two thousand one hundred and thir. ty-five dollars and seventy-eight

cents.

That the revenue of the ensuing year will not fall short of that received in the one now expiring, there are indications which can scarcely prove deceptive. In our country, an uniform experience of forty years has shown that whatever the tariff of duties upon articles imported from abroad has been, the amount of importations has always borne an average value nearly approaching to that of the exports, though occasionally differing in the balance, sometimes being more, and sometimes less. It is, indeed, a general law of prosperous commerce, that the real value of exports should, by a small, and only a small balance, exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the wealth of the nation. The extent of the pros. perous commerce of the nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports; and an important addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It has happened, in the vicissitudes of the seasons, that the harvests of all Europe have, in the late summer and autumn, fallen short of their usual average. A relaxation of the interdict upon the importion of grain and flour from abroad has ensued; a propitious market has been opened to the granaries of this country; and a new prospect of reward presented to the labours of the husbandman, which, for several years, has been denied. This accession to the profits of agriculture in the middle and western portions of our Union, is accidental and temporary. It may continue only for a single year. It may be, as has been often

experienced in the revolutions of time, but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We may consider it certain that, for the ap. proaching year, it has added an item of large amount to the value of our exports, and that it will produce a corresponding increase of importations. It may, therefore,

confidently be foreseen, that the revenue of 1829 will equal, and probably exceed, that of 1828, and will afford the means of extinguishing ten millions more of the princi. pal of the public debt..

This new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural industry which is occupied in produ cing the first article of human subsistence, is of the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding from a cause which humanity will view with concern, the sufferings of scarcity in distant lands, it yields a consolatory reflection, that this scarcity is in no respect attributable to us. That it comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an instrument of good. That, far from contributing to this scarcity, our agency will be applied only to the alleviation of its severity; and that in pouring forth, from the abundance of our own garners, the supplies which will partially restore plenty to those who are in need, we shall ourselves reduce our stores, and add to the price of our own bread, so as in some degree to participate inthe wants which it will be the good fortune of our country to relieve.

The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing nation, are so linked in union together, that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them

can operate without extending its influence to the others. All these interests are alike under the protecting power of the legislative authority; and the duties of the representative bodies are to conciliate them iu harmony together. So far as the objeect of taxation is to raise a revenue for discharging the debts, and defraying the expenses of the community, it should as much as possible suit the burden with equal hand upon all, in proportion with their ability of bearing it without oppression. But, the legislation of one nation is sometimes intention. ally made to bear heavily upon the interests of another. That legis. lation, adapted, as it is meant to be, to the special interests of its own people, will often press most unequally upon the several component interests of its neighbours. Thus, the legislation of Great Britain, when, as has recently been avowed, adapted to the depression of a rival nation, will naturally abound with regulations of interdict upon the productions of the soil or industry of the other which come in competition with its own; and will present encouragement, perhaps even bounty, to the raw material of the other state, which it cannot produce itself, and which is essential for the use of its manufacutures, competitors in the markets of the world with those of its commercial rival. Such is the state of the commercial legislation of Great Britain as it bears upon our interests. It excludes, with interdicting duties, all importations, (except in time of approaching famine) of the great staple productions of our Middle and Western States; it proscribes, with equal rigour, the bulkier lumber and live stock of the same portion, and also

of the northern and eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the rice of the south, unless aggravated with a charge of duty upon the northern carrier who brings it to them. But the cotton, indispensable for their looms, they will receive almost duty free, to weave it into a fabric for our own wear, to the destruction of our own manufactures, which they are enabled thus to undersell. Is the self-protecting energy of this nation so helpless, that there exists in the political institutions of our country, no power to counteract the bias of this foreign legislation? that the grow. ers of grain must submit to this exclusion from the foreign markets of their produce; that the shippers must dismantle their ships, the trade of the north stagnate at the wharves, and the manufacturers starve at their looms, while the whole people shall pay tribute to foreign industry to be clad in a foreign garb ; that the Congress of the Union are impotent to restore the balance in favour of native industry destroyed by the statutes of another realm? More just and more generous sentiments will, I trust, prevail. If the tariff adopted at the last session of Congress, shall be found by experience to bear oppressively upon the interests of any one section of the Union, it ought to be, and I cannot doubt it will be, so modified as to alleviate its burden. To the voice of just complaint from any portion of their constituents, the representatives of the states and people will never turn away their ears. But so long as the duty of the foreign shall operate only as a bounty upon the domestic article

while the planter, and the merchant, and the shepherd, and the husbandman, shall be found thriv

ing in their occupations under the duties imposed for the protection of domestic manufactures, they will not repine at the prosperity shared with themselves by their fellow citizens of other professions, nor denounce, as violations of the constitution, the deliberate acts of congress to shield from the wrongs of foreign laws the native industry of the Union. While the tariff of the last session of Congress was a subject of legislative deliberation, it was foretold by some of its opposers that one of its necessary con. sequences would be to impair the revenue. It is yet too soon to pro. nounce, with confidence, that this prediction was erroneous. The obstruction of one avenue of trade not unfrequently opens an issue to another. The consequence of the tariff will be to increase the exportation, and to diminish the impor. tation of some specific articles. But, by the general law of trade, the increase of exportation of one article will be followed by an increased importation of others, the duties upon which will supply the deficiencies, which the diminished importation would otherwise occasion. The effect of taxation upon revenue can seldom be foreseen with certainty. It must abide the test of experience. As yet, no symptoms of diminution are perceptible in the receipts of the treasury. As yet, little addition of cost has even been experienced upon the articles burthened with heavier duties by the last tariff. The domestic manufacturer supplies the same or a kindred article at a diminished price, and the consumer pays the same tribute to the labour of his own countryman, which he must otherwise have paid to foreign industry and toil.

The tariff of the last session was, in its details, not acceptable to the great interests of any portion of the Union, not even to the interests which it was especially intended to subserve. Its object was to balance the burdens upon native industry imposed by the operation of foreign laws; but not to aggravate the burdens of one section of the Union by the relief afforded to another. To the great principle sanctioned by that act, one of those upon which the Constitution itself was formed, I hope and trust the authorities of the Union will adhere. But if any of the duties imposed by the act only relieve the manufacturer by aggravating the bur den of the planter, let a careful revisal of its provisions, enlightened by practical experience of its effects, be directed to retain those which impart protection to native industry, and remove or supply the place of those which only alleviate one great national interest by the depression of another.

The United States of America, and the people of every state of which they are composed, are each of them sovereign powers: The legislative authority of the whole is exercised by Congress, under authority granted them in the common constitution. The legislative power of each state is exercised by assemblies deriving their authority from the constitution of the state. Each is sovereign with. in its own province. The distribution of power between them, presupposes that these authorities will move in harmony with each other. The members of the state and general governments are all under. oath to support both, and alle. giance is due to the one and to the other. The case of a conflict be.

tween these two powers has not been supposed; nor has any provision been made for it in our institutions; as a virtuous nation of ancient times existed more than five centuries without a law for the punishment of parricide.

More than once, however, in the progress of our history, have the people and the legislatures of one or more states, in moments of excitement, been instigated to this conflict; and the means of affecting this impulse have been allega. tions that the acts of Congress to be resisted were unconstitutional. The people of no one state have ever delegated to their legislature the power of pronouncing an act of Congress unconstitutional; but they have delegated to them powers, by the exercise of which the execution of the laws of Congress within the state may be resisted. If we suppose the case of such conflict. ing legislation sustained by the corresponding executive and judicial authorities, Patriotism and Philanthropy turn their eyes from the condition in which the parties would be placed, and from that of the people of both, which must be its victims.

The reports from the Secretary of War, and from the various subordinate offices of the resort of that department, present an exposition of the public administration of af. fairs connected with them, through the course of the current year. The present state of the army, and the distribution of the force of which it is composed, will be seen from the report of the Major General. Several alterations in the disposal of the troops have been found expedient in the course of the year, and the discipline of the army, though not entirely free from exception, has been generally good.

The attention of Congress is particularly invited to that part of the report of the secretary of war which concerns the existing sys. tem of our relations with the In. dian tribes.

At the establishment of the federal government, under the present Constitution of the United States, the principle was adopted of considering them as foreign and independent powers; and also as proprietors of lands. were, moreover, considered as savages, whom it was our policy and our duty to use our influence in converting to Christianity, and in bringing within the pale of civilization.

They

As independent powers, we negotiated with them by treaties; as proprietors, we purchased of them all the lands which we could prevail upon them to sell; as brethren of the human race, rude and ignorant, we endeavoured to bring them to the knowledge of religion and of letters. The ultimate design was to incorporate in our own institutions that portion of them which could be converted to the state of civilization. In the practice of European states, before our revolution, they had been considered as children to be governed; as tenants at discretion, to be dispossessed as occasion might require; as hunters, to be indemnified by trifling concessions for removal from the grounds upon which their game was extirpated. In changing the system, it would seem as if a full contemplation of the consequences of the change had not been taken. We have been far more successful in the acquisition of their lands than in imparting to them the principles, or inspiring them with the spirit of civilization. But in appropriating to ourselves their

hunting-grounds, we have brought upon ourselves the obligation of providing them with subsistence; and when we have had the rare good fortune of teaching them the arts of civilization, and the doctrines of christianity, we have unexpectedly found them forming, in the midst of ourselves, communities claiming to be independent of ours, and rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of our Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be provided. A remedy which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a project to that effect, the views presented in the report of the secretary of war are recommended to the consider. ation of Congress.

The report from the engineer department presents a comprehensive view of the progress which has been made in the great systems promotive of the public interest, commenced and organized under the authority of Congress, and the effects of which have already contributed to the security, as they will hereafter largely contribute to the honour and dignity of the nation.

The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, commenced immediately after the close of our last war, under the salutary experience which the events of that war had impressed upon our country. men of its necessity. Introduced under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, it has been continued with the persevering and liberal encouragement of the legislature; and combined with corresponding exertions for the gradual increase and improvement of the

navy, prepares for our extensive country a condition of defence adapted to any critical emergency which the varying course of events may bring forth. Our advances in these concerted systems have for the last ten years been steady and progressive; and in a few years more will be so completed as to leave no cause for apprehension that our sea coast will ever again offer a theatre of hostile invasion.

The next of these cardinal measures of policy, is the preliminary to great and lasting works of pub. lic improvement, in the surveys of roads, examination for the course of canals, and labours for the removal of the obstructions of rivers and harbours, first commencod by the act of Congress of 30th April,

1824.

The report exhibits in one table the funds appropriated at the last and preceding sessions of Congress, for all these fortifications, surveys, and works of public improvement; the manner in which these funds have been applied, the amount expended upon the several works under construction, and the further sums which may be necessary to complete them. In a second, the works projected by the board of engineers, which have not been commenced, and the estimate of their cost.

In a third, the report of the annual board of visiters at the Military Academy at West Point. For thirteen fortifications erected on various points of our Atlantic coast from Rhode Island to Louisiana, the aggregate expenditure of the year has fallen a little short of one million of dollars.

For the preparation of five additional reports of reconnoissances and surveys since the last session