J Adams - State of the Union Addresses State of the Union Address, 1827
by John Quincy Adams
December 4, 1827
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
A revolution of the seasons has nearly been completed since the
representatives of the people and States of this Union were last
assembled at this place to deliberate and to act upon the common
important interests of their constituents. In that interval the never
slumbering eye of a wise and beneficent Providence has continued its
guardian care over the welfare of our beloved country; the blessing of
health has continued generally to prevail throughout the land; the
blessing of peace with our brethren of the human race has been enjoyed
without interruption; internal quiet has left our fellow citizens in
the full enjoyment of all their rights and in the free exercise of all
their faculties, to pursue the impulse of their nature and the
obligation of their duty in the improvement of their own condition; the
productions of the soil, the exchanges of commerce, the vivifying
labors of human industry, have combined to mingle in our cup a portion
of enjoyment as large and liberal as the indulgence of Heaven has
perhaps ever granted to the imperfect state of man upon earth; and as
the purest of human felicity consists in its participation with others,
it is no small addition to the sum of our national happiness at this
time that peace and prosperity prevail to a degree seldom experienced
over the whole habitable globe, presenting, though as yet with painful
exceptions, a foretaste of that blessed period of promise when the lion
shall lie down with the lamb and wars shall be no more.
To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the sources and to direct in
their most effective channels the streams which contribute to the
public weal is the purpose for which Government was instituted. Objects
of deep importance to the welfare of the Union are constantly recurring
to demand the attention of the Federal Legislature, and they call with
accumulated interest at the first meeting of the two Houses after their
periodical renovation. To present to their consideration from time to
time subjects in which the interests of the nation are most deeply
involved, and for the regulation of which the legislative will is alone
competent, is a duty prescribed by the Constitution, to the performance
of which the first meeting of the new Congress is a period eminently
appropriate, and which it is now my purpose to discharge.
Our relations of friendship with the other nations of the earth,
political and commercial, have been preserved unimpaired, and the
opportunities to improve them have been cultivated with anxious and
unremitting attention. A negotiation upon subjects of high and delicate
interest with the Government of Great Britain has terminated in the
adjustment of some of the questions at issue upon satisfactory terms
and the postponement of others for future discussion and agreement.
The purposes of the convention concluded at St. Petersburg on July
12th, 1822, under the mediation of the late Emperor Alexander, have
been carried into effect by a subsequent convention, concluded at
London on November 13th, 1826, the ratifications of which were
exchanged at that place on February 6th, 1827. A copy of the
proclamations issued on March 19th, 1827, publishing this convention,
is herewith communicated to Congress. The sum of $1,204,960, therein
stipulated to be paid to the claimants of indemnity under the first
article of the treaty of Ghent, has been duly received, and the
commission instituted, conformably to the act of Congress of March 2d,
1827, for the distribution of the indemnity of the persons entitled to
receive it are now in session and approaching the consummation of their
labors. This final disposal of one of the most painful topics of
collision between the United States and Great Britain not only affords
an occasion of gratulation to ourselves, but has had the happiest
effect in promoting a friendly disposition and in softening asperities
upon other objects of discussion; nor ought it to pass without the
tribute of a frank and cordial acknowledgment of the magnanimity with
which an honorable nation, by the reparation of their own wrongs,
achieves a triumph more glorious than any field of blood can ever
bestow.
The conventions of March 7th, 1815, and of October 20th, 1818, will
expire by their own limitation on October 20th, 1828. These have
regulated the direct commercial intercourse between the United States
and Great Britain upon terms of the most perfect reciprocity; and they
effected a temporary compromise of the respective rights and claims to
territory westward of the Rocky Mountains. These arrangements have been
continued for an indefinite period of time after the expiration of the
above mentioned conventions, leaving each party the liberty of
terminating them by giving twelve months' notice to the other.
The radical principle of all commercial intercourse between independent
nations is the mutual interest of both parties. It is the vital spirit
of trade itself; nor can it be reconciled to the nature of man or to
the primary laws of human society that any traffic should long be
willingly pursued of which all the advantages are on one side and all
the burdens on the other. Treaties of commerce have been found by
experience to be among the most effective instruments for promoting
peace and harmony between nations whose interests, exclusively
considered on either side, are brought into frequent collisions by
competition. In framing such treaties it is the duty of each party not
simply to urge with unyielding pertinacity that which suits its own
interest, but to concede liberally to that which is adapted to the
interest of the other.
To accomplish this, little more is generally required than a simple
observance of the rule of reciprocity, and were it possible for the
states-men of one nation by stratagem and management to obtain from
the weakness or ignorance of another an over-reaching treaty, such a
compact would prove an incentive to war rather than a bond of peace.
Our conventions with Great Britain are founded upon the principles of
reciprocity. The commercial intercourse between the two countries is
greater in magnitude and amount than between any two other nations on
the globe. It is for all purposes of benefit or advantage to both as
precious, and in all probability far more extensive, than if the
parties were still constituent parts of one and the same nation.
Treaties between such States, regulating the intercourse of peace
between them and adjusting interests of such transcendent importance to
both, which have been found in a long experience of years mutually
advantageous, should not be lightly cancelled or discontinued. Two
conventions for continuing in force those above mentioned have been
concluded between the plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on
August 6th, 1827, and will be forthwith laid before the Senate for the
exercise of their constitutional authority concerning them.
In the execution of the treaties of peace of November, 1782 and
September, 1783, between the United States and Great Britain, and which
terminated the war of our independence, a line of boundary was drawn as
the demarcation of territory between the two countries, extending over
nearly 20 degrees of latitude, and ranging over seas, lakes, and
mountains, then very imperfectly explored and scarcely opened to the
geographical knowledge of the age. In the progress of discovery and
settlement by both parties since that time several questions of
boundary between their respective territories have arisen, which have
been found of exceedingly difficult adjustment.
At the close of the last war with Great Britain four of these questions
pressed themselves upon the consideration of the negotiators of the
treaty of Ghent, but without the means of concluding a definitive
arrangement concerning them. They were referred to three separate
commissions consisting, of two commissioners, one appointed by each
party, to examine and decide upon their respective claims. In the event
of a disagreement between the commissioners, one appointed by each
party, to examine and decide upon their respective claims. In the event
of a disagreement between the commissioners it was provided that they
should make reports to their several Governments, and that the reports
should finally be referred to the decision of a sovereign the common
friend of both.
Of these commissions two have already terminated their sessions and
investigations, one by entire and the other by partial agreement. The
commissioners of the 5th article of the treaty of Ghent have finally
disagreed, and made their conflicting reports to their own Governments.
But from these reports a great difficulty has occurred in making up a
question to be decided by the arbitrator. This purpose has, however,
been effected by a 4th convention, concluded at London by the
plenipotentiaries of the two Governments on September 29th, 1827. It
will be submitted, together with the others, to the consideration of
the Senate.
While these questions have been pending incidents have occurred of
conflicting pretensions and of dangerous character upon the territory
itself in dispute between the two nations. By a common understanding
between the Governments it was agreed that no exercise of exclusive
jurisdiction by either party while the negotiation was pending should
change the state of the question of right to be definitively settled.
Such collision has, never the less, recently taken place by occurrences
the precise character of which has not yet been ascertained. A
communication from the governor of the State of Maine, with
accompanying documents, and a correspondence between the Secretary of
State and the minister of Great Britain on this subject are now
communicated. Measures have been taken to ascertain the state of the
facts more correctly by the employment of a special agent to visit the
spot where the alleged outrages have occurred, the result of those
inquiries, when received, will be transmitted to Congress.
While so many of the subjects of high interest to the friendly
relations between the two countries have been so far adjusted, it is a
matter of regret that their views respecting the commercial intercourse
between the United States and the British colonial possessions have not
equally approximated to a friendly agreement.
At the commencement of the last session of Congress they were informed
of the sudden and unexpected exclusion by the British Government of
access in vessels of the United States to all their colonial ports
except those immediately bordering upon our own territories. In the
amicable discussions which have succeeded the adoption of this measure
which, as it affected harshly the interests of the United States,
became subject of expostulation on our part, the principles upon which
its justification has been placed have been of a diversified character.
It has been at once ascribed to a mere recurrence to the old, long
established principle of colonial monopoly and at the same time to a
feeling of resentment because the offers of an act of Parliament
opening the colonial ports upon certain conditions had not been grasped
at with sufficient eagerness by an instantaneous conformity to them.
At a subsequent period it has been intimated that the new exclusion was
in resentment because a prior act of Parliament, of 1822, opening
certain colonial ports, under heavy and burdensome restrictions, to
vessels of the United States, had not been reciprocated by an admission
of British vessels from the colonies, and their cargoes, without any
restriction or discrimination what ever. But be the motive for the
interdiction what it may, the British Government have manifested no
disposition, either by negotiation or by corresponding legislative
enactments, to recede from it, and we have been given distinctly to
understand that neither of the bills which were under the consideration
of Congress at their last session would have been deemed sufficient in
their concessions to have been rewarded by any relaxation from the
British interdict. It is one of the inconveniences inseparably
connected with the attempt to adjust by reciprocal legislation
interests of this nature that neither party can know what would be
satisfactory to the other, and that after enacting a statute for the
avowed and sincere purpose of conciliation it will generally be found
utterly inadequate to the expectation of the other party, and will
terminate in mutual disappointment.
The session of Congress having terminated without any act upon the
subject, a proclamation was issued on March 17, 1827, conformably to
the provisions of the 6th section of the act of March 3rd, 1823
declaring the fact that the trade and intercourse authorized by the
British act of Parliament of June 24th, 1822, between the United States
and the British enumerated colonial ports had been by the subsequent
acts of Parliament of July 5th, 1825, and the order of council of July
27th, 1826 prohibited. The effect of this proclamation, by the terms of
the act under which it was issued, has been that each and every
provision of the act concerning navigation of April 18th, 1818, and of
the act supplementary thereto of May 15th, 1820, revived and is in full
force.
Such, then is the present condition of the trade that, useful as it is
to both parties it can, with a single momentary exception, be carried
on directly by the vessels of neither. That exception itself is found
in a proclamation of the governor of the island of St. Christopher and
of the Virgin Islands, inviting for three months from August 28th, 1827
the importation of the articles of the produce of the United States
which constitute their export portion of this trade in the vessels of
all nations.
That period having already expired, the state of mutual interdiction
has again taken place. The British Government have not only declined
negotiation upon this subject, but by the principle they have assumed
with reference to it have precluded even the means of negotiation. It
becomes not the self respect of the United States either to solicit
gratuitous favors or to accept as the grant of a favor that for which
an ample equivalent is exacted. It remains to be determined by the
respective Governments whether the trade shall be opened by acts of
reciprocal legislation. It is, in the mean time, satisfactory to know
that apart from the inconvenience resulting from a disturbance of the
usual channels of trade no loss has been sustained by the commerce, the
navigation, or the revenue of the United States, and none of magnitude
is to be apprehended from this existing state of mutual interdict.
With the other maritime and commercial nations of Europe our
intercourse continues with little variation. Since the cessation by the
convention of June 24th, 1822, of all discriminating duties upon the
vessels of the United States and of France in either country our trade
with that nation has increased and is increasing. A disposition on the
part of France has been manifested to renew that negotiation, and in
acceding to the proposal we have expressed the wish that it might be
extended to other subjects upon which a good understanding between the
parties would be beneficial to the interests of both.
The origin of the political relations between the United States and
France is coeval with the first years of our independence. The memory
of it is interwoven with that of our arduous struggle for national
existence. Weakened as it has occasionally been since that time, it can
by us never be forgotten, and we should hail with exultation the moment
which should indicate a recollection equally friendly in spirit on the
part of France.
A fresh effort has recently been made by the minister of the United
States residing at Paris to obtain a consideration of the just claims
of citizens of the United States to the reparation of wrongs long since
committed, many of them frankly acknowledged and all of them entitled
upon every principle of justice to a candid examination. The proposal
last made to the French Government has been to refer the subject which
has formed an obstacle to this consideration to the determination of a
sovereign the common friend of both. To this offer no definitive answer
has yet been received, but the gallant and honorable spirit which has
at all times been the pride and glory of France will not ultimately
permit the demands of innocent sufferers to be extinguished in the mere
consciousness of the power to reject them.
A new treaty of amity, navigation, and commerce has been concluded with
the Kingdom of Sweden, which will be submitted to the Senate for their
advice with regard to its ratification. At a more recent date a
minister plenipotentiary from the Hanseatic Republics of Hamburg,
Lubeck, and Bremen has been received, charged with a special mission
for the negotiation of a treaty of amity and commerce between that
ancient and renowned league and the United States. This negotiation has
accordingly been commenced, and is now in progress, the result of which
will, if successful, be also submitted to the Senate for their
consideration.
Since the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the imperial throne of
all the Russias the friendly dispositions toward the United States so
constantly manifested by his predecessor have continued unabated, and
have been recently testified by the appointment of a minister
plenipotentiary to reside at this place. From the interest taken by
this Sovereign in behalf of the suffering Greeks and from the spirit
with which others of the great European powers are cooperating with him
the friends of freedom and of humanity may indulge the hope that they
will obtain relief from that most unequal of conflicts which they have
so long and so gallantly sustained; that they will enjoy the blessing
of self government, which by their sufferings in the cause of liberty
they have richly earned, and that their independence will be secured by
those liberal institutions of which their country furnished the
earliest examples in the history of man-kind, and which have
consecrated to immortal remembrance the very soil for which they are
now again profusely pouring forth their blood. The sympathies which the
people and Government of the United States have so warmly indulged with
their cause have been acknowledged by their Government in a letter of
thanks, which I have received from their illustrious President, a
translation of which is now communicated to Congress, the
representatives of that nation to whom this tribute of gratitude was
intended to be paid, and to whom it was justly due.
In the American hemisphere the cause of freedom and independence has
continued to prevail, and if signalized by none of those splendid
triumphs which had crowned with glory some of the preceding years it
has only been from the banishment of all external force against which
the struggle had been maintained. The shout of victory has been
superseded by the expulsion of the enemy over whom it could have been
achieved.
Our friendly wishes and cordial good will, which have constantly
followed the southern nations of America in all the vicissitudes of
their war of independence, are succeeded by a solicitude equally ardent
and cordial that by the wisdom and purity of their institutions they
may secure to themselves the choicest blessings of social order and the
best rewards of virtuous liberty. Disclaiming alike all right and all
intention of interfering in those concerns which it is the prerogative
of their independence to regulate as to them shall seem fit, we hail
with joy every indication of their prosperity, of their harmony, of
their persevering and inflexible homage to those principles of freedom
and of equal rights which are alone suited to the genius and temper of
the American nations.
It has been, therefore, with some concern that we have observed
indications of intestine divisions in some of the Republics of the
south, and appearances of less union with one another than we believe
to be the interest of all. Among the results of this state of things
has been that the treaties concluded at Panama do not appear to have
been ratified by the contracting parties, and that the meeting of the
congress at Tacubaya has been indefinitely postponed. In accepting the
invitations to be represented at this congress, while a manifestation
was intended on the part of the United States of the most friendly
disposition toward the southern Republics by whom it had been proposed,
it was hoped that it would furnish an opportunity for bringing all the
nations of this hemisphere to the common acknowledgment and adoption of
the principles in the regulation of their internal relations which
would have secured a lasting peace and harmony between them and have
promoted the cause of mutual benevolence throughout the globe. But as
obstacles appear to have arisen to the reassembling of the congress,
one of the two ministers commissioned on the part of the United States
has returned to the bosom of his country, while the minister charged
with the ordinary mission to Mexico remains authorized to attend the
conferences of the congress when ever they may be resumed.
A hope was for a short time entertained that a treaty of peace actually
signed between the Government of Buenos Ayres and of Brazil would
supersede all further occasion for those collisions between belligerent
pretensions and neutral rights which are so commonly the result of
maritime war, and which have unfortunately disturbed the harmony of the
relations between the United States and the Brazilian Governments. At
their last session Congress were informed that some of the naval
officers of that Empire had advanced and practiced upon principles in
relation to blockades and to neutral navigation which we could not
sanction, and which our commanders found it necessary to resist. It
appears that they have not been sustained by the Government of Brazil
itself. Some of the vessels captured under the assumed authority of
these erroneous principles have been restored, and we trust that our
just expectations will be realized that adequate indemnity will be made
to all the citizens of the United States who have suffered by the
unwarranted captures which the Brazilian tribunals themselves have
pronounced unlawful.
In the diplomatic discussions at Rio de Janeiro of these wrongs
sustained by citizens of the United States and of others which seemed
as if emanating immediately from that Government itself the charge
d'affaires of the United States, under an impression that his
representations in behalf of the rights and interests of his country-
men were totally disregarded and useless, deemed it his duty, without
waiting for instructions, to terminate his official functions, to
demand his pass-ports, and return to the United States. This movement,
dictated by an honest zeal for the honor and interests of his country--
motives which operated exclusively on the mind of the officer who
resorted to it--has not been disapproved by me.
The Brazilian Government, however, complained of it as a measure for
which no adequate intentional cause had been given by them, and upon an
explicit assurance through their charge d'affaires residing here that a
successor to the late representative of the United States near that
Government, the appointment of whom they desired, should be received
and treated with the respect due to his character, and that indemnity
should be promptly made for all injuries inflicted on citizens of the
United States or their property contrary to the laws of nations, a
temporary commission as charge d'affaires to that country has been
issued, which it is hopes will entirely restore the ordinary diplomatic
intercourse between the two Governments and the friendly relations
between their respective nations.
Turning from the momentous concerns of our Union in its intercourse
with foreign nations to those of the deepest interest in the
administration of our internal affairs, we find the revenues of the
present year corresponding as nearly as might be expected with the
anticipations of the last, and presenting an aspect still more
favorable in the promise of the next.
The balance in the Treasury on January 1st, 1827 was $6,358,686.18. The
receipts from that day to September 30th, 1827, as near as the returns
of them yet received can show, amount to $16,886,581.32. The receipts
of the present quarter, estimated at $4,515,000, added to the above
form an aggregate of $21,400,000 of receipts.
The expenditures of the year may perhaps amount to $22,300,000
presenting a small excess over the receipts. But of these $22,000,000,
upward of $6,000,000 have been applied to the discharge of the
principal of the public debt, the whole amount of which, approaching
$74,000,000 on January 1st, 1827, will on January 1st, 1828 fall short
of $67,500,000. The balance in the Treasury on January 1st, 1828 it is
expected will exceed $5,450,000, a sum exceeding that of January 1st,
1825, though falling short of that exhibited on January 1st, 1827.
It was foreseen that the revenue of the present year 1827 would not
equal that of the last, which had itself been less than that of the
next preceding year. But the hope has been realized which was
entertained, that these deficiencies would in no wise interrupt the
steady operation of the discharge of the public debt by the annual
$10,000,000 devoted to that object by the act of March 3d, 1817.
The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported from the
commencement of the year until September 30th, 1827 is $21,226,000, and
the probably amount of that which will be secured during the remainder
of the year is $5,774,000, forming a sum total of $27,000,000. With the
allowances for draw-backs and contingent deficiencies which may occur,
though not specifically foreseen, we may safely estimate the receipts
of the ensuing year at $22,300,000--a revenue for the next equal to the
expenditure of the present year.
The deep solicitude felt by our citizens of all classes throughout the
Union for the total discharge of the public debt will apologize for the
earnestness with which I deem it my duty to urge this topic upon the
consideration of Congress--of recommending to them again the observance
of the strictest economy in the application of the public funds. The
depression upon the receipts of the revenue which had commenced with
the year 1826 continued with increased severity during the two first
quarters of the present year.
The returning tide began to flow with the third quarter, and, so far as
we can judge from experience, may be expected to continue through the
course of the ensuing year. In the mean time an alleviation from the
burden of the public debt will in the three years have been effected to
the amount of nearly $16,000,000, and the charge of annual interest
will have been reduced upward of $1,000,000. But among the maxims of
political economy which the stewards of the public moneys should never
suffer without urgent necessity to be transcended is that of keeping
the expenditures of the year within the limits of its receipts.
The appropriations of the two last years, including the yearly
$10,000,000 of the sinking fund, have each equaled the promised revenue
of the ensuing year. While we foresee with confidence that the public
coffers will be replenished from the receipts as fast as they will be
drained by the expenditures, equal in amount to those of the current
year, it should not be forgotten that they could ill suffer the
exhaustion of larger disbursements.
The condition of the Army and of all the branches of the public service
under the superintendence of the Secretary of War will be seen by the
report from that officer and the documents with which it is
accompanied.
During the last summer a detachment of the Army has been usefully and
successfully called to perform their appropriate duties. At the moment
when the commissioners appointed for carrying into execution certain
provisions of the treaty of August 19th, 1825, with various tribes of
the North Western Indians were about to arrive at the appointed place
of meeting the unprovoked murder of several citizens and other acts of
unequivocal hostility committed by a party of the Winnebago tribe, one
of those associated in the treaty, followed by indications of a
menacing character among other tribes of the same region, rendered
necessary an immediate display of the defensive and protective force of
the Union in that quarter.
It was accordingly exhibited by the immediate and concerted movements
of the governors of the State of Illinois and of the Territory of
Michigan, and competent levies of militia, under their authority, with
a corps of 700 men of United States troops, under the command of
General Atkinson, who, at the call of Governor Cass, immediately
repaired to the scene of danger from their station at St. Louis. Their
presence dispelled the alarms of our fellow citizens on those
disorders, and overawed the hostile purposes of the Indians. The
perpetrators of the murders were surrendered to the authority and
operation of our laws, and every appearance of purposed hostility from
those Indian tribes has subsided.
Although the present organization of the Army and the administration of
its various branches of service are, upon the whole, satisfactory, they
are yet susceptible of much improvement in particulars, some of which
have been heretofore submitted to the consideration of Congress, and
others are now first presented in the report of the Secretary of War.
The expediency of providing for additional numbers of officers in the
two corps of engineers will in some degree depend upon the number and
extent of the objects of national importance upon which Congress may
think it proper that surveys should be made conformably to the act of
April 30th, 1824. Of the surveys which before the last session of
Congress had been made under the authority of that act, reports were
made--Of the Board of Internal Improvement, on the Chesapeake and Ohio
Canal. On the continuation of the national road from Cumberland to the
tide waters within the District of Columbia. On the continuation of the
national road from Canton to Zanesville. On the location of the
national road from Zanesville to Columbus. On the continuation of the
same to the seat of government in Missouri. On a post road from
Baltimore to Philadelphia. Of a survey of Kennebec River (in part). On
a national road from Washington to Buffalo. On the survey of Saugatuck
Harbor and River. On a canal from Lake Pont Chartrain to the
Mississippi River. On surveys at Edgartown, Newburyport, and Hyannis
Harbor. On survey of La Plaisance Bay, in the Territory of Michigan.
And reports are now prepared and will be submitted to Congress--On
surveys of the peninsula of Florida, to ascertain the practicability of
a canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic with the Gulf of Mexico
across that peninsula; and also of the country between the bays of
Mobile and of Pensacola, with the view of connecting them together by a
canal. On surveys of a route for a canal to connect the waters of James
and Great Kenhawa rivers. On the survey of the Swash, in Pamlico Sound,
and that of Cape Fear, below the town of Wilmington, in North Carolina.
On the survey of the Muscle Shoals, in the Tennessee River, and for a
route for a contemplated communication between the Hiwassee and Coosa
rivers, in the State of Alabama. Other reports of surveys upon objects
pointed out by the several acts of Congress of the last and preceding
sessions are in the progress of preparation, and most of them may be
completed before the close of this session. All the officers of both
corps of engineers, with several other persons duly qualified, have
been constantly employed upon these services from the passage of the
act of April 30th, 1824, to this time.
Were no other advantage to accrue to the country from their labors than
the fund of topographical knowledge which they have collected and
communicated, that alone would have been a profit to the Union more
than adequate to all the expenditures which have been devoted to the
object; but the appropriations for the repair and continuation of the
Cumberland road, for the construction of various other roads, for the
removal of obstructions from the rivers and harbors, for the erection
of light houses, beacons, piers, and buoys, and for the completion of
canals undertaken by individual associations, but needing the
assistance of means and resources more comprehensive than individual
enterprise can command, may be considered rather as treasures laid up
from the contributions of the present age for the benefit of posterity
than as unrequited applications of the accruing revenues of the nation.
To such objects of permanent improvement to the condition of the
country, of real addition to the wealth as well as to the comfort of
the people by whose authority and resources they have been effected,
from $3,000,000 to $4,000,000 of the annual income of the nation have,
by laws enacted at the three most recent sessions of Congress, been
applied, without intrenching upon the necessities of the Treasury,
without adding a dollar to the taxes or debts of the community, without
suspending even the steady and regular discharge of the debts
contracted in former days, which within the same three years have been
diminished by the amount of nearly $16,000,000.
The same observations are in a great degree applicable to the
appropriations made for fortifications upon the coasts and harbors of
the United States, for the maintenance of the Military Academy at West
Point, and for the various objects under the superintendence of the
Department of the Navy. The report from the Secretary of the Navy and
those from the subordinate branches of both the military departments
exhibit to Congress in minute detail the present condition of the
public establishments dependent upon them, the execution of the acts of
Congress relating to them, and the views of the officers engaged in the
several branches of the service concerning the improvements which may
tend to their perfection.
The fortification of the coasts and the gradual increase and
improvement of the Navy are parts of a great system of national defense
which has been upward of ten years in progress, and which for a series
of years to come will continue to claim the constant and persevering
protection and superintendence of the legislative authority. Among the
measures which have emanated from these principles the act of the last
session of Congress for the gradual improvement of the Navy holds a
conspicuous place. The collection of timber for the future construction
of vessels of war, the preservation and reproduction of the species of
timber peculiarly adapted to that purpose, the construction of dry
docks for the use of the Navy, the erection of a marine railway for the
repair of the public ships, and the improvement of the navy yards for
the preservation of the public property deposited in them have all
received from the Executive the attention required by that act, and
will continue to receive it, steadily proceeding toward the execution
of all its purposes.
The establishment of a naval academy, furnishing the means of theoretic
instruction to the youths who devote their lives to the service of
their country upon the ocean, still solicits the sanction of the
Legislature. Practical seamanship and the art of navigation may be
acquired on the cruises of the squadrons which from time to time are
dispatched to distant seas, but a competent knowledge even of the art
of ship building, the higher mathematics, and astronomy; the literature
which can place our officers on a level of polished education with the
officers of other maritime nations; the knowledge of the laws,
municipal and national, which in their intercourse with foreign states
and their governments are continually called into operation, and, above
all, that acquaintance with the principles of honor and justice, with
the higher obligations of morals and of general laws, human and divine,
which constitutes the great distinction between the warrior-patriot and
the licensed robber and pirate--these can be systematically taught and
eminently acquired only in a permanent school, stationed upon the shore
and provided with the teachers, the instruments, and the books
conversant with and adapted to the communication of the principles of
these respective sciences to the youthful and inquiring mind.
The report from the Post Master General exhibits the condition of that
Department as highly satisfactory for the present and still more
promising for the future. Its receipts for the year ending July 1st,
1827 amounted to $1,473,551, and exceeded its expenditures by upward of
$100,000. It can not be an over sanguine estimate to predict that in
less than ten years, of which half have elapsed, the receipts will have
been more than doubled.
In the mean time a reduced expenditure upon established routes has kept
pace with increased facilities of public accommodation and additional
services have been obtained at reduced rates of compensation. Within
the last year the transportation of the mail in stages has been greatly
augmented. The number of post offices has been increased to 7,000, and
it may be anticipated that while the facilities of intercourse between
fellow citizens in person or by correspondence will soon be carried to
the door of every villager in the Union, a yearly surplus of revenue
will accrue which may be applied as the wisdom of Congress under the
exercise of their constitutional powers may devise for the further
establishment and improvement of the public roads, or by adding still
further to the facilities in the transportation of the mails. Of the
indications of the prosperous condition of our country, none can be
more pleasing than those presented by the multiplying relations of
personal and intimate intercourse between the citizens of the Union
dwelling at the remotest distances from each other.
Among the subjects which have heretofore occupied the earnest
solicitude and attention of Congress is the management and disposal of
that portion of the property of the nation which consists of the public
lands. The acquisition of them, made at the expense of the whole Union,
not only in treasury but in blood, marks a right of property in them
equally extensive. By the report and statements from the General Land
Office now communicated it appears that under the present Government of
the United States a sum little short of $33,000,000 has been paid from
the common Treasury for that portion of this property which has been
purchased from France and Spain, and for the extinction of the
aboriginal titles. The amount of lands acquired is near 260,000,000
acres, of which on January 1st, 1826, about 139,000,000 acres had been
surveyed, and little more than 19,000,000 acres had been sold. The
amount paid into the Treasury by the purchasers of the public lands
sold is not yet equal to the sums paid for the whole, but leaves a
small balance to be refunded. The proceeds of the sales of the lands
have long been pledged to the creditors of the nation, a pledge from
which we have reason to hope that they will in a very few years be
redeemed.
The system upon which this great national interest has been managed was
the result of long, anxious, and persevering deliberation. Matured and
modified by the progress of our population and the lessons of
experience, it has been hitherto eminently successful. More than nine
tenths of the lands still remain the common property of the Union, the
appropriation and disposal of which are sacred trusts in the hands of
Congress.
Of the lands sold, a considerable part were conveyed under extended
credits, which in the vicissitudes and fluctuations in the value of
lands and of their produce became oppressively burdensome to the
purchasers. It can never be the interest or the policy of the nation to
wring from its own citizens the reasonable profits of their industry
and enterprise by holding them to the rigorous import of disastrous
engagements. In March, 1821, a debt of $22,000,000, due by purchasers
of the public lands, had accumulated, which they were unable to pay. An
act of Congress of March 2nd, 1821, came to their relief, and has been
succeeded by others, the latest being the act of May 4th, 1826, the
indulgent provisions of which expired on July 4th, 1827. The effect of
these laws has been to reduce the debt from the purchasers to a
remaining balance of about $4,300,000 due, more than three fifths of
which are for lands within the State of Alabama. I recommend to
Congress the revival and continuance for a further term of the
beneficent accommodations to the public debtors of that statute, and
submit to their consideration, in the same spirit of equity, the
remission, under proper discriminations, of the forfeitures of partial
payments on account of purchases of the public lands, so far as to
allow of their application to other payments.
There are various other subjects of deep interest to the whole Union
which have heretofore been recommended to the consideration of
Congress, as well by my predecessors as, under the impression of the
duties devolving upon me, by myself. Among these are the debt, rather
of justice than gratitude, to the surviving warriors of the
Revolutionary war; the extension of the judicial administration of the
Federal Government to those extensive since the organization of the
present judiciary establishment, now constitute at least one third of
its territory, power, and population; the formation of a more effective
and uniform system for the government of the militia, and the
amelioration in some form or modification of the diversified and often
oppressive codes relating to insolvency. Amidst the multiplicity of
topics of great national concernment which may recommend themselves to
the calm and patriotic deliberations of the Legislature, it may suffice
to say that on these and all other measures which may receive their
sanction my hearty cooperation will be given, conformably to the duties
enjoined upon me and under the sense of all the obligations prescribed
by the Constitution.
