ticular articles and districts short of their usual redundancy, are more than sufficient for our wants and our comforts. The face of our country everywhere presents the evidence of laudable enterprise, of extensive capital, and of durable improvement. In a cultivation of the materials and the extension of useful manufactures, more especially in the general application to household fabrics, we behold a rapid diminution of our dependence on foreign supplies. Nor is it unworthy of reflection that this revolution in our pursuits and habits is in no slight degree a consequence of those impolitic and arbitrary edicts by which the contending nations, in endeavoring each of them to obstruct our trade with the other, have so far abridged our means of procuring the productions and manufactures of which our own are now taking the place. Recollecting always that for every advantage which may contribute to distinguish our lot from that to which others are doomed by the unhappy spirit of the times we are indebted to that Divine Providence whose goodness has been so remarkably extended to this rising nation, it becomes us to cherish a devout gratitude, and to implore from the same omnipotent source a blessing on the consultations and measures about to be undertaken for the welfare of our beloved country. JAMES MADISON. SPECIAL MESSAGES. DECEMBER 12, 1809. To the House of Representatives of the United States: I According to the request of the House of Representatives expressed in their resolution of the 11th instant, I now lay before them a printed copy of a paper purporting to be a circular letter from Mr. Jackson to the British consuls in the United States, as received in a Gazette at the Department of State; and also a printed paper received in a letter from our minister in London, purporting to be a copy of a dispatch from Mr. Canning to Mr. Erskine of the 23d of January last. JAMES MADISON. DECEMBER 16, 1809. To the Senate of the United States: Agreeably to the request in the resolution of the 15th instant, I transmit a copy of the correspondence with the governor of Pennsylvania in the case of Gideon Olmstead. JAMES MADISON. DECEMBER 16, 1809. To the House of Representatives of the United States: JAMES MADISON. DECEMBER 22, 1809. To the Senate of the United States: I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded on the 30th September last with the Delaware, Potawattamie, Miami, and Fel-river Miami Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio; a separate article of the same date, with the said tribes, and a convention with the Weea tribe, concluded on the 26th October last; the whole being accompanied with the explanatory documents. JAMES MADISON. JANUARY 3, 1810. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: The act authorizing a detachment of 100,000 men from the militia will expire on the 30th of March next. Its early revival is recommended, in order that timely steps may be taken for arrangements such as the act contemplated. Without interfering with the modifications rendered necessary by the defects or the inefficacy of the laws restrictive of commerce and navigation, or with the policy of disallowing to foreign armed vessels the use of our waters, it falls within my duty to recommend also that, in addition to the precautionary measure authorized by that act and to the regular troops for completing the legal establishment of which enlistments are renewed, every necessary provision may be made for a volunteer force of 20,000 men, to be enlisted for a short period and held in a state of organization and readiness for actual service at the shortest warning. I submit to the consideration of Congress, moreover, the expediency of such a classification and organization of the militia as will best insure prompt and successive aids from that source, adequate to emergencies which may call for them. It will rest with them also to determine how far further provision may be expedient for putting into actual service, if necessary, any part of the naval armament not now employed. At a period presenting features in the conduct of foreign powers toward the United States which impose on them the necessity of precautionary measures involving expense, it is a happy consideration that such is the solid state of the public credit that reliance may be justly placed on any legal provision that may be made for resorting to it in a convenient form and to an adequate amount. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MADISON. JANUARY 9, 1810. I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded on the 9th day of December last with the Kickapoo tribe of Indians, accompanied by explanations in an extract of a letter from the governor of the Indiana Territory. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MADISON. JANUARY 15, 1810. I lay before the Senate, for their consideration whether they will advise and consent to the ratification thereof, a treaty concluded with the Great and Little Osage Indians on the 10th day of November, 1808, and the 31st day of August, 1809. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MADISON. JANUARY 22, 1810. I transmit to the Senate a report of the Secretary of the Treasury, complying with their resolution of the 27th of December, on the subject of disbursements in the intercourse with the Barbary Powers. JAMES MADISON. FEBRUARY 28, 1810. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I now lay before you copies of the treaties concluded with the Delaware, Pottawatamie, Miami, Eel River, and Wea tribes of Indians for the extinguishment of their title to the lands therein described, and I recommend to the consideration of Congress the making provision by law for carrying them into execution. JAMES MADISON. MARCH 15, 1810. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: A treaty having been entered into and duly ratified with the Kickapoo tribe of Indians for the extinguishment of their title to certain lands within the Indiana Territory, involving conditions which require legislative provision, I submit copies thereof to both branches for consideration. JAMES MADISON. To the House of Representatives of the United States: MARCH 27, 1810. In consequence of your resolution of the 26th instant, an inquiry has been made into the correspondence of our minister at the Court of London with the Department of State, from which it appears that no official communication has been received from him since his receipt of the letter of November 23 last from the Secretary of State. A letter of January 4, 1810, has been received from that minister by Mr. Smith, but being stated to be private and unofficial, and involving, moreover, personal considerations of a delicate nature, a copy is considered as not within the purview of the call of the House. JAMES MADISON. PROCLAMATIONS. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas the territory south of the Mississippi Territory and eastward of the river Mississippi, and extending to the river Perdido, of which possession was not delivered to the United States in pursuance of the treaty concluded at Paris on the 30th April, 1803, has at all times, as is well known, been considered and claimed by them as being within the colony of Louisiana conveyed by the said treaty in the same extent that it had in the hands of Spain and that it had when France originally possessed it; and Whereas the acquiescence of the United States in the temporary continuance of the said territory under the Spanish authority was not the result of any distrust of their title, as has been particularly evinced by the general tenor of their laws and by the distinction made in the application of those laws between that territory and foreign countries, but was occasioned by their conciliatory views and by a confidence in the justice of their cause and in the success of candid discussion and amicable negotiation with a just and friendly power; and Whereas a satisfactory adjustment, too long delayed, without the fault of the United States, has for some time been entirely suspended by events over which they had no control; and Whereas a crisis has at length arrived subversive of the order of things under the Spanish authorities, whereby a failure of the United States to take the said territory into its possession may lead to events ultimately contravening the views of both parties, whilst in the meantime the tranquillity and security of our adjoining territories are endangered and new facilities given to violations of our revenue and commercial laws and of those prohibiting the introduction of slaves; Considering, moreover, that under these peculiar and imperative circumstances a forbearance on the part of the United States to occupy the territory in question, and thereby guard against the confusions and contingencies which threaten it, might be construed into a dereliction of their title or an insensibility to the importance of the stake; considering that in the hands of the United States it will not cease to be a subject of fair and friendly negotiation and adjustment; considering, finally, that the acts of Congress, though contemplating a present possession by a foreign authority, have contemplated also an eventual possession of the said territory by the United States, and are accordingly so framed as in that case to extend in their operation to the same: Now be it known that I, James Madison, President of the United States of America, in pursuance of these weighty and urgent considerations, have deemed it right and requisite that possession should be taken of the said territory in the name and behalf of the United States. William C. C. Claiborne, governor of the Orleans Territory, of which the said Territory is to be taken as part, will accordingly proceed to execute the same and to exercise over the said Territory the authorities and functions legally appertaining to his office; and the good people inhabiting the same are invited and enjoined to pay due respect to him in that character, to be obedient to the laws, to maintain order, to cherish harmony, and in every manner to conduct themselves as peaceable citizens, under full assurance that they will be protected in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion. In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand. [SEAL.] Done at the city of Washington, the 27th day of October, A. D. 1810, and in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the said United States. By the President: JAMES MADISON. R. SMITH, Secretary of State. [From Annals of Congress, Eleventh Congress, third session, 1248.] BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas by the fourth section of the act of Congress passed on the 1st day of May, 1810, entitled “An act concerning the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France and their dependencies, and for other purposes," it is provided "that in case either Great Britain or France shall before the 3d day of March next so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, which fact the President of the United States shall declare by proclamation, and if the other nation shall not M P-VOL I―31 |