SPECIAL MESSAGE. JANUARY 17, 1798. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:THE situation of affairs between the United States and the Cherokee Indians having evinced the expediency of a treaty with that nation, for the promotion of justice to them, as well as of the interests and convenience of our citizens, I have nominated, and, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, appointed commissioners to hold conferences, and conclude a treaty, as early as the season of the year, and the convenience of the parties, will admit. As we know very well, by experience, that such negotiations can not be carried on without considerable expenses, I recommend to your consideration the propriety of making an appropriation, at this time, for defraying such as may be necessary for holding and concluding a treaty. That you may form your judgments with greater facility, I shall direct the proper officer to lay before you an estimate of such articles and expenses as may be thought indispensable. SPECIAL MESSAGE. JANUARY 18, 1798. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :A REPRESENTATION has been made to me, by the judge of the Pennsylvania district of the United States, of certain inconveniences, and disagreeable circumstances which have occurred in the execution of the law, passed on the twenty-eighth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, entitled, " An act for the relief of persons imprisoned for debt,” as well as of certain doubts which have been raised concerning its construction. This representation, together with a report of the attorney-general on the same subject, I now transmit to Congress, for their consideration, that, if any amendments or explanations of that law should be thought advisable, they should be adopted. SPECIAL MESSAGE. JANUARY 23, 1798. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :AT the commencement of this session of Congress, I proposed, in the course of it, to communicate to both houses further information concerning the situation of our affairs in the territories of the United States situated on the Mississippi river, and its neighborhood; our intercourse with the Indian nations; our relations with the Spanish government, and the conduct of their officers and agents: this information will be found in a report of the secretary of state, and the documents attending it, which I now present to the senate and house of representatives. SPECIAL MESSAGE. JANUARY 8, 1799. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :— In compliance with your desire, expressed in your resolution of the second of this month, I lay before you an extract of a letter from George C. Moreton, acting consul of the United States at the Havana, dated the 13th of November, 1798, to the secretary of state, with a copy of a letter from him to L. Tresevant and William Timmons, Esquires, with their answer. Although your request extends no further than such information as has been received, yet it may be a satisfaction to you to know that, as soon as this intelligence was communicated to me, circular orders were given by my direction to all the commanders of our vessels-of-war-a copy of which is also herewith transmitted. I also directed this intelligence, and these orders, to be communicated to his Britannic majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States, and to our minister plenipotentiary to the court of Great Britain, with instructions to him to make the proper representations to that government on this subject. It is but justice to say, that this is the first instance of misbehavior of any of the British officers toward our vessels-of-war that has come to my knowledge. According to all the representations that I have seen, the flag of the United States, and their officers and men, have been treated by the civil and military authority of the British nation in Nova Scotia, the West India islands, and on the ocean, with uniform civility, politeness, and friendship. I have no doubt that this first instance of misconduct will be readily corrected. SPECIAL MESSAGE. MARCH 2, 1799. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :JUDGING it of importance to the public that the legislature should be informed of the gradual progress of their maritime resources, I transmit to Congress a statement of the vessels, with their tonnage, warlike force, and complement of men, to which commissions, as private armed vessels, have been issued since the ninth of July last. SPECIAL MESSAGE. DECEMBER 19, 1799. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :THE letter here with transmitted will inform you that it has pleased Divine Providence to remove from this life our excellent fellow-citizen, GEORGE WASHINGTON, by the purity of his character, and a long series of services to his country, rendered illustrious through the world. It remains for an affectionate and grateful people, in whose hearts he can rever die, to pay suitable honors to his memory. SPECIAL MESSAGE. DECEMBER 19, 1799. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :— I RECEIVE, with great respect and affection, the condolence of the house of representatives, on the melancholy and affecting event, in the death of the most illustrious and beloved personage which this country ever produced. I sympathize with you, with the nation, and with good men through the world, in this irreparable loss sustained by us all. SPECIAL MESSAGE. JANUARY 6, 1800. Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :— IN compliance with the request in one of the resolutions of Congress of the twenty-first of December last, I transmitted a copy of those resolutions, by my secretary, Mr. Shaw, to Mrs. Washington, assuring her of the profound respect Congress will ever bear to her person and character; of their condolence in the late afflicting dispensation of Providence ; and entreating her assent to the interment of the remains of General George Washington in the manner expressed in the first resolution. As the sentiments of that virtuous lady, not less beloved by this nation than she is at present greatly afflicted, can never be so well expressed as in her own words, I transmit to Congress her original letter. It would be an attempt of too much delicacy to make any comments upon it; but there can be no doubt that the nation at large, as well as all the branches of the government, will be highly gratified by any arrangement which may diminish the sacrifice she makes of her individual feelings. SPECIAL MESSAGE. JANUARY 14, 1800. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :— As the enclosed letter, from a member of your house, received by me in the night of Saturday, the eleventh instant, relates to the privileges of the house, which, in my opinion, ought to be inquired into in the house itself, if anywhere, I have thought proper to submit the whole letter and its tendencies to your consideration, without any other comments on its matter or style: but, as no gross impropriety of conduct, on the part of persons holding commissions in the army or navy of the United States, ought to pass without due animadversion, I have directed the secretary of war and the secretary of the navy to investigate the conduct complained of, and to report to me without delay, such a statement of facts as will enable me to decide on the course which duty and justice shall appear to prescribe. JEFFERSON'S CONFIDENTIAL MESSAGE, RECOMMENDING A WESTERN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. JANUARY 18, 1803. Gentlemen of the Senate and of the House of Representatives :— As the continuance of the act for establishing trading-houses with the Indian tribes, will be under the consideration of the legislature at its present session, I think it my duty to communicate the views which have guided me in the execution of that act, in order that you may decide on the policy of continuing it, in the present or any other form, or discontinue it altogether, if that shall, on the whole, seem most for the public good. The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the United States, have, for a considerable time, been growing more and more uneasy at the constant diminution of the territory they occupy, although effected by their own voluntary sales; and the policy has long been gaining strength with them, of refusing absolutely all further sale, on any conditions; insomuch that, at this time, it hazards their friendship, and excites dangerous jealousies and perturbations in their minds to make any overture for the purchase of the smallest portions of their land. A very few tribes only are not yet obstinately in these dispositions. In order peaceably to counteract this policy of theirs, and to provide an extension of territory which the rapid increase of our numbers will call for, two measures are deemed expedient. First: to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to the raising stock, to agriculture and domestic manufactures, and thereby prove to themselves that less land and labor will maintain them in this, better than in their former mode of living. The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life will then become useless, and they will see advantage in exchanging them for the means of improving their farms and of increasing their domestic comforts. Secondly to multiply trading-houses among them, and place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort than the possession of extensive but uncultivated wilds. Experience and reflection will develop to them the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare and we want, for what we can spare and they want. In leading them thus to agriculture, to manufactures, and civilization; in bringing together their and our settlements, and in preparing them ultimately to participate in the benefits of our government, I trust and believe we are acting for their greatest good. At these trading-houses we have pursued the principles of the act of Congress, which directs that the commerce shall be carried on liberally, and requires only that the capital stock shall not be diminished. We consequently undersell private traders, foreign and domestic; drive them from the competition; and thus, with the good will of the Indians, rid ourselves of a description of men who are constantly endeavoring to excite in the Indian mind suspicions, fears, and irritations toward us. A letter now enclosed, shows the effect of our competition on the operations of the traders, while the Indians, perceiving the advantage of purchasing from us, are soliciting generally our establishment of trading-houses among them. In one quarter this is particularly interesting. The legislature, reflecting on the late occurrences on the Mississippi, must be sensible how desirable it is to possess a respectable breadth of country on that river, from our southern limit to the Illinois at least, so that we may present as firm a front on that as on our eastern border. We possess what is below the Yazoo, and can probably acquire a certain breadth from the Illinois and Wabash to the Ohio; but between the Ohio and Yazoo, the country all belongs to the Chickasaws, the most friendly tribe within our limits, but the most decided against the alienation of lands. The portion of their country most important for us is exactly that which they do not inhabit. Their settlements are not on the Mississippi, but in the interior country. They have lately shown a desire to become agricultural, and this leads to the desire of buying implements and comforts. In the strengthening and gratifying of these wants, I see the only prospect of planting on the Mississippi itself, the means of its own safety. Duty has required me to submit these views to the judgment of the legislature; but as their disclosure might embarrass and defeat their effect, they are committed to the special confidence of the two houses. While the extension of the public commerce among the Indian tribes, may deprive of that source of profit such of our citizens as are engaged in it, it might be worthy the attention of Congress, in their care of individual as well as of the general interest, to point in another direction the enterprise of these citizens, as profitably for themselves, and more usefully for the public. The river Missouri, and the Indians inhabiting it, are not as well known as is rendered desirable by their connexion with the Mississippi, and consequently with us. It is, however, understood, that the country on that river is inhabited by numerous tribes, who furnish great supplies of furs and peltry to the trade of another nation, carried on in a high latitude, through an infinite number of portages and lakes, shut up by ice through a long season. The commerce on that line could bear no competition with that of the Missouri, traversing a moderate climate, offering, according to the best accounts, a continued navigation from its source, and possibly with a single portage, from the western ocean, and finding to the Atlantic a choice of channels through the Illinois or Wabash, the lakes and Hudson, through the Ohio and Susquehanna, or Potomac or James rivers, and through the Tennessee and Savannah rivAn intelligent officer, with ten or twelve chosen men, fit for the enterprise, and willing to undertake it, taken from our posts, where they may be spared without inconvenience, might explore the whole line, even to the western ocean; have conferences with the natives on the subject of commercial intercourse; get admission among them for our traders, as others are admitted; agree on convenient deposites for an interchange of articles; and return with the information acquired, in the course of two summers. Their arms and accoutrements, some instruments of observation, and light and cheap presents for the Indians, would be all the apparatus they could carry, and with an expectation of a soldier's portion of land on their return, would constitute the whole expense. Their pay would be going on, whether here or there. While other civilized nations have encountered great expense to enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, by undertaking voyages of discovery, and for other literary purposes, in various parts and directions, our nation seem to owe to the same object, as well as to its own interests, to explore this, the only line of easy communication across the continent, and so directly traversing our own part of it. The interests of commerce place the principal object within the constitutional powers and care of Congress, and that it should inci ers. |