The duties composing the Mediterranean fund will cease, by law, at the end of the present session. Considering, however, that they are levied chiefly on luxuries, and that we have an impost on salt, a necessary of life, the free use of which otherwise is so important, I recommend to your consideration the suppression of the duties on salt, and the continuation of the Mediterranean fund, instead thereof, for a short time, after which that also will become unnecessary for any purpose now within contemplation. When both of these branches of revenue shall, in this way, be relinquished, there will still, ere long, be an accumulation of monies in the treasury, beyond the instalments of public debt which we are permitted by contract to pay. They cannot then, without a modification, assented to by the public creditors, be applied to the extinguishment of this debt, and the complete liberation of our revenues, the most desirable of all objects: nor, if our peace continues, will they be wanting for any other existing purpose. The question therefore now comes forward, to what other objects shall these surplusses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost, after the entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals when the purposes of war shall not call for them?. Shall we suppress the impost, and give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures? On a few articles of more general and necessary use, the suppression, in due season, will doubtless be right; but the great mass of the articles on which impost is paid, are foreign luxuries purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance, and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement, as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers. By these operations, new channels of communication will be opened between the states ; the lines of separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. Education is here placed among the articles of public care; not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprize, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences, which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation. The subject is now proposed for the consideration of congress, because, if approved by the time the state legislatures shall have deliberated on this extension of the federal trusts, and the laws shall be passed and other arrangements made for their execution, the necessary funds will be on hand, and without employment. I suppose an amendment to the constitution, by consent of the states, necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among those enumerated in the constitution, and to which it permits the public monies to be applied.. The present consideration of a national establishment for education particularly, is rendered proper by this circumstance also, that if congress, approving the proposition, shall yet think it more eligible to found it on a donation of lands, they have it now in their power to endow it with those which will be among the earliest to produce the necessary income. This foundation would have the advantage of being independent on war, which may suspend other improvements, by requiring, for its own purposes, the resources destined for them. This, fellow citizens, is the state of the public interests at the present moment, and according to the information now possessed. But such is the situation of the nations of Europe, and such too the predicament in which we stand with some of them, that we cannot rely with certainty on the present aspect of our affairs, that may change from moment to mo. ment, during the course of your session, or after you shall have separated. Our duty is therefore to act upon things as they are, and to make a reasonable provision for whatever they may be. Were armies to be raised whenever a speck of war is visible in our horizon, we never should have been without them. Our resources would have been exhausted on dangers which have never happened, instead of being reserved for what is really to take place. A steady, perhaps a quickened, pace in preparations for the defence of our sea port towns and waters, an early settlement of the most exposed and vulnerable parts of our country, a militia so organized that its effective portions can be called to any point in the union, or volunteers instead of them, to serve a sufficient time, are means which may always be ready, yet never preying on our resources until actually called into use. They will maintain the public interests, while a more permanent force shall be in a course of preparation. But much will depend on the promptitude with which these means can be brought into activity. If war be forced upon us in spite of our long and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and vigorous movements, in its outset, will go far towards.securing us in its course and issue, and towards throwing its burthens on those who render necessary the resort from reason to force. The result of our negociations, or such incidents in their course as may enable us to infer their probable issue, such further movements also, on our western frontier as may shew whether war is to be pressed there, while negociation is protracted elsewhere, shall be communicated to you from time to time, as they become known to me, with whatever other information I possess or may receive, which may aid your deliberations on the great national interests committed to your charge. Dec. 2, 1806. TH: JEFFERSON. Ordered, That the said message, together with the documents accompanying the same, be referred to a committee of the whole House, on the state of the union. And then the House adjourned until to-morrow morning, eleven o'clock. WEDNESDAY, December 3, 1806. Several other members, to wit; from New-York, Josiah Masters and David Thomas; from Maryland, Leonard Covington; and from South Carolina, Levi Casey, appeared, and took their seats in the House. Another new member, to wit; Edward Lloyd, from Maryland, returned to serve in this House, as a member for the said state, in the room of Joseph H. Nicholson, who hath resigned his seat, appeared, produced his credentials, and took his seat in the House; the oath to support the constitution of the United States being first administered to him, by Mr. Speaker, according to law. The House proceeded to consider the resolution of the Senate, for the appointment of two chaplains to Congress, for the present session, one by each House, to interchange weekly: Whereupon, Resolved, That this House do concur with the Senate therein. Ordered, That the Clerk of this House do acquaint the Senate therewith. Resolved, That this House will, to-morrow, proceed, by ballot, to the appointment of a chaplain to Congress, on their part. The House, according to the standing order of the day, resolved itself into a committee of the whole House, on the state of the union; and after some time spent therein, Mr. Speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. Varnum reported, that the committee had, according to order, had the state of the union under consideration, and come to several resolutions there upon, which he delivered in at the Clerk's table, where the same were read, as follow: 1. Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States, as relates to an inva sion of our territory by the troops of Spain, and to the adoption of measures for the protection thereof, be referred to a select committee. 2. Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States, as relates to the repairs of fortifications, and to the farther protection of our ports, towns and rivers, be referred to a select committee. 3. Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States, as relates to a revision and amendment of the laws for the punishment of crimes against the United States, be referred to a sclect committee. 4. Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States, as relates to the prohibition of the African slave trade, be referred to a select coinmittee. 5. Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States, as relates to a suppression of the duties on salt; to a continuation of the Mcditerranean fund; and to the state of our revenues, be referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. 6. Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States, as relates to the adoption of measures preparatory to the future appropriation of the surplus revenue of the United States, be referred to a select committee. 7. Resolved, That so much of the message of the President of the United States, as relates to the further exploring of the western waters, be referred to a select committee. The House proceeded to consider the said resolu tions at the Clerk's table, and the same being again read, were, on the question severally put thereupon, agreed to by the House. |