the communication of public intelligence and private business is rendered frequent and safe- the intercourse between distant cities, which it formerly required weeks to accomplish, is now effected in a few days; and in the construction of rail-roads, and the application of steam power, we have a reasonable prospect that the extreme parts of our country will be so much approximated, and those most isolated by the obstacles of nature rendered so асcessible, as to remove an apprehension some times entertained, that the great extent of the Union would endanger its permanent existence.

If, from the satisfactory view of our agriculture, manufactures, and internal improvements, we turn to the state of our navigation and trade with foreign nations and between the States, we shall scarcely find less cause for gratulation. A beneficent Providence has provided, for their exercise and encouragement, an extensive coast indented by capacious bays, noble rivers, inland seas; with a country productive of every material for ship building and every commodity for gainful commerce, and filled with a population, active, intelligent, well informed, and fearless of danger. These advantages are not neglected; and an impulse has lately been given to commercial enterprise, which fills our ship yards with new constructions, encourages all the arts and branches of industry connected with them, crowds the wharves of our cities with vessels, and covers the most distant seas with our canvass.

Let us be grateful for these blessings to the beneficent Being who has conferred them, and who suffers us to indulge a reasonable hope of their continuance and extension, while we neglect not the means by which they may be preserved. If we may dare to judge of His future designs by the manner in which his past fafors have been bestowed, he has made our national prosperity to depend on the preservation of our liberties our national force on our federal union- and our individual happiness on the maintenance of our State rights and wise institutions. If we are prosperous at home, and respected abroad, it is because we are free, united, industrious, and obedient to the laws. While we continue so, we shall, by the blessing of Heaven, go on in the happy career we have begun, and which has brought us, in the short period of our political existence, from a population of three to thirteen millions-from thirteen separate colonies to twenty-four United States-from weakness to strength-from a rank scarcely marked in the scale of Nations to a high place in their respect.

This last advantage is one that has resulted, in a great degree, from the principles which have guided our intercourse with foreign Powers, since we have assumed an equal station among them: and hence, the annual account which the Executive renders to the country, of the manner in which that branch of his duties has been fulfilled, proves instructive and salutary.

The pacific and wise policy

of our Government kept us in a state of neutrality during the wars that have, at different periods since our political existence, been carried on by other powers: but this policy, while it gave activity and extent to our commerce, exposed it in the same proportion to injuries from the belligerent nations. Hence have arisen claims of indemnity for those injuries. England, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and lately Portugal, had all in a greater or less degree infringed our neutral rights. Demands for reparation were made upon all. They have had in all, and continue to have in some cases, a leading influence on the nature of our relations with the powers on whom they were made. Of the claims upon England it is unnecessary to speak, further than to say, that the state of things to which their prosecution and denial gave rise has been succeeded by arrangements, productive of mutual good feeling and amicable relations between the two countries, which it is hoped will not be interrupted. One of these arrangements is that relating to the colonial trade, which was communicated to Congress at the last session; and although the short period during which it has been in force will not enable me to form an accurate judgment of its operation, there is every reason to believe that it will prove highly beneficial. The trade thereby authorized has employed, to the 30th September last, upwards of 30,000 tons of American, and 15,000 tons of foreign shipping in the outward

voyages; and, in the inward, nearly an equal amount of American, and 20,000, only, of foreign tonnage. Advantages, too, have resulted to our agricultural interests from. the state of the trade between Canada and our Territories and States bordering on the St. Lawrence and the Lakes, which may prove more than equivalent to the loss sustained by the discrimination made to favor the trade of the Northern colonies with the West Indies.

After our transition from the state of colonies to that of an independent nation, many points were found necessary to be settled between us and Great Britain. Among them was the demarcation of boundaries, not described with sufficient precision in the treaty of peace. Some of the lines that divide the States and Territories of the United States from the British provinces, have been definitively fixed. That, however, which separates us from the provinces of Canada and New Brunswick to the north and the east was still in dispute when I came into office. But I found arrangements made for its settlement, over which I had no control. The commissioners who had been appointed under the provisions of the treaty of Ghent, having been unable to agree, a convention was made with Great Britain by my immediate predeçessor in office, with the advice and consent of the Senate, by which it was agreed that the points of difference which have arisen in the settlement of the boundary line between the American and British dominions, as

described in the 5th article of the Treaty of Ghent, shall be referred, as therein provided, to some friendly sovereign or state, who shall be invited to investigate, and, make a decision upon such points of difference' and the King of the Netherlands having, by the late President, and his Britannic Majesty, been designated as such friendly sovereign, it became my duty to carry, with good faith, the agreement so made into full effect. For this end I caused all the measures to be taken which were necessary to a full exposition of our case, to the sovereign arbiter; and nominated as Minister Plenipotentiary to his court, a distinguished citizen of the State most interested in the question, aud who had been one of the agents previously employed for settling the controversy. On the 10th day of January last, his Majesty the King of the Netherlands delivered to the Plenipotentiaries of the United States, and of Great Britain, his written opinion on the case referred to him. The papers in relation to the subject will be communicated by a special message to the proper branch of the Government, with the perfect confidence that its wisdom will adopt such measures as will secure an amicable settlement of the controversy, without infringing any constitutional right of the States immediately interested.

It affords me satisfaction to inform you that suggestions, made by my direction, to the Charge d'Affaires of His Britannic Majesty to this Government, have had their desired effect in producing the release of certain Amer

ican citizens, who were imprisoned for setting up the authority of the State of Maine, at a place in the disputed Territory under the actual jurisdiction of his Britannic Majesty. From this, and the assurances I have received, of the desire of the local authorities to avoid any cause of collision, I have the best hopes that a good understanding will be kept up until it is confirmed by the final disposition of the subject.

The amicable relations which now subsist between the United States and Great Britain, the increasing intercourse between their citizens, and the rapid obliteration of unfriendly prejudices to which former events naturally gave rise, concurred to present this as a fit period for renewing our endeavors to provide against the recurrence of causes of irritation, which, in the event of war between Great Britain and any other power, would inevitably endanger our peace. Animated by the sincerest desire to avoid such a state of things, and peacefully to secure, under all possible circumstances, the rights and honor of the country, I have given such instructions to the Minister lately sent to the Court of London, as will evince that desire; and if met by a correspondent disposition, which we cannot doubt, will put an end to causes of collision, which, without advantage to either, tend to estrange from each other two nations who have every motive to preserve, not only peace, but an intercourse of the most amicable nature.

In my message at the opening of the last session of Congress,

With Spain our differences, up to the 22d of February, 1819, were settled by the treaty of Washington of that date; but, at a subsequent period, our commerce with the States, formerly colonies of Spain, on the continent of America, was annoyed and frequently interrupted by her public and private armed ships they captured many of our vessels prosecuting a lawful commerce, and sold them and their cargoes; and, at one time, to our demands for restoration and indemnity, opposed the allegation, that they were taken in the violation of a blockade of all the ports of those States. This blockade was declaratory only, and the inadequacy of the force to maintain it was so manifest, that this allegation was varied to a charge of trade in contraband of war. This, in its turn, was also found untenable; and the minister, whom I sent with instructions to press for the reparation that was due to our injured fellow-citizens, has transmitted an answer to his demand, by which the captures are declared to have been legal, and are justified, because the independence of the States of America, never having been acknowledged by Spain, she had a right to prohibit trade with them under her old colonial laws. This ground of defence was contradictory, not only to those which had been formerly alleged, but to the uniform practice and established laws of nations, and had been abandoned by Spain herself in the convention which granted indemnity to British subjects for captures made at the same time,

under the same circumstances, and for the same allegations with those of which we complain.

I however indulge the hope that further reflection will lead to other views, and feel confident that when His Catholic Majesty shall be convinced of the justice of the claim, his desire to preserve friendly relations between the two countries, which it is my earnest endeavor to maintain, will induce him to accede to our demand. I have therefore despatched a special messenger with instructions to our Minister to bring the case once more to his consideration; to the end that if, which I cannot bring myself to believe, the same decision, that cannot but be deemed an unfriendly denial of justice, should be persisted in, the matter may, before your adjournment, be laid before you, the constitutional judges of what is proper to be done when negotiation for redress of injury fails.

The conclusion of a treaty for indemnity with France, seemed to present a favorable opportunity to renew our claims of a similar nature on other powers; and particularly in the case of those upon Naples, more especially as in the course of former negotiations with that power, our failure to induce France to render us justice was used as an argument against us. The desires of the merchants, who were the principal sufferers, have, therefore, been acceded to, and a mission has been instituted for the special purpose of obtaining for them a reparation already too long delayed. This measure having been resolved on, it was put in execution