Part 29

JANUARY 26, 1807.

To the Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States:

I received from General Wilkinson on the 23d instant his affidavit charging Samuel Swartwout, Peter V. Ogden, and James Alexander with the crimes described in the affidavit a copy of which is now communicated to both Houses of Congress.

It was announced to me at the same time that Swartwout and Bollman, two of the persons apprehended by him, were arrived in this city in custody each of a military officer. I immediately delivered to the attorney of the United States in this district the evidence received against them, with instructions to lay the same before the judges and apply for their process to bring the accused to justice, and put into his hands orders to the officers having them in custody to deliver them to the marshal on his application.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 27, 1807.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I now render to Congress the account of the fund established for defraying the contingent expenses of Government for the year 1806. No occasion having arisen for making use of any part of the balance of $18,012.50, unexpended on the 31st day of December, 1805, that balance remains in the Treasury.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 28, 1807.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

By the letters of Captain Bissel, who commands at Fort Massac, and of Mr. Murrell, to General Jackson, of Tennessee, copies of which are now communicated to Congress, it will be seen that Aaron Burr passed Fort Massac on the 31st December with about ten boats, navigated by about six hands each, without any military appearance, and that three boats with ammunition were said to have been arrested by the militia at Louisville.

As the guards of militia posted on various points of the Ohio will be able to prevent any further aids passing through that channel, should any be attempted, we may now estimate with tolerable certainty the means derived from the Ohio and its waters toward the accomplishment of the purposes of Mr. Burr.

TH. JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 31, 1807.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

In execution of the act of the last session of Congress entitled "An act to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," I appointed Thomas Moore, of Maryland; Joseph Kerr, of Ohio, and Eli Williams, of Maryland, commissioners to lay out the said road, and to perform the other duties assigned to them by the act. The progress which they made in the execution of the work during the last season will appear in their report now communicated to Congress. On the receipt of it I took measures to obtain consent for making the road of the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, through which the commissioners proposed to lay it out. I have received acts of the legislatures of Maryland and Virginia giving the consent desired; that of Pennsylvania has the subject still under consideration, as is supposed. Until I receive full consent to a free choice of route through the whole distance I have thought it safest neither to accept nor reject finally the partial report of the commissioners. Some matters suggested in the report belong exclusively to the Legislature.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 6, 1807.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

I lay before Congress the laws for the government of Louisiana, passed by the governor and judges of the Indiana Territory at their session at Vincennes begun on the 1st of October, 1804.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 6, 1807.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

The Government of France having examined into the claim of M. de Beaumarchais against the United States, and considering it as just and legal, has instructed its minister here to make representations on the subject to the Government of the United States. I now lay his memoir thereon before the Legislature, the only authority competent to a final decision on the same.

TH. JEFFERSON.

FEBRUARY 10, 1807.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: