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The influence of such proceedings on the other departments of the gov ernment, and more especially on the states, could not fail to be extensively pernicious. When the judges, in the last resort of official misconduct, themselves overleaped the bounds of their authority, as prescribed by the constitution, what general disregard of its provisions might not their example be expected to produce? And who does not perceive that such contempt of the federal constitution, by one of its most important departments, would hold out the strongest temptations to resistance on the part of the state sovereignties, whenever they shall suppose their just rights to have been invaded? Thus all the independent departments of the government, and the states which compose our confederated union, instead of attending to their appropriate duties, and leaving those who may offend to be reclaimed or punished in the manner pointed out in the constitution, would fall to mutual crimination and recrimination, and give to the people confusion and anarchy, instead of order and law; until at length some form of aristocratic power would be established on the ruins of the constitution, or the states be broken into separate communities.

Far be it from me to charge, or to insinuate, that the present senate of the United States intended, in the most distant way, to encourage such a result. It is not of their motives or designs, but only of the tendency of their acts, that it is my duty to speak. It is, if possible, to make senators themselves sensible of the danger which lurks under the precedent set in their resolution; and at any rate to perform my duty, as the responsible head of one of the coequal departments of the government, that I have been compelled to point out the consequences to which the discussion and passage of the resolutions may lead, if the tendency of the measure be not checked in its inception. It is due to the high trust with which I have been charged; to those who may be called to succeed me in it; to the representatives of the people, whose constitutional prerogative has been unlawfully assumed; to the people of the states; and to the constitution they have established; that I shall not permit its provisions to be broken down by such an attack on the executive department, without at least some effort "to preserve, protect, and defend them." With this view, and for the reasons which have been stated, I do hereby SOLEMNLY PROTEST against the aforementioned proceedings of the senate, as unauthorized by the constitution; contrary to its spirit and to several of its express provisions; subversive of that distribution of the powers of government which it has ordained and established; destructive of the checks and safeguards by which those powers were intended, on the one hand to be controlled, and on the other to be protected; and calculated by their immediate and collateral effects, by their character and tendency, to concentrate in the hands of a body not directly amenable to the people, a degree of influence and power dangerous to their liberties, and fatal to the constitution of their choice.

The resolution of the senate contains an imputation upon my private as well as upon my public character; and as it must stand for ever on their journals, I can not close this substitute for that defence which I have not been allowed to present in the ordinary form, without remarking, that I have lived in vain, if it be necessary to enter into a formal vindication of my character and purposes from such an imputation. In vain do I bear upon my person enduring memorials of that contest in which American liberty was purchased--in vain have I since perilled property, fame, and life, in defence of the rights and privileges so dearly bought-in vain am I now, without a personal aspiration, or the hope of individual advantage, encoun

No!

tering responsibilities and dangers, from which, by mere inactivity in relation to a single point, I might have been exempt-if any serious doubts can be entertained as to the purity of my purposes and motives. If I had been ambitious, I should have sought an alliance with that powerful institution, which even now aspires to no divided empire. If I had been venal, I should have sold myself to its designs. Had I preferred personal comfort and official ease to the performance of my arduous duty, I should cease to molest it. In the history of conquerors and usurpers, never, in the fire of youth, nor in the vigor of manhood, could I find an attraction to lure me from the path of duty; and now, I shall scarcely find an inducement to commence their career of ambition, when gray hairs and a decaying frame, instead of inviting to toil and battle, call me to the contemplation of other worlds, where conquerors cease to be honored, and usurpers expiate their crimes. The only ambition I can feel is, to acquit myself to Him to whom I must soon render an account of my stewardship, to serve my fellowmen, and live respected and honored in the history of my country. the ambition which leads me on is an anxious desire and a fixed determi- X nation to return to the people unimpaired, the sacred trust they have confided to my charge; to heal the wounds of the constitution, and preserve it from further violation; to persuade my countrymen, so far as I may, that it is not in a splendid government, supported by powerful monopolies and aristocratical establishments, that they will find happiness, or their liberties protection; but in a plain system, void of pomp-protecting all, and granting favors to none-dispensing its blessings like the dews of Heaven, unseen and unfelt, save in the freshness and beauty they contribute to produce. It is such a government that the genius of our people requiressuch a one only under which our states may remain for ages to come, united, prosperous, and free. If the Almighty Being who has hitherto sustained and protected me, will but vouchsafe to make my feeble powers instrumental to such a result, I shall anticipate with pleasure the place to be assigned me in the history of my country, and die contented with the belief that I have contributed, in some small degree, to increase the value and prolong the duration of American liberty.

To the end that the resolution of the senate may not be hereafter drawn into precedent, with the authority of silent acquiescence on the part of the executive department, and to the end, also, that my motives and views in the executive proceedings denounced in that resolution, may be known to my fellow-citizens, to the world, and to all posterity, I respectfully request that this message and protest may be entered at length on the journals of the senate.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

JUNE 21, 1834.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States :—
THE afflicting intelligence of the death of the illustrious La Fayette has
been received by me this morning.

I have issued the general order enclosed, to cause appropriate honors to be paid by the army and navy to the memory of one so highly venera

ted and beloved by my countrymen, and whom Providence has been pleased to remove so unexpectedly from the agitating scenes of life.

(GENERAL ORDER.)

Information having been received of the death of General La Fayette, the president considers it due to his own feelings, as well as to the character and services of that lamented man, to announce this event to the army and navy.

La Fayette was a citizen of France, but he was the distinguished friend of the United States. In early life he embarked in that contest which gave freedom and independence to our country. His services and sacrifices constitute a part of our revolutionary history, and his memory will be second only to that of Washington in the hearts of the American people. In his own country, and in ours, he has been the zealous and uniform friend and advocate of rational liberty. Consistent in his principles and conduct, he never, during a long life, committed an act which exposed him to just accusation, or which will expose his memory to reproach. Living at a period of great excitement, and of moral and political revolutions, engaged in many of the important events which fixed the attention of the world, and called to guide the destinies of France at two of the most momentous eras of her history, his political integrity and personal disinterestedness have never been called in question. Happy in such a life, he has been happy in his death. He has been called from the theatre of action with faculties unimpaired, with a reputation unquestioned, and an object of veneration wherever civilization and the rights of man have extended; and mourning, as we may and must, his departure, let us rejoice that this associate of Washington has gone, as we humbly hope, to rejoin his illustrious commander, in the fulness of days and of honor.

He came in his youth to defend our country. He came in the maturity of his age to witness her growth in all the elements of prosperity; and, while witnessing these, he received those testimonials of national grati tude which proved how strong was his hold upon the affections of the American people.

One melancholy duty remains to be performed. The last major-general of the revolutionary army has died. Himself a young and humble parti cipator in the struggles of that period, the president feels himself called on, as well by personal as public considerations, to direct that appropriate honors be paid to the memory of this distinguished patriot and soldier. He therefore orders, that the same honors be rendered upon this occasion, at the different military and naval stations, as were observed upon the decease of Washington, the father of his country, and his contemporary in arms. In ordering this homage to be paid to the memory of one so eminent in the field, so wise in council, so endeared in private life, and so well and favorably known to both hemispheres, the president feels assured that he anticipates the sentiments, not of the army and navy only, but of the whole American people.

MESSAGE.

SIXTH ANNUAL

DECEMBER 2, 1834.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives :—

IN performing my duty at the opening of your present session, it gives me pleasure to congratulate you again upon the prosperous condition of our beloved country. Divine Providence has favored us with general health, with rich rewards in the fields of agriculture and in every branch of labor, and with peace to cultivate and extend the various resources which employ the virtue and enterprise of our citizens. Let us trust that in surveying a scene so flattering to our free institutions, our joint deliberations to preserve them may be crowned with success.

Our foreign relations continue, with but few exceptions, to maintain the favorable aspect which they bore in my last annual message, and promise to extend those, advantages which the principles that regulate our intercourse with other nations are so well calculated to secure.

The question of the northeastern boundary is still pending with Great Britain, and the proposition made in accordance with the resolution of the senate for the establishment of a line according to the treaty of 1783, has not been accepted by that government Believing that every disposition is felt on both sides to adjust this perplexing question to the satisfaction of all the parties interested in it, the hope is yet indulged that it may be effected on the basis of that proposition.

With the governments of Austria, Russia, Prussia, Holland, Sweden, and Denmark, the best understanding exists. Commerce with all is fostered and protected by reciprocal good-will, under the sanction of liberal conventional or legal provisions.

In the midst of her internal difficulties, the queen of Spain has ratified the convention for the payment of the claims of our citizens arising since 1819. It is in the course of execution on her part, and a copy of it is now laid before you for such legislation as may be found necessary to enable those interested to derive the benefits of it.

Yielding to the force of circumstances, and to the wise councils of time and experience, that power has finally resolved no longer to occupy the unnatural position in which she stood to the new governments established in this hemisphere. I have the great satisfaction of stating to you that, in preparing the way for the restoration of harmony between those who have sprung from the same ancestors, who are allied by common interests, profess the same religion, and speak the same language, the United States have been actively instrumental. Our efforts to effect this good work will be persevered in while they are deemed useful to the parties, and our entire disinterestedness continues to be felt and understood. The act of Congress to countervail the discriminating duties levied to the prejudice of our navigation, in Cuba and Porto Rico, has been transmitted to the minister of the United States at Madrid, to be communicated to the government of the queen. No intelligence of its receipt has yet reached the department of state. If the present condition of the country permits the government to make a careful and enlarged examination of the true interests of these important portions of its dominions, no doubt is entertained that their future intercourse with the United States will be placed upon a more just and liberal basis.

The Florida archives have not yet been selected and delivered. Recent orders have been sent to the agent of the United States at Havana, to return with all that he can obtain, so that they may be in Washington before the session of the supreme court, to be used in the legal questions there pending, to which the government is a party.

Internal tranquillity is happily restored to Portugal. The distracted state of the country rendered unavoidable the postponement of a fina payment of the just claims of our citizens. Our diplomatic relations will be soon resumed, and the long subsisting friendship with that power affords the strongest guarantee that the balance due will receive prompt

attention.

The first instalment due under the convention of indemnity with the king of the Two Sicilies has been duly received, and an offer has been made to extinguish the whole by a prompt payment; an offer I did not consider myself authorized to accept, as the indemnification provided is the exclusive property of individual citizens of the United States. The original adjustment of our claims, and the anxiety displayed to fulfil at once the stipulations made for the payment of them, are highly honorable to the government of the Two Sicilies. When it is recollected that they were the result of the injustice of an intrusive power, temporarily dominant in its territory, a repugnance to acknowledge and to pay which would have been neither unnatural nor unexpected, the circumstances can not fail to exalt its character for justice and good faith in the eyes of all

nations.

The treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Belgium, brought to your notice in my last annual message, as sanctioned by the senate, but the ratifications of which had not been exchanged, owing to a delay in its reception at Brussels, and a subsequent absence of the Belgian minister of foreign affairs, has been, after mature deliberation, finally disavowed by that government as inconsistent with the powers and instructions given to their minister who negotiated it. This disavowal was entirely unexpected, as the liberal principles embodied in the convention, and which form the groundwork of the objections to it, were perfectly satisfactory to the Belgian representative, and were supposed to be not only within the powers granted, but expressly conformable to the instructions given to him. An offer, not yet accepted, has been made by Belgium to renew negotiations for a treaty less liberal in its provisions, on questions of general maritime law.

Our newly-established relations with the Sublime Porte promise to be useful to our commerce, and satisfactory in every respect to this government. Our intercourse with the Barbary powers continues without important change, except that the present political state of Algiers has induced me to terminate the residence there of a salaried consul, and to substitute an ordinary consulate, to remain so long as the place continues in the possession of France. Our first treaty with one of these powers, the emperor of Morocco, was formed in 1786, and was limited to fifty years. That period has almost expired. I shall take measures to renew t with the greater satisfaction, as its stipulations are just and liberal, and have been, with mutual fidelity and reciprocal advantage, scrupulously fulfilled.

Intestine dissensions have too frequently occurred to mar the prosperity, interrupt the commerce, and distract the governments of most of the nations of this hemisphere, which have separated themselves from Spain. When

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