SPECIAL MESSAGES. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, December 7, 1819. I transmit herewith to the Senate a collection of the commercial regulations of the different foreign countries with which the United States have commercial intercourse, which has been compiled in compliance with the resolution of the Senate of 3d March, 1817. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, December 14, 1819. To the House of Representatives of the United States: In conformity with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th of February last, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State, with extracts and copies of several letters, touching the causes of the imprisonment of William White, an American citizen, at Buenos Ayres. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, December 17, 1819. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: Some doubt being entertained respecting the true intent and meaning of the act of the last session entitled "An act in addition to the acts prohibiting the slave trade," as to the duties of the agents to be appointed on the coast of Africa, I think it proper to state the interpretation which has been given of the act and the measures adopted to carry it into effect, that Congress may, should it be deemed advisable, amend the same before further proceeding is had under it. The obligation to instruct the commanders of all our armed vessels to seize and bring into port all ships or vessels of the United States, wheresoever found, having on board any negro, mulatto, or person of color in violation of former acts for the suppression of the slave trade, being imperative, was executed without delay. No seizures have yet been made, but as they were contemplated by the law, and might be presumed, it seemed proper to make the necessary regulations applicable to such seizures for carrying the several provisions of the act into effect. It is enjoined on the Executive to cause all negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color who may be taken under the act to be removed to Africa. It is the obvious import of the law that none of the persons thus taken should remain within the United States, and no place other than the coast of Africa being designated, their removal or delivery, whether carried from the United States or landed immediately from the vessels in which they were taken, was supposed to be confined to that coast. No settlement or station being specified, the whole coast was thought to be left open for the selection of a proper place at which the persons thus taken should be delivered. The Executive is authorized to appoint one or more agents residing there to receive such persons, and $100,000 are appropriated for the general purposes of the law. On due consideration of the several sections of the act, and of its humane policy, it was supposed to be the intention of Congress that all the persons above described who might be taken under it and landed in Africa should be aided in their return to their former homes, or in their establishment at or near the place where landed. Some shelter and food would be necessary for them there as soon as landed, let their subsequent disposition be what it might. Should they be landed without such provision having been previously made, they might perish. It was supposed, by the authority given to the Executive to appoint agents residing on that coast, that they should provide such shelter and food, and perform the other beneficent and charitable offices contemplated by the act. The coast of Africa having been little explored, and no persons residing there who possessed the requisite qualifications to entitle them to the trust being known to the Executive, to none such could it be committed. It was believed that citizens only who would go hence well instructed in the views of their Government and zealous to give them effect would be competent to these duties, and that it was not the intention of the law to preclude their appointment. It was obvious that the longer these persons should be detained in the United States in the hands of the marshals the greater would be the expense, and that for the same term would the main purpose of the law be suspended. It seemed, therefore, to be incumbent on me to make the necessary arrangements for carrying this act into effect in Africa in time to meet the delivery of any persons who might be taken by the public vessels and landed there under it. On this view of the policy and sanctions of the law it has been decided to send a public ship to the coast of Africa with two such agents, who will take with them tools and other implements necessary for the purposes above mentioned. To each of these agents a small salary has been allowed—$1,500 to the principal and $1,200 to the other. All our public agents on the coast of Africa receive salaries for their services, and it was understood that none of our citizens possessing the requisite qualifications would accept these trusts, by which they would be confined to parts the least frequented and civilized, without a reasonable compensation. Such allowance therefore seemed to be indispensable to the execution of the act. It is intended also to subject a portion of the sum appropriated to the order of the principal agent for the special objects above stated, amounting in the whole, including the salaries of the agents for one year, to rather less than one-third of the appropriation. Special instructions will be given to these agents, defining in precise terms their duties in regard to the persons thus delivered to them, the disbursement of the money by the principal agent, and his accountability for the same. They will also have power to select the most suitable place on the coast of Africa at which all persons who may be taken under this act shall be delivered to them, with an express injunction to exercise no power founded on the principle of colonization or other power than that of performing the benevolent offices above recited by the permission and sanction of the existing government under which they may establish themselves. Orders will be given to the commander of the public ship in which they will sail to cruise along the coast to give the more complete effect to the principal object of the act. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, December 17, 1819. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: In compliance with a resolution of Congress of the 27th March, 1818, the journal, acts, and proceedings of the convention which formed the present Constitution of the United States have been published. The resolution directs that 1,000 copies should be printed, of which one copy should be furnished to each member of the Fifteenth Congress, and the residue to be subject to the future disposition of Congress. The number of copies sufficient to supply the members of the late Congress having been reserved for that purpose, the remainder are now deposited at the Department of State subject to the order of Congress. The documents mentioned in the resolution of the 27th March, 1818, are in the process of publication. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, December 24, 1819. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: On the 23d of February, 1803, a message from the President of the United States was transmitted to both Houses of Congress, together with the report of the then Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, upon the case of the Danish brigantine Henrick and her cargo, belonging to citizens of Hamburg, recommending the claim to the favorable consideration of Congress. In February, 1805, it was again presented by a message from the President to the consideration of Congress, but has not since been definitively acted upon. The minister resident from Denmark and the consul-general from Hamburg having recently renewed applications in behalf of the respective owners of the vessel and cargo, I transmit herewith copies of their communications for the further consideration of the Legislature, upon whose files all the documents relating to the claim are still existing. JAMES MONROE. M P-VOL II-5 To the Senate of the United States: DECEMBER 31, 1819. I transmit to the Senate, for its advice and consent as to the ratification, three treaties which have been concluded in the course of the present year with the Kickapoos, the Chippaways, and the Kickapoos of the Vermillion by commissioners who were duly authorized for the purpose. With the Chippaways there is a supplementary article stipulating certain advantages in their favor on condition that the same shall be ratified by the Executive, with the advice and consent of the Senate, which I likewise submit to your consideration. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, January 8, 1820. To the House of Representatives of the United States: In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 14th December, 1819, requesting me to cause to be laid before it any information I may possess respecting certain executions which have been inflicted in the Army of the United States since the year 1815 contrary to the laws and regulations provided for the government of the same, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War containing a detailed account in relation to the object of the said resolution. JAMES MONROE. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, January 8, 1820. In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 20th of January, 1819, requesting me to cause a report to be laid before them at their next session of such facts as may be within the means of the Government to obtain shewing how far it may be expedient or not to provide by law for clothing the Army with articles manufactured in the United States," I transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the accompanying documents, comprehends all the information required by the Senate in their resolution aforesaid. JAMES MONROE. To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, January 19, 1820. In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives requesting me "to lay before it at as early a day as may be convenient an account of the expenditure of the several sums appropriated for building fortifications from the year 1816 to the year 1819, inclusive, indicating the places at which works of defense have been begun, the magnitude of the works contemplated at each place, their present condition, the amount .already expended, and the estimated amount requisite for the completion of each, also the mode by which the fortifications are built, by contract or otherwise," I now transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of War, to whom the said resolution was referred, which, with the doc-. uments accompanying it, contains all the information required. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, February 8, 1820. To the House of Representatives of the United States: In conformity with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 24th January, 1820, requesting me "to inform the House what loans, if any, have been made since the peace, to private citizens, of powder, lead, and other munitions belonging to the Government by officers of any department of the Army or Navy, specifying the times, terms, objects, and extent of such loans, the names of the persons by whom and to whom made, the different times of repayment, and also the amount of the ultimate loss, if any, likely to be incurred by the Government in consequence thereof," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War, which, with the accompanying documents, contains all the information that can be furnished on the subject. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, March 1, 1820. To the House of Representatives of the United States: In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 4th of February last, requesting to be informed what progress has been made in surveying certain parts of the coast of North Carolina and in ascertaining the latitude and longitude of the extreme points of Cape Hatteras, Cape Look Out, and Cape Fear, according to a resolution of the 19th of January, 1819, I have to state that it is intended to carry the resolution of the 19th of March into effect in the present year. The cooperation of the Board of Engineers with Naval Commissioners being necessary in executing that duty, and the Board having been engaged last year in surveying the eastern coast of our Union, it would have interfered with previous arrangements and been attended with increased expense had they been withdrawn from it. The Board will, however, be employed during the present summer in the regular execution of its duties in the survey of the coast of North Carolina, when instructions will be given it to afford the necessary aid to carry the resolution of the 19th of January of the last year into effect. JAMES MONROE. |