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bringing with them, as they do, from every part of the Union, the sentiments of our constituents, my confidence is strengthened, that, in forming this decision, they will, with an unerring regard to the essential rights and interests of the nation, weigh and compare the painful alternatives out of which a choice is to be made. Nor should I do justice to the virtues which on other Occasions have marked the character of our fellow-citizens, if I did not cherish an equal confidence that the alternative chosen, whatever it may be, will be maintained with all the fortitude and patriotism which the crisis ought to inspire.

(The President then alludes to the affair of the Chesapeake, for which, he says, no further compensation has been granted, and which had now been brought into. connexion with the distinct and irrelative case of the orders of Council.)

"Our relations with the other powers of Europe have undergone no material changes since your last session. The important negotiations with Spain, which had been alternately suspended and resumed, necessarily experience a pause, under the extraordinary and interesting crisis which distinguishes her internal situation.

(With the Barbary Powers, the Presi dent adds, all is well, except some trifling mark of disrespect towards the American Consul by the Dey of Algiers, which he leaves to the consideration of Congress. With their Indian neighbours, he observes, that the public peace has steadily maintain-, ed)" and generally from a conviction that we consider them as a part of ourselves, and cherish with sincerity their rights and interests, the attachment of the Indian tribes is gaining strength daily, is extending from the nearer to the more renote, and will amply requite us for the justice and friendship practised towards them; husbandry and household manufactures are advancing among them more rapidly with the southern than the northern tribes, from circumstances of soil and climate; and one of the two great divisions of the Cherokee nation have now under consideration to solicit the citizenship of the United States, and to be identified with us in laws and go, vernment, in such progressive manner as we shall think best.

"In consequence of the appropriations of the last session of Congress for the security of our sea-port towns and harbours, such works of defence have been erected as seemed to be called for by the situation of the several places, their relative importance, and the scale of expense indicated by the amount of the appropriation. These works will chiefly be finished in the course of the present season, except at New York and

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New Orleans, where most was to be done and although a great proportion of the last appropriation has been expended on the former place, yet some further views will be submitted to Congress, for rendering its security entirely adequate against naval enterprise. A view of what has been done at several places, and of what is proposed. to be done, shall be communicated as soon as the several reports are received.

"Of the gun-boats authorized by the act of December last, it has been thought necessary to build only one hundred and three in the present year; these, with those before possessed, are sufficient for the harbours and waters most exposed; and the residue will require little time for their construction, when it shall be deemed necessary."

(He then adverts to the act of last Ses-. sion, for raising an additional military force, observes, that the recruiting had been suc-. cessful, and that no troops had been wants ed, except a few small detachments for the maintenance of the embargo.)

"Considering the extraordinary character of the times in which we live, our at tention should unremittingly be fixed on the safety of our country. For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their hest security. It is, therefore, incumbent on us at every meeting to revise the condition of the militia, and to ask ourselves if it is prepared to repel a powerful enemy at every point of our territories exposed to invasion. Some of the States have paid a laudable attention to this object; but every degree of neglect is to be found among others. Congress alone having the power to produce an uniform state of preparations in this great organ of defence, the interests which they so deeply feel in their own and their country's security, will present this as among the most important objects of their deliberation.

"Under the acts of March 11, and April 23, respecting arms, the difficulty of procuring them from abroad, during the present situation and dispositions of Europe, induced us to direct our, whole efforts to the means of internal supply; the public factories have, therefore, been enlarged, additional machineries erected, and, in proportion as artificers can be found or formed, their effect, already more than doubled,. may be increased so as to keep pace with the yearly increase of the militia. The an nual sums appropriated by the latter act have been directed to the encouragement. of private factories of arms; and contracts have been entered into with individual undertakers, to nearly the amount of the first. year's appropriation.

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"The suspension of our foreign.commerce, produced by the injustice of the bel ligerent powers, and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern The situation into which we have thus been forced, has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. The extent of this conversion is daily in creasing, and little doubt remains that the establishments formed and forming, will, under the auspices of cheaper materials and subsistence, the freedom of labour from taxation with us, and of protecting duties and prohibitions, become permanent. The commerce with the Indians too, within our own boundaries, is likely to receive abundant aliment from the same internal source, and will secure to them peace and the progress of civilization, undisturbed by prac

tices hostile to both.

"The accounts of the receipts and expenditure during the year ending on the 30th day of September last, being not yet made up, a correct statement will hereafter be transmitted from the Treasury. In the mean time, it is ascertained that the receipts have amounted to near eighteen millions of dollars, which, with the eight millions and a half in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled us, after meeting the current demand and interest incurred, to pay two millions three hundred thousand dollars of the principal of our funded debt, and left us in the Treasury, on that day, near fourteen millions of dollars; of these, five millions three hundred and fifty thousand dollars will be necessary to pay what will be due on the first day of January next, which will complete the reimbursement of the eight per cent. stock. These payments, with those made in the six years and a half preceding, will have extinguished thirty-three millions five hundred and eighty thousand dollars of the principal of the funded debt, being the whole which could be paid or purchased within the limits of the law and of our contracts; and the amount of principal thus discharg d will have liberated the revenue from about two millions of dollars of interest, and added that sum annually to the disposable surplus.

been my great encouragement under all embarrassments. In the transaction of their business, I cannot have escaped error-it is incident to our imperfect nature; but may say, with truth, my errors have been of the understanding, not of intention; and that the advancement of their rights and interests has been the constant motive for every measure. On these considerations, I solicit their indulgence. Looking forward with anxiety to their future destinies, I trust, that in their steady character, unshaken by difficulties, in their love of liberty, obedience to law, and support of the public authorities, I see a sure guarantee of the permanence of our Republic; and, retiring from the charge of their affairs, I carry with me the consolation of a firm persuasion, that Heaven has in store for our beloved country long ages to come of prosperity and happiness.

(Signed)

Nov. 8. 1808.

THO. JEFFERSON."

In the House of Representatives, on the 10th of November, Mr Chittenden, after enlarging on the ruinous effects of the em bargo, which had now had a fair trial, offered a resolution, that the embargo act, and the several acts supplementary and additional thereto, ought to be immediately repealed. On that question, whether the House will agree to consider the resolution, it was carried in the affirmative-ayes 82, noes 9. It was then ordered to be referred to a Committee of the whole House, and after some debate, it was made the order of the day for Monday next, a motion for its postponement till Monday week Having been negatived. In the course of the debate, Mr Eppes moved as an amendment to Mr Chittenden's motion, three resolutions to the following effect :-" That, from and after the day of -, all intercourse. between the United States and France, and between the United States and Great Britain, shall cease and determine; that provision ought to be made by law for the arming and equipping for immediate service, thousand militia, in addition to the force already authorized by law." These resolutions were referred to the same Com mittee to which Mr Chittenden's motion was referred."

The documents which accompany the President's message are, the whole of the correspondence between Mr Madison (the American Secretary of State) and Mr Armstrong, (the American Ambassador at Paris ;) Mr Madison and Mr Erskine, the British Envoy in America,) and Mr Can

"Availing myself of this the last occasion which will occur of addressing the two Houses of Legislature at their meeting, cannot omit the expression of my sincere gratitude for the repeated proofs of confidence manifested to me by themselves and their predecessors since my call to the administration, and the many indulgencies experienced at their hands. The same gratening and Mr Pinckney. These papers are ful acknowledgments are due to my fellow-citizens generally, whose support has

much too long for any room we can allot to them; and having failed to produce any ef

fect

fect on either side, has lost much of their interest.

The following extracts contain the latest and most material part of the above correspondence.

GEN. ARMSTRONG TO MR MADDISON.

Paris, July 26. 1808. "It would have given me the highest pleasure to have drawn from this Government such explanations on the general sub ject of our differences with them, as would have met the friendly and equitable views of the United States; but I owe it as well to you as to myself to declare, that every attempt for that purpose hitherto made has failed, and under circumstances, which by no means indicate any change, in this respect, for the better."

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GEN, ARMSTRONG TO MR CHAMPAGNY.

Paris, Aug. 6. 1808.

"Mr Armstrong thinks proper to state his regret, that the political relations of the two Powers should continue to wear an aspect less auspicious to their future good understanding than is wished for by those who are the friends of both.

"That his Majesty (Napoleon) has a right to make such municipal regulations as he may deem proper, with regard to foreign commerce, neither is nor has been denied. For example, he may forbid the entry into the ports of France of American ships which have touched in England, or been destined to England; and he may either sequester or confiscate such vessels of the United States as shall infract these laws, after due promulgation and notice thereof; but beyond this the United States hope and believe that his Majesty will not go..

"M. de Champaigny will not fail to see the distinction which these remarks present, between the authority of municipal regulations and that of the public law, and will decide whether it does nor does not offer a ground on which a good understanding, so long and so usefully maintained between the United States and France, may be preserved, and a degree of intercourse revived between them, which shall have the effect of reanimating their former industry.

"Does his Majesty fear that the balance of trade arising from this renewed industry would go to the advantage of England? Means are certainly not wanting to prevent this consequence. Would it not be entirely avoided by making it a condition of the commerce in question, that all ships leaving France shall take (in some article or articles of her produce or manufac

ture) the full amount of the cargoes they' bring thither?

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Ships sailing under this regulation would or would not go voluntarily to England. If they went voluntarily, it would only be because that country afforded the best markets for the productions of France, in which case the habitual results would be receive a balance for her manufactures, entirely changed, and England, ceasing to would begin to pay one to the United States on the productions of France. Could France wish a state of commerce more prosperous than this?

"If, on the other hand, the American

ships did not go voluntarily to England, cation, it may be fairly presumed, that the but were captured and sent in for adjudiUnited States would no longer hesitate about becoming a party in the war against England.

"Thus, in either case, the interests of his Majesty would be directly advanced by the measure, and the wishes of his Majesty directly promoted."

MR PINCKNEY TO MR CANNING.

London, Aug. 23. 1808. "It is not my purpose to recapitulate in this note the statements and reasonings contained in the letters of Mr Madison, in support of the claim of the Government of the United States that the British Orders be revoked. But there are explanations which these letters do not contain, and which it is proper for me now to make. These expla nations show, that while every motive of justice conspires to produce a disposition to recal the Orders of which my Government complains, it is become apparent that even their professed object will be best attained by their revocation.

"I had the honour to state to you, Sir, that it was the intention of the President, in case Great Britain repealed her Orders, as regarded the United States, to exercise the power vested in him by the act of the last Session of Congress, entitled, " An act to authorise the President of the United States, under certain conditions, to suspend the operation of the act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbours of the United States, and the several supplementary acts thereto," by suspending the embargo law and its supplements, as regards Great Britain.

"I am authorised to give you this assurance in the most formal manner; and I trust that, upon impartial inquiry, it will be found to leave no inducement to perseverance in the British Orders, while it creates the most powerful inducements of equity and policy to abandon them. On the score of justice, it does not seem possible to

mistake the footing upon which this overture places the subject; and I venture to believe that, in any other view, there is little room for doubt.

"If, as I propose, your Orders should be rescinded as to the United States, and, our embargo rescinded as to Great Britain, the

effect of these concurrent acts will be, that the commercial intercourse of the two coun

tries will be immediately resumed; while,

if France should adhere to her maxims and conduct derogatory to the neutral rights of the United States, the embargo continuing as to her, will take the place of your Orders, and lead with an efficacy, not merely equal to theirs, but probably much greater, to all the consequences that ought to result from them.

"On the other hand, if France should concur in respecting those rights, and commerce should thus regain its fair immunities, and the law of nations its just domipions, all the alledged purposes of the British Orders will have been at once fulfilled."

MR CANNING TO MR PINCKNEY.

Foreign Office, Sept. 28. The undersigned, his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has the honour to inform Mr Pinckney, that he has laid his letter before the King, and he is commanded to 2ssure Mr Pinckney, that the answer to the proposal which Mr Pinckney was instructed to bring forward, has been deferred only in the hope that the renewed application which was understood to have been recently made by the Go vernment of the United States to that of France, might, in the new state of things which has arisen in Europe, have met with such a reception in France, as would have rendered the compliance of his Majesty with that proposal consistent as much with his Majesty's own dignity, and with the interest of his people, as it would have been with his Majesty's disposition towards the United States. Unhappily there is now no longer any reason to believe that such a hope is likely to be realised, and the undersigned is therefore commanded to communicate to Mr Pinckney the decision, which, under the circumstances as they stand, his Majesty feels himself compelled, however unwilling, to adopt.

The mitigated measure of retaliation announced by his Majesty in the orders in Council of the 7th January; of the further extension of that measure (an

extension in operation, but not in principle) by the orders in Council of November, was founded (as has been already repeatedly avowed by his Majesty) on the "unquestionable right of his Majesty to retort upon the enemy the evils of his own injustice;" and upon the consideration, that “ if third parties incidentally suffered by those retaliatory measures, they were to seek their redress from the power by whose original aggression that retaliation was occasioned."

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His Majesty sees nothing in the embargo laid on by the President of the United States of America, which varies this original and simple state of the question.

If considered as a measure of impartial hostility against both belligerents, the embargo appears to his Majesty to have been manifestly unjast, as, according to every principle of justice, that redress ought to have been first sought from the party originating the wrong. And his Majesty cannot consent to buy off that hostility, which America ought not to have extended to him, at the expence of a concession, made not to America, but to France.

If, as it has more generally been represented by the Government of the United States, the embargo is only to be considered as an innocent municipal regulation, which affects none but the United States themselves, and with which no foreign state has any concern; his Majesty then does not conceive that he has the right to make any complaint of it, and he has made none. But in this light, there appears not only no reciprocity, but no assignable relation between the repeal by the United States of a measure of voluntary self-restriction, and the surrender by his Majesty of his right of retaliation against his ene mies.

The Government of the United States is not now to be informed, that the Berlin decree of November 21. 1806, was the practical commencement of an attempt, not merely to check or impair the prosperity of Great Britain, but utterly to annihilate her political existence through the ruin of her commercial pros perity; that in this attempt almost all the powers of the European continent have been compelled, more or less, to co-operate, and that the American

embargo, though most assuredly not intended to that end, (for America can have no real interest in the subversion of the British power, and her rulers are too enlightened to act from any impulse against the real interests of this country,) but by some unfortunate concurrence of circumstances, without any hostile intention, the American embargo did come in aid of the blockade of the European continent, precisely at the very moment when, if that blockade could have succeeded at all, this interposition of the American Government would most effectually have contributed to its

success.

To this universal combination, his Majesty has opposed a temperate, but a determined retaliation upon the enemy, trusting that a firm resistance would defeat this project, but knowing that the smallest concession would infallibly encourage a perseverance in it.

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The struggle has been viewed by other powers, not without an apprehension that it might be fatal to this country. The British Government has not disguised from itself that the trial of such an experiment might be long and arduous, though it has never doubted of the final issue. But if that issue, such as the British Government confidently an ticipated, has providentially arrived much sooner than could have been hoped; if the blockade of the continent," as it has been triumphantly styled by the enemy, is raised even before it had been well established; and if that system, of which extent and continuity were the vital principles, is broken up /into fragments, utterly harmless and contemptible, it is nevertheless important, in the highest degree, to the reputation of this country (a reputation which constitutes great part of her power,) that this disappointment of the hopes of her enemies should not have been purchased by any concession, por that a doubt should remain to distant times of her determination and of her ability to have continued her resistance, and that no step which could even mistakenly be construed into concession, should be taken on her part, while the smallest link of the confederacy remains undissolved, or while it can be a question, whether the plan devised for her destruction has or has not either completely failed, or been unequivocally abandoned.

These considerations compel his Majesty to adhere to the principles on which the orders in Council of the 7th January and the 11th November are founded, so long as France adheres to that system by which his Majesty's retaliatory measures were occasioned and justified.

It remains for the under signed to take notice of the last paragraph of Mr Pinckney's letter.-There cannot exist, on the part of Mr Pinckney, a stronger wish than there does on that of the under signed, and of the British Govern ment, for the adjustment of all the differences subsisting between the two countries. His Majesty has no other disposition than to cultivate the most friendly intercourse with the United States. The under-signed is persuaded that Mr Pinckney would be one of the last to imagine, what is often idly asserted, that the depression of any other country is necessary or serviceable to the prosperity of this. The prosperity of America is essentially the prosperity of Great Britain, and the strength and power of Great Britain are not for herself only, but for the world.

When those adjustments shall take place, to which, though unfortunately not practicable at this moment, nor under the conditions prescribed by Mr Pinckney, the under-signed, nevertheless, confidently looks forward, it will per haps be no insecure pledge for the continuance of the good understanding between the two countries, that they will learn culy to appreciate each other's friendship, and that it will not hereafter be imputed to Great Britain, either, on the one hand, that she envies American industry, as prejudicial to British commerce, or, on the other hand, that she is compelled to court an intercourse with America as absolutely necessary to her own existence.

The undersigned is commanded, in conclusion, to observe, that nothing is said in Mr Pinckney's letter of any intention to repeal the proclamation by which the ships of war of Great Britain are interdicted from all those rights of hospitality in the ports of the United States, which are freely allowed to the ships of his Majesty's enemies. The continuance of an interdiction, which, under such circumstances, amounts so nearly to direct hostility, after the willingness professed, and the attempt made

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