which appears to be outstanding.
Of the sum thus due from individuals to the Government
a considerable portion is undoubtedly desperate,
and in many instances has probably been rendered so
by remissness in the agents charged with its collection.
By proper exertions a great part, however, may yet
be recovered; and whatever may be the portions
respectively belonging to these two classes, it behooves
the Government to ascertain the real state of the fact.
This can be done only by the prompt
adoption of judicious measures for the
collection of such as may be made available.
It is believed that a very large amount has been lost through
the inadequacy of the means provided for the collection of
debts due to the public, and that this inadequacy lies chiefly
in the want of legal skill habitually and constantly employed
in the direction of the agents engaged in the service.
It must, I think, be admitted that the supervisory
power over suits brought by the public, which is
now vested in an accounting officer of the Treasury,
not selected with a view to his legal knowledge,
and encumbered as he is with numerous other duties,
operates unfavorably to the public interest.
It is important that this branch of the public service
should be subjected to the supervision of
such professional skill as will give it efficiency.
The expense attendant upon such a modification
of the executive department would be justified
by the soundest principles of economy.
I would recommend, therefore, that the duties now
assigned to the agent of the Treasury, so far as they
relate to the superintendence and management of legal
proceedings on the part of the United States, be transferred
to the Attorney General, and that this officer be placed on
the same footing in all respects as the heads of the other
Departments, receiving like compensation and having such
subordinate officers provided for his Department as may
be requisite for the discharge of these additional duties.
The professional skill of the Attorney General, employed
in directing the conduct of marshals and district attorneys,
would hasten the collection of debts now in suit
and hereafter save much to the Government.
It might be further extended to the superintendence of all
criminal proceedings for offenses against the United States.
In making this transfer great care should be taken,
however, that the power necessary to the Treasury
Department be not impaired, one of its greatest
securities consisting in control over all accounts
until they are audited or reported for suit.
In connection with the foregoing views I would
suggest also an inquiry whether the provisions of
the act of Congress authorizing the discharge of
the persons of the debtors to the Government from
imprisonment may not, consistently with the public interest,
be extended to the release of the debt where the conduct
of the debtor is wholly exempt from the imputation of fraud.
Some more liberal policy than that which now prevails
in reference to this unfortunate class of citizens is certainly
due to them, and would prove beneficial to the country.
The continuance of the liability after the means to discharge
it have been exhausted can only serve to dispirit the debtor;
or, where his resources are but partial, the want
of power in the Government to compromise and
release the demand instigates to fraud as the
only resource for securing a support to his family.
He thus sinks into a state of apathy, and becomes a
useless drone in society or a vicious member of it, if not a
feeling witness of the rigor and inhumanity of his country.
All experience proves that oppressive debt is the bane
of enterprise, and it should be the care of a republic not
to exert a grinding power over misfortune and poverty.
Since the last session of Congress numerous
frauds on the Treasury have been discovered, which
I thought it my duty to bring under the cognizance of the
United States court for this district by a criminal prosecution.
It was my opinion and that of able counsel who were
consulted that the cases came within the penalties
of the act of the 17th Congress approved 3rd March 1823,
providing for punishment of frauds committed
on the Government of the United States.
Either from some defect in the law or in its administration
every effort to bring the accused to trial under its
provisions proved ineffectual, and the Government
was driven to the necessity of resorting to the
vague and inadequate provisions of the common law.
It is therefore my duty to call your attention to the laws
which have been passed for the protection of the Treasury.
If, indeed, there be no provision by which those who
may be unworthily entrusted with its guardianship
can be punished for the most flagrant violation of duty,
extending even to the most fraudulent appropriation
of the public funds to their own use, it is time to remedy
so dangerous an omission; or if the law has been
perverted from its original purposes, and criminals
deserving to be punished under its provisions have
been rescued by legal subtleties, it ought to be
made so plain by amendatory provisions as to
baffle the arts of perversion and accomplish
the ends of its original enactment.
In one of the most flagrant causes the court
decided that the prosecution was barred by the statute
which limits prosecutions for fraud to two years.
In this case all the evidences of the fraud, and
indeed all knowledge that a fraud had been
committed, were in possession of the party
accused until after the two years had elapsed.
Surely the statute ought not to run in favor of any man
while he retains all the evidences of his crime in his
own possession, and least of all in favor of a public officer
who continues to defraud the Treasury and conceal
the transaction for the brief term of two years.
I would therefore recommend such an alteration
of the law as will give the injured party and the Government
two years after the disclosure of the fraud or after the
accused is out of office to commence their prosecution.
In connection with this subject I invite the attention
of Congress to a general and minute inquiry into the
condition of the Government, with a view to ascertain
what offices can be dispensed with, what expenses
retrenched, and what improvements may be made
in the organization of its various parts to secure
the proper responsibility of public agents and
promote efficiency and justice in all its operations.
The report of the Secretary of War will make
you acquainted with the condition of our Army,
fortifications, arsenals, and Indian affairs.
The proper discipline of the Army, the training and
equipment of the militia, the education bestowed at
West Point, and the accumulation of the means of
defense applicable to the naval force will tend to prolong
the peace we now enjoy, and which every good citizen,
more especially those who have felt the miseries of even
a successful warfare, must ardently desire to perpetuate.
The returns from the subordinate branches
of this service exhibit a regularity and order
highly creditable to its character.
Both officers and soldiers seem imbued with a proper sense
of duty, and conform to the restraints of exact discipline with
that cheerfulness which becomes the profession of arms.
There is need, however, of further legislation
to obviate the inconveniences specified in the
report under consideration, to some of which it is
proper that I should call your particular attention.
The act of Congress of 2nd March 1821, to reduce
and fix the military establishment, remaining unexecuted
as it regards the command of one of the regiments
of artillery, cannot now be deemed a guide to
the Executive in making the proper appointment.
An explanatory act, designating the class of
officers out of which the grade is to be filled—
whether from the military list as existing prior
to the act of 1821 or from it as it has been fixed
by that act—would remove this difficulty.
It is also important that the laws regulating
the pay and emoluments of officers generally
should be more specific than they now are.
Those, for example, in relation to the Pay Master
and Surgeon General assign to them an annual
salary of $2,500, but are silent as to allowances
which in certain exigencies of the service may be
deemed indispensable to the discharge of their duties.
This circumstance has been the authority for
extending to them various allowances at different
times under former Administrations, but no
uniform rule has been observed on the subject.
Similar inconveniences exist in other cases, in which the
construction put upon the laws by the public accountants
may operate unequally, produce confusion, and expose
officers to the odium of claiming what is not their due.
I recommend to your fostering care, as one of our
safest means of national defense, the Military Academy.
This institution has already exercised the happiest
influence upon the moral and intellectual character
of our Army; and such of the graduates as from
various causes may not pursue the profession
of arms will be scarcely less useful as citizens.
Their knowledge of the military art will be advantageously
employed in the militia service, and in a measure
secure to that class of troops the advantages
which in this respect belong to standing armies.
I would also suggest a review of the pension law,
for the purpose of extending its benefits to every
Revolutionary soldier who aided in establishing our liberties,
and who is unable to maintain himself in comfort.
These relics of the War of Independence have strong
claims upon their country’s gratitude and bounty.
The law is defective in not embracing within its
provisions all those who were during the last war
disabled from supporting themselves by manual labor.
Such an amendment would add but little to the amount
of pensions, and is called for by the sympathies of the
people as well as by considerations of sound policy.
It will be perceived that a large addition to the
list of pensioners has been occasioned by an order
of the late Administration, departing materially
from the rules which had previously prevailed.
Considering it an act of legislation, I suspended its
operation as soon as I was informed that it had commenced.
Before this period, however, applications under
the new regulation had been preferred to the
number of 154, of which on the 27th March,
the date of its revocation, 87 were admitted.
For the amount there was neither estimate nor
appropriation; and besides this deficiency,
the regular allowances, according to the rules
which have heretofore governed the Department,
exceed the estimate of its late Secretary by
about $500,000, for which an appropriation is asked.
Your particular attention is requested to that part
of the report of the Secretary of War which relates to
the money held in trust for the Seneca tribe of Indians.
It will be perceived that without legislative aid the
Executive cannot obviate the embarrassments
occasioned by the diminution of the dividends on that
fund, which originally amounted to $100,000 and has
recently been invested in United States 3 percent stock.
The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes
within the limits of some of our States have become
objects of much interest and importance.
It has long been the policy of Government to introduce
among them the arts of civilization in the hope of
gradually reclaiming them from a wandering life.
This policy has, however, been coupled with
another wholly incompatible with its success.
Professing a desire to civilize and settle them,
we have at the same time lost no opportunity to purchase
their lands and thrust them farther into the wilderness.
By this means they have not only been kept
in a wandering state, but been led to look upon
us as unjust and indifferent to their fate.
Thus, though lavish in its expenditures upon the subject,
Government has constantly defeated its own policy,
and the Indians in general, receding farther and
farther to the west, have retained their savage habits.
A portion, however, of the Southern tribes,
having mingled much with the whites and made
some progress in the arts of civilized life,
have lately attempted to erect an independent
government within the limits of Georgia and Alabama.
These States, claiming to be the only sovereigns
within their territories, extended their laws over
the Indians, which induced the latter to call
upon the United States for protection.
Under these circumstances the question presented
was whether the General Government had a right
to sustain those people in their pretensions.
The Constitution declares that "no new State
shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of
any other State" without the consent of its legislature.
If the General Government is not permitted to
tolerate the erection of a confederate State within
the territory of one of the members of this Union
against her consent, much less could it allow a foreign
and independent government to establish itself there.
Georgia became a member of the Confederacy
which eventuated in our Federal Union as a sovereign
State, always asserting her claim to certain limits,
which, having been originally defined in her colonial
charter and subsequently recognized in the treaty
of peace, she has ever since continued to enjoy,
except as they have been circumscribed by her
own voluntary transfer of a portion of her territory
to the United States in the articles of cession of 1802.
Alabama was admitted into the Union on the
same footing with the original States, with
boundaries which were prescribed by Congress.
There is no constitutional, conventional, or legal provision
which allows them less power over the Indians within
their borders than is possessed by Maine or New York.
Would the people of Maine permit the Penobscot tribe
to erect an independent government within their State?
And unless they did, would it not be the duty of the General
Government to support them in resisting such a measure?
Would the people of New York permit each
remnant of the six Nations within her borders
to declare itself an independent people
under the protection of the United States?
Could the Indians establish a separate republic
on each of their reservations in Ohio?
And if they were so disposed, would it be the duty
of this Government to protect them in the attempt?
If the principle involved in the obvious answer to these
questions be abandoned, it will follow that the objects
of this Government are reversed, and that it has
become a part of its duty to aid in destroying
the States which it was established to protect.
Actuated by this view of the subject,
I informed the Indians inhabiting parts of Georgia
and Alabama that their attempt to establish
an independent government would not be
countenanced by the Executive of the United States,
and advised them to emigrate beyond the
Mississippi or submit to the laws of those States.
Our conduct toward these people is
deeply interesting to our national character.
Their present condition, contrasted with what they once
were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies.
Our ancestors found them the uncontrolled
possessors of these vast regions.
By persuasion and force they have been made to
retire from river to river and from mountain to
mountain, until some of the tribes have become
extinct and others have left but remnants to
preserve for a while their once terrible names.
Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization,
which by destroying the resources of the savage
doom him to weakness and decay, the fate of the Mohegan,
the Narragansett, and the Delaware is fast over-taking
the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and the Creek.
That this fate surely awaits them if they remain
within the limits of the States does not admit of a doubt.
Humanity and national honor demand that every
effort should be made to avert so great a calamity.
It is too late to inquire whether it was just in the
United States to include them and their territory within
the bounds of new States, whose limits they could control.
That step cannot be retraced.
A State cannot be dismembered by Congress or
restricted in the exercise of her constitutional power.
But the people of those States and of every State,
actuated by feelings of justice and a regard for our
national honor, submit to you the interesting question
whether something cannot be done, consistently with the
rights of the States, to preserve this much-injured race.
As a means of effecting this end I suggest for
your consideration the propriety of setting apart
an ample district west of the Mississippi, and without
the limits of any State or Territory now formed,
to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as
they shall occupy it, each tribe having a distinct
control over the portion designated for its use.
There they may be secured in the enjoyment of
governments of their own choice, subject to no
other control from the United States than such
as may be necessary to preserve peace on
the frontier and between the several tribes.
There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them
the arts of civilization, and, by promoting union and
harmony among them, to raise up an interesting
commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race and
to attest the humanity and justice of this Government.
This emigration should be voluntary, for it would be as
cruel as unjust to compel the aborigines to abandon the
graves of their fathers and seek a home in a distant land.
But they should be distinctly informed that
if they remain within the limits of the States,
they must be subject to their laws.
In return for their obedience as individuals they will
without doubt be protected in the enjoyment of those
possessions which they have improved by their industry.
But it seems to me visionary to suppose that in this
state of things claims can be allowed on tracts of
country on which they have neither dwelt nor made
improvements, merely because they have seen
them from the mountain or passed them in the chase.
Submitting to the laws of the States, and receiving,
like other citizens, protection in their persons
and property, they will ere long become
merged in the mass of our population.
The accompanying report of the Secretary of
the Navy will make you acquainted with the
condition and useful employment of that branch
of our service during the present year.
Constituting as it does the best standing security
of this country against foreign aggression,
it claims the especial attention of Government.
In this spirit the measures which since the termination
of the last war have been in operation for its gradual
enlargement were adopted, and it should continue to be
cherished as the offspring of our national experience.
It will be seen, however, that notwithstanding the
great solicitude which has been manifested for the
perfect organization of this arm and the liberality of the
appropriations which that solicitude has suggested, this
object has in many important respects not been secured.
In time of peace we have need of no more ships of
war than are requisite to the protection of our commerce.
Those not wanted for this object must lay in
the harbors, where without proper covering they
rapidly decay, and even under the best precautions
for their preservation must soon become useless.
Such is already the case with many of our finest vessels,
which, though unfinished, will now require immense
sums of money to be restored to the condition in which
they were when committed to their proper element.
On this subject there can be but little doubt
that our best policy would be to discontinue the
building of ships of the first and second class,
and look rather to the possession of ample
materials, prepared for the emergencies of war,
than to the number of vessels which we can float in
a season of peace, as the index of our naval power.
Judicious deposits in navy yards of timber and other
materials, fashioned under the hands of skillful work-men
and fitted for prompt application to their various purposes,
would enable us at all times to construct vessels
as fast as they can be manned, and save the
heavy expense of repairs, except to such vessels
as must be employed in guarding our commerce.
The proper points for the establishment of these
yards are indicated with so much force in the report
of the Navy Board that in recommending it to your
attention I deem it unnecessary to do more than
express my hearty concurrence in their views.
The yard in this District, being already furnished
with most of the machinery necessary for ship building,
will be competent to the supply of the two selected by
the Board as the best for the concentration of materials,
and from the facility and certainty of communication
between them, it will be useless to incur at those
depots the expense of similar machinery,
especially that used in preparing the usual
metallic and wooden furniture of vessels.
Another improvement would be effected by
dispensing altogether with the Navy Board as now
constituted, and substituting in its stead bureau
similar to those already existing in the War Department.
Each member of the Board, transferred to the head
of a separate bureau charged with specific duties,
would feel in its highest degree that wholesome
responsibility which cannot be divided without
a far more than proportionate diminution of its force.
Their valuable services would become still
more so when separately appropriated to
distinct portions of the great interests of the Navy,
to the prosperity of which each would be impelled
to devote himself by the strongest motives.
Under such an arrangement every branch of this important
service would assume a more simple and precise character;
its efficiency would be increased and scrupulous economy
in the expenditure of public money promoted.
I would also recommend that the Marine Corps
be merged in the artillery or infantry, as the best mode
of curing the many defects in its organization.
But little exceeding in number any of the regiments of
infantry, that corps has, besides its lieutenant-colonel
commandant, five brevet lieutenant-colonels,
who receive the full pay and emoluments of their
brevet rank, without rendering proportionate service.
Details for marine service could as well
be made from the artillery or infantry,
there being no peculiar training requisite for it.
With these improvements, and such others as
zealous watchfulness and mature consideration may
suggest, there can be little doubt that under an
energetic administration of its affairs the Navy may
soon be made everything that the nation wishes it to be.
Its efficiency in the suppression of piracy
in the West India seas, and wherever its squadrons
have been employed in securing the interests of the country,
will appear from the report of the Secretary,
to which I refer you for other interesting details.
Among these I would bespeak the attention of Congress
for the views presented in relation to the inequality
between the Army and Navy as to the pay of officers.
No such inequality should prevail between these brave
defenders of their country, and where it does exist, it is
submitted to Congress whether it ought not to be rectified.
The report of the Postmaster General
is referred to as exhibiting a highly satisfactory
administration of that Department.
Abuses have been reformed, increased
expedition in the transportation of the mail
secured, and its revenue much improved.
In a political point of view this Department is chiefly
important as affording the means of diffusing knowledge.
It is to the body politic what the veins and arteries
are to the natural—conveying rapidly and regularly
to the remotest parts of the system correct information
of the operations of the Government, and bringing
back to it the wishes and feelings of the people.
Through its agency we have secured to ourselves
the full enjoyment of the blessings of a free press.
In this general survey of our affairs a
subject of high importance presents itself
in the present organization of the judiciary.
An uniform operation of the Federal Government
in the different States is certainly desirable,
and existing as they do in the Union on the
basis of perfect equality, each State has a
right to expect that the benefits conferred on
the citizens of others should be extended to hers.
The judicial system of the United States exists in all
its efficiency in only fifteen members of the Union;
to three others the circuit courts, which constitute
an important part of that system, have been imperfectly
extended, and to the remaining 6 altogether denied.
The effect has been to withhold from the
inhabitants of the latter the advantages afforded
(by the Supreme Court) to their fellow citizens
in other States in the whole extent of the criminal
and much of the civil authority of the Federal judiciary.
That this state of things ought to be remedied,
if it can be done consistently with the
public welfare, is not to be doubted.
Neither is it to be disguised that the organization of our
judicial system is at once a difficult and delicate task.
To extend the circuit courts equally throughout the
different parts of the Union, and at the same time to
avoid such a multiplication of members as would encumber
the supreme appellate tribunal, is the object desired.
Perhaps it might be accomplished by dividing the
circuit judges into two classes, and providing that
the Supreme Court should be held by these classes
alternately, the Chief Justice always presiding.
If an extension of the circuit court system to those States
which do not now enjoy its benefits should be determined
upon, it would of course be necessary to revise the present
arrangement of the circuits; and even if that system
should not be enlarged, such a revision is recommended.
A provision for taking the census of the people
of the United States will, to insure the completion
of that work within a convenient time,
claim the early attention of Congress.
The great and constant increase of business
in the Department of State forced itself at an
early period upon the attention of the Executive.
Thirteen years ago it was, in Mr. Madison’s last message
to Congress, made the subject of an earnest
recommendation, which has been repeated
by both of his successors; and my comparatively
limited experience has satisfied me of its justness.
It has arisen from many causes, not the least
of which is the large addition that has been made
to the family of independent nations and the
proportionate extension of our foreign relations.
The remedy proposed was the establishment
of a home department—a measure which does not appear
to have met the views of Congress on account of its
supposed tendency to increase, gradually and imperceptibly,
the already too strong bias of the federal system
toward the exercise of authority not delegated to it.
I am not, therefore, disposed to revive the recommendation,
but am not the less impressed with the importance
of so organizing that Department that its Secretary
may devote more of his time to our foreign relations.
Clearly satisfied that the public good would be
promoted by some suitable provision on the subject,
I respectfully invite your attention to it.
The charter of the Bank of the United States
expires in 1836, and its stock holders will most
probably apply for a renewal of their privileges.
In order to avoid the evils resulting from precipitancy
in a measure involving such important principles
and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I cannot,
in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the
deliberate consideration of the Legislature and the people.
Both the constitutionality and the expediency of the
law creating this bank are well questioned by a
large portion of our fellow citizens, and it must be
admitted by all that it has failed in the great end
of establishing a uniform and sound currency.
Under these circumstances, if such an institution
is deemed essential to the fiscal operations of the
Government, I submit to the wisdom of the Legislature
whether a national one, founded upon the credit of the
Government and its revenues, might not be devised which
would avoid all constitutional difficulties and at the same
time secure all the advantages to the Government and
country that were expected to result from the present bank.
I cannot close this communication without bringing
to your view the just claim of the representatives
of Commodore Decatur, his officers and crew,
arising from the recapture of the frigate
Philadelphia under the heavy batteries of Tripoli.
Although sensible, as a general rule, of the impropriety
of Executive interference under a Government like ours,
where every individual enjoys the right of directly
petitioning Congress, yet, viewing this case as one
of very peculiar character, I deem it my duty
to recommend it to your favorable consideration.
Besides the justice of this claim, as corresponding to
those which have been since recognized and satisfied,
it is the fruit of a deed of patriotic and chivalrous
daring which infused life and confidence into our infant
Navy and contributed as much as any exploit in
its history to elevate our national character.
Public gratitude, therefore, stamps her seal upon it,
and the meed should not be withheld which may
hereafter operate as a stimulus to our gallant tars.
I now commend you, fellow citizens, to the guidance
of Almighty God, with a full reliance on His merciful
providence for the maintenance of our free institutions,
and with an earnest supplication that whatever errors
it may be my lot to commit in discharging the arduous
duties which have devolved on me will find a remedy
in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels.10
President Jackson argued that local feelings and prejudices should be merged
in the patriotic determination to promote the great interests of the whole.
He denounced the United States Bank as unconstitutional even though
the U. S. Supreme Court in McCulloch v. Maryland had upheld it in 1819.
Jackson’s foreign policy was to ask nothing that is not clearly right,
and to submit to nothing that is wrong.
Chief Justice John Marshall at a Virginia Convention, despite the opposition
of James Monroe and John Randolph, mediated a compromise
which allowed property qualifications for voting to be moderated.
Senators, who had invested in the Portsmouth branch of the United States Bank
which Isaac Hill had criticized, rejected Hill for a Treasury post;
but New Hampshire elected him to the United States Senate in 1831.
Jackson persuaded Major William Lewis not to go back
to his Tennessee farm and gave him a job at Treasury.
Jackson’s policies included reducing the previous patronage,
continuing moderate tariffs, and paying off the national debt
to give surplus revenues to the states for internal improvements.
Jackson used patronage to replace as many officeholders as Thomas Jefferson had,
and in the Treasury Department they found frauds that added up to $280,000.
During the first year there developed a rivalry between
Vice President John C. Calhoun and Secretary of State Martin Van Buren.
The latter noted that the new President Jackson did not expect to win over
leaders of parties; instead he worked to get party members to find new leaders.
Van Buren explained,
Those who have wrought great changes in the world
never succeeded by gaining over chiefs;
but always by exciting the multitude.
The first is the resource of intrigue and produces
only secondary results; the second is the resort
of genius and transforms the face of the universe.11
Jackson, having suffered severe criticism of his relation with his wife Rachel,
he defended Mrs. Easton and instead of firing Eaton,
the President made him a close advisor equal to Van Buren.
John Quincy Adams years later wrote in his Memoirs in December 1840:
Jackson’s Administration commenced with fairer prospects
and an easier career before him than had ever before
been presented to any President of the United States.
His personal popularity, founded exclusively upon
the battle of New Orleans, drove him through his
double term and enabled him to palm upon this
nation the sycophant who declared it glory enough
to have served under such a chief for his successor.
Both the men have been for twelve years the tool
of Amos Kendall, the ruling mind of their dominion.
Their edifice has crumbled into ruin by the mere force
of gravitation and the wretchedness of their cement.
But what is to come?
No halcyon days.
One set of unsound principles for another;
one man in leading-strings for another.
Harrison comes in upon a hurricane;
God grant he may not go out upon a wreck!12
Notes
1. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume IV 1829-1832
ed. John Spencer Bassett, p. 4-5.
2. A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908
ed. James D. Richardson, Volume II, p. 436-438.
3. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume IV 1829-1832, p. 13
4. Ibid., p. 13-14.
5. Ibid., p. 17-18.
6. Ibid., p. 18-19.
7. Free Trade Advocate, May 16, 1829 quoted in The Age of Jackson
by Arthur M. Schlesinger, p. 79.
8. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Volume IV 1829-1832, p. 31-32.
9. House Report on Sunday Mails, 21st Congress, 1st session, 262 quoted in
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham, p. 88.
10. Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908, Volume II, p. 442-462.
11. Van Buren Papers Notebook.
12. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Volume X, p. 366.
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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