248 Message, Jan. 16, 1812, transmitting report of Secretary of State; trade to France subject to severe restrictions 246 Message, Jan. 16, 1812, transmitting letter trom Mr. Foster Message, March 13, 1812, transmitting letter from Mr. Message, April 1, 1812, recommending an embargo List of American vessels captured in the Baltick Message, June1,1812,recommending war with Great Britain 362 Correspondence between Mr. Foster and Mr. Monroe Correspondence between Mr. Monroe and Mr. Russell Report, or manifesto, of causes of war with Great Britain. Message, June 4, 1812, transmitting correspondence of Message, June 8, 1812, transmitting correspondence of Message, June 11, 1812, transmitting correspondence of Proclamation of war with Great Britain. June 19, 1812 489 Message, June 22, 1812, transmitting copies of letter from Mr. Russell to Secretary of State, and from lord 492-499 AMERICAN STATE PAPERS. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. DEC. 31, 1810. I LAY before the House of Representatives a supplemental report of the Secretary of State, containing information, received since the date of my last message, on the subject of their resolution of the 21st instant. JAMES MADISON. Department of State, Dec. 31, 1810. SIR,-Having just received from general Armstrong the enclosed communication, (marked D) I hasten to transmit it to you, as a supplement to the report which I had the honour of laying before you on the 28th of this month. With the highest respect and consideration, I have the honour to be, &c. The President of the United States. R. SMITH. (D.) Washington, Dec. 29, 1810. SIR,-In giving the few papers I brought with me another examination, I have found the enclosed extract from the minutes of the French council of commerce of the 12th of September last. Having a connexion with the subject of my letter of yesterday, I have the honour of transmitting it to you, and at the same time of renewing the assurances of my very high consideration. JOHN ARMSTRONG. Hon. Robert Smith, Secretary of State. TRANSLATION. Extract from the Minutes of the Office of the Secretary of State. At the Palace of St. Cloud, Sept. 12, 1810. NAPOLEON, emperor of the French, king of Italy, protector of the confederation of the Rhine, and mediator of the Swiss confederation : Upon the report of our minister of the interior: After having heard our council of the administration of the finances, and in conformity with our decree of the 5th of August, 1810. We have decreed and do decree as follows: ART. 1. The duties of entry upon the articles of merchandise hereafter mentioned, are regulated in the following manner : ART. 11. Our ministers of the interior, of justice, and of the finances, are charged with the execution of the present decree, NAPOLEON. FROM THE PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES RELATIVE TO THE FLORIDAS. JAN. 3, 1811. [Not published, as negotiations on the subject are still pending.] MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO CONGRESS. JAN. 12, 1811. I TRANSMIT to Congress, copies of a letter from the minister plenipotentiary of the United States, at London, to the Secretary of State, and of another, from the same, to the British secretary for foreign affairs. JAMES MADISON. Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Smith. London, Nov. 5, 1810. SIR, I have presented a second note, of which a copy is enclosed, to lord Wellesley, on the subject of the orders in council, under an impression that the state of the king's health (for which I beg to refer you to the paper herewith transmitted) did not render it improper, and that if it was not improper on that account, it was indispensa ble on every other. The day had gone by when the Berlin and Milan decrees were to cease to operate, according to the communication made by the government of France to the American minister at Paris, and published in the official journal of that government; and yet no step whatever had been taken, or apparently thought of, towards the revocation of the British orders. I had received no explanation of the reasons of this backwardness, and no such assurance, looking to the future, as could justify an opinion, that it would not continue. Lord Wellesley's letter of the 31st of August, which I had left unanswered till after the 1st of November, that I might stand on the strongest possible ground when I did answer it, made no profession of being a present measure, and (though from obvious motives, I have not so represented it in my note to him of the 3d inst.) was vague and equivocal as a prospective pledge. It defined nothing, and was so far from warranting any specifick expectation, that it seemed rather to take away the very little of precision which belonged to former declarations on the same point. It was highly important to the commerce of the United States, that this ambiguity |