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Volume: I Pages:
289-292
UNITED STATES, December 3,
1799.
Gentlemen of the Senate and
Gentlemen of the House of
Representatives:
It is with peculiar satisfaction
that I meet the Sixth Congress
of the United States of America.
Coming from all parts of the
Union at this critical and
interesting period, the members
must be fully possessed of the
sentiments and wishes of our
constituents.
The flattering prospects of
abundance from the labors of the
people by land and by sea; the
prosperity of our extended
commerce, notwithstanding
interruptions occasioned by the
belligerent state of a great
part of the world; the return of
health, industry, and trade to
those cities which have lately
been afflicted with disease, and
the various and inestimable
advantages, civil and religious,
which, secured under our happy
frame of government, are
continued to us unimpaired,
demand of the whole American
people sincere thanks to a
benevolent Deity for the
merciful dispensations of His
providence.
But while these numerous
blessings are recollected, it is
a painful duty to advert to the
ungrateful return which has been
made for them by some of the
people in certain counties of
Pennsylvania, where, seduced by
the arts and misrepresentations
of designing men, they have
openly resisted the law
directing the valuation of
houses and lands. Such defiance
was given to the civil authority
as rendered hopeless all further
attempts by judicial process to
enforce the execution of the
law, and it became necessary to
direct a military force to be
employed, consisting of some
companies of regular troops,
volunteers, and militia, by
whose zeal and activity, in
cooperation with the judicial
power, order and submission were
restored and many of the
offenders arrested. Of these,
some have been convicted of
misdemeanors, and others,
charged with various crimes,
remain to be tried.
To give due effect to the civil
administration of Government and
to insure a just execution of
the laws, a revision and
amendment of the judiciary
system is indispensably
necessary. In this extensive
country it can not but happen
that numerous questions
respecting the interpretation of
the laws and the rights and
duties of officers and citizens
must arise. On the one hand, the
laws should be executed; on the
other, individuals should be
guarded from oppression. Neither
of these objects is sufficiently
assured under the present
organization of the judicial
department. I therefore
earnestly recommend the subject
to your serious consideration.
Persevering in the pacific and
humane policy which had been
invariably professed and
sincerely pursued by the
Executive authority of the
United States, when indications
were made on the part of the
French Republic of a disposition
to accommodate the existing
differences between the two
countries, I felt it to be my
duty to prepare for meeting
their advances by a nomination
of ministers upon certain
conditions which the honor of
our country dictated, and which
its moderation had given it a
right to prescribe. The
assurances which were required
of the French Government
previous to the departure of our
envoys have been given through
their minister of foreign
relations, and I have directed
them to proceed on their mission
to Paris. They have full power
to conclude a treaty, subject to
the constitutional advice and
consent of the Senate. The
characters of these gentlemen
are sure pledges to their
country that nothing
incompatible with its honor or
interest, nothing inconsistent
with our obligations of good
faith or friendship to any other
nation, will be stipulated.
It appearing probable from the
information I received that our
commercial intercourse with some
ports in the island of St.
Domingo might safely be renewed,
I took such steps as seemed to
me expedient to ascertain that
point. The result being
satisfactory, I then, in
conformity with the act of
Congress on the subject,
directed the restraints and
prohibitions of that intercourse
to be discontinued on terms
which were made known by
proclamation. Since the renewal
of this intercourse our citizens
trading to those ports, with
their property, have been duly
respected, and privateering from
those ports has ceased.
In examining the claims of
British subjects by the
commissioners at Philadelphia,
acting under the sixth article
of the treaty of amity,
commerce, and navigation with
Great Britain, a difference of
opinion on points deemed
essential in the interpretation
of that article has arisen
between the commissioners
appointed by the United States
and the other members of that
board, from which the former
have thought it their duty to
withdraw. It is sincerely to be
regretted that the execution of
an article produced by a mutual
spirit of amity and justice
should have been thus
unavoidably interrupted. It is,
however, confidently expected
that the same spirit of amity
and the same sense of justice in
which it originated will lead to
satisfactory explanations. In
consequence of the obstacles to
the progress of the commission
in Philadelphia, His Britannic
Majesty has directed the
commissioners appointed by him
under the seventh article of the
treaty relating to the British
captures of American vessels to
withdraw from the board sitting
in London, but with the express
declaration of his determination
to fulfill with punctuality and
good faith the engagements which
His Majesty has contracted by
his treaty with the United
States, and that they will be
instructed to resume their
functions whenever the obstacles
which impede the progress of the
commission at Philadelphia shall
be removed. It being in like
manner my sincere determination,
so far as the same depends on
me, that with equal punctuality
and good faith the engagements
contracted by the United States
in their treaties with His
Britannic Majesty shall be
fulfilled, I shall immediately
instruct our minister at London
to endeavor to obtain the
explanation necessary to a just
performance of those engagements
on the part of the United
States. With such dispositions
on both sides, I can not
entertain a doubt that all
difficulties will soon be
removed and that the two boards
will then proceed and bring the
business committed to them
respectively to a satisfactory
conclusion.
The act of Congress relative to
the seat of the Government of
the United States requiring that
on the first Monday of December
next it should be transferred
from Philadelphia to the
District chosen for its
permanent seat, it is proper for
me to inform you that the
commissioners appointed to
provide suitable buildings for
the accommodation of Congress
and of the President and of the
public offices of the Government
have made a report of the state
of the buildings designed for
those purposes in the city of
Washington, from which they
conclude that the removal of the
seat of Government to that place
at the time required will be
practicable and the
accommodation satisfactory.
Their report will be laid before
you.
Gentlemen of the House of
Representatives:
I shall direct the estimates of
the appropriations necessary for
the service of the ensuing year,
together with an account of the
revenue and expenditure, to be
laid before you. During a period
in which a great portion of the
civilized world has been
involved in a war unusually
calamitous and destructive, it
was not to be expected that the
United States could be exempted
from extraordinary burthens.
Although the period is not
arrived when the measures
adopted to secure our country
against foreign attacks can be
renounced, yet it is alike
necessary for the honor of the
Government and the satisfaction
of the community that an exact
economy should be maintained. I
invite you, gentlemen, to
investigate the different
branches of the public
expenditure. The examination
will lead to beneficial
retrenchments or produce a
conviction of the wisdom of the
measures to which the
expenditure relates.
Gentlemen of the Senate and
Gentlemen of the House of
Representatives:
At a period like the present,
when momentous changes are
occurring and every hour is
preparing new and great events
in the political world, when a
spirit of war is prevalent in
almost every nation with whose
affairs the interests of the
United States have any
connection, unsafe and
precarious would be our
situation were we to neglect the
means of maintaining our just
rights. The result of the
mission to France is uncertain;
but however it may terminate, a
steady perseverance in a system
of national defense commensurate
with our resources and the
situation of our country is an
obvious dictate of wisdom; for,
remotely as we are placed from
the belligerent nations, and
desirous as we are, by doing
justice to all, to avoid offense
to any, nothing short of the
power of repelling aggressions
will secure to our country a
rational prospect of escaping
the calamities of war or
national degradation. As to
myself, it is my anxious desire
so to execute the trust reposed
in me as to render the people of
the United States prosperous and
happy. I rely with entire
confidence on your cooperation
in objects equally your care,
and that our mutual labors will
serve to increase and confirm
union among our fellow citizens
and an unshaken attachment to
our Government.
JOHN ADAMS |
