Part 131

The completion of the census of the inhabitants, for which provision was made by law, has been duly notified, (excepting one instance in which the return has been informal; and another, in which it has been omitted or miscarried,) and the returns of the officers who were charged with this duty, which will be laid before you, will give you the pleasing assurance, that the present population of the United States borders on four millions of persons.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

Two treaties which have been provisionally concluded with the Cherokees and Six Nations of Indians, will be laid before you for your consideration and ratification.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

In entering upon the discharge of your legislative trust, you must anticipate, with pleasure, that many of the difficulties, necessarily incident to the first arrangements of a new Government, for an extensive country, have been happily surmounted by the zealous and judicious exertions of your predecessors, in co-operation with the other branch of the Legislature. The important objects which remain to be accomplished, will, I am persuaded, be conducted upon principles equally comprehensive, and equally well calculated for the advancement of the general weal.

It is particularly pleasing to me to be able to announce to you that the revenues which have been established promise to be adequate to their objects, and maybe permitted, if no unforeseen exigency occurs, to supersede, for the present, the necessity of any new burdens upon our constituents.

An object which will claim your early attention is a provision for the current service of the ensuing year, together with such ascertained demands upon the Treasury as require to be immediately discharged, and such casualties as may have arisen in the execution of the public business, for which no specific appropriation may have yet been made; of all which a proper estimate will be laid before you.

Gentlemen of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:

I shall content myself with a general reference to former communications for several objects, upon which the urgency of other affairs has hitherto postponed any definitive resolution. Their importance will recall them to your attention; and, I trust that the progress already made in the most arduous arrangements of the Government will afford you leisure to resume them with advantage.

There are, however, some of them of which I cannot forbear a more particular mention. These are: the Militia, the Post Office and Post Roads, the Mint, Weights and Measures, and a provision for the sale of the vacant lands of the United States.

The disorders in the existing currency, and especially the scarcity of small change, a scarcity so peculiarly distressing to the poorer classes, strongly recommend the carrying into immediate effect the resolution already entered into concerning the establishment of a Mint. Measures have been taken pursuant to that resolution for procuring some of the most necessary artists, together with the requisite apparatus.

A provision for the sale of the vacant lands of the United States is particularly urged, among other reasons, by the important considerations, that they are pledged as a fund for reimbursing the public debt; that, if timely and judiciously applied, they may save the necessity of burthening our citizens with new taxes for the extinguishment of the principal; and that, being free to discharge the principal but in a limited proportion, no opportunity ought to be lost for availing the public of its right.

G. WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, October 25, 1791.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES having retired, and the two Houses being separated,

Ordered, That Messrs. BURR, CABOT, and JOHNSTON, be a committee to prepare and report the draft of an Address to the President of the United States, in answer to his Speech delivered this day to both Houses of Congress.

Ordered, That the Speech of the President of the United States, delivered this day, be printed for the use of the Senate.

WEDNESDAY, October 26.

RUFUS KING, from the State of New York, and JOHN HENRY, from the State of Maryland, attended.

THURSDAY, October 27.

The following message was received from the President of the United States:

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:

I lay before you a copy of a letter, and of sundry documents, which I have received from the Governor of Pennsylvania, respecting certain persons who are said to have fled from justice out of the State of Pennsylvania, into that of Virginia; together with a report of the Attorney General of the United States upon the same subject.

I have received from the Governor of North Carolina a copy of an Act of the General Assembly of that State, authorizing him to convey to the United States the right and jurisdiction of the said State over one acre of land in Ocracock Island, and ten acres on the Cape Island, within the said State, for the purpose of erecting light-houses thereon, together with the deed of the Governor, in pursuance thereof, and the original conveyances made to the State by the individual proprietors, which original conveyances contain conditions that the light-house on Ocracock shall be built before the first day of January, 1801, and that on the Cape Island, before the eighth day of October, 1800. And I have caused these several papers to be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State.

A statement of the Returns of the Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States, which have been received, will at this time be laid before you.

G. WASHINGTON.

UNITED STATES, October 27, 1791.

Mr. BURR reported, from the committee appointed to prepare an Address to the President of the United States, in answer to his Speech to both. Houses of Congress at the opening of the session.