of Representatives is assembled, and have elected PHILIP P. BARBOUR, one of the Representatives from the State of Virginia, their Speaker, and THOMAS DOUGHERTY their Clerk, and are ready to proceed to business. They have appointed a committee on their part, to join the committee appointed on the part of the Senate, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him that a quorum of the two Houses is assembled, and ready to receive any communications he may be pleased to make to them.

Mr. MACON reported, from the joint committee, that they had waited on the President of the United States, and that the President informed the committee that he would make a communication to the two Houses this day.

Mr. LANMAN submitted the following motion for consideration; which was read, and passed to the second reading:

Resolved, That Mountjoy Bayly, Doorkeeper and Sergeant-at-Arms to the Senate, be, and he hereby is, authorized to employ one assistant and two horses, for the purpose of performing such services as are usually required by the Doorkeeper of the Senate; which expense shall be paid out of the contingent fund.

Mr. MORRIL Submitted the following motion for consideration, which was read, and passed to the second reading.

Resolved, That two Chaplains, of different denominations, be appointed to Congress, during the present session, one by each House, who shall interchange weekly.

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

DECEMBER, 1821.

this necessary and very important duty, I shall endeavor to place before you, on its merits, every subject that is thought to be entitled to your particular attention, in as distinct and clear a light as I may be able.

By an act of the 3d of March, 1815, so much of the several acts as imposed higher duties on the tonnage of foreign vessels, and on the manufactures and productions of foreign nations, when imported into the United States in foreign vessels, than when imported in vessels of the United States, were repealed, so far as respected the manufactures and productions of the nation to which such vessels belonged, on the condition, that the repeal should take effect only in favor of any foreign nation, when the Executive should be satisfied that such discriminating duties, to the disadvantage of the United States, had likewise been repealed by such nation. By this act a proposition was made to all nations to place our commerce with each on a basis which, it was presumed, would be acceptable to all. Every nation was allowed to bring its manufactures and productions into our ports, and to take the manufactures and productions of the United States back to their ports, in their own vessels, on the same conditions that they might be transported in vessels of the United States; and, in return, it was required that a like accommodation should be granted to the vessels of the United States in the ports of other Powers. The articles to be admitted, or prohibited on either side, formed no part of the proposed arrangement. Each party would retain the right to admit or prohibit such articles from the other, as it thought proper, and on its own conditions.

When the nature of the commerce between the United States and every other country was taken into view, it was thought that this proposition would be

Fellow-citizens of the Senate

and of the House of Representatives :

The progress of our affairs since the last session has been such as may justly be claimed and expected, under a Government deriving all its powers from an enlightened people, and under laws formed by their representatives, on great consideration, for the sole purpose of promoting the welfare and happiness of their constituents. In the execution of those laws, and of the powers vested by the Constitution in the Executive, unremitted attention has been paid to the great objects to which they extend. In the concerns which are exclusively internal, there is good cause to be satisfied with the result. The laws have had their due operation and effect. In those relating to foreign Powers, I am happy to state, that peace and amity are preserved with all, by a strict observance, on both sides, of the rights of each. In matters touching our commercial intercourse, where a difference of opinion has existed, as to the conditions on which it should be placed, each party has pursued its own policy, without giving just cause of offence to the other. In this annual communication, especially when it is addressed to a new Congress, the whole scope of our political concerns naturally comes into view; that errors, if such have been committed, may be corrected; that defects, which have become manifest, may be remedied; and, on the other hand, that measures which were adopted on due deliberation, and which experience has shown are just in themselves, and essential to the public welfare, should be persevered in and supported. In performing

exports of the United States consist generally of articles of the first necessity, and of rude materials in demand for foreign manufactories, of great bulk, requiring for their transportation many vessels, the return for which, in the manufactures and productions of any foreign country, even when disposed of there to advantage, may be brought in a single vessel. This observation is the more especially applicable to those countries from which manufactures alone are imported, but it applies in a great extent, to the European dominions of every European Power, and, in a certain extent, to all the colonies of those Powers. By placing, then, the navigation precisely on the same ground, in the transportation of exports and imports between the United States and other countries, it was presumed that all was offered which could be desired. It seemed to be the only proposition which could be devised, which would retain even the semblance of equality in our favor.

Many considerations of great weight gave us a right to expect that this commerce should be extended to the colonies, as well as to the European dominions, of other Powers. With the latter, especially with countries exclusively manufacturing, the advantage was manifestly on their side. An indemnity for that loss was expected from a trade with the colonies, and, with the greater reason, as it was known that the supplies which the colonies derived from us were of the highest importance to them, their labor being bestowed with so much greater profit in the culture of other articles; and because, likewise, the articles, of which those supplies consisted, forming so large a proportion of the exports of the United States, were never

admitted into any of the ports of Europe, except in cases of great emergency, to avert a serious calamity. When no article is admitted which is not required to supply the wants of the party admitting it, and admitted then, not in favor of any particular country, to the disadvantage of others, but on conditions equally applicable to all, it seems just that the articles thus admitted and invited should be carried thither in the vessels of the country affording such supply, and that the reciprocity should be found in a corresponding accommodation on the other side. By allowing each party to participate in the transportation of such supplies, on the payment of equal tonnage, a strong proof was afforded of an accommodating spirit. To abandon to it the transportation of the whole would be a sacrifice which ought not to be expected. The demand, in the present instance, would be the more unreasonable, in consideration of the great inequality existing in the trade with the parent country.

Such was the basis of our system, as established by the act of 1815, and such its true character. In the year in which this act was passed, a treaty was concluded with Great Britain, in strict conformity with its principles, in regard to her European dominions. To her colonies, however, in the West Indies and on this continent, it was not extended, the British Government claiming the exclusive supply of those colonies, and from our own ports, and of the productions of the colonies in return, in her own vessels. To this claim the United States could not assent, and, in consequence, each party suspended the intercourse in the vessels of the other, by a prohibition, which still exists.

The same conditions were offered to France, but not accepted. Her Government has demanded other conditions more favorable to her navigation, and which should also give extraordinary encouragement to her manufactures and productions in ports of the United States. To these it was thought improper to accede, and, in consequence, the restrictive regulations, which had been adopted on her part, being countervailed on the part of the United States, the direct commerce between the two countries, in the vessels of each party, has been in a great measure suspended. It is much to be regretted, that, although a negotiation has been long pending, such is the diversity of views entertained, on the various points, which have been brought into discussion, that there does not appear to be any reasonable prospect of its early conclusion.

It is my duty to state, as a cause of very great regret, that very serious differences have occurred in this negotiation, respecting the construction of the eighth article of the treaty of 1803, by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and likewise respecting the seizure of the Apollo, in 1820, for a violation of our revenue laws. The claim of the Government of France has excited not less surprise than concern, because there does not appear to be a just foundation for it in either instance. By the eighth article of the treaty referred to, it is stipulated that, after the expiration of twelve years, during which time it was provided, by the seventh or preceding article, that the vessels of France and Spain should be admitted into the ports of the ceded territory, without paying higher duties on merchandise, or tonnage on the vessels, than such as were paid by citizens of the United States, the ships of France should forever afterwards be placed on the footing of the most favored nation. By the obvious construction of this article, it is presumed that

SENATE.

it was intended that no favor should be granted to any Power, in those ports, to which France should not be forthwith entitled; nor should any accommodation be allowed to another Power, on conditions to which she would not, also, be entitled on the same conditions. Under this construction, no favor or accommodation could be granted to any Power to the prejudice of France. By allowing the equivalent allowed by those Powers, she would always stand, in those ports, on the footing of the most favored nation. But, if this article should be so construed as that France should enjoy, of right, and without paying the equivalent, all the advantages of such conditions as might be allowed to other Powers, in return for important concessions made by them, then the whole character of the stipulation would be changed. She would not be placed on the footing of the most favored nation, but on a footing held by no other nation. She would enjoy all advantages allowed to them, in consideration of like advantages allowed to us, free from every, and any, condition whatever.

As little cause has the Government of France to complain of the seizure of the Apollo, and the removal of other vessels, from the waters of the St. Mary's. It will not be denied, that every nation has a right to regulate its commercial system as it thinks fit, and to enforce the collection of its revenue, provided it be done without an invasion of the rights of other Powers. The violation of its revenue laws is an offence which all nations punish-the punishment of which, gives no just cause of complaint to the Power to which the offenders belong, provided it be extended to all equally. In this case, every circumstance which occurred indicated a fixed purpose to violate our revenue laws. Had the party intended to have pursued a fair trade, he would have entered our ports, and paid the duties; or, had he intended to carry on a legitimate circuitous commerce with the United States, he would have entered the port of some other Power, landed his goods at the custom-house according to law, and reshipped and sent them in the vessel of such Power, or of some other Power which might lawfully bring them, free from such duties, to a port of the United States. But the conduct of the party in this case was altogether different. He entered the river St. Mary's, the boundary line between the United States and Florida, and took his position on the Spanish side, on which, in the whole extent of the river, there was no town, no port, no custom-house, and scarcely any settlement. His purpose, therefore, was not to sell his goods to the inhabitants of Florida, but to citizens of the United States, in exchange for their productions, which could not be done without a direct and palpable breach of our laws. It is known that a regular systematic plan had been formed by certain persons for the violation of our revenue system, which made it the more necessary to check the proceeding in its commencement.

That the unsettled bank of a river so remote from the Spanish garrisons and population could give no protection to any party, in such a practice, is believed to be in strict accord with the law of nations. It would not have comported with a friendly policy, in Spain herself, to have established a custom-house there, since it could have subserved no other purpose than to elude our revenue law. But, the Government of Spain did not adopt that measure. On the contrary, it is understood, that the Captain General of Cuba, to whom an application to that effect was made,