525
Nineteenth Congress of the U. S.
SECOND SESSION.
Monday, Dec. 4..'.. This being the day
established for the annual meeting of
Congress, the members who had reach
ed Washington City, assembled in their
respective Chambers,
SENATE.
The Hon. John C. CalIioun, Vice-
President of the United States, took the
Chair at 12 o'clock; and thq roll being
called, it appeared that there were 37
members present. The usual formalities
with the House of Representatives were
interchanged; and Messrs. Smith and
Macon were chosen a Joint Committee
on the part of the Senate, to wait on the
President of the V. S. and inform him
that the two Houses were ready to pro
ceed to business.
Mr. Hayne of South-Carolina, gave
notice that he should, on Wednesday
next, ask leave to introduce "a bill to
establish a uniform system of Bankrupt
cy throughout the United States
And then the Senate adjourned until
next day.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
At 12 o'clock, the House was called
to order by the Hon. John W.Taylor,
of New-York, Speaker of the House.
The roll being called over, 173 members
answered, to their names. After ap
pointing a Joint Committee to wait on
the President; adopting the usual orders
for newspapers,&c.the House adjourned.
The President of the United States
transmitted, this day, to both Houses
of Congress the following
MESSAGE:
Fellow- Citizens of the Senate
and of the If. of Representatives:
The assemblage of the Repre
sentatives of our Union in both
Houses of Congress at this time
occurs under circumstances call
ing for the renewed homage of our
grateful acknowledgements to the
Giver of all Good. With the ex
ceptions incidental to the most fe
licitous condition of human exist
ence, we continue to be highly fa
vored in all the elements which
contribute to individual comfort
and to national prosperity. In
the survey of our extensive coun
try, wo have generally to observe
abodes of health and regions of
plenty. In our civil and political
relations, we have peace without
and tranquility within, our borders.
We are, a? a people, increasing
with unabating rapidity in popula
tion, wealth, and national resour
ces; and, whatever difference of o
pinion exist among us, with regard
to the mode and the means by
yhich we shall turn the . benefi
cence of Heaven to the improve
ment of our own condition, there
is yet a spirit, animating us all,
which will not suffer the bounties
of Providence to be showered up
on us in vain, but will receive them
with grateful hearts, and apply
them with unwearied hands, to the
advancement of the general good.
Of the subjects recommended
to the consideration of Congress
at their last Session, some were
then definitively acted upon. O
thers left unfinished, but partly ma
tured, will recur to your attention,
without needing a renewal of no
tice from me. 1 he purpose of
this commnninntion will h
present to your view the general , !!"nJt!! income T,'" 'lvf a hlance in
aspect of our public affairs at this ocT ftVSE
moment, and the measures which jceipis of the coming year, will fall short
have been taken to carry into ef- of the whole expences of the present
feet the intentions of the Legisla-!vear ittIe morethan the portion of those
ture as signified by the laws then:exPenditures aPPhed to the discharge of
and heretofore enacted. ithc pub!c dc' "d the anm,al P-
In our intercourse with iheotl,"
& nations of the erth, wo haveof that Act, the public debt amounted to
still the "happiness of enjoying
peace and a general good under
standing qualified, however, in
several important instances, by
collisions of interest, and by un
satisfied claims of justice, to the
settlement of which, the constitu
tional interposition of the legisla
tive authority may become ultim
ately indispensable,
The President then refers to the de
cease of the late Emperor of Russia, in
whom the United States lost a long tri
ed, steady and faithful friend; the confi
dential interchange of sentiments with
him, respecting the South American
Republics, left to the other governments
of Europe no alternative, but that ' of
sooner or later acknowledging their in
dependence. Satisfactory assurances
have been ; received, that the reigning
Emperor's sentiments are conformable
to those of his predecessor.
Our commercial relations with France
are in a state of gradual and progressive
improvement: the claims of our citizens
upon the French government for spolia
tions, remain unadjusted.
The government of the Netherlands
have resumed the discriminating duties
upon vessels, in an indirect form; and
the Act of Congress of the 7th January,
1S24, relative to the abandonment qf
discriminating duties on Netherland
vessels, is recommended to the consid
eration of Congress.
During the last session of Congress,
treaties of amity, navigation and com
merce, with Denmark and Central A
merica, upon the principles of equality
and reciprocity in their broadest and
most liberal extent, were signed at
Washington; and have since been ratifi
ed by the contracting parties.
Our relations of friendly intercourse
with all the European powers, have not
materially varied since the last session
of Congress; excepting our commercial
intercourse with the colonial possessions
of Great Britain, in America. The
Ilritisli government claims exclusive
possession of their trade, and declines
negotiating abont it; this refusal leaves
the United States no other alternative
than that of regulating, or interdicting
altogether, the trade on their Dart. ..the
whole subject is recommended to the
calm deliberation of Congress.
The Commissioners under the 7th ar
ticle of the treaty of Ghent, have nearly
closed their labors. The Commissien
for liquidating the claims of indemnity
for slaves carried away after the close of
the war, has been silting, with doubtful
prospects of success.
With the American governments of
this hemisphere, our friendly and com
mercial relations are in a continual state
of improvement. . The result of the first
meeting of the Ministers at the Congress
at Panama, has confirmed the President
in the conviction of the expediency to
the United States of being represented
there. The surviving member of the U.
Stales mission has proceeded to his des
tination; and a successor to the other
distinguished and lamented member,
who died on his way to the Isthmus,
will be nominated to the Senate.
Gur fiscal concerns are less exuberant
ly prosperous than they were at the cor
responding period of last year. The
net revenue of the present year will not
equal that of the Jast; and the receipts of
that which is to come, will fall short of
those in the current year. More than
eleven millions have been applied dur
ing the present ear to the discharge of
the principal and interest of the debt of
the United States, and the capital debt
has been reduced upwards of seven mil
lions. The balance in t.he Treasury, on
the first of January last, was S5,2,01,650
43cts. The expences of the year, a-
mounting to upwards ot a million less
one hundred and twenty-three millionsj
and a half; on the first ol January nexi.
it will be short of seventy-four millions.
Some considerations offered respecting
the ebb and flow of our revenue, and a
recommendation to use the most vigi -ant
economy, and of resorting to all
honorable and useful expedients, for
pursuing with steady and inflexible per
severance the total discharge of the debt.
A suggestion is made whether some
fnrfhpr legislative nrovision may not be
necessary, to come in aid of the state of
unguarded securitv, in the collection of
the revenue of impost, which certain oc
currences in one or two of our principal
ports,:' within the last year have dis
closed. The reports of the Secretaries of War,
and of the Navy, discover the present
condition and administration of our land
and naval forces. The army is found ad
equate to all the purposes for which in
time of peace it can be needed or useful;
and reieaence is made to the other duties
of the War Department, viz: the erec
tion of fortifications; pay of Revolution
ary pensioners; our relations with the
Indian tribes; internal improvement, em
bracing surveys for the location of Roads
and Canals. The Report of the Board
of Engineers, respecting a communica
tion between the tide waters of the Po
tomac, the Ohio, and Lake Erie, Is pre
pared, and will forthwith be laid before
Congress. The Report of the Board of
Officers, convened to prepare a complete
system of Cavalry tactics for the U. S.
is also submitted for consideration.
The Navy of the U. S. at present con
sists of twelve iine-of-battle ships, twen
ty frigates, and sloops of war in pro
portion. It may not be necessary or ex
pedient to add for the present any more
to the number of ships; but if the yearly
appropriation for the gradual increase of
the Navy is continued, it may be profit
ably expended in providing a supply
of limber to be seasoned, and other ma
terials for use; in the construction of
docks; or in laying the foundations of a
School for Naval Education, as Con
gress may think proper. The small
portions of our Navy engaged in actual
service, have been usefully employed.
The Report of the Postmaster Gene
ral is highly satisfactory. The revenue
of the Office, even of the year including
the latter half of 1821, and the first half
of 1825, had exceeded its expenditures
more than S45,00O; that of the succeed
ing year has been still more productive;
the excess of the receipts over the ex
pences of the year, ha3 swollen from
b45.000 to nearly S80,000. During the
same period, contracts fur- additional
transportation of the mail in stages, for
about two hundred and sixty thousand
miles have been made, and for seventy
thousand miles annually, on horseback.
714 new Post-Offices have been estab
lished within the jear, and the increase
of revenue within the last three years,
as well as the augmentation of the trans
portation by mail, is more than equal to
the , whole amount of receipts, and of
mail conveyance, at the commencement
of the present century.
The land titles derived by individuals
from the governments of .France and
Spain, in Louisiana and Florida, are re
commended to Congress, for speedy ad
justment.
A selection has been made of a site
for a county Jail in Alexandria, and the
building of a Penitentiary for the Dis
trict has been commenced; the expedi
ency of maturing a system for the reg
ulation of the Penitentiary is suggested.
The President 'concludes as follows:
In closing this communication,
I trust that it will not be deemed
inappropriate to the occasion anil
purposes upon which we are here
assembled, to indulge a momenta
ry retrospect, combining, in a sin
gle glance, the period of our ori
gin as a National Confederation
with that of our present existence,
at the precise interval of half a
century from each other. Since
your last meeting at this place, the
Fiftieth Anniversary of the day
when our Independence was de
clared, has' been celebrated thro'-
out our land: and on that (fy
when every , heart was bounding
with joy, and every voice was il
ned to gratulation, amid the bless,
ings of freedom and Independ
ence, which the sires of a for.
irier age had handed down to their
children, two of the principal act-
gr 111 mat sutuuiu uii,, uiu iiand
thnt hnnned the cver-meinnml.L
Declaration, and the voice that
sustained it in debate, were, Ly
one summons, at the distance of
seven 'hundred miles from each ci
ther, called before the Judge of
ail, to account for their deeds done
upon earth. They departed, cheer
ed by the benedictions of their
country, to whom they left the in
heritance of their fame, and the
memory of their bright example,
If we turn our thoughts to the con
dition of their country, in the con
trast of the first and last day of
that half century, how resplendent
and sublime is the transition from
gloom to glory! Then, glancing
through the same lapse of time,
in the conditions of the individuals,
we see the first day marked with
the fulness and vigor of youth, in
the pledge of their lives, their for
tunes, and their sacred honor, to
the cause of freedom and of man
kind. And on the last, extended
on the bed of death, with but sense
and sensibility left to breathe a last
aspiration to Heaven of blessing
upon their country; may we not
humbly hope that to them, too, it
was a pledge of transition from
gloom to glory; and that, while
their mortal vestments were sink
ing into the clod of the valley,
their emancipated spirits were as
cending to the bosom of their God!
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
Washington, Dec. 5, 132G.
'
TUESDAY, DEC. 12, 1826.
Religious. We are requested to
state, that the Rev. V$i. J. Newborn
will preach the FUNERAL SERMON
of Drury Young, dee'd, on Thursday, the
21st inst. at the residence of Mrs. At
kinson, in Halifax Countv.
Also, the Rev. R. T." Daniel will
preacti in this place, on Sunday 31st inst.
President's Message... In consequence
of our inability to lay this important
state paper entire before our readers, wc
have given as copious an abstract as our
limited columns will permit.
No Foreign News.... European advi
ces to the 2.6th October, have been re
ceived in our northern cities. The ex
tracts given are unimportant.
The Fall Races oyer the Scotland
Neck Course, commenced on Tuesday r
28th ult.
First Ztory.... The Jockey Club Purse,
S200, two mile heats taken by Mr
West's b. m. Margaret Green, without
opposition.
Second Day.. ..The balance of the
Jockey Club Purse, $150, two mil
heats:
Mr. West's s. h. Ugly John, 1 1
Mr. Bullock's b.f. Molly Walk-in, 2 2
Time first heat, (dead heat,) 3 mjn.
58 sec; second heat, 4m. Is.; third
heat, 4m. 8s. .
Third. Day Proprietor's ?W
$100, one mile heats :