A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume - James D. Richardson
I invite your attention to the suggestions on this subject and on others
connected with his Department in the report of the Secretary of War.
The appropriations for the support of the Army during the current fiscal
year ending 30th June next were reduced far below the estimate submitted
by the Department. The consequence of this reduction is a considerable
deficiency, to which I invite your early attention.
The expenditures of that Department for the year ending 30th June last
were $9,060,268.58. The estimates for the year commencing 1st July next
and ending June 30, 1853, are $7,898,775.83, showing a reduction of
$1,161,492.75.
The board of commissioners to whom the management of the affairs of the
military asylum created by the act of 3d March last was intrusted have
selected a site for the establishment of an asylum in the vicinity of
this city, which has been approved by me subject to the production of
a satisfactory title.
The report of the Secretary of the Navy will exhibit the condition of
the public service under the supervision of that Department. Our naval
force afloat during the present year has been actively and usefully
employed in giving protection to our widely extended and increasing
commerce and interests in the various quarters of the globe, and our
flag has everywhere afforded the security and received the respect
inspired by the justice and liberality of our intercourse and the
dignity and power of the nation.
The expedition commanded by Lieutenant De Haven, dispatched in search
of the British commander Sir John Franklin and his companions in the
Arctic Seas, returned to New York in the month of October, after having
undergone great peril and suffering from an unknown and dangerous
navigation and the rigors of a northern climate, without any satisfactory
information of the objects of their search, but with new contributions
to science and navigation from the unfrequented polar regions. The
officers and men of the expedition having been all volunteers for this
service and having so conducted it as to meet the entire approbation
of the Government, it is suggested, as an act of grace and generosity,
that the same allowance of extra pay and emoluments be extended to them
that were made to the officers and men of like rating in the late
exploring expedition to the South Seas.
I earnestly recommend to your attention the necessity of reorganizing
the naval establishment, apportioning and fixing the number of officers
in each grade, providing some mode of promotion to the higher grades of
the Navy having reference to merit and capacity rather than seniority or
date of entry into the service, and for retiring from the effective list
upon reduced pay those who may be incompetent to the performance of
active duty. As a measure of economy, as well as of efficiency, in this
arm of the service, the provision last mentioned is eminently worthy of
your consideration.
The determination of the questions of relative rank between the sea
officers and civil officers of the Navy, and between officers of
the Army and Navy, in the various grades of each, will also merit
your attention. The failure to provide any substitute when corporal
punishment was abolished for offenses in the Navy has occasioned the
convening of numerous courts-martial upon the arrival of vessels
in port, and is believed to have had an injurious effect upon the
discipline and efficiency of the service. To moderate punishment from
one grade to another is among the humane reforms of the age, but to
abolish one of severity, which applied so generally to offenses on
shipboard, and provide nothing in its stead is to suppose a progress of
improvement in every individual among seamen which is not assumed by
the Legislature in respect to any other class of men. It is hoped that
Congress, in the ample opportunity afforded by the present session, will
thoroughly investigate this important subject, and establish such modes
of determining guilt and such gradations of punishment as are consistent
with humanity and the personal rights of individuals, and at the same
time shall insure the most energetic and efficient performance of duty
and the suppression of crime in our ships of war.
The stone dock in the navy-yard at New York, which was ten years in
process of construction, has been so far finished as to be surrendered
up to the authorities of the yard. The dry dock at Philadelphia is
reported as completed, and is expected soon to be tested and delivered
over to the agents of the Government. That at Portsmouth, N.H., is also
nearly ready for delivery; and a contract has been concluded, agreeably
to the act of Congress at its last session, for a floating sectional
dock on the Bay of San Francisco. I invite your attention to the
recommendation of the Department touching the establishment of a
navy-yard in conjunction with this dock on the Pacific. Such a station
is highly necessary to the convenience and effectiveness of our fleet
in that ocean, which must be expected to increase with the growth of
commerce and the rapid extension of our whale fisheries over its waters.
The Naval Academy at Annapolis, under a revised and improved system of
regulations, now affords opportunities of education and instruction to
the pupils quite equal, it is believed, for professional improvement, to
those enjoyed by the cadets in the Military Academy. A large class of
acting midshipmen was received at the commencement of the last academic
term, and a practice ship has been attached to the institution to afford
the amplest means for regular instruction in seamanship, as well as for
cruises during the vacations of three or four months in each year.
The advantages of science in nautical affairs have rarely been more
strikingly illustrated than in the fact, stated in the report of the
Navy Department, that by means of the wind and current charts projected
and prepared by Lieutenant Maury, the Superintendent of the Naval
Observatory, the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ports of
our country has been shortened by about forty days.
The estimates for the support of the Navy and Marine Corps the ensuing
fiscal year will be found to be $5,856,472.19, the estimates for the
current year being $5,900,621.
The estimates for special objects under the control of this Department
amount to $2,684,220.89, against $2,210,980 for the present year, the
increase being occasioned by the additional mail service on the Pacific
Coast and the construction of the dock in California, authorized at the
last session of Congress, and some slight additions under the head of
improvements and repairs in navy-yards, buildings, and machinery.
I deem it of much importance to a just economy and a correct
understanding of naval expenditures that there should be an entire
separation of the appropriations for the support of the naval service
proper from those for permanent improvements at navy-yards and stations
and from ocean steam mail service and other special objects assigned to
the supervision of this Department.
The report of the Postmaster-General, herewith communicated, presents
an interesting view of the progress, operations, and condition of his
Department.
At the close of the last fiscal year the length of mail routes within
the United States was 196,290 miles, the annual transportation thereon
53,272,252 miles, and the annual cost of such transportation $3,421,754.
The length of the foreign mail routes is estimated at 18,349 miles
and the annual transportation thereon at 615,206 miles. The annual
cost of this service is $1,472,187, of which $448,937 are paid by
the Post-Office Department and $1,023,250 are paid through the Navy
Department.
The annual transportation within the United States, excluding the
service in California and Oregon, which is now for the first time
reported and embraced in the tabular statements of the Department,
exceeds that of the preceding year 6,162,855 miles, at an increased
cost of $547,110.
The whole number of post-offices in the United States on the 30th day of
June last was 19,796. There were 1,698 post-offices established and 256
discontinued during the year.
The gross revenues of the Department for the fiscal year, including the
appropriations for the franked matter of Congress, of the Departments,
and officers of Government, and excluding the foreign postages collected
for and payable to the British post-office, amounted to $6,727,866.78.
The expenditures for the same period, excluding $20,599.49, paid under
an award of the Auditor, in pursuance of a resolution of the last
Congress, for mail service on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1832
and 1833, and the amount paid to the British post-office for foreign
postages collected for and payable to that office, amounted to
$6,024,566.79, leaving a balance of revenue over the proper expenditures
of the year of $703,299.99.
The receipts for postages during the year, excluding the foreign
postages collected for and payable to the British post-office, amounted
to $6,345,747.21, being an increase of $997,610.79, or 18.65 per cent,
over the like receipts for the preceding year.
The reduction of postage under the act of March last did not take effect
until the commencement of the present fiscal year. The accounts for
the first quarter under the operation of the reduced rates will not be
settled before January next, and no reliable estimate of the receipts
for the present year can yet be made. It is believed, however, that
they will fall far short of those of the last year. The surplus of the
revenues now on hand is, however, so large that no further appropriation
from the Treasury in aid of the revenues of the Department is required
for the current fiscal year, but an additional appropriation for the
year ending June 30, 1853, will probably be found necessary when the
receipts of the first two quarters of the fiscal year are fully
ascertained.
In his last annual report the Postmaster-General recommended a reduction
of postage to rates which he deemed as low as could be prudently adopted
unless Congress was prepared to appropriate from the Treasury for
the support of the Department a sum more than equivalent to the mail
services performed by it for the Government. The recommendations of the
Postmaster-General in respect to letter postage, except on letters from
and to California and Oregon, were substantially adopted by the last
Congress. He now recommends adherence to the present letter rates and
advises against a further reduction until justified by the revenue of
the Department.
He also recommends that the rates of postage on printed matter be so
revised as to render them more simple and more uniform in their operation
upon all classes of printed matter. I submit the recommendations of the
report to your favorable consideration.
The public statutes of the United States have now been accumulating
for more than sixty years, and, interspersed with private acts, are
scattered through numerous volumes, and, from the cost of the whole,
have become almost inaccessible to the great mass of the community.
They also exhibit much of the incongruity and imperfection of hasty
legislation. As it seems to be generally conceded that there is no
"common law" of the United States to supply the defects of their
legislation, it is most important that that legislation should be as
perfect as possible, defining every power intended to be conferred,
every crime intended to be made punishable, and prescribing the
punishment to be inflicted. In addition to some particular cases spoken
of more at length, the whole criminal code is now lamentably defective.
Some offenses are imperfectly described and others are entirely omitted,
so that flagrant crimes may be committed with impunity. The scale
of punishment is not in all cases graduated according to the degree
and nature of the offense, and is often rendered more unequal by the
different modes of imprisonment or penitentiary confinement in the
different States.
Many laws of a permanent character have been introduced into
appropriation bills, and it is often difficult to determine whether the
particular clause expires with the temporary act of which it is a part
or continues in force. It has also frequently happened that enactments
and provisions of law have been introduced into bills with the title or
general subject of which they have little or no connection or relation.
In this mode of legislation so many enactments have been heaped upon
each other, and often with but little consideration, that in many
instances it is difficult to search out and determine what is the law.
The Government of the United States is emphatically a government of
written laws. The statutes should therefore, as far as practicable, not
only be made accessible to all, but be expressed in language so plain
and simple as to be understood by all and arranged in such method as
to give perspicuity to every subject. Many of the States have revised
their public acts with great and manifest benefit, and I recommend that
provision be made by law for the appointment of a commission to revise
the public statutes of the United States, arranging them in order,
supplying deficiencies, correcting incongruities, simplifying their
language, and reporting them to Congress for its action.
An act of Congress approved 30th September, 1850, contained a provision
for the extension of the Capitol according to such plan as might be
approved by the President, and appropriated $100,000 to be expended
under his direction by such architect as he should appoint to execute
the same. On examining the various plans which had been submitted by
different architects in pursuance of an advertisement by a committee
of the Senate no one was found to be entirely satisfactory, and it
was therefore deemed advisable to combine and adopt the advantages
of several.
The great object to be accomplished was to make such an addition as
would afford ample and convenient halls for the deliberations of the two
Houses of Congress, with sufficient accommodations for spectators and
suitable apartments for the committees and officers of the two branches
of the Legislature. It was also desirable not to mar the harmony and
beauty of the present structure, which, as a specimen of architecture,
is so universally admired. Keeping these objects in view, I concluded
to make the addition by wings, detached from the present building, yet
connected with it by corridors. This mode of enlargement will leave the
present Capitol uninjured and afford great advantages for ventilation
and the admission of light, and will enable the work to progress without
interrupting the deliberations of Congress. To carry this plan into
effect I have appointed an experienced and competent architect. The
corner stone was laid on the 4th day of July last with suitable
ceremonies, since which time the work has advanced with commendable
rapidity, and the foundations of both wings are now nearly complete.
I again commend to your favorable regard the interests of the District
of Columbia, and deem it only necessary to remind you that although its
inhabitants have no voice in the choice of Representatives in Congress,
they are not the less entitled to a just and liberal consideration in
your legislation. My opinions on this subject were more fully expressed
in my last annual communication.
Other subjects were brought to the attention of Congress in my last
annual message, to which I would respectfully refer. But there was one
of more than ordinary interest, to which I again invite your special
attention. I allude to the recommendation for the appointment of a
commission to settle private claims against the United States. Justice
to individuals, as well as to the Government, imperatively demands that
some more convenient and expeditious mode than an appeal to Congress
should be adopted.
It is deeply to be regretted that in several instances officers of the
Government, in attempting to execute the law for the return of fugitives
from labor, have been openly resisted and their efforts frustrated and
defeated by lawless and violent mobs; that in one case such resistance
resulted in the death of an estimable citizen, and in others serious
injury ensued to those officers and to individuals who were using their
endeavors to sustain the laws. Prosecutions have been instituted against
the alleged offenders so far as they could be identified, and are still
pending. I have regarded it as my duty in these cases to give all aid
legally in my power to the enforcement of the laws, and I shall continue
to do so wherever and whenever their execution may be resisted.
The act of Congress for the return of fugitives from labor is one
required and demanded by the express words of the Constitution.
The Constitution declares that--
No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be
delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may
be due.
This constitutional provision is equally obligatory upon the legislative,
the executive, and judicial departments of the Government, and upon every
citizen of the United States.
Congress, however, must from necessity first act upon the subject by
prescribing the proceedings necessary to ascertain that the person is a
fugitive and the means to be used for his restoration to the claimant.
This was done by an act passed during the first term of President
Washington, which was amended by that enacted by the last Congress,
and it now remains for the executive and judicial departments to take
care that these laws be faithfully executed. This injunction of the
Constitution is as peremptory and as binding as any other; it stands
exactly on the same foundation as that clause which provides for the
return of fugitives from justice, or that which declares that no bill of
attainder or _ex post facto_ law shall be passed, or that which provides
for an equality of taxation according to the census, or the clause
declaring that all duties shall be uniform throughout the United States,
or the important provision that the trial of all crimes shall be by
jury. These several articles and clauses of the Constitution, all
resting on the same authority, must stand or fall together. Some
objections have been urged against the details of the act for the return
of fugitives from labor, but it is worthy of remark that the main
opposition is aimed against the Constitution itself, and proceeds from
persons and classes of persons many of whom declare their wish to see
that Constitution overturned. They avow their hostility to any law
which shall give full and practical effect to this requirement of the
Constitution. Fortunately, the number of these persons is comparatively
small, and is believed to be daily diminishing; but the issue which they
present is one which involves the supremacy and even the existence of
the Constitution.
Cases have heretofore arisen in which individuals have denied the
binding authority of acts of Congress, and even States have proposed to
nullify such acts upon the ground that the Constitution was the supreme
law of the land, and that those acts of Congress were repugnant to
that instrument; but nullification is now aimed not so much against
particular laws as being inconsistent with the Constitution as against
the Constitution itself, and it is not to be disguised that a spirit
exists, and has been actively at work, to rend asunder this Union,
which is our cherished inheritance from our Revolutionary fathers.
In my last annual message I stated that I considered the series of
measures which had been adopted at the previous session in reference
to the agitation growing out of the Territorial and slavery questions
as a final settlement in principle and substance of the dangerous and
exciting subjects which they embraced, and I recommended adherence to
the adjustment established by those measures until time and experience
should demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard against
evasion or abuse. I was not induced to make this recommendation because
I thought those measures perfect, for no human legislation can be
perfect. Wide differences and jarring opinions can only be reconciled by
yielding something on all sides, and this result had been reached after
an angry conflict of many months, in which one part of the country was
arrayed against another, and violent convulsion seemed to be imminent.
Looking at the interests of the whole country, I felt it to be my duty
to seize upon this compromise as the best that could be obtained amid
conflicting interests and to insist upon it as a final settlement, to
be adhered to by all who value the peace and welfare of the country.
A year has now elapsed since that recommendation was made. To that
recommendation I still adhere, and I congratulate you and the country
upon the general acquiescence in these measures of peace which has been
exhibited in all parts of the Republic. And not only is there this
general acquiescence in these measures, but the spirit of conciliation
which has been manifested in regard to them in all parts of the country
has removed doubts and uncertainties in the minds of thousands of good
men concerning the durability of our popular institutions and given
renewed assurance that our liberty and our Union may subsist together
for the benefit of this and all succeeding generations.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1851_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to
ratification, a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation between
the United States and the Republic of Costa Rica, signed in this city
on the 10th day of July last.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1851_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate a report[13] of the Secretary of State, in
answer to their resolution of the 8th of March last.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
[Footnote 13: Relating to the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, St.
John, and other large rivers, and to the free enjoyment of the British
North American fisheries by United States citizens.]
WASHINGTON, _December 15, 1851_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I have received a resolution of the Senate, adopted on the 12th instant,
in the following terms:
_Resolved_, That the President of the United States be requested to
communicate to the Senate, if not inconsistent with the public interest,
any information the Executive may have received respecting the firing
into and seizure of the American steamship _Prometheus_ by a British
vessel of war in November last near Greytown, on the Mosquito Coast,
and also what measures have been taken by the Executive to ascertain
the state of the facts and to vindicate the honor of the country.
In answer to this request I submit to the Senate the accompanying
extracts from a communication addressed to the Department of State by
Mr. Joseph L. White, as counsel of the American, Atlantic and Pacific
Ship Canal Company, dated 2d instant.
This communication is the principal source of the information received
by the Executive in relation to the subject alluded to, and is presumed
to be essentially correct in its statement of the facts. Upon receiving
this communication instructions such as the occasion seemed to demand
were immediately dispatched to the minister of the United States in
London. Sufficient time has not elapsed for the return of any answer
to this dispatch from him, and in my judgment it would at the present
moment be inconsistent with the public interest to communicate those
instructions. A communication, however, of all the correspondence will
be made to the Senate at the earliest moment at which a proper regard
to the public interest will permit.
At the same time instructions were given to Commodore Parker, commanding
the Home Squadron, a copy of which, so far as they relate to the case of
the _Prometheus_, is herewith transmitted to the Senate.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _December 16, 1851_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 9th instant, requesting
information in regard to the imprisonment of John S. Thrasher at Havana,
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which
accompanied it.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _December 16, 1851_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 8th instant, requesting
the communication of a dispatch[14] addressed to the Department of State
by Mr. Niles, late charge d'affaires of the United States at Turin, I
transmit a report from the Secretary of State, which is accompanied by
a copy of the dispatch.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
[Footnote 14: On the subject of a ship canal between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans.]