zance of the national authority, an amendment of the law, embracing such cases, will merit the earliest attention of the Legislature. It will be a seasonable occasion, also, for inquiring how far Legislative interposition may be further requisite in providing penalties for offences designated in the Constitution or in the statutes, and to which either no penalties arc annexed, or none with sufficient certainty And I submit to the wisdom of Congress, whether a more enlarged revisal of the criminal code be not expedient, for the purpose of mitigating, in certain cases, penalties which were adopted into it, antecedent to experiment and examples which justify and recommend a more lenient policy.

The United States having been the first to abolish, within the extent of their authority, the transportation of the natives of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves, and by punishing their citizens participating in the traffick, cannot but be gratified at the progress, made by concurrent efforts of other nations, towards a general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel, at the same time, the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own regulations. With that view, the interposition of Congress appears to be required by the violations and evasions which, it is suggested, are chargeable on unworthy citi zens, who mingle in the slave trade under foreign flags, and with foreign ports; and by collusive im portations of slaves into the United States, through adjoining ports and territories. I present the subject to Congress, with a full assurance of their disposition to apply all the remedy which can be af forded by an amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to guard against abuses of a kindred character, in the trade be

tween the several States, ought also to be rendered more effectual for their humane object.

To these recommendations I add, for the consideration of Congress, the expediency of a re-modification of the Judiciary establishment, and of an additional department in the Executive branch of the government.

The first is called for by the accruing business which necessarily sweils the duties of the Federal Courts; and by the great and widening space, within which justice is to be dispensed by them. The time seems to have arrived which claims for members of the Supreme Court a relief from itinerary fatigues, incompatible as well with the age which a portion of them will always have attained, as with the rescarches and preparations which are due to their stations, and to the juridical eputation of their country. And considerations equally cogent require a more convenient organization of the subordinate tribunals. which may be accomplished without an objectionable increase of the number or expense of the Judges.

The extent and variety of Executive business, also accumulating with the progress of our country and its growing population, call for an additional department, to be charged with duties now overburdening other departments, and with such as have not been annexed to any department.

The course of experience recommends, as another improvement in the Executive establishment, that the provision for the station of Attorney General, whose residence at the seat of government, official connexions with it, and management of the public business before the Judiciary, preclude an extensive participation in professional emoluments, be made more adequate to his services and his reTinquishinents; and that, with a view to his rea

sonable accommodation, and to a proper depository of his official opinions and proceedings, there be included in the provision, the usual appurtenances to a public office.

In directing the legislative attention to the state of the finances, it is a subject of great gratification to find, that, even within the short period which has elapsed since the return of peace, the revenue has far exceeded all the current demands upon the treasury, and that, under any probable diminution of its future annual products, which the vicissitudes of commerce may occasion, it will afford an ample fund for the effectual and early extinguishment of the public debt. It has been estimated, that during the year 1816, the actual receipts of revenue at the treasury, including the balance at the commencement of the year, and excluding the proceeds of loans and treasury notes, will amount to about the sum of forty-seven millions of dollars; that during the same year, the actual payments at the Treasury, including the payment of the arrearages of the War Department, as well as the payment of a considerable excess, beyond the annual appropriations, will amount to about the sum of thirty-eight millions of dollars; and that, consequently, at the close of the year, there will be a surplus in the treasury of about the sum of nine millions of dollars.

The operations of the treasury continue to be obstructed by difficulties, arising from the condition of the national currency; but they have, nevertheless, been effectual, to a beneficial extent, in the reduction of the public debt, and the establishment of the public credit. The floating debt of treasury notes and temporary loans, will soon be entirely discharged. The aggregate of the funded debt, composed of debts incurred during the wars

3.

1776 and 1812, has been estimated, with reference to the first of January next, at a sum not exceeding one hundred and ten millions of dollars. The ordinary annual expenses of the government, for the maintenance of ali its institutions, civil, military, and naval, have been estimated at a sum less than twenty millions of dollars. And the permanent revenue, to be derived from all the existing sources, has been estimated at a sum of about twenty-five millions of dollars.

Upon this general view of the subject, it is obvious, that there is only wanting, to the fiscal prosperity of the government, the restoration of an uniform medium of exchange. The resources and the faith of the nation, displayed in the system which Congress has established, ensure respect and confidence both at home and abroad. The local accumulations of the revenue have already enabled the treasury to meet the public engagements in the local currency of most of the States: and it is expected that the same cause will produce the same effect throughout the Union. But, for the interests of the community at large, as well as for the purposes of the treasury, it is essential that the nation should possess a currency of equal value, credit, and use, wherever it may circulate. The Constitution has entrusted Congress, exclusively, with the power of creating and regulating a currency of that description; and the measures which were taken during the last session, in execution of the power, give every promise of success. The Bank of the United States has been organized under auspices the most favourable, and cannot fail to be an important auxiliary to those measures.

For a more enlarged view of the public finances, with a view of the measures pursued by the Treasury Department, previous to the resignation

of the late Secretary, I transmit an extract from the last report or that officer. Congress will per ceive in it ample proofs of the solid foundation on which the financial prosperity of the nation rests; and will do justice to the distinguished ability and successful exertions with which the duties of the department were executed, during a period remarkable for its difficulties and its peculiar per plexities.

The period of my retiring from the public service being at little distance, I shall find no occasion more proper than the present for expressing to my fellow-citizens my deep sense of the continued confidence and kind support which I have received from them. My grateful recollection of these distinguished marks of their favourable regard can never cease; and, with the consciousness, that if I have not served my country with greater ability, I have served it with a sincere dcvotion, will accompany me as a source of unfailing gratification.

Happily, I shall carry with me from the public theatre, other sources, which those who love their country most, will best appreciate. I shall behold it blessed with tranquillity and prosperity at home, and with peace and respect abroad. I can indulge the proud reflection, that the American people have reached, in safety and success, their fortieth year as an independent nation; that, for nearly an entire generation, they have had experience of their present constitution, the offspring of their undisturbed deliberations and of their free choice; that they have found it to bear the trials of adverse as well as prosperous circumstances; to contain, in its combination of the federate and elective principles, a reconcilement of public strength with individual liberty, of national power for the defence