Part 128

Deputations, now on their way to the seat of Government, from various nations of Indians inhabiting the Missouri and other parts beyond the Mississippi, come charged with assurances of their satisfaction with the new relations in which they are placed with us, of their dispositions to cultivate our peace and friendship, and their desire to enter into commercial intercourse with us. A state of our progress in exploring the principal rivers of that country, and of the information respecting them hitherto obtained, will be communicated so soon as we shall receive some further relations which we have reason shortly to expect.

The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day of September last, have exceeded the sum of thirteen millions of dollars, which, with not quite five millions in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled us, after meeting other demands, to pay nearly two millions of the debt contracted under the British treaty and convention, upwards of four millions of principal of the public debt, and four millions of interest. These payments, with those which had been made in three years and a half preceding, have extinguished of the funded debt nearly eighteen millions of principal.

Congress, by their act of November 10, 1803, authorized us to borrow $1,750,000, towards meeting the claims of our citizens, assumed by the convention with France. We have not, however, made use of this authority; because, the sum of four millions and a half, which remained in the Treasury on the same 30th day of September last, with the receipts which we may calculate on for the ensuing year, besides paying the annual sum of eight millions of dollars, appropriated to the funded debt, and meeting all the current demands which may be expected, will enable us to pay the whole sum of three millions seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, assumed by the French convention, and still leave us a surplus of nearly a million of dollars at our free disposal. Should you concur in the provisions of arms and armed vessels, recommended by the circumstances of the times, this surplus will furnish the means of doing so.

On the first occasion of addressing Congress, since, by the choice of my constituents, I have entered on a second term of administration, I embrace the opportunity to give this public assurance, that I will exert my best endeavors to administer faithfully the Executive Department, and will zealously co-operate with you in every measure which may tend to secure the liberty, property, and personal safety, of our fellow-citizens, and to consolidate the republican forms and principles of our Government.

In the course of your session, you shall receive all the aid which I can give, for the despatch of public business, and all the information necessary for your deliberations, of which the interests of our own country, and the confidence reposed in us by others, will admit a communication.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 3, 1805.

The Message was read and three hundred copies thereof ordered to be printed for the use of the Senate.

WEDNESDAY, December 4.

Chaplain.

The Senate proceeded to the election of a Chaplain, on their part, in pursuance of the resolution of the two Houses, and the ballots being collected, were, for Doctor GANTT, 15; Bishop CLAGGETT, 5; Mr. MCCORMICK, 2. So the Reverend Doctor GANTT was elected a Chaplain to Congress, on the part of the Senate, during the present session.

MONDAY, December 9.

JAMES JACKSON, from the State of Georgia, attended.

JOHN ADAIR, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Kentucky, in place of John Breckenridge, Esq., resigned, produced his credentials, which were read; and the oath prescribed by law having been administered, he took his seat in the Senate.

A confidential Message was received from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, as follows:

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

The depredations which have been committed on the commerce of the United States during a preceding war, by persons under the authority of Spain, are sufficiently known to all. These made it a duty to require from that Government indemnifications for our injured citizens; a convention was accordingly entered into between the Minister of the United States at Madrid, and the Minister of that Government for Foreign Affairs, by which it was agreed that spoliations committed by Spanish subjects, and carried into ports of Spain, should be paid for by that nation; and that those committed by French subjects, and carried into Spanish ports, should remain for further discussion. Before this convention was returned to Spain with our ratification, the transfer of Louisiana by France to the United States took place; an event as unexpected as disagreeable to Spain. From that moment she seemed to change her conduct and dispositions toward us. It was first manifested by her protest against the right of France to alienate Louisiana to us; which, however, was soon retracted, and the right confirmed: then high offence was manifested at the act of Congress establishing a collection district on the Mobile, although, by an authentic declaration, immediately made, it was expressly confined to our acknowledged limits; and she now refused to ratify the convention signed by her own Minister, under the eye of his sovereign, unless we would consent to alterations of its terms, which would have affected our claims against her for the spoliations by French subjects carried into Spanish ports.

To obtain justice, as well as to restore friendship, I thought a special mission advisable; and accordingly appointed James Monroe, Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, to repair to Madrid, and, in conjunction with our Minister resident there, to endeavor to procure a ratification of the former convention, and to come to an understanding with Spain as to the boundaries of Louisiana. It appeared at once that her policy was to reserve herself for events, and, in the mean time, to keep our differences in an undetermined state. This will be evident from the papers now communicated to you. After nearly five months of fruitless endeavor to bring them to some definite and satisfactory result, our ministers ended the conferences, without having been able to obtain indemnity for spoliations of any description, or any satisfaction as to the boundaries of Louisiana, other than a declaration that we had no rights eastward of the Iberville, and that our line to the west was one which would have left us but a string of land on that bank of the river Mississippi. Our injured citizens were thus left without any prospect of retribution from the wrong-doer; and, as to boundary, each party was to take its own course. That which they have chosen to pursue, will appear from the documents now communicated. They authorize the inference that it is their intention to advance on our possessions, until they shall be repressed by an opposing force. Considering that Congress alone is constitutionally invested with the power of changing our condition from peace to war, I have thought it my duty to await their authority for using force in any degree which could be avoided. I have barely instructed the officers stationed in the neighborhood of the aggressions, to protect our citizens from violence, to patrol within the borders actually delivered to us, and not to go out of them, but, when necessary to repel an inroad, or to rescue a citizen or his property; and the Spanish officers remaining at New Orleans are required to depart without further delay. It ought to be noted here, that since the late change in the state of affairs in Europe, Spain has ordered her cruisers and courts to respect our treaty with her.

The conduct of France, and the part she may take in the misunderstandings between the United States and Spain, are too important to be unconsidered. She was prompt and decided in her declarations, that our demands on Spain for French spoliations carried into Spanish ports were included in the settlement between the United States and France: she took at once the ground that she had acquired no right from Spain, and had meant to deliver us none, eastward of the Iberville; her silence as to the western boundary, leaving us to infer her opinion might be against Spain in that quarter. Whatever direction she might mean to give to these differences, it does not appear that she has contemplated their proceeding to actual rupture, or that, at the date of our last advices from Paris, her Government had any suspicion of the hostile attitude Spain had taken here; on the contrary, we have reason to believe that she was disposed to effect a settlement on a plan analogous to what our ministers had proposed, and so comprehensive as to remove, as far as possible, the grounds of future collision and controversy on the eastern as well as western side of the Mississippi.

The present crisis in Europe is favorable for pressing such a settlement, and not a moment should be lost in availing ourselves of it. Should it pass unimproved, our situation would become much more difficult. Formal war is not necessary--it is not probable it will follow; but the protection of our citizens, the spirit and honor of our country, require that force should be interposed to a certain degree. It will probably contribute to advance the object of peace.

But the course to be pursued will require the command of means which it belongs to Congress exclusively to yield or to deny. To them I communicate every fact material for their information, and the documents necessary to enable them to judge for themselves. To their wisdom, then, I look for the course I am to pursue; and will pursue, with sincere zeal, that which they shall approve.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 6, 1805.

The Message was read, and ordered to lie for consideration.

TUESDAY, December 10.

ANDREW MOORE, from the State of Virginia, attended.

MONDAY, December 16.

GEORGE CLINTON, Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, attended.