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State of the Union Addresses of James Monroe

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At the close of the last session it was anticipated that the progressive
diminution of the public revenue in 1819 and 1820, which had been the
result of the languid state of our foreign commerce in those years, had in
the latter year reached its extreme point of depression. It has, however,
been ascertained that that point was reached only at the termination of the
first quarter of the present year. From that time until the 30th of
September last the duties secured have exceeded those of the corresponding
quarters of the last year $1.172M, whilst the amount of debentures issued
during the three first quarters of this year is $952,000 less than that of
the same quarters of the last year.

There are just grounds to believe that the improvement which has occurred
in the revenue during the last-mentioned period will not only be
maintained, but that it will progressively increase through the next and
several succeeding years, so as to realize the results which were presented
upon that subject by the official reports of the Treasury at the
commencement of the last session of Congress.

Under the influence of the most unfavorable circumstances the revenue for
the next and subsequent years to the year 1825 will exceed the demands at
present authorized by law.

It may fairly be presumed that under the protection given to domestic
manufactures by the existing laws we shall become at no distant period a
manufacturing country on an extensive scale. Possessing as we do the raw
materials in such vast amount, with a capacity to augment them to an
indefinite extent; raising within the country aliment of every kind to an
amount far exceeding the demand for home consumption, even in the most
unfavorable years, and to be obtained always at a very moderate price;
skilled also, as our people are, in the mechanic arts and in every
improvement calculated to lessen the demand for and the price of labor, it
is manifest that their success in every branch of domestic industry may and
will be carried, under the encouragement given by the present duties, to an
extent to meet any demand which under a fair competition may be made upon
it.

A considerable increase of domestic manufactures, by diminishing the
importation of foreign, will probably tend to lessen the amount of the
public revenue. As, however, a large proportion of the revenue which is
derived from duties is raised from other articles than manufactures, the
demand for which will increase with our population, it is believed that a
fund will still be raised from that source adequate to the greater part of
the public expenditures, especially as those expenditures, should we
continue to be blessed with peace, will be diminished by the completion of
the fortifications, dock yards, and other public works, by the augmentation
of the Navy to the point to which it is proposed to carry it, and by the
payment of the public debt, including pensions for military services.

It can not be doubted that the more complete our internal resources and the
less dependent we are on foreign powers for every national as well as
domestic purpose the greater and more stable will be the public felicity.
By the increase of domestic manufactures will the demand for the rude
materials at home be increased, and thus will the dependence of the several
parts of our Union on each other and the strength of the Union itself be
proportionably augmented.

In this process, which is very desirable, and inevitable under the existing
duties, the resources which obviously present themselves to supply a
deficiency in the revenue, should it occur, are the interests which may
derive the principal benefit from the change. If domestic manufactures are
raised by duties on foreign, the deficiency in the fund necessary for
public purposes should be supplied by duties on the former.

At the last session it seemed doubtful whether the revenue derived from the
present sources would be adequate to all the great purposes of our Union,
including the construction of our fortifications, the augmentation of the
Navy, and the protection of our commerce against the dangers to which it is
exposed. had the deficiency been such as to subject us to the necessity
either to abandon those measures of defense or to resort to the other means
for adequate funds, the course presented to the adoption of a virtuous and
enlightened people appeared to be a plain one. It must be gratifying to all
to know that this necessity does not exist. Nothing, however, in
contemplation of such important objects, which can be easily provided for,
should be left to hazard. It is thought that the revenue may receive an
augmentation from the existing sources, and in a manner to aid our
manufactures, without hastening prematurely the result which has been
suggested. It is believed that a moderate additional duty on certain
articles would have that effect, without being liable to any serious
objection.

The examination of the whole coast, for the construction of permanent
fortifications, from St. Croix to the Sabine, with the exception of part of
the territory lately acquired, will be completed in the present year, as
will be the survey of the Mississippi, under the resolution of the House of
Representatives, from the mouth of the Ohio to the ocean, and likewise of
the Ohio from Louisville to the Mississippi. A progress corresponding with
the sums appropriated has also been made in the construction of these
fortifications at the ports designated. As they will form a system of
defense for the whole maritime frontier, and in consequence for the
interior, and are to last for ages, the greatest care has been taken to fix
the position of each work and to form it on such a scale as will be
adequate to the purpose intended by it. All the inlets and assailable parts
of our Union have been minutely examined, and positions taken with a view
to the best effect, observing in every instance a just regard for economy.
Doubts, however, being entertained as to the propriety of the position and
extent of the work at Dauphine Island, further progress in it was suspended
soon after the last session of Congress, and an order given to the Board of
Engineers and Naval Commissioners to make a further and more minute
examination of it in both respects, and to report the result without
delay.

Due progress has been made in the construction of vessels of war according
to the law providing for the gradual augmentation of the Navy, and to the
extent of existing appropriations. The vessels authorized by the act of
1820 have all been completed and are now in actual service. None of the
larger ships have been or will be launched for the present, the object
being to protect all which may not be required for immediate service from
decay by suitable buildings erected over them.

A squadron has been maintained, as heretofore, in the Mediterranean, by
means whereof peace has been preserved with the Barbary Powers. This
squadron has been reduced the present year to as small a force as is
compatible with the fulfillment of the object intended by it. From past
experience and the best information respecting the views of those powers it
is distinctly understood that should our squadron be withdrawn they would
soon recommence their hostilities and depredations upon our commerce. Their
fortifications have lately been rebuilt and their maritime force
increased.

It has also been found necessary to maintain a naval force on the Pacific
for the protection of the very important interests of our citizens engaged
in commerce and the fisheries in that sea. Vessels have likewise been
employed in cruising along the Atlantic coast, in the Gulf of Mexico, on
the coast of Africa, and in the neighboring seas. In the latter many
piracies have been committed on our commerce, and so extensive was becoming
the range of those unprincipled adventurers that there was cause to
apprehend, without a timely and decisive effort to suppress them, the worst
consequences would ensue. Fortunately, a considerable check has been given
to that spirit by our cruisers, who have succeeded in capturing and
destroying several of their vessels. Nevertheless, it is considered an
object of high importance to continue these cruises until the practice is
entirely suppressed.

Like success has attended our efforts to suppress the slave trade. Under
the flag of the United States and the sanction of their papers the trade
may be considered as entire suppressed, and if any of our citizens are
engaged in it under the flags and papers of other powers, it is only from a
respect of those powers that these offenders are not seized and brought
home to receive the punishment which the laws inflict. If every other power
should adopt the same policy and pursue the same vigorous means for
carrying it into effect, the trade could no longer exist.

Deeply impressed with the blessings which we enjoy, and of which we have
such manifold proofs, my mind is irresistibly drawn to that Almighty Being,
the great source from whence they proceed and to whom our most grateful
acknowledgments are due.

***

State of the Union Address
James Monroe
December 3, 1822

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

Many causes unite to make your present meeting peculiarly interesting to
out constituents. The operation of our laws on the various subjects to
which they apply, with the amendments which they occasionally require,
imposes annually an important duty on the representatives of a free
people.

Our system has happily advanced to such maturity that I am not aware that
your cares in that respect will be augmented. Other causes exist which are
highly interesting to the whole civilized world and to no portion of it
more so, in certain views, than to the United States. Of these causes and
of their bearing on the interests of our Union I shall communicate the
sentiments which I have formed with that freedom which a sense of duty
dictates. It is proper, however, to invite your attention in the first
instance to those concerns respecting which legislative provision is
thought to be particularly urgent.

On the 24th of June last a convention of navigation and commerce was
concluded in this city between the United States and France by ministers
duly authorized for the purpose. The sanction of the Executive having been
given to this convention under a conviction that, taking all its
stipulations into view, it rested essentially on a basis of reciprocal and
equal advantage, I deemed it my duty, in compliance with the authority
vested in the Executive by the second section of the act of the last
session of the 6th of May, concerning navigation, to suspend by
proclamation until the end of the next session of Congress the operation of
the act entitled "An act to impose a new tonnage duty on French ships and
vessels, and for other purposes", and to suspend likewise all other duties
on French vessels or the goods imported in them which exceeded the duties
on American vessels and on similar goods imported in them. I shall submit
this convention forthwith to the Senate for its advice and consent as to
the ratification.

Since your last session the prohibition which had been imposed on the
commerce between the United States and the British colonies in the West
Indies and on this continent has likewise been removed. Satisfactory
evidence having been adduced that the ports of those colonies had been
opened to the vessels of the United States by an act of the British
Parliament bearing date on the 24th of June last, on the conditions
specified therein, I deemed it proper, in compliance with the provision of
the first section of the act of the last session above recited, to declare,
by proclamation bearing date on the 24th of August last, that the ports of
the United States should thenceforward and until the end of the next
session of Congress be opened to the vessels of Great Britain employed in
that trade, under the limitation specified in that proclamation.

A doubt was entertained whether the act of Congress applied to the British
colonies on this continent as well as to those in the West Indies, but as
the act of Parliament opened the intercourse equally with both, and it was
the manifest intention of Congress, as well as the obvious policy of the
United States, that the provisions of the act of Parliament should be met
in equal extent on the part of the United States, and as also the act of
Congress was supposed to vest in the President some discretion in the
execution of it, I thought it advisable to give it a corresponding
construction.

Should the constitutional sanction of the Senate be given to the
ratification of the convention with France, legislative provisions will be
necessary to carry it fully into effect, as it likewise will be to continue
in force, on such conditions as may be deemed just and proper, the
intercourse which has been opened between the United States and the British
colonies. Every light in the possession of the Executive will in due time
be communicated on both subjects.

Resting essentially on a basis of reciprocal and equal advantage, it has
been the object of the Executive in transactions with other powers to meet
the propositions of each with a liberal spirit, believing that thereby the
interest of our country would be most effectually promoted. This course has
been systematically pursued in the late occurrences with France and Great
Britain, and in strict accord with the views of the Legislature. A
confident hope is entertained that by the arrangement thus commenced with
each all differences respecting navigation and commerce with the dominions
in question will be adjusted, and a solid foundation be laid for an active
and permanent intercourse which will prove equally advantageous to both
parties.

The decision of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia on the question
submitted to him by the United States and Great Britain, concerning the
construction of the first article of the treaty of Ghent, has been
received. A convention has since been concluded between the parties, under
the mediation of His Imperial Majesty, to prescribe the mode by which that
article shall be carried into effect in conformity with that decision. I
shall submit this convention to the Senate for its advice and consent as to
the ratification, and, if obtained, shall immediately bring the subject
before Congress for such provisions as may require the interposition of the
Legislature.

In compliance with an act of the last session a Territorial Government has
been established in FL on the principles of our system. By this act the
inhabitants are secured in the full enjoyment of their rights and
liberties, and to admission into the Union, with equal participation in the
Government with the original States on the conditions heretofore prescribed
to other Territories. By a clause in the 9th article of the treaty with
Spain, by which that Territory was ceded to the United States, it is
stipulated that satisfaction shall be made for the injuries, if any, which
by process of law shall be established to have been suffered by the Spanish
officers and individual Spanish inhabitants by the late operations of our
troops in Florida. No provision having yet been made to carry that
stipulation into effect, it is submitted to the consideration of Congress
whether it will not be proper to vest the competent power in the district
court at Pensacola, or in some tribunal to be specially organized for the
purpose.

The fiscal operations of the year have been more successful than had been
anticipated at the commencement of the last session of Congress.

The receipts into the Treasury during the three first quarters of the year
have exceeded the sum of $14.745M. The payments made at the Treasury during
the same period have exceeded $12.279M, leaving the Treasury on the 30th
day of September last, including $1,168,592.24 which were in the Treasury
on the first day of January last, a sum exceeding $4.128M.

Besides discharging all demands for the current service of the year,
including the interest and reimbursement of the public debt, the 6% stock
of 1796, amounting to $80,000, has been redeemed. It is estimated that,
after defraying the current expenses of the present quarter and redeeming
the $2M of 6% stock of 1820, there will remain in the Treasury on the first
of January next nearly $3M. It is estimated that the gross amount of duties
which have been secured from the first of January to the 30th of September
last has exceeded $19.5M, and the amount for the whole year will probably
not fall short of $23M.

Of the actual force in service under the present military establishment,
the posts at which it is stationed, and the condition of each post, a
report from the Sec of War which is now communicated will give a distinct
idea. By like reports the state of the Academy at West Point will be seen,
as will be the progress which has been made on the fortifications along the
coast and at the national armories and arsenals.

The organization of the several corps composing the Army is such as to
admit its expansion to a great extent in case of emergency, the officers
carrying with them all the light which they possess to the new corps to
which they might be appointed.

With the organization of the staff there is equal cause to be satisfied. By
the concentration of every branch with its chief in this city, in the
presence of the Department, and with a grade in the chief military station
to keep alive and cherish a military spirit, the greatest promptitude in
the execution of orders, with the greatest economy and efficiency, are
secured. The same view is taken of the Military Academy. Good order is
preserved in it, and the youth are well instructed in every science
connected with the great objects of the institution. They are also well
trained and disciplined in the practical parts of the profession. It has
been always found difficult to control the ardor inseparable from that
early age in such manner as to give it a proper direction. The rights of
manhood are too often claimed prematurely, in pressing which too far the
respect which is due to age and the obedience necessary to a course of
study and instruction in every such institution are sometimes lost sight
of. The great object to be accomplished is the restraint of that ardor by
such wise regulations and Government as, by directing all the energies of
the youthful mind to the attainment of useful knowledge, will keep it
within a just subordination and at the same time elevate it to the highest
purposes. This object seems to be essentially obtained in this institution,
and with great advantage to the Union.

The Military Academy forms the basis, in regard to science, on which the
military establishment rests. It furnishes annually, after due examination
and on the report of the academic staff, many well- informed youths to fill
the vacancies which occur in the several corps of the Army, while others
who retire to private life carry with them such attainments as, under the
right reserved to the several States to appoint the officers and to train
the militia, will enable them, by affording a wider field for selection, to
promote the great object of the power vested in Congress of providing for
the organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia. Thus by the mutual
and harmonious cooperation of the two governments in the execution of a
power divided between them, an object always to be cherished, the
attainment of a great result, on which our liberties may depend, can not
fail to be secured. I have to add that in proportion as our regular force
is small should the instruction and discipline of the militia, the great
resource on which we rely, be pushed to the utmost extent that
circumstances will admit.

A report from the Secretary of the Navy will communicate the progress which
has been made in the construction of vessels of war, with other interesting
details respecting the actual state of the affairs of that Department. It
has been found necessary for the protection of our commerce to maintain the
usual squadrons on the Mediterranean, the Pacific, and along the Atlantic
coast, extending the cruises of the latter into the West Indies, where
piracy, organized into a system, has preyed on the commerce of every
country trading thither. A cruise has also been maintained on the coast of
Africa, when the season would permit, for the suppression of the slave
trade, and orders have been given to the commanders of all our public ships
to seize our own vessels, should they find any engaging in that trade, and
to bring them in for adjudication.

In the West Indies piracy is of recent date, which may explain the cause
why other powers have not combined against it. By the documents
communicated it will be seen that the efforts of the United States to
suppress it have had a very salutary effect. The benevolent provision of
the act under which the protection has been extended alike to the commerce
of other nations can not fail to be duly appreciated by them.

In compliance with the act of the last session entitled "An act to abolish
the United States trading establishments", agents were immediately
appointed and instructed, under the direction of the Sec of the Treasury,
to close the business of the trading houses among the Indian tribes and to
settle the accounts of the factors and sub-factors engaged in that trade,
and to execute in all other respects the injunction of that act in the mode
prescribed therein. A final report of their proceedings shall be
communicated to Congress as soon as it is received.

It is with great regret I have to state that a serious malady has deprived
us of many valuable citizens of Pensacola and checked the progress of some
of those arrangements which are important to the Territory. This effect has
been sensibly felt in respect to the Indians who inhabit that Territory,
consisting of the remnants of the several tribes who occupy the middle
ground between St. Augustine and Pensacola, with extensive claims but
undefined boundaries. Although peace is preserved with those Indians, yet
their position and claims tend essentially to interrupt the intercourse
between the eastern and western parts of the Territory, on which our
inhabitants are principally settled. It is essential to the growth and
prosperity of the Territory, as well as to the interests of the Union, that
those Indians should be removed, by special compact with them, to some
other position or concentration within narrower limits where they are. With
the limited means in the power of the Executive, instructions were given to
the governor to accomplish this object so far as it might be practicable,
which was prevented by the distressing malady referred to. To carry it
fully into effect in either mode additional funds will be necessary, to the
provision of which the powers of Congress are competent. With a view to
such provision as may be deemed proper, the subject is submitted to your
consideration, and in the interim further proceedings are suspended.

It appearing that so much of the act entitled "An act regulating the staff
of the Army", which passed on [1818-04-14], as relates to the commissariat
will expire in April next, and the practical operation of that department
having evinced its great utility, the propriety of its renewal is submitted
to your consideration.

The view which has been taken of the probable productiveness of the lead
mines, connected with the importance of the material to the public defense,
makes it expedient that they should be managed with peculiar care. It is
therefore suggested whether it will not comport with the public interest to
provide by law for the appointment of an agent skilled in mineralogy to
superintend them, under the direction of the proper department.

It is understood that the Cumberland road, which was constructed at great
expense, has already suffered from the want of that regular superintendence
and of those repairs which are indispensable to the preservation of such a
work. This road is of incalculable advantage in facilitating the
intercourse between the Western and the Atlantic States. Through the whole
country from the northern extremity of Lake Erie to the Mississippi, and
from all the waters which empty into each, finds and easy and direct
communication to the seat of Government, and thence to the Atlantic. The
facility which it affords to all military and commercial operations, and
also to those of the Post Office Dep't, can not be estimated too highly.
This great work is likewise an ornament and an honor to the nation.

Believing that a competent power to adopt and execute a system of internal
improvement has not been granted to Congress, but that such a power,
confined to great national purposes and with proper limitations, would be
productive of eminent advantage to our Union, I have thought it advisable
that an amendment of the Constitution to that effect should be recommended
to the several States.

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