CHAPTER XXXV.

PRESIDENT JACKSON'S LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE-LAST POCKET VETO-FINAL TRIUMPHS.

ON

N the 5th of December, 1836, Congress convened for the alternate short session, and on the next day the President delivered his

EIGHTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

December 6, 1836.

FELLOW-CITIZens of the SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:

Addressing to you the last annual message I shall ever present to the Congress of the United States, it is a source of the most heart-felt satisfaction to be able to congratulate you on the high state of prosperity which our beloved country has attained. With no causes at home or abroad to lessen the confidence with which we look to the future for continuing proofs of the capacity of our free institutions to produce all the fruits of good government, the general condition of our affairs may well excite our national pride.

I can not avoid congratulating you and my country particularly on the success of the efforts made during my Administration by the Executive and Legislature, in conformity with the sincere, constant, and earnest desire of the people, to maintain peace, and establish cordial relations with all foreign powers. Our gratitude is due to the Supreme Ruler of the universe, and I invite you to unite with me in offering to Him fervent supplications, that his providential care may ever be extended to those who follow us, enabling them to avoid the dangers and the horrors of war, consistently with a just and indispensable regard to the rights and honor of our country. But although the present state of our foreign affairs, standing without important change as

they did when you separated in July last, is flattering in the extreme, I regret to say that many questions of an interesting nature, at issue with other powers, are yet unadjusted. Among the most prominent of these is that of the north-eastern boundary. With an undiminished confidence in the sincere desire of His Britannic Majesty's Government to adjust that question, I am not yet in possession of the precise grounds upon which it proposes a satisfactory adjustment.

With France, our diplomatic relations have been resumed, and under circumstances which attest the disposition of both governments to preserve a mutually beneficial intercourse, and foster those amicable feelings which are so strongly required by the true interests of the two countries. With Russia, Austria, Prussia, Naples, Sweden, and Denmark, the best understanding exists, and our commercial intercourse is gradually expanding itself with them. It is encouraged in all these countries, except Naples, by their mutually advantageous and liberal treaty stipulations with us.

The claims of our citizens on Portugal are admitted to be just, but provision for the payment of them has been unfortunately delayed by frequent political changes in that kingdom.

The blessings of peace have not been secured by Spain. Our connections with that country are on the best footing, with the exception of the burdens still imposed upon our commerce with her possessions out of Europe.

The claims of American citizens for losses sustained at the bombardment of Antwerp, have been presented to the governments of Holland and Belgium, and will be pressed, in due season, to settlement.

With Brazil, and all our neighbors of this continent, we continue to maintain relations of amity and concord, extending our commerce with them as far as the resources of the people and the policy of their governments will permit us. The just and long-standing claims of our citizens upon some of them are yet sources of dissatisfaction and complaint. No danger is apprehended, however, that they will not be peacefully, although tardily, acknowledged and paid by all, unless the irritating effect of her struggle with Texas should unfortunately make our immediate neighbor, Mexico, an exception.

It is already known to you, by the correspondence between the two governments communicated at your last session, that our

conduct in relation to that struggle is regulated by the same principles that governed us in the dispute between Spain and Mexico herself, and I trust that it will be found, on the most severe scrutiny, that our acts have strictly corresponded with our professions. That the inhabitants of the United States should feel strong prepossessions for the one party is not surprising. But this circumstance should, of itself, teach us great caution, lest it lead us into the great error of suffering public policy to be regulated by partiality or prejudice; and there are considerations connected with the possible result of this contest between the two parties of so much delicacy and importance to the United States, that our character requires that we should neither anticipate events nor attempt to control them. The known desire of the Texans to become a part of our system, although its gratification depends upon the reconcilement of various and conflicting interests, necessarily a work of time, and uncertain in itself, is calculated to expose our conduct to misconstruction in the eyes of the world. There are already those who, indifferent to principle themselves, and prone to suspect the want of it in others, charge us with ambitious designs and insidious policy.

You will perceive by the accompanying documents, that the extraordinary mission from Mexico has been terminated, on the sole grounds that the obligations of this Government to itself and to Mexico, under treaty stipulations, have compelled me to trust a discretionary authority to a high officer of our army to advance into territory claimed as part of Texas, if necessary to protect our own or the neighboring frontier from Indian depredation. In the opinion of the Mexican functionary who has just left us, the honor of his country will be wounded by American soldiers entering, with the most amicable avowed purposes, upon ground from which the followers of his government have been expelled, and over which there is at present no certainty of a serious effort on its part being made to re-establish its dominion. The departure of this minister was the more singular, as he was apprised that the sufficiency of the causes assigned for the advance of our troops by the commanding general had been seriously doubted by me, and that there was every reason to suppose that the troops of the United States-their commander having had time to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the information upon which they had been marched to Nacogdoches-would be either there in perfect accordance with the principles admitted to be just in his

conference with the Secretary of State, by the Mexican Minister himself, or were already withdrawn in consequence of the impressive warnings their commanding officer had received from the Department of War. It is hoped and believed that his government will take a more dispassionate and just view of this subject, and not be disposed to construe a measure of justifiable precaution, made necessary by its known inability, in execution of the stipulations of our treaty, to act upon the frontier, into an encroachment upon its rights or a stain upon its honor.

In the meantime the ancient complaints of injustice, made on behalf of our citizens, are disregarded, and new causes of dissatisfaction have arisen, some of them of a character requiring prompt remonstrance, and ample immediate redress. I trust, however, by tempering firmness with courtesy, and acting with great forbearance upon every incident that has occurred, or that may happen, to do and to obtain justice, and thus avoid the necessity of again bringing this subject to the view of Congress.

It is my duty to remind you that no provision has been made to execute our treaty with Mexico for tracing the boundary line between the two countries. Whatever may be the prospect of Mexico's being soon able to execute the treaty on its part, it is proper that we should be in anticipation prepared at all times to perform our obligations without regard to the probable condition of those with whom we have contracted them.

The result of the confidential inquiries made into the condition and prospects of the newly declared Texan Government, will be communicated to you in the course of the session.

Commercial treaties, promising great advantages to our enterprising merchants and navigators, have been formed with the distant governments of Muscat and Siam. The ratifications have been exchanged, but have not reached the Department of State. Copies of the treaties will be transmitted to you if received before, or published, if arriving after the close of the present session of Congress.

Nothing has occurred to interrupt the good understanding that has long existed with the Barbary powers, nor to check the good will which is gradually growing up in our intercourse with the dominions of the government of the distinguished chief of the Ottoman Empire.

Information has been received at the Department of State that a treaty with the Emperor of Morocco has just been nego

tiated, which, I hope, will be received in time to be laid before the Senate previous to the close of the session.

You will perceive, from the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, that the financial means of the country continue to keep pace with its improvement in all other respects. The receipts into the Treasury during the present year will amount to about forty-seven millions six hundred and ninety-one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight dollars; those from customs being estimated at twenty-two millions five hundred and twenty-three thousand one hundred and fifty-one dollars; those from lands at about twenty-four millions of dollars; and the residue from miscellaneous sources. The expenditures for all objects, during the year, are estimated not to exceed twenty-three millions of dollars, which will leave a balance in the Treasury for public purposes, on the 1st day of January next, of about forty-one millions seven hundred and twenty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine dollars. This sum, with the exception of five millions, will be transferred to the several States, in accordance with the provisions of the act regulating the deposits of the public money.

The unexpended balances of appropriations on the 1st day of January next, are estimated at fourteen millions six hundred and thirty-six thousand and sixty-two dollars, exceeding, by nine millions six hundred and thirty-six thousand and sixty-two dollars, the amount which will be left in the deposit banks, subject to the draft of the Treasurer of the United States, after the contemplated transfers to the several States are made. If, therefore, the future receipts should not be sufficient to meet those outstanding and future appropriations, there may be soon a necessity to use a portion of the funds deposited with the States.

The consequences apprehended when the deposit act of the last session received a reluctant approval, have been measurably realized. Though an act merely for the deposit of the surplus moneys of the United States in the State treasuries for safe-keeping, until they may be wanted for the service of the General Government, it has been extensively spoken of as an act to give the money to the several States; and they have been advised to use it as a gift, without regard to the means of refunding it when called for. Such a suggestion has doubtless been made without a due consideration of the obligation of the deposit act, and without a proper attention to the various principles and interests which are affected by it. It is manifest that the law itself can not sanction