To the House of Representatives of the United States: JANUARY 31, 1805. In compliance with the desire of the House of Representatives, expressed in their resolution of yesterday, I have to inform them that by a letter of the 30th of May last from the Secretary of War to Samuel Hammond, a member of the House, it was proposed to him to accept a commission of colonel-commandant for the district of Louisiana when the new government there should commence. By a letter of the 30th of June he signified a willingness to accept, but still more definitively by one of October 26, a copy of which is therefore now communicated. A commission had been made out for him bearing date the 1st day of October last, and forwarded before the receipt of his letter of October 26. No later communication has been received from him, nor is anything later known of his movements. TH: JEFFERSON. FEBRUARY 1, 1805. To the House of Representatives of the United States: For some weeks past I have had reason to expect by every mail from New Orleans information which would have fully met the views of the House of Representatives, expressed in their resolution of December 31, on the subject of a post-road from the city of Washington to New Orleans; but this being not yet received, I think it my duty without further delay to communicate to the House the information I possess, however imperfect. Isaac Briggs, one of the surveyors-general of the United States, being about to return in July last to his station at Natchez, and apprised of the anxiety existing to have a practicable road explored for forwarding the mail to New Orleans without crossing the mountains, offered his services voluntarily to return by the route contemplated, taking as he should go such observations of longitude and latitude as would enable him to delineate it exactly, and by protraction to show of what shortenings it would admit. The offer was accepted and he was furnished with an accurate sextant for his observations. The route proposed was from Washington by Fredericksburg, Cartersville, Lower Sauratown, Salisbury, Franklin Court-House in Georgia, Tuckabachee, Fort Stoddert, and the mouth of Pearl River to New Orleans. It is believed he followed this route generally, deviating at times only for special purposes, and returning again into it. His letters, herewith communicated, will shew his opinion to have been, after completing his journey, that the practicable distance between Washington and New Orleans will be a little over 1,000 miles. He expected to forward his map and special report within one week from the date of his last letter, but a letter of December 10, from another person, informs me he had been unwell, but would forward them within a week from that time. So soon as they shall be received they shall be communicated to the House of Representatives. TH: JEFFERSON. FEBRUARY 5, 1805. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: The Secretary of State has lately received a note from the Danish chargé d'affaires, claiming, in the name of his Government, restitution in the case of the brig Henrich, communicated to Congress at a former session, in which note were transmitted sundry documents chiefly relating to the value and neutral character of the vessel, and to the question whether the judicial proceedings were instituted and conducted without the concurrence of the captain of the Henrich. As these documents appear to form a necessary appendage to those already before Congress, and throw additional light on the subject, I transmit copies of them herewith. TH: JEFFERSON. FEBRUARY 13, 1805. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: TH: JEFFERSON. FEBRUARY 20, 1805. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I communicate, for the information of Congress, a letter of September 18 from Commodore Preble, giving a detailed account of the transactions of the vessels under his command from July the 9th to the 10th of September last past. The energy and judgment displayed by this excellent officer through the whole course of the service lately confided to him and the zeal and valor of his officers and men in the several enterprises executed by them can not fail to give high satisfaction to Congress and their country, of whom they have deserved well. TH: JEFFERSON. 1 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 returns last received from the several States. It will be perceived that some of these are not of recent dates, and that from the States of Maryland, Delaware, and Tennessee no returns are stated. As far as appears from our records, none were ever rendered from either of these States. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I now render to Congress the account of the fund established by the act of May 1, 1802, for defraying the contingent charges of Government. No occasion having arisen for making use of any part of the balance of $18,560 unexpended on the 31st day of December, 1803, when the last account was rendered by message, that balance has been carried to the credit of the surplus fund. SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. Proceeding, fellow-citizens, to that qualification which the Constitution requires before my entrance on the charge again conferred on me, it is my duty to express the deep sense I entertain of this new proof of confidence from my fellow-citizens at large, and the zeal with which it inspires me so to conduct myself as may best satisfy their just expectations. On taking this station on a former occasion I declared the principles on which I believed it my duty to administer the affairs of our Commonwealth. My conscience tells me I have on every occasion acted up to that declaration according to its obvious import and to the understanding of every candid mind. In the transaction of your foreign affairs we have endeavored to cultivate the friendship of all nations, and especially of those with which we have the most important relations. We have done them justice on all occasions, favored where favor was lawful, and cherished mutual interests and intercourse on fair and equal terms. We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others. At home, fellow-citizens, you best know whether we have done well or ill. The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These, covering our land with officers and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which once entered is scarcely to be restrained from reaching successively every article of property and produce. If among these taxes some minor ones fell which had not been inconvenient, it was because their amount would not have paid the officers who collected them, and because, if they had any merit, the State authorities might adopt them instead of others less approved. The remaining revenue on the consumption of foreign articles is paid chiefly by those who can afford to add foreign luxuries to domestic comforts, being collected on our seaboard and frontiers only, and, incorporated with the transactions of our mercantile citizens, it may be the pleasure and the pride of an American to ask, What farmer, what mechanic, what laborer ever sees a taxgatherer of the United States? These contributions enable us to support the current expenses of the Government, to fulfill contracts with foreign nations, to extinguish the native right of soil within our limits, to extend those limits, and to apply such a surplus to our public debts as places at a short day their final redemption, and that redemption once effected the revenue thereby liberated may, by a just repartition of it among the States and a corresponding amendment of the Constitution, be applied in time of peace to rivers, canals, roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects within each State. In time of war, if injustice by ourselves or others must sometimes produce war, increased as the same revenue will be by increased population and consumption, and aided by other resources reserved for that crisis, it may meet within the year all the expenses of the year without encroaching on the rights of future generations by burthening them with the debts of the past. War will then be but a suspension of useful works, and a return to a state of peace a return to the progress of improvement. I have said, fellow-citizens, that the income reserved had enabled us to extend our limits, but that extension may possibly pay for itself before we are called on, and in the meantime may keep down the accruing interest; in all events, it will replace the advances we shall have made. I know that the acquisition of Louisiana has been disapproved by some from a candid apprehension that the enlargement of our territory would endanger its union. But who can limit the extent to which the federative principle may operate effectively? The larger our association the less will it be shaken by local passions; and in any view is it not better that the opposite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren and children than by strangers of another family? With which should we be most likely to live in harmony and friendly intercourse? In matters of religion I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent of the powers of the General Govern ment. I have therefore undertaken on no occasion to prescribe the religious exercises suited to it, but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the direction and discipline of the church or state authorities acknowledged by the several religious societies. The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the commiseration their history inspires. Endowed with the faculties and the rights of men, breathing an ardent love of liberty and independence, and occupying a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed, the stream of overflowing population from other regions directed itself on these shores; without power to divert or habits to contend against it, they have been overwhelmed by the current or driven before it; now reduced within limits too narrow for the hunter's state, humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their place in existence and to prepare them in time for that state of society which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals. We have therefore liberally furnished them with the implements of husbandry and household use; we have placed among them instructors in the arts of first necessity, and they are covered with the ægis of the law against aggressors from among ourselves. But the endeavors to enlighten them on the fate which awaits their present course of life, to induce them to exercise their reason, follow its dictates, and change their pursuits with the change of circumstances have powerful obstacles to encounter; they are combated by the habits of their bodies, prejudices of their minds, ignorance, pride, and the influence of interested and crafty individuals among them who feel themselves something in the present order of things and fear to become nothing in any other. These persons inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the customs of their ancestors; that whatsoever they did must be done through all time; that reason is a false guide, and to advance under its counsel in their physical, moral, or political condition is perilous innovation; that their duty is to remain as their Creator made them, ignorance being safety and knowledge full of danger; in short, my friends, among them also is seen the action and counteraction of good sense and of bigotry; they too have their antiphilosophists who find an interest in keeping things in their present state, who dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to maintain the ascendency of habit over the duty of improving our reason and obeying its mandates. In giving these outlines I do not mean, fellow-citizens, to arrogate to myself the merit of the measures. That is due, in the first place, to the reflecting character of our citizens at large, who, by the weight of public opinion, influence and strengthen the public measures. It is due to the sound discretion with which they select from among themselves those to whom they confide the legislative duties. It is due to the zeal and wisdom of the characters thus selected, who lay the foundations of public happiness in wholesome laws, the execution of which alone remains for |