A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Edited by James D. Richardson
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 9, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate to Congress, for their information, a letter from the
person acting in the absence of our consul at Naples, giving reason
to believe, on the affidavit of a Captain Sheffield, of the American
schooner _Mary Ann_, that the Dey of Algiers has commenced war
against the United States. For this no just cause has been given on
our part within my knowledge. We may daily expect more authentic and
particular information on the subject from Mr. Lear, who was residing
as our consul at Algiers.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 15, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate for the information of Congress a letter from the consul
of the United States at Malaga to the Secretary of State, covering one
from Mr. Lear, our consul at Algiers, which gives information that the
rupture threatened on the part of the Dey of Algiers has been amicably
settled, and the vessels seized by him are liberated.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 19, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia having by their
several acts consented that the road from Cumberland to the State of
Ohio, authorized by the act of Congress of the 29th of March, 1806,
should pass through those States, and the report of the commissioners,
communicated to Congress with my message of the 31st January, 1807,
having been duly considered, I have approved of the route therein
proposed for the said road as far as Brownsville, with a single
deviation, since located, which carries it through Uniontown.
From thence the course to the Ohio and the point within the legal limits
at which it shall strike that river is still to be decided. In forming
this decision I shall pay material regard to the interests and wishes of
the populous parts of the State of Ohio and to a future and convenient
connection with the road which is to lead from the Indian boundary near
Cincinnati by Vincennes to the Mississippi at St. Louis, under authority
of the act of the 21st April, 1806. In this way we may accomplish a
continued and advantageous line of communication from the seat of the
General Government to St. Louis, passing through several very
interesting points of the Western country.
I have thought it advisable also to secure from obliteration the trace
of the road so far as it has been approved, which has been executed at
such considerable expense, by opening one-half of its breadth through
its whole length.
The report of the commissioners, herewith transmitted, will give
particular information of their proceedings under the act of the 29th
March, 1806, since the date of my message of the 31st January, 1807, and
will enable Congress to adopt such further measures relative thereto as
they may deem proper under existing circumstances.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 25, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The dangers to our country arising from the contests of other nations
and the urgency of making preparation for whatever events might affect
our relations with them have been intimated in preceding messages to
Congress. To secure ourselves by due precautions an augmentation of our
military force, as well regular as of volunteer militia, seems to be
expedient. The precise extent of that augmentation can not as yet be
satisfactorily suggested, but that no time may be lost, and especially
at a season deemed favorable to the object, I submit to the wisdom of
the Legislature whether they will authorize a commencement of this
precautionary work by a present provision for raising and organizing
some additional force, reserving to themselves to decide its ultimate
extent on such views of our situation as I may be enabled to present
at a future day of the session.
If an increase of force be now approved, I submit to their consideration
the outlines of a plan proposed in the inclosed letter from the
Secretary of War.
I recommend also to the attention of Congress the term at which the act
of April 18, 1806, concerning the militia, will expire, and the effect
of that expiration.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 26, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I inclose, for the information of Congress, letters recently received
from our ministers at Paris and London, communicating their
representations against the late decrees and orders of France and Great
Britain, heretofore transmitted to Congress. These documents will
contribute to the information of Congress as to the dispositions of
those powers and the probable course of their proceedings toward
neutrals, and will doubtless have their due influence in adopting
the measures of the Legislature to the actual crisis.
Although nothing forbids the general matter of these letters from being
spoken of without reserve, yet as the publication of papers of this
description would restrain injuriously the freedom of our foreign
correspondence, they are communicated so far confidentially and with
a request that after being read to the satisfaction of both Houses
they may be returned.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 1, 1808.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of February 26, I
now lay before them such memorials and petitions for the district of
Detroit, and such other information as is in my possession, in relation
to the conduct of William Hull, governor of the Territory of Michigan,
and Stanley Griswold, esq., while acting as secretary of that Territory.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 2, 1808.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of November 30, 1807,
I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State on the subject of
impressments, as requested in that resolution. The great volume of the
documents and the time necessary for the investigation will explain to
the Senate the causes of the delay which has intervened.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 7, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
In the city of New Orleans and adjacent to it are sundry parcels of
ground, some of them with buildings and other improvements on them,
which it is my duty to present to the attention of the Legislature.
The title to these grounds appears to have been retained in the former
sovereigns of the Province of Louisiana as public fiduciaries and for
the purposes of the Province. Some of them were used for the residence
of the governor, for public offices, hospitals, barracks, magazines,
fortifications, levees, etc., others for the townhouse, schools,
markets, landings, and other purposes of the city of New Orleans; some
were held by religious corporations or persons, others seem to have
been reserved for future disposition. To these must be added a parcel
called the Batture, which requires more particular description. It is
understood to have been a shoal or elevation of the bottom of the river
adjacent to the bank of the suburbs of St. Mary, produced by the
successive depositions of mud during the annual inundations of the
river, and covered with water only during those inundations. At all
other seasons it has been used by the city immemorially to furnish
earth for raising their streets and courtyards, for mortar, and other
necessary purposes, and as a landing or quay for unlading firewood,
lumber, and other articles brought by water. This having been lately
claimed, by a private individual, the city opposed the claim on a
supposed legal title in itself; but it has been adjudged that the legal
title was not in the city. It is, however, alleged that that title,
originally in the former sovereigns, was never parted with by them,
but was retained in them for the uses of the city and Province, and
consequently has now passed over to the United States. Until this
question can be decided under legislative authority, measures have been
taken according to law to prevent any change in the state of things and
to keep the grounds clear of intruders. The settlement of this title,
the appropriation of the grounds and improvements formerly occupied for
provincial purposes to the same or such other objects as may be better
suited to present circumstances, the confirmation of the uses in other
parcels to such bodies, corporate or private, as may of right or on
other reasonable considerations expect them, are matters now submitted
to the determination of the legislature.
The papers and plans now transmitted will give them such information on
the subject as I possess, and being mostly originals, I must request
that they may be communicated from the one to the other House, to answer
the purposes of both.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 10, 1808.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
A purchase having lately been made from the Cherokee Indians of a
tract of land 6 miles square at the mouth of the Chickamogga, on the
Tennessee, I now lay the treaty and papers relating to it before the
Senate, with an explanation of the views which have led to it.
It was represented that there was within that tract a great abundance of
iron ore of excellent quality, with a stream and fall of water suitable
for iron works; that the Cherokees were anxious to have works
established there, in the hope of having a better supply of those
implements of household and agriculture of which they have learned the
use and necessity, but on the condition that they should be under the
authority and control of the United States.
As such an establishment would occasion a considerable and certain
demand for corn and other provisions and necessaries, it seemed
probable that it would immediately draw around it a close settlement
of the Cherokees, would encourage them to enter on a regular life of
agriculture, familiarize them with the practice and value of the arts,
attach them to property, lead them of necessity and without delay to
the establishment of laws and government, and thus make a great and
important advance toward assimilating their condition to ours. At the
same time it offers considerable accommodation to the Government by
enabling it to obtain more conveniently than it now can the necessary
supplies of cast and wrought iron for all the Indians south of the
Tennessee, and for those also to whom St. Louis is a convenient deposit,
and will benefit such of our own citizens likewise as shall be within
its reach. Under these views the purchase has been made, with the
consent and desire of the great body of the nation, although not without
some dissenting members, as must be the case will all collections of
men. But it is represented that the dissentients are few, and under
the influence of one or two interested individuals. It is by no means
proposed that these works should be conducted on account of the United
States. It is understood that there are private individuals ready
to erect them, subject to such reasonable rent as may secure a
reimbursement to the United States, and to such other conditions as
shall secure to the Indians their rights and tranquillity.
The instrument is now submitted to the Senate, with a request of their
advice and consent as to its ratification.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 17, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I have heretofore communicated to Congress the decrees of the Government
of France of November 21, 1806, and of Spain of February 19, 1807, with
the orders of the British Government of January and November, 1807.
I now transmit a decree of the Emperor of France of December 17,1807,
and a similar decree of the 3d of January last by His Catholic Majesty.
Although the decree of France has not been received by official
communication, yet the different channels of promulgation through which
the public are possessed of it, with the formal testimony furnished by
the Government of Spain in their decree, leave us without a doubt that
such a one has been issued. These decrees and orders, taken together,
want little of amounting to a declaration that every neutral vessel
found on the high seas, whatsoever be her cargo and whatsoever foreign
port be that of her departure or destination, shall be deemed lawful
prize; and they prove more and more the expediency of retaining our
vessels, our seamen, and property within our own harbors until the
dangers to which they are exposed can be removed or lessened.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 18, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The scale on which the Military Academy at West Point was
originally established is become too limited to furnish the number
of well-instructed subjects in the different branches of artillery
and engineering which the public service calls for. The want of such
characters is already sensibly felt, and will be increased with the
enlargement of our plans of military preparation. The chief engineer,
having been instructed to consider the subject and to propose an
augmentation which might render the establishment commensurate with
the present circumstances of our country, has made the report which
I now transmit for the consideration of Congress.
The idea suggested by him of removing the institution to this place is
also worthy of attention. Besides the advantage of placing it under the
immediate eye of the Government, it may render its benefits common to
the Naval Department, and will furnish opportunities of selecting on
better information the characters most qualified to fulfill the duties
which the public service may call for.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 22, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
At the opening of the present session I informed the Legislature that
the measures which had been taken with the Government of Great Britain
for the settlement of our neutral and national rights and of the
conditions of commercial intercourse with that nation had resulted in
articles of a treaty which could not be acceded to on our part; that
instructions had been consequently sent to our ministers there to resume
the negotiations, and to endeavor to obtain certain alterations,
and that this was interrupted by the transaction which took place
betweenthe frigates _Leopard_ and _Chesapeake_. The call on that
Government for reparation of this wrong produced, as Congress has been
already informed, the mission of a special minister to this country,
and the occasion is now arrived when the public interest permits and
requires that the whole of these proceedings should be made known to
you.
I therefore now communicate the instructions given to our minister
resident at London and his communications with that Government on
the subject of the _Chesapeake_, with the correspondence which has
taken place here between the Secretary of State and Mr. Rose, the
special minister charged with the adjustment of that difference; the
instructions to our ministers for the formation of a treaty; their
correspondence with the British commissioners and with their own
Government on that subject; the treaty itself and written declaration of
the British commissioners accompanying it, and the instructions given by
us for resuming the negotiation, with the proceedings and correspondence
subsequent thereto. To these I have added a letter lately addressed to
the Secretary of State from one of our late ministers, which, though
not strictly written in an official character, I think it my duty to
communicate, in order that his views of the proposed treaty and of its
several articles may be fairly presented and understood.
Although I have heretofore and from time to time made such
communications to Congress as to keep them possessed of a general and
just view of the proceedings and dispositions of the Government of
France toward this country, yet in our present critical situation, when
we find that no conduct on our part, however impartial and friendly, has
been sufficient to insure from either belligerent a just respect for our
rights, I am desirous that nothing shall be omitted on my part which may
add to your information on this subject or contribute to the correctness
of the views which should be formed. The papers which for these reasons
I now lay before you embrace all the communications, official or verbal,
from the French Government respecting the general relations between the
two countries which have been transmitted through our minister there,
or through any other accredited channel, since the last session of
Congress, to which time all information of the same kind had from
time to time been given them. Some of these papers have already been
submitted to Congress, but it is thought better to offer them again in
order that the chain of communications of which they make a part may be
presented unbroken.
When, on the 26th of February, I communicated to both Houses the letter
of General Armstrong to M. Champagny, I desired it might not be
published because of the tendency of that practice to restrain
injuriously the freedom of our foreign correspondence. But perceiving
that this caution, proceeding purely from a regard to the public good,
has furnished occasion for disseminating unfounded suspicions and
insinuations, I am induced to believe that the good which will now
result from its publication, by confirming the confidence and union of
our fellow-citizens, will more than countervail the ordinary objection
to such publications. It is my wish, therefore, that it may be now
published.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 22, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
In a separate message of this date I have communicated to Congress
so much as may be made public of papers which give a full view of
the present state of our relations with the two contending powers,
France and England. Everyone must be sensible that in the details of
instructions for negotiating a treaty and in the correspondence and
conferences respecting it matters will occur which interest sometimes
and sometimes respect or other proper motives forbid to be made public.
To reconcile my duty in this particular with my desire of letting
Congress know everything which can give them a full understanding of the
subjects on which they are to act, I have suppressed in the documents
of the other message the parts which ought not to be made public and
have given them in the supplementary and confidential papers herewith
inclosed, with such references as that they may be read in their
original places as if still standing in them; and when these
confidential papers shall have been read to the satisfaction of the
House, I request their return, and that their contents may not be made
public.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 25, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
In proceeding to carry into execution the act for fortifying our forts
and harbors it is found that the sites most advantageous for their
defense, and sometimes the only sites competent to that defense, are in
some cases the property of minors incapable of giving a valid consent to
their alienation; in others belong to persons who may refuse altogether
to alienate, or demand a compensation far beyond the liberal justice
allowable in such cases. From these causes the defense of our seaboard,
so necessary to be pressed during the present season, will in various
parts be defeated unless a remedy can be applied. With a view to this
I submit the case to the consideration of Congress, who, estimating its
importance and reviewing the powers vested in them by the Constitution,
combined with the amendment providing that private property shall not
be taken for public use without just compensation, will decide on the
course most proper to be pursued.
I am aware that as the consent of the legislature of the State to the
purchase of the site may not in some instances have been previously
obtained, exclusive legislation can not be exercised therein by Congress
until that consent is given. But in the meantime it will be held under
the same laws which protect the property of individuals and other
property of the United States in the same State, and the legislatures
at their next meetings will have opportunities of doing what will be
so evidently called for by the particular interest of their own State.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 25, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I now lay before Congress a statement of the militia of the United
States according to the latest returns received by the Department of
War. From the State of Delaware alone no return has been made.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 25, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I transmit to both Houses of Congress a report from the surveyor on the
public buildings of the progress made on them during the last session,
of their present state, and of that of the funds appropriated to them.
These have been much exceeded by the cost of the work done, a fact not
known to me till the close of the season. The circumstances from which
it arose are stated in the report of the surveyor.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 29, 1808.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
When the convention of the 7th of January, 1806, was entered into with
the Cherokees for the purchase of certain lands, it was believed
by both parties that the eastern limit, when run in the direction
therein prescribed, would have included all the waters of Elk River.
On proceeding to run that line, however, it was found to omit a
considerable extent of those waters, on which were already settled
about 200 families. The Cherokees readily consented, for a moderate
compensation, that the line should be so run as to include all the
waters of that river. Our commissioners accordingly entered into an
explanatory convention for that purpose, which I now lay before the
Senate for consideration whether they will advise and consent to its
ratification. A letter from one of the commissioners, now also inclosed,
will more fully explain the circumstances which led to it.
Lieutenant Pike on his journey up the Mississippi in 1805-6, being at
the village of the Sioux, between the rivers St. Croix and St. Peters,
conceived that the position was favorable for a military and commercial
post for the United States whenever it should be thought expedient to
advance in that quarter. He therefore proposed to the chiefs a cession
of lands for that purpose. Their desire of entering into connection
with the United States and of getting a trading house established there
induced a ready consent to the proposition, and they made, by articles
of agreement now inclosed, a voluntary donation to the United States of
two portions of land, the one of 9 miles square at the mouth of the St.
Croix, the other from below the mouth of St. Peters up the Mississippi
to St. Anthonys Falls, extending 9 miles in width on each side of the
Mississippi. These portions of land are designated on the map now
inclosed. Lieutenant Pike on his part made presents to the Indians to
some amount. This convention, though dated the 23d of September, 1805,
is but lately received, and although we have no immediate view of
establishing a trading post at that place, I submit it to the Senate for
the sanction of their advice and consent to its ratification, in order
to give to our title a full validity on the part of the United States,
whenever it may be wanting, for the special purpose which constituted
in the mind of the donors the sole consideration and inducement to the
cession.
TH. JEFFERSON.
MARCH 30, 1808,
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
Since my message of the 22d instant letters have been received from our
ministers at Paris and London, extracts from which, with a letter to
General Armstrong from the French minister of foreign relations, and a
letter from the British envoy residing here to the Secretary of State,
I now communicate to Congress. They add to the materials for estimating
the dispositions of those Governments toward this country.
The proceedings of both indicate designs of drawing us, if possible,
into the vortex of their contests; but every new information confirms
the prudence of guarding against these designs as it does of adhering
to the precautionary system hitherto contemplated.
TH. JEFFERSON.
APRIL 2, 1808.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
Believing that the confidence and union of our fellow-citizens at the
present crisis will be still further confirmed by the publication of the
letter of Mr. Champagny to General Armstrong and that of Mr. Erskine to
the Secretary of State, communicated with my message of the 30th ultimo,
and therefore that it may be useful to except them from the confidential
character of the other documents accompanying that message, I leave to
the consideration of Congress the expediency of making them public.