State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson >> State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson
In that part of the Indiana Territory which includes Vincennes the lines
settled with the neighboring tribes fix the extinction of their title at a
breadth of 24 leagues from east to west and about the same length parallel
with and including the Wabash. They have also ceded a tract of 4 miles
square, including the salt springs near the mouth of that river.
In the Department of Finance it is with pleasure I inform you, that the
receipts of external duties for the last 12 months have exceeded those of
any former year, and that the ration of increase has been also greater than
usual. This has enabled us to answer all the regular exigencies of
Government, to pay from the Treasury within 1 year upward of $8M, principal
and interest, of the public debt, exclusive of upward of $1M paid by the
sale of bank stock, and making in the whole a reduction of nearly $5.5M of
principal, and to have now in the Treasury $4.5M which are in a course of
application to the further discharge of debt and current demands.
Experience, too, so far, authorizes us to believe, if no extraordinary
event supervenes, and the expenses which will be actually incurred shall
not be greater than were contemplated by Congress at their last session,
that we shall not be disappointed in the expectations then formed. But
nevertheless, as the effect of peace on the amount of duties is not yet
fully ascertained, it is the more necessary to practice every useful
economy and to incur no expense which may be avoided without prejudice.
The collection of the internal taxes having been completed in some of the
States, the officers employed in it are of course out of commission. In
others they will be so shortly. But in a few, where the arrangements for
the direct tax had been retarded, it will be some time before the system is
closed. It has not yet been thought necessary to employ the agent
authorized by an act of the last session for transacting business in Europe
relative to debts and loans. Nor have we used the power confided by the
same act of prolonging the foreign debt by reloans, and of redeeming
instead thereof an equal sum of the domestic debt. Should, however, the
difficulties of remittance on so large a scale render it necessary at any
time, the power shall be executed and the money thus employed abroad shall,
in conformity with that law, be faithfully applied here in an equivalent
extinction of domestic debt.
When effects so salutary result from the plans you have already sanctioned;
when merely by avoiding false objects of expense we are able, without a
direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing to make large and
effectual payments toward the discharge of our public debt and the
emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker, it is an
encouragement, fellow citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have
begun in substituting economy for taxation, and in pursuing what is useful
for a nation placed as we are, rather than what is practiced by others
under different circumstances. And when so ever we are destined to meet
events which shall call forth all the energies of our country-men, we have
the firmest reliance on those energies and the comfort of leaving for calls
like these the extraordinary resources of loans and internal taxes. In the
mean time, by payments of the principal of our debt, we are liberating
annually portions of the external taxes and forming from them a growing
fund still further to lessen the necessity of recurring to extraordinary
resources.
The usual account of receipts and expenditures for the last year, with an
estimate of the expenses of the ensuing one, will be laid before you by the
Secretary of the Treasury.
No change being deemed necessary in our military establishment, an estimate
of its expenses for the ensuing year on its present footing, as also of the
sums to be employed in fortifications and other objects within that
department, has been prepared by the Secretary of War, and will make a part
of the general estimates which will be presented you.
Considering that our regular troops are employed for local purposes, and
that the militia is our general reliance for great and sudden emergencies,
you will doubtless think this institution worthy of a review, and give it
those improvements of which you find it susceptible.
Estimates for the Naval Department, prepared by the Secretary of the Navy,
for another year will in like manner be communicated with the general
estimates. A small force in the Mediterranean will still be necessary to
restrain the Tripoline cruisers, and the uncertain tenure of peace with
some other of the Barbary Powers may eventually require that force to be
augmented. The necessity of procuring some smaller vessels for that service
will raise the estimate, but the difference in their maintenance will soon
make it a measure of economy.
Presuming it will be deemed expedient to expend annually a convenient sum
toward providing the naval defense which our situation may require, I can
not but recommend that the first appropriations for that purpose may go to
the saving what we already possess. No cares, no attentions, can preserve
vessels from rapid decay which lie in water and exposed to the sun. These
decays require great and constant repairs, and will consume, if continued,
a great portion of the moneys destined to naval purposes. To avoid this
waste of our resources it is proposed to add to our navy-yard here a dock
within which our present vessels may be laid up dry and under cover from
the sun. Under these circumstances experience proves that works of wood
will remain scarcely at all affected by time. The great abundance of
running water which this situation possesses, at heights far above the
level of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock navigation,
furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels on a dry and
sheltered bed. And should the measure be found useful here, similar
depositories for laying up as well as for building and repairing vessels
may hereafter be undertaken at other navy-yards offering the same means.
The plans and estimates of the work, prepared by a person of skill and
experience, will be presented to you without delay, and from this it will
be seen that scarcely more than has been the cost of 1 vessel is necessary
to save the whole, and that the annual sum to be employed toward its
completion may be adapted to the views of the Legislature as to naval
expenditure. To cultivate peace and maintain commerce and navigation in all
their lawful enterprises; to foster our fisheries as nurseries of
navigation and for the nurture of man, and protect the manufactures adapted
to our circumstances; to preserve the faith of the nation by an exact
discharge of its debts and contracts, expend the public money with the same
care and economy we would practice with our own, and impose on our citizens
no unnecessary burthens; to keep in all things within the pale of our
constitutional powers, and cherish the federal union as the only rock of
safety - these, fellow citizens, are the land-marks by which we are to
guide ourselves in all proceedings. By continuing to make these the rule of
our action we shall endear to our country-men the true principles of their
Constitution and promote an union of sentiment and of action equally
auspicious to their happiness and safety. On my part, you may count on a
cordial concurrence in every measure for the public good and on all the
information I possess which may enable you to discharge to advantage the
high functions with which you are invested by your country. TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
October 17, 1803
To The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
In calling you together, fellow citizens, at an earlier day than was
contemplated by the act of the last session of Congress, I have not been
insensible to the personal inconveniences necessarily resulting from an
unexpected change in your arrangements, but matters of great public
concernment have rendered this call necessary, and the interests you feel
in these will supersede in your minds all private considerations.
Congress witnessed at their late session the extraordinary agitation
produced in the public mind by the suspension of our right of deposit at
the port of New Orleans, no assignment of another place having been made
according to treaty. They were sensible that the continuance of that
privation would be more injurious to our nation than any consequences which
could flow from any mode of redress, but reposing just confidence in the
good faith of the Government whose officer had committed the wrong,
friendly and reasonable representations were resorted to, and the right of
deposit was restored.
Previous, however, to this period we had not been unaware of the danger to
which our peace would be perpetually exposed whilst so important a key to
the commerce of the Western country remained under foreign power.
Difficulties, too, were presenting themselves as to the navigation of other
streams which, arising within our territories, pass through those adjacent.
Propositions had therefore been authorized for obtaining on fair conditions
the sovereignty of New Orleans and of other possessions in that quarter
interesting to our quiet to such extent as was deemed practicable, and the
provisional appropriation of $2M to be applied and accounted for by the
President of the United States, intended as part of the price, was
considered as conveying the sanction of Congress to the acquisition
proposed. The enlightened Government of France saw with just discernment
the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangements as might best
and permanently promote the peace, friendship, and interests of both, and
the property and sovereignty of all Louisiana which had been restored to
them have on certain conditions been transferred to the United States by
instruments bearing date the 30th of April last. When these shall have
received the constitutional sanction of the Senate, they will without delay
be communicated to the Representatives also for the exercise of their
functions as to those conditions which are within the powers vested by the
Constitution in Congress.
Whilst the property and sovereignty of the Mississippi and its waters
secure an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States and an
uncontrolled navigation through their whole course, free from collision
with other powers and the dangers to our peace from that source, the
fertility of the country, its climate and extent, promise in due season
important aids to our Treasury, an ample provision for our posterity, and a
wide spread for the blessings of freedom and equal laws.
With the wisdom of Congress it will rest to take those ulterior measures
which may be necessary for the immediate occupation and temporary
government of the country; for its incorporation into our Union; for
rendering the change of government a blessing to our newly adopted
brethren; for securing to them the rights of conscience and of property;
for confirming to the Indian inhabitants their occupancy and
self-government, establishing friendly and commercial relations with them,
and for ascertaining the geography of the country acquired. Such materials,
for your information, relative to its affairs in general as the short space
of time has permitted me to collect will be laid before you when the
subject shall be in a state for your consideration.
Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since the
last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians, with
which we have never had a difference, reduced by the wars and wants of
savage life to a few individuals unable to defend themselves against the
neighboring tribes, has transferred its country to the United States,
reserving only for its members what is sufficient to maintain them in an
agricultural way. The considerations stipulated are that we shall extend to
them our patronage and protection and give them certain annual aids in
money, in implements of agriculture, and other articles of their choice.
This country, among the most fertile within our limits, extending along the
Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois to and up to the Ohio, though
not so necessary as a barrier since the acquisition of the other bank, may
yet be well worthy of being laid open to immediate settlement, as its
inhabitants may descend with rapidity in support of the lower country
should future circumstances expose that to foreign enterprise. As the
stipulations in this treaty involve matters with the competence of both
Houses only, it will be laid before Congress as soon as the Senate shall
have advised its ratification.
With many of the other Indian tribes improvements in agriculture and
household manufacture are advancing, and with all our peace and friendship
are established on grounds much firmer than heretofore. The measure adopted
of establishing trading houses among them and of furnishing them
necessaries in exchange for their commodities at such moderate prices as
leave no gain, but cover us from loss, has the most conciliatory and useful
effect on them, and is that which will best secure their peace and good
will.
The small vessels authorized by Congress with a view to the Mediterranean
service have been sent into that sea, and will be able more effectually to
confine the Tripoline cruisers within their harbors and supersede the
necessity of convoy to our commerce in that quarter. They will sensibly
lessen the expenses of that service the ensuing year.
A further knowledge of the ground in the northeastern and northwestern
angles of the United States has evinced that the boundaries established by
the treaty of Paris between the British territories and ours in those parts
were too imperfectly described to be susceptible of execution. It has
therefore been thought worthy of attention for preserving and cherishing
the harmony and useful intercourse subsisting between the two nations to
remove by timely arrangements what unfavorable incidents might otherwise
render a ground of future misunderstanding. A convention has therefore been
entered into which provides for a practicable demarcation of those limits
to the satisfaction of both parties.
An account of the receipts and expenditures of the year ending the 30th of
September last, with the estimates for the service of the ensuing year,
will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury so soon as the
receipts of the last quarter shall be returned from the more distant
States. It is already ascertained that the amount paid into the Treasury
for that year has been between $11M and $12M, and that the revenue accrued
during the same term exceeds the sum counted on as sufficient for our
current expenses and to extinguish the public debt within the period
heretofore proposed.
The amount of debt paid for the same year is about $3.1M exclusive of
interest, and making, with the payment of the preceding year, a discharge
of more than $8.5M of the principal of that debt, besides the accruing
interest; and there remain in the Treasury nearly $6M. Of these, $880K have
been reserved for payment of the first installment due under the British
convention of 1802 January 08, and $2 millions are what have been before
mentioned as placed by Congress under the power and accountability of the
President toward the price of New Orleans and other territories acquired,
which, remaining untouched, are still applicable to that object and go in
diminution of the sum to be funded for it.
Should the acquisition of Louisiana be constitutionally confirmed and
carried into effect, a sum of nearly $13M will then be added to our public
debt, most of which is payable after 15 years, before which term the
present existing debts will all be discharged by the established operation
of the sinking fund. When we contemplate the ordinary annual augmentation
of impost from increasing population and wealth, the augmentation of the
same revenue by its extension to the new acquisition, and the economies
which may still be introduced into our public expenditures, I can not but
hope that Congress in reviewing their resources will find means to meet the
intermediate interest of this additional debt without recurring to new
taxes, and applying to this object only the ordinary progression of our
revenue. Its extraordinary increase in times of foreign war will be the
proper and sufficient fund for any measures of safety or precaution which
that state of things may render necessary in our neutral position.
Remittances for the installments of our foreign debt having been found
practicable without loss, it has not been thought expedient to use the
power given by a former act of Congress of continuing them by reloans, and
of redeeming instead thereof equal sums of domestic debt, although no
difficulty was found in obtaining that accommodation.
The sum of $50K appropriated by Congress for providing gun boats remains
unexpended. The favorable and peaceable turn of affairs on the Mississippi
rendered an immediate execution of that law unnecessary, and time was
desirable in order that the institution of that branch of our force might
begin on models the most approved by experience. The same issue of events
dispensed with a resort to the appropriation of $1.5M, contemplated for
purposes which were effected by happier means.
We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up again in
Europe, and nations with which we have the most friendly and useful
relations engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret the miseries in
which we see others involved, let us bow with gratitude to that kind
Providence which, inspiring with wisdom and moderation our late legislative
councils while placed under the urgency of the greatest wrongs guarded us
from hastily entering into the sanguinity contest and left us only to look
on and pity its ravages.
These will be heaviest on those immediately engaged. Yet the nations
pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil.
In the course of this conflict let it be our endeavor, as it is our
interest and desire, to cultivate the friendship of the belligerent nations
by every act of justice and of innocent kindness; to receive their armed
vessels with hospitality from the distresses of the sea, but to administer
the means of annoyance to none; to establish in our harbors such a police
as may maintain law and order; to restrain our citizens from embarking
individually in a war in which their country takes no part; to punish
severely those persons, citizens or alien, who shall usurp the cover of our
flag for vessels not entitled to it, infecting thereby with suspicion those
of real Americans and committing us into controversies for the redress of
wrongs not our own; to exact from every nation the observance toward our
vessels and citizens of those principles and practices which all civilized
people acknowledge; to merit the character of a just nation, and maintain
that of an independent one, preferring every consequence to insult and
habitual wrong. Congress will consider whether the existing laws enable us
efficaciously to maintain this course with our citizens in all places and
with others while within the limits of our jurisdiction, and will give them
the new modifications necessary for these objects. Some contraventions of
right have already taken place, both within our jurisdictional limits and
on the high seas. The friendly disposition of the Governments from whose
agents they have proceeded, as well as their wisdom and regard for justice,
leave us in reasonable expectation that they will be rectified and
prevented in future, and that no act will be countenanced by them which
threatens to disturb our friendly intercourse.
Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe and from the political
interests which entangle them together, with productions and wants which
render our commerce and friendship useful to them and theirs to us, it can
not be the interest of any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them. We
should be most unwise, indeed, were we to cast away the singular blessings
of the position in which nature has placed us, the opportunity she has
endowed us with of pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions, the
paths of industry, peace, and happiness, of cultivating general friendship,
and of bringing collisions of interest to the umpirage of reason rather
than of force.
How desirable, then, must it be in a Government like ours to see its
citizens adopt individually the views, the interests, and the conduct which
their country should pursue, divesting themselves of those passions and
partialities which tend to lessen useful friendships and to embarrass and
embroil us in the calamitous scenes of Europe. Confident, fellow citizens,
that you will duly estimate the importance of neutral dispositions toward
the observance of neutral conduct, that you will be sensible how much it is
our duty to look on the bloody arena spread before us with commiseration
indeed, but with no other wish than to see it closed, I am persuaded you
will cordially cherish these dispositions in all discussions among
yourselves and in all communications with your constituents; and I
anticipate with satisfaction the measures of wisdom which the great
interests now committed to you will give you an opportunity of providing,
and myself that of approving and carrying into execution with the fidelity
I owe to my country. TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
November 8, 1804
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
To a people, fellow citizens, who sincerely desire the happiness and
prosperity of other nations; to those who justly calculate that their own
well-being is advanced by that of the nations with which they have
intercourse, it will be a satisfaction to observe that the war which was
lighted up in Europe a little before our last meeting has not yet extended
its flames to other nations, nor been marked by the calamities which
sometimes stain the foot-steps of war. The irregularities, too, on the
ocean, which generally harass the commerce of neutral nations, have, in
distant parts, disturbed ours less than on former occasions; but in the
American seas they have been greater from peculiar causes, and even within
our harbors and jurisdiction infringements on the authority of the laws
have been committed which have called for serious attention. The friendly
conduct of the Governments from whose officers and subjects these acts have
proceeded, in other respects and in places more under their observation and
control, gives us confidence that our representations on this subject will
have been properly regarded.
While noticing the irregularities committed on the ocean by others, those
on our own part should not be omitted nor left unprovided for. Complaints
have been received that persons residing within the United States have
taken on themselves to arm merchant vessels and to force a commerce into
certain ports and countries in defiance of the laws of those countries.
That individuals should undertake to wage private war, independently of the
authority of their country, can not be permitted in a well-ordered society.
Its tendency to produce aggression on the laws and rights of other nations
and to endanger the peace of our own is so obvious that I doubt not you
will adopt measures for restraining it effectually in future.
Soon after the passage of the act of the last session authorizing the
establishment of a district and port of entry on the waters of the Mobile
we learnt that its object was misunderstood on the part of Spain. Candid
explanations were immediately given and assurances that, reserving our
claims in that quarter as a subject of discussion and arrangement with
Spain, no act was meditated in the mean time inconsistent with the peace
and friendship existing between the 2 nations, and that conformably to
these intentions would be the execution of the law. That Government had,
however, thought proper to suspend the ratification of the convention of
1802; but the explanations which would reach them soon after, and still
more the confirmation of them by the tenor of the instrument establishing
the port and district, may reasonably be expected to replace them in the
dispositions and views of the whole subject which originally dictated the
convention.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the objections which had been
urged by that Government against the validity of our title to the country
of Louisiana have been withdrawn, its exact limits, however, remaining
still to be settled between us; and to this is to be added that, having
prepared and delivered the stock created in execution of the convention of
Paris of 1803 April 30, in consideration of the cession of that country, we
have received from the Government of France an acknowledgment, in due form,
of the fulfillment of that stipulation.