that subject are highly important. Nor is it less so, that penal enactments should be provided for cases of corrupt and perfidious intercourse with the enemy, not amounting to treason, nor yet embraced by any statutory provisions

A considerable number of American vessels, which were in England when the revocation of the orders in council took place, were laden with British manufactures, under an erroneous impression that the non-importation act would immediately cease to operate, and have arrived in the United States. It did not appear proper to exercise, on unforeseen cases of such magnitude, the ordinary powers vested in the treasury department to mitigate forfeitures, without previously affording to Congress an opportunity of making on the subject such provision as they may think proper. In their decison they will doubtless equally consult what is due to equitable considerations and to the publick interest.

The receipts into the treasury, during the year ending on the 30th of September last, have exceeded sixteen millions and a half of dollars; which have been sufficient to defray all the demands on the treasury to that day, including a necessary reimbursement of near three millions of the principal of the publick debt. In these receipts is included a sum of near five millions eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, received on account of the loans authorized by the acts of the last session: the whole sum actually obtained on loan amounts to eleven millions of dollars, the residue of which being receivable subsequent to the 30th of September last, will, together with the current revenue, enable us to defray all the expenses of this year.

The duties on the late unexpected importations of British manufactures, will render the revenue of the ensuing year more productive than could have been anticipated.

The situation of our country, fellow citizens, is not without its difficulties, though it abounds in animating considerations, of which the view here presented of our pecuniary resources is an example. With more than one nation, we have serious and unsettled controversies; and with one, powerful in the means and habits of war, we are at war. The spirit and strength of the nation are, nevertheless, equal to the support of all its rights, and to carry

it through all its trials. They can be met in that confi
dence. Above all, we have the inestimable consolation
of knowing that the war in which we are actually engag
ed, is a war neither of ambition nor of vain glory; that it
is waged, not in violation of the rights of others, but in the
maintenance of our own; that it was preceded by a pa-
tience without example, under wrongs accumulating with-
out end; and that it was finally not declared until every
hope of averting it was extinguished, by the transfer of
the British sceptre into new hands clinging to former
councils; and until declarations were reiterated to the
last hour, through the British envoy here, that the hostile
edicts against our commercial rights and our maritime in-
dependence, would not be revoked; nay, that they could
not be revoked without violating the obligations of Great
Britain to other powers, as well as to her own interests.
To have shrunk, under such circumstances, from manly
resistance, would have been a degradation blasting our
best and proudest hopes: It would have struck us from
the high rank where the virtuous struggles of our fathers
had placed us, and have betrayed the magnificent legacy
which we hold in trust for future generations. It would
have acknowledged that on the element which forms three
fourths of the globe we inhabit, and where all independent
nations have equal and common rights, the American peo-
ple were not an independent people, but colonists and vas-
sals. It was at this moment, and with such an alterna-
tive, that war was chosen. The nation felt the necessity
of it and called for it. The appeal was accordingly made,
in a just cause, to the just and All-powerful Being who
holds in his hand the chain of events and the destiny of
nations. It remains only, that faithful to ourselves, en--
tangled in no connections with the views of other powers,
and ever ready to accept peace from the hand of justice,
we prosecute the war with united councils, and with the
ample faculties of the nation, until peace be so obtained,
and as the only means, under the divine blessing, of
speedily obtaining it.

JAMES MADISON.

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DOCUMENTS

ACCOMPANYING THE MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE

UNITED STATES TO CONGRESS. NOV. 4, 1812. Extract of a Letter from Mr. Monroe to Mr. Russell. June 26, 1812.

"THIS letter is committed to Mr. Foster, who has promised to deliver it to you in safety.

On the 18th of this month a declaration of war against Great Britain passed Congress. I send you a copy of the act, of the President's message, and of the report of the committee of foreign relations, which brought the subject under consideration.

This measure has been produced by the continued aggressions of the British government on the rights of the United States, and the presumption arising from that and other facts, which it is unnecessary to recite, that no favourable change of policy might be expected from it. It was impossible for the United States to surrender their rights, by relinquishing the ground which they had taken, and it was equally incompatible with their interests and character to rely longer on measures which had failed to accomplish their objects. War was the only remaining alternative, and that fact being clearly ascertained, you will find by the documents transmitted, that it was adopted with decision.

As war has been resorted to by necessity, and of course with reluctance, this government looks forward to the restoration of peace, with much interest, and a sincere desire to promote it on conditions just, equal and honourable to both the parties. It is in the power of Great Britain to terminate the war on such conditions, and it would be very satisfactory to the President to meet it, in arrangements to that effect.

Although there are many just and weighty causes of complaint against Great Britain, you will perceive, by the documents transmitted, that the orders in council, and other blockades, illegal, according to the principles lately acknowledged, and the impressment of our seamen, are

considered to be of the highest importance. If the orders in council are repealed, and no illegal blockades are substituted to them, and orders are given to discontinue the impressment of seamen from our vessels, and to restore those already impressed, there is no reason why hostilities should not immediately cease. Securing these objects, you are authorized to stipulate an armistice, to commence from the signature of the instrument providing for it, or at the end of fifty or sixty days, or other the shortest term that the British government will assent to. Definitive arrangements will be made on these, and every other difference, by a treaty, to be concluded either here or at London, though it is much desired that the subject should be entered on in this city.

As an inducement to the British government to discontinue the practice of impressment from our vessels, you may give assurance that a law will be passed (to be reciprocal) to prohibit the employment of British seamen in the publick or commercial service of the United States. There can be no doubt that such an arrangement would prove much more efficacious, in securing to Great Britain her seamen, than the practice to which it is proposed to be a substitute, independent of all the other objections to it.

Indemnity for injuries received, under the orders in council, and other edicts violating our rights, seems to be incident to their repeal; but the President is willing that the consideration of that claim should not be pressed at this time, so as to interfere with the preliminary arrangement alluded to. It will be proper to bring it into view merely to show that it is expected that provision will be made for it in the treaty which is to follow. Every other interest may also be provided for at the same time.

It is hoped that the British government will find it consistent with its interest and honour, to terminate the war by an armistice in the manner, and on the conditions proposed. In so doing, it will abandon no right, it will sacrifice no interest; it will abstain only from violating our rights, and, in return, it will restore peace with the power from whom, in a friendly commercial intercourse, somany advantages will be derived, not to mention the injuries which cannot fail to result from a prosecution of the

war.

Mr. Monroe to Mr. Russell. Department of State, July

27, 1812.

SIR, I wrote you on the 26th of June, by Mr. Foster, a letter, which he promised to deliver to you in person or by a safe hand.

In that letter you were informed that the orders in council, and other illegal blockades, and the impressment of our seamen by Great Britain, as you well knew before, were the principal causes of the war, and that if they were removed, you might stipulate an armistice, leaving them and all other grounds of difference for final and more pre cise adjustment by treaty. As an inducement to the British government to discontinue the practice of impressment from our vessels, by which alone our seamen can be made secure, you were authorized to stipulate a prohibition by law, to be reciprocal, of the employment of British seamen in the publick or commercial service of the United States. As such an arrangement, which might be made completely effectual and satisfactory by suitable regulations and penalties, would operate almost exclusively in favour of Great Britain; for as few of our seamen ever enter voluntarily into the British service, the reciprocity would be nominal; its advantage to Great Britain would be more than an equivalent for any she derives from impressment, which alone ought to induce her to abandon the practice, if she had no other motive for it. A stipulation to prohibit by law the employment of British seamen in the service of the United States, is to be understood in the sense and spirit of our constitution. The passage of such a law must depend of course on Congress, who it might reasonably be presumed would give effect to it.

By authorizing you to secure these objects as the grounds of an armistice, it was not intended to restrict you to any precise form in which it should be done. It is not particularly necessary that the several points should be specially provided for in the convention stipulating the armistice. A clear and distinct understanding with the British government on the subject of impressment, comprising in it the discharge of the men already impressed, and on future blockades, if the orders in council are revoked, is all that is indispensable. The orders in council being revoked,

VOL. IX.

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