Part 64

It is further respectfully recommended that, such being the inconvenience of attention to these duties by the Chief Magistrate, and such the great pressure of business on the Treasury Department, the general supervision of the coast survey and the completion of the weights and measures, if the works are kept united, should be devolved on a board of officers organized specially for that purpose, or on the Navy Board attached to the Navy Department.

All my experience and reflection confirm the conviction I have so often expressed to Congress in favor of an amendment of the Constitution which will prevent in any event the election of the President and Vice-President of the United States devolving on the House of Representatives and the Senate, and I therefore beg leave again to solicit your attention to the subject. There were various other suggestions in my last annual message not acted upon, particularly that relating to the want of uniformity in the laws of the District of Columbia, that are deemed worthy of your favorable consideration.

Before concluding this paper I think it due to the various Executive Departments to bear testimony to their prosperous condition and to the ability and integrity with which they have been conducted. It has been my aim to enforce in all of them a vigilant and faithful discharge of the public business, and it is gratifying to me to believe that there is no just cause of complaint from any quarter at the manner in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation.

Having now finished the observations deemed proper on this the last occasion I shall have of communicating with the two Houses of Congress at their meeting, I can not omit an expression of the gratitude which is due to the great body of my fellow-citizens, in whose partiality and indulgence I have found encouragement and support in the many difficult and trying scenes through which it has been my lot to pass during my public career. Though deeply sensible that my exertions have not been crowned with a success corresponding to the degree of favor bestowed upon me, I am sure that they will be considered as having been directed by an earnest desire to promote the good of my country, and I am consoled by the persuasion that whatever errors have been committed will find a corrective in the intelligence and patriotism of those who will succeed us. All that has occurred during my Administration is calculated to inspire me with increased confidence in the stability of our institutions; and should I be spared to enter upon that retirement which is so suitable to my age and infirm health and so much desired by me in other respects, I shall not cease to invoke that beneficent Being to whose providence we are already so signally indebted for the continuance of His blessings on our beloved country.

ANDREW JACKSON.

A.--Statement of distribution of surplus revenue of $30,000,000 among the several States, agreeably to the number of electoral votes for President and according to the constitutional mode of direct taxation by representative population, and the difference arising from those two modes of distribution, as per census of 1830.

S Representative Elect- Share Share Difference Difference t population oral according according in favor in favor a vote to system to of direct of t of direct electoral tax electoral e taxation vote mode vote mode

ME 399,454 10 $999,371 $1,020,408 $21,037 NH 269,327 7 673,813 714,286 40,473 MA 610,408 14 1,527,144 1,428,571 $98,573 RI 97,192 4 243,159 408,163 165,004 CT 297,665 8 744,711 816,327 71,616 VT 280,652 7 702,147 714,286 12,139 NY 1,918,578 42 4,799,978 4,285,714 514,264 NJ 319,921 8 800,392 816,427 15,935 PA 1,348,072 30 3,372,662 3,061,225 311,437 DE 75,431 3 188,716 306,122 117,406 MD 405,842 10 1,015,352 1,020,408 5,056 VA 1,023,502 23 2,560 640 2,346,939 213,701 NC 639,747 15 1,600,546 1,530,612 69,934 SC 455,025 11 1,138,400 1,122,449 15,951 GA 429,811 11 1,075,319 1,122,449 47,130 AL 262,307 7 656,751 714,286 57,535 MS 110,357 4 276,096 408,163 132,067 LA 171,904 5 430,076 510,204 80,128 TN 625,263 15 1,564,309 1,530,612 33,697 KY 621,832 15 1,555,725 1,530,612 25,113 OH 937,901 21 2,346,479 2,142,858 203,621 IN 343,030 9 858,206 918,368 60,162 IL 157,146 5 393,154 510,204 117,050 MO 130,419 4 326,288 408,163 81,875 AR 28,557 3 71,445 306,122 234,677 MI 31,625 3 79,121 306,102 227,001 Total 11,991,168 294 30,000,000 30,000,000 1,486,291 1,486,291

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

WASHINGTON, December 6, 1836.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith to Congress copies of my correspondence with Mrs. Madison, produced by the resolution adopted at the last session by the Senate and House of Representatives on the decease of her venerated husband. The occasion seems to be appropriate to present a letter from her on the subject of the publication of a work of great political interest and ability, carefully prepared by Mr. Madison's own hand, under circumstances that give it claims to be considered as little less than official.

Congress has already, at considerable expense, published in a variety of forms the naked journals of the Revolutionary Congress and of the Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States. I am persuaded that the work of Mr. Madison, considering the author, the subject-matter of it, and the circumstances under which it was prepared--long withheld from the public, as it has been, by those motives of personal kindness and delicacy that gave tone to his intercourse with his fellow-men, until he and all who had been participators with him in the scenes he describes have passed away--well deserves to become the property of the nation, and can not fail, if published and disseminated at the public charge, to confer the most important of all benefits on the present and all succeeding generations--accurate knowledge of the principles of their Government and the circumstances under which they were recommended and embodied in the Constitution for adoption.

ANDREW JACKSON.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

July 9, 1836.

The Secretary of State has the honor to report to the President that there is no resolution of Congress on the death of Mr. Madison on file in the Department of State. By application at the offices of the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the House of Representatives the inclosed certified copy of a set of resolutions has been procured. These resolutions, being joint, should have been enrolled, signed by the presiding officers of the two Houses, and submitted for the Executive approbation. By referring to the proceedings on the death of General Washington such a course appears to have been thought requisite, but in this case it has been deemed unnecessary or has been omitted accidentally. The value of the public expression of sympathy would be so much diminished by postponement to the next session that the Secretary has thought it best to present the papers, incomplete as they are, as the basis of such a letter as the President may think proper to direct to Mrs. Madison.

JOHN FORSYTH,

Secretary of State.

WASHINGTON, July 9, 1836.

Mrs. D.P. MADISON,

Montpelier, Va.

MADAM: It appearing to have been the intention of Congress to make me the organ of assuring you of the profound respect entertained by both its branches for your person and character, and of their sincere condolence in the late afflicting dispensation of Providence, which has at once deprived you of a beloved companion and your country of one of its most valued citizens, I perform that duty by transmitting the documents herewith inclosed.

No expression of my own sensibility at the loss sustained by yourself and the nation could add to the consolation to be derived from these high evidences of the public sympathy. Be assured, madam, that there is not one of your countrymen who feels more poignantly the stroke which has fallen upon you or who will cherish with a more endearing constancy the memory of the virtues, the services, and the purity of the illustrious man whose glorious and patriotic life has been just terminated by a tranquil death.

I have the honor to be, madam, your most obedient servant,

ANDREW JACKSON.

The President of the United States having communicated to the two Houses of Congress the melancholy intelligence of the death of their illustrious and beloved fellow-citizen, James Madison, of Virginia, late President of the United States, and the two Houses sharing in the general grief which this distressing event must produce:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the chairs of the President of the Senate and of the Speaker of the House of Representatives be shrouded in black during the present session, and that the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the members and officers of both Houses wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days.