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to observe, that indemnity has been obtained for some of the injuries which our fellow citizens had sustained in the latter of those countries. The rest are in a train of negotiation, which we hope may terminate to mutual satisfaction, and that it may be succeeded by a treaty of commerce and navigation, upon liberal principles, propitious to a great and growing commerce, already important to the interests of our country.

The condition and prospects of the revenue are more favorable than our most sanguine expectations had anticipated. The balance in the Treasury on the first of January last, exclusive of the moneys received under the Convention of 13th November, 1826, with Great Britain, was five millions eight hundred and sixty-one thousand nine hundred and seventy-two dollars, and eighty-three cents. The receipts into the Treasury, from the first of January to the thirtieth of September last, so far as they have been ascertained to form the basis of an estimate, amount to eighteen millions six hundred and thirty-three thousand five hundred and eighty dollars and twentyseven cents, which, with the receipts of the present quarter, estimated at five millions four hundred and sixty-one thousand two hundred and eightythree dollars and forty cents, form an aggregate of receipts during the year of twenty-four millions and ninety-four thousand eight hundred and sixtythree dollars and sixty-seven cents. The expenditures of the year may probably amount to twenty five millions six hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred and eleven dollars and sixty-three cents; and leave in the Treasury, on the first of January next, the sum of five millions one hundred and twenty-five thousand six hundred and thirty-eight dollars, fourteen cents.

The receipts of the present year have amounted to near two millions more than was anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress. The amount of duties secured on importations from the first of January to the 30th of September, was about twenty-two millions nine hundred and ninety-seven thousand, and that of the estimated accruing revenue is five millions; forming an aggregate for the year, of near twenty-eight millions. This is one million more than the estimate made last December, for the accruing revenue of the present year, which, with allowances for drawbacks and contingent deficiencies, was expected to produce an actual revenue of twentytwo millions three hundred thousand dollars. Had these only been realized, the expenditures of the year would have been also proportionally reduced. For, of these twenty-four millions received, upwards of nine millions have been applied to the extinction of public debt, bearing an interest of six per cent. a year, and of course reducing the burden of interest annually payable in future, by the amount of more than half a million. The payments on account of interest, during the current year, exceed three millions of dollars; presenting an aggregate of more than twelve millions applied during the year to the discharge of the public debt, the whole of which remaining due on the first of January next, will amount only to fifty-eight millions three hundred and sixty-two thousand one hundred and thirty-five dollars, seventyeight cents.

That the revenue of the ensuing year will not fall short of that received in the one now expiring, there are indications which can scarcely prove deceptive. In our country, an uniform experience of forty years has shown that whatever the tariff of duties upon articles imported from abroad has been, the amount of importations has always borne an average value nearly approaching to that of the exports, though occasionally differing in the bal

ance, sometimes being more and sometimes less. It is, indeed, a general law of prosperous commerce, that the real value of exports should, by a small, and only a small balance, exceed that of imports, that balance being a permanent addition to the wealth of the nation. The extent of the prosperous commerce of the nation must be regulated by the amount of its exports; and an important addition to the value of these will draw after it a corresponding increase of importations. It has happened in the vicissitudes of the seasons, that the harvests of all Europe have, in the late summer and autumn, fallen short of their usual average. A relaxation of the interdict upon the importation of grain and flour from abroad has ensued; a propitious market has been opened to the granaries of our country; and a new prospect of reward presented to the labors of the husbandman, which, for several years, has been denied. This accession to the profits of agriculture in the middle and western portions of our Union, is accidental and temporary. It may continue only for a single year. It may be, as has been often experienced in the revolutions of time, but the first of several scanty harvests in succession. We may consider it certain, that, for the approaching year, it has added an item of large amount to the value of our exports, and that it will produce a corresponding increase of importations. It may, therefore, confidently be foreseen, that the revenue of 1829 will equal, and probably exceed, that of 1828, and will afford the means of extinguishing ten millions more of the principal of the public debt.

This new element of prosperity to that part of our agricultural industry, which is occupied in producing the first article of human subsistence, is of the most cheering character to the feelings of patriotism. Proceeding from a cause which humanity will view with concern,-the sufferings of scarcity in distant lands,--it yields a consolatory reflection, that this scarcity is in no respect attributable to us: That it comes from the dispensation of Him who ordains all in wisdom and goodness, and who permits evil itself only as an instrument of good: That, far from contributing to this scarcity, our agency will be applied only to the alleviation of its severity, and that in pouring forth, from the abundance of our own garners, the supplies which will partially restore plenty to those who are in need, we shall ourselves reduce our stores, and add to the price of our own bread, so as in some degree to participate in the wants which it will be the good fortune of our country to relieve.

The great interests of an agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing nation, are so linked in union together, that no permanent cause of prosperity to one of them, can operate without extending its influence to the others. All these interests are alike under the protecting power of the legislative authority; and the duties of the representative bodies are to conciliate them in harmony together. So far as the object of taxation is to raise a revenue for discharging the debts, and defraying the expenses of the community, it should as much as possible suit the burden with equal hand upon all, in proportion with their ability of bearing it without oppression.

But the legislation of one nation is sometimes intentionally made to bear heavily upon the interests of another. That legislation, adapted as it is meant to be, to the special interests of its own people, will often press most unequally upon the several component interests of its neighbors. Thus, the legislation of Great Britain, when, as has recently been avowed, adapted to the depression of a rival nation, will naturally abound with regulations of interdict upon the productions of the soil or industry of the other, which

terests.

come in competition with its own; and will present encouragement, perhaps even bounty, to the raw material of the other State, which it cannot produce itself, and which is essential for the use of its manufactures, competitors in the markets of the world with those of its commercial rival. Such is the state of the commercial legislation of Great Britain, as it bears upon our inIt excludes, with interdicting duties, all importation (except in time of approaching famine,) of the great staple productions of our Middle and Western States; it proscribes, with equal rigor, the bulkier lumber and live stock of the same portion, and also of the Northern and Eastern part of our Union. It refuses even the rice of the South, unless aggravated with a charge of duty upon the Northern carrier who brings it to them. But the cotton, indispensable for their looms, they will receive almost duty free, to weave it into a fabric for our own wear, to the destruction of our own manufactures, which they are enabled thus to undersell. Is the self-protecting energy of this nation so helpless, that there exists, in the political institutions of our country, no power to counteract the bias of this foreign legislation? That the growers of grain must submit to this exclusion from the foreign markets of their produce; that the shippers must dismantle their ships, the trade of the North stagnate at the wharves, and the manufacturers starve at their looms, while the whole people shall pay tribute to foreign industry to be clad in a foreign garb. That the Congress of the Union are impotent to restore the balance in favor of native industry destroyed by the statutes of another realm? More just and more generous sentiments will, I trust, prevail. If the tariff adopted at the last session of Congress shall be found, by experience, to bear oppressively upon the interests of any one section of the Union, it ought to be, and I cannot doubt will be, so modified as to alleviate its burden.

To the voice of just complaint from any portion of their constituents, the representatives of the States and of the people will never turn away their ears. But so long as the duty of the foreign shall operate only as a bounty upon the domestic article-while the planter, and the merchant, and the shepherd, and the husbandman, shall be found thriving in their occupations under the duties imposed for the protection of domestic manufactures, they will not repine at the prosperity shared with themselves by their fellow-citizens of other professions, nor denounce as violations of the Constitution the deliberate acts of Congress to shield from the wrongs of foreign laws the native industry of the Union. While the tariff of the last session of Congress was a subject of legislative deliberation, it was foretold by some of its opposers that one of its necessary consequences would be to impair the revenue. It is yet too soon to pronounce, with confidence, that this prediction was erroneThe obstruction of one avenue of trade not unfrequently opens an issue to another. The consequence of the tariff will be to increase the exportation, and to diminish the importation of some specific articles. But by the general law of trade, the increase of exportation of one article will be followed by an increased importation of others, the duties upon which will supply the deficiencies, which the diminished importation would otherwise occasion. The effect of taxation upon revenue can seldom be foreseen with certainty. It must abide the test of experience. As yet no symptoms of diminution are perceptible in the receipts of the Treasury. As yet, little addition of cost has even been experienced upon the articles burdened with heavier duties by the last tariff. The domestic manufacturer supplies the same, or a kindred article, at a diminished price; and the consumer pays the

ous.

same tribute to the labor of his own countrymen, which he must otherwise have paid to foreign industry and toil.

The tariff of the last session was, in its details, not acceptable to the great interests of any portion of the Union, not even to the interest which it was specially intended to subserve. Its object was to balance the burdens upon native industry imposed by the operation of foreign laws; but not to aggravate the burdens of one section of the Union by the relief afforded to another. Το the great principle sanctioned by that act, one of those upon which the Constitution itself was formed, I hope and trust the authorities of the Union will adhere. But if any of the duties imposed by the act, only relieve the manufacturer by aggravating the burden of the planter, let a careful revisal of its provisions, enlightened by the practical experience of its effects, be directed to retain those which impart protection to native industry, and remove or supply the place of those which only alleviate one great national interest by the depression of another.

The United States of America, and the people of every State of which they are composed, are each of them sovereign powers. The legislative authority of the whole is exercised by Congress, under authority granted them in the common Constitution. The legislative power of each State is exercised by assemblies, deriving their authority from the Constitution of the State. Each is sovereign within its own province. The distribution of power between them, presupposes that these authorities will move in harmony with each other. The members of the State and General governments are all under oath to support both, and allegiance is due to the one and to the other. The case of a conflict between these two powers has not been supposed; nor has any provision been made for it in our institutions; as a virtuous nation of ancient times existed more than five centuries without a law for the punishment of parricide.

More than once, however, in the progress of our history, have the People and the Legislatures of one or more States, in moments of excitement, been instigated to this conflict; and the means of effecting this impulse, have been allegations that the acts of Congress to be resisted, were unconstitutional. The People of no one State have ever delegated to their Legislature, the power of pronouncing an act of Congress unconstitutional; but they have delegated to them powers, by the exercise of which, the execution of the laws of Congress within the State may be resisted. If we suppose the case of such conflicting legislation sustained by the corresponding executive and judicial authorities, patriotism and philanthropy turn their eyes from the condition in which the parties would be placed, and from that of the people of both, which must be its victims.

The reports from the Secretary of War, and the various subordinate offices of the resort of that Department, present an exposition of the public administration of affairs connected with them, through the course of the current year, The present state of the army, and the distribution of the force of which it is composed, will be seen from the report of the Major General. Several alterations in the disposal of the troops, have been found expedient in the course of the year; and the discipline of the army, though not entirely free from exception, has been generally good.

The attention of Congress is particularly invited to that part of the report of the Secretary of War which concerns the existing system of our relations with the Indian tribes. At the establishment of the Federal government, under the present Constitution of the United States, the princi

ple was adopted of considering them as foreign and independent powers; and also as proprietors of lands. They were, moreover, considered as savages, whom it was our policy and our duty to use our influence in converting to christianity, and in bringing within the pale of civilization.

As independent powers, we negotiated with them by treaties: as proprietors, we purchased of them all the lands which we could prevail upon them to sell: as brethren of the human race, rude and ignorant, we endeavored to bring them to the knowledge of religion and of letters. The ultimate design was to incorporate in our own institutions that portion of them which could be converted to the state of civilization. In the practice of European States, before our Revolution, they had been considered as children to be governed; as tenants at discretion, to be dispossessed as occasion might require; as hunters, to be indemnified by trifling concessions for removal from the grounds upon which their game was extirpated. In changing the system, it would seem as if a full contemplation of the consequences of the change had not been taken. We have been far more successful in the acquisition of their lands than in imparting to them the principles, or inspiring them with the spirit of civilization. But in appropriating to ourselves their hunting grounds, we have brought upon ourselves the obligation of providing them with subsistence; and when we have had the rare good fortune of teaching them the arts of civilization and the doctrines of christianity, we have unexpectedly found them forming, in the midst of ourselves, communities claiming to be independent of ours, and rivals of sovereignty within the territories of the members of our Union. This state of things requires that a remedy should be provided. A remedy which, while it shall do justice to those unfortunate children of nature, may secure to the members of our confederation their rights of sovereignty and of soil. As the outline of a project to that effect, the views presented in the report of the Secretary of War are recommended to the consideration of Congress.

The report from the Engineer Department presents a comprehensive view of the progress which has been made in the great systems promotive of the public interest, commenced and organized under the authority of Congress, and the effects of which have already contributed to the security, as they will hereafter largely contribute to the honor and dignity of the nation.

The first of these great systems is that of fortifications, commenced immediately after the close of our last war, under the salutary experience. which the events of that war had impressed upon our countrymen of its necessity. Introduced under the auspices of my immediate predecessor, it has been continued with the persevering and liberal encouragement of the Legislature; and combined with corresponding exertions for the gradual increase and improvement of the Navy, prepares for our extensive country a condition of defence adapted to any critical emergency which the varying course of events may bring forth. Our advances in these concerted systems, have, for the last ten years, been steady and progressive; and in a few years more will be so completed as to leave no cause for apprehension that our sea coast will ever again offer a theatre of hostile invasion.

The next of these cardinal measures of policy, is the preliminary to great and lasting works of public improvement, in the surveys of roads, examination for the course of canals, and labors for the removal of the obstructions of rivers and harbors, first commenced by the act of Congress of 30th April, 1824.

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