intend their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage their revenue, to command their forces, and, by communications to the Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests generally. And the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to explain.

In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.

In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the rights of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to the Confederacy.

The management of the public revenue-that searching operation in all governments-is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence, and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable end are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress for the specific appropriation of public money and the prompt accountability of public officers.

With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may be found essential to our national independence.

Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of high importance.

Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The gradual

increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both branches of our military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defend. ing; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable ægis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.

It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people. The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task of reform, which will require particularly the correction of those abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment and have placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands,

In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in their respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending for the advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the public officers than on their numbers.

The same

A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my illus trious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction. MARCH 4, 1829.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

MARCH 6, 1829.

To the Senate of the United States.

GENTLEMEN: The Executive nominations made during the past session of Congress, and which remain unacted on by the Senate, I hereby withdraw from their consideration.

ANDREW JACKSON.

MARCH 6, 1829.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

The treaty of commerce and navigation concluded at Washington on the 1st of May, 1828, between the United States and the King of Prussia, was laid before the Senate, who, by their resolution of the 14th of that month, advised and consented to its ratification by the President.

By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was agreed that the exchange of ratifications should be made within nine months from its date.

On the 15th day of February last, being fifteen days after the time stipulated for the exchange by the terms of the treaty, the chargé d'affaires of the King of Prussia informed the Secretary of State that he had received the Prussian ratification and was ready to exchange it for that of the United States. In reply he was informed of the intention of the President, my late predecessor, not to proceed to the exchange in consequence of the expiration of the time within which it was to be made.

Under these circumstances I have thought it my duty, in order to avoid all future questions, to ask the advice and consent of the Senate to make the proposed exchange.

I send you the original of the treaty, together with a printed copy of it.

ANDREW JACKSON.

To the Senate of the United States.

MARCH II, 1829.

GENTLEMEN: Brevet rank for ten years' faithful service has produced much confusion in the Army. For this reason the discretion vested in the President of the United States on this subject would not be exercised by any submission of those cases to the Senate but that it has been heretofore the practice to do so. They are accordingly submitted, with other nominations, to fill the offices respectively annexed to their names in the inclosed lists,* for the consideration of the Senate.

ANDREW JACKSON.

*Omitted.

PROCLAMATIONS.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 7th of January, 1824, entitled "An act concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost," it is provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied within the ports of the said nation upon vessels belonging wholly to citizens of the United States, or upon merchandise the produce or manufacture thereof imported in the same, the President is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said nation and the merchandise of its produce or manufacture imported into the United States in the same, the said suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given to the President of the United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, and merchandise, as aforesaid, therein laden, shall be continued, and no longer; and

Whereas satisfactory evidence has been received by me from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria, through the Baron de Lederer, his consul-general in the United States, that vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States are not, nor shall be, on their entering any Austrian port, from and after the 1st day of January last, subject to the payment of higher duties of tonnage than are levied on Austrian ships:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships arriving in the United States as imposed a discriminating duty between the vessels of the Empire of Austria and vessels of the United States are suspended and discontinued, the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned and to continue henceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the ves sels of the United States shall be continued in the ports of the imperial dominions of Austria.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 11th day of May, A. D. 1829, and the fifty-second of the Independence of the United States.

[SEAL.]

By the President:

M. VAN BUREN,

Secretary of State.

ANDREW JACKSON.

*Should be "third" instead of "second."

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of May, 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled An act concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost,' and to equalize the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the said nation upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, or upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United States or from any foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said foreign nation and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the said foreign nation or from any other foreign country, the said suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given to the President of the United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no longer; and

Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria, through an official communication of the Baron de Lederer, his consul-general in the United States, under date of the 29th of May, 1829, that no other or higher duties of tonnage and impost are imposed or levied since the 1st day of January last in the ports of Austria upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States and upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United States and from any foreign country whatever than are levied on Austrian ships and their cargoes in the same ports under like circumstances:

Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of Austria and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the dominions of Austria and from any other foreign country whatever, the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned and to continue thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the United States and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported into the dominions of Austria in the same, as aforesaid, shall be continued