occasions, checks to a course of legislation which, without, in the slightest degree, calling in question the motives of others, I consider as sanctioning improper and unconstitutional expenditures of public treasure.

I am not hostile to internal improvements, and wish to see them extended to every part of the country. But I am fully persuaded, if they are not commenced in a proper manner, confined to proper objects, and conducted under an authority generally conceded to be rightful, that a successful prosecution of them can not be reasonably expected. The attempt will meet with resistance where it might otherwise receive support; and instead of strengthening the bonds of our confederacy, it will only multiply and aggravate the causes of disunion.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 4, 1834.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I TRANSMIT to Congress a communication' addressed to me by Mr. George Washington La Fayette, accompanying a copy of the declaration of independence, engraved on copper, which his illustrious father bequeathed to Congress, to be placed in their library, as a last tribute of respect, patriotic love, and affection for his adopted country.

I have a mournful satisfaction in transmitting this precious bequest of that great and good man, who, through a long life, under many vicissitudes, and in both hemispheres, sustained the principles of civil liberty, asserted in that memorable declaration, and who, from his youth to the last moment of his life, cherished for our beloved country the most generous attach

ment.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 10, 1834.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:THE joint resolutions of Congress, unanimously expressing their sensibility on the intelligence of the death of General La Fayette, were communicated, in compliance with their will, to George Washington La Fayette, and the other members of the family of that illustrious man.

By their request, I now present the heartfelt acknowledgments of the surviving descendants of our beloved friend for that highly-valued proof of the sympathy of the United States.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 25, 1835.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States.—

I TRANSMIT to Congress a report from the secretary of state, with copies of all the letters received from Mr. Livingston since the message to the house of representatives of the 6th instant, of the instructions given to that minister, and of all the late correspondence with the French government in Paris, or in Washington, except a note of M. Serrurier, which, for the reasons stated in the report, is not now communicated.

It will be seen that I have deemed it my duty to instruct Mr. Livingston to quit France, with his legation, and return to the United States, if an appropriation for the fulfilment of the convention shall be refused by the chambers.

The subject being now, in all its present aspects, before Congress, whose right it is to decide what measures are to be pursued on that event, I deem it unnecessary to make further recommendations, being confident that on their part, everything will be done to maintain the rights and honor of the country which the occasion requires.

SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

DECEMBER 2, 1835.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives :

IN discharge of my official duty, the task again devolves upon me of communicating with a new Congress. The reflection that the representation of the Union has been recently renewed, and that the constitutional term of its service will expire with my own, heightens the solicitude with which I shall attempt to lay before it the state of our national concerns, and the devout hope which I cherish that its labors to improve them may be crowned with success.

You are assembled at a period of profound interest to the American patriot. The unexampled growth and prosperity of our country having given us a rank in the scale of nations which removes all apprehension of danger to our integrity and independence from external foes, the career of freedom is before us, with an earnest of the past, that, if true to ourselves, there can be no formidable obstacle in the future to its peaceful and uninterrupted pursuit. Yet, in proportion to the disappearance of those apprehensions which attended our weakness, as once contrasted with the power of some of the states of the old world, should we now be solicitous as to those which belong to the conviction that it is to our own conduct we must look for the preservation of those causes on which depend the excellence and the duration of our happy system of government. In the example of other systems founded on the will of the people, we trace to internal dissension the influences which have so often blasted the hopes of the friends of freedom. The social elements, which were strong and successful when united against external danger, failed in the more difficult task of properly adjusting their own internal organization, and thus

gave way the great principle of self-government. Let us trust that this admonition will never be forgotten by the government or the people of the United States; and that the testimony which our experience thus far holds out to the great human family, of the practicability and the blessings of free government, will be confirmed in all time to come.

We have but to look at the state of our agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and the unexampled increase of our population, to feel the magnitude of the trust committed to us. Never, in any former period of our history, have we had greater reason than we now have, to be thankful to Divine Providence for the blessings of health and general prosperity. Every branch of labor we see crowned with the most abundant rewards; in every element of national resources and wealth, and of individual comfort, we witness the most rapid and solid improvements. With no interruptions of this pleasing prospect at home, which will not yield to the spirit of harmony and good-will that so strikingly pervades the mass of the people in every quarter, amid all the diversity of interest and pursuits. to which they are attached; and with no cause of solicitude in regard to our external affairs, which will not, it is hoped, disappear before the principles of simple justice and forbearance that mark our intercourse with foreign powers, we have every reason to feel proud of our beloved country. The general state of our foreign relations has not materially changed since my last annual message.

In the settlement of the question of the northeastern boundary, little progress has been made. Great Britain has declined acceding to the proposition of the United States, presented in accordance with the resolution of the senate, unless certain preliminary conditions were admitted, which I deemed incompatible with a satisfactory and rightful adjustment of the controversy. Waiting for some distinct proposal from the government of Great Britain, which has been invited, I can only repeat the expression of my confidence that, with the strong mutual disposition which I believe exists to make a just arrangement, this perplexing question can be settled with a due regard to the well-founded pretensions and pacific policy of all the parties to it. Events are frequently occurring on the northeastern frontier, of a character to impress upon all the necessity of a speedy and definitive termination of the dispute. This consideration, added to the desire common to both, to relieve the liberal and friendly relations so happily existing between the two countries from all embarrassment, will, no doubt, have its just influence upon both.

Our diplomatic intercourse with Portugal has been renewed, and it is expected that the claims of our citizens, partially paid, will be fully satisfied as soon as the condition of the queen's government will permit the proper attention to the subject of them. That government has, I am happy to inform you, manifested a determination to act upon the liberal principles which have marked our commercial policy; the happiest effects upon the future trade between the United States and Portugal are anticipated from it, and the time is not thought to be remote when a system of perfect reciprocity will be established.

The instalments due under the convention with the king of the Two Sicilies, have been paid with that scrupulous fidelity by which his whole conduct has been characterized, and the hope is indulged that the adjustment of the vexed question of our claims will be followed by a more extended and mutually beneficial intercourse between the two countries. The internal contest still continues in Spain. Distinguished as this

struggle has unhappily been, by incidents of the most sanguinary character, the obligations of the late treaty of indemnification with us have been, nevertheless, faithfully executed by the Spanish government.

No provision having been made at the last session of Congress for the ascertainment of the claims to be paid, and the apportionment of the funds, under the convention made with Spain, I invite your early attention to the subject. The public evidences of the debt have, according to the terms of the convention, and in the forms prescribed by it, been placed in the possession of the United States, and the interest, as it fell due, has been regularly paid upon them. Our commercial intercourse with Cuba stands as regulated by the act of Congress. No recent information has been received as to the disposition of the government of Madrid on this subject, and the lamented death of our recently-appointed minister, on his way to Spain, with the pressure of their affairs at home, render it scarcely probable that any change is to be looked for during the coming year. Further portions of the Florida archives have been sent to the United States, although the death of one of the commissioners, at a critical moment, embarrassed the

progress of the delivery of them. The higher officers of the local government have recently shown an anxious desire, in compliance with the orders from the parent government, to facilitate the selection and delivery of all we have a right to claim.

Negotiations have been opened at Madrid, for the establishment of a lasting peace between Spain and such of the Spanish American governments of this hemisphere as have availed themselves of the intimation given to all of them, of the disposition of Spain to treat upon the basis of their entire independence. It is to be regretted, that simultaneous appointments, by all, of ministers to negotiate with Spain, had not been made; the negotiation itself would have been simplified, and this long-standing dispute, spreading over a large portion of the world, would have been brought to a more speedy conclusion.

Our political and commercial relations with Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, stand on the usual favorable basis. One of the articles of our treaty with Russia, in relation to the trade on the northwest coast of America having expired, instructions have been given to our minister at St. Petersburg to negotiate a renewal of it. The long unbroken amity between the two governments gives every reason for supposing the article will be renewed, if stronger motives do not exist to prevent it than, with our view of the subject, can be anticipated here.

I ask your attention to the message of my predecessor at the opening of the second session of the nineteenth Congress, relative to our commercial intercourse with Holland, and to the documents connected with that subject, communicated to the house of representatives on the 10th of January, 1825, and 18th January, 1827. Coinciding in the opinion of my predecessor, that Holland is not, under the regulations of her present system, entitled to have her vessels and their cargoes received into the United States on the footing of American vessels and cargoes, as regards duties of tonnage and impost, a respect for his reference of it to the legislature has long prevented me from acting on the subject. I should still have waited, without comment, for the action of Congress, but recently a claim has been made by Belgian subjects to admission into our ports for their ships and cargoes, on the same footing as American, with the allegation we could not dispute, that our vessels received in their ports the identical treatment shown to them in the ports of Holland, upon whose vessels

no discrimination is made in the ports of the United States. Giving the same privileges, the Belgians expect the same benefits-benefits that were in fact enjoyed when Belgium and Holland were united under one government. Satisfied with the justice of their pretension to be placed on the same footing with Holland, I could not, nevertheless, without disregard to the principle of our laws, admit their claim to be treated as Americans; and at the same time a respect for Congress, to whom the subject had long since been referred, has prevented me from producing a just equality, by taking from the vessels of Holland privileges conditionally granted by acts of Congress, although the condition upon which the grant was made has in my judgment failed since 1822. I recommend, therefore, a review of the act of 1824, and such a modification of it as will produce an equality, on such terms as Congress shall think best comports with our settled policy, and the obligations of justice to two friendly powers.

With the Sublime Porte, and all the governments on the coast of Barbary, our relations continue to be friendly. The proper steps have been taken to renew our treaty with Morocco.

The Argentine republic has again promised to send, within the current year, a minister to the United States.

A convention with Mexico for extending the time for the appointment of commissioners to run the boundary line has been concluded, and will be submitted to the senate. Recent events in that country have awakened the liveliest solicitude in the United States. Aware of the strong temptations existing, and powerful inducements held out to the citizens of the United States, to mingle in the dissensions of our immediate neighbors, instructions have been given to the district attorney of the United States where indications warranted, to prosecute, without respect to persons, all who might attempt to violate the obligation of our neutrality; while at the same time it has been thought necessary to apprize the government of Mexico that we should require the integrity of our territory to be scrupulously respected by both parties.

From our diplomatic agents in Brazil, Chili, Peru, Central America, Venezuela, and New Grenada, constant assurances are received of the continued good understanding with the governments to which they are severally accredited. With those governments upon which our citizens have valid and accumulating claims, scarcely an advance toward the settlement of them is made, owing mainly to their distracted state, or to the pressure of imperative domestic questions. Our patience has been, and will probably be still further, severely tried; but our fellow-citizens whose interests are involved, may confide in the determination of the government to obtain for them eventually ample retribution.

Unfortunately, many of the nations of this hemisphere are still self-tortured by domestic dissensions. Revolution succeeds revolution, injuries are committed upon foreigners engaged in lawful pursuits, much time elapses before-a government sufficiently stable is erected to justify expectation of redress-ministers are sent and received, and before the discussions of past injuries are fairly begun, fresh troubles arise; but too frequently new injuries are added to the old, to be discussed together with the existing government, after it has proved its ability to sustain the assaults made upon it, or with its successor, if overthrown. If this unhappy condition of things continue much longer, other nations will be under the painful necessity of deciding whether justice to their suffering citizens does not require a prompt redress of injuries by their own power, without