State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson
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Thomas Jefferson >> State of the Union Addresses of Thomas Jefferson
On this first occasion of addressing Congress since, by the choice of my
constituents, I have entered on a second term of administration, I embrace
the opportunity to give this public assurance that I will exert my best
endeavors to administer faithfully the executive department, and will
zealously cooperate with you in every measure which may tend to secure the
liberty, property, and personal safety of our fellow citizens, and to
consolidate the republican forms and principles of our Government.
In the course of your session you shall receive all the aid which I can
give for the dispatch of public business, and all the information necessary
for your deliberations, of which the interests of our own country and the
confidence reposed in us by others will admit a communication. TH.
JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
December 2, 1806
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
It would have given me, fellow citizens, great satisfaction to announce in
the moment of your meeting that the difficulties in our foreign relations
existing at the time of your last separation had been amicably and justly
terminated. I lost no time in taking those measures which were most likely
to bring them to such a termination - by special missions charged with such
powers and instructions as in the event of failure could leave no
imputation on either our moderation or forbearance. The delays which have
since taken place in our negotiations with the British Government appear to
have proceeded from causes which do not forbid the expectation that during
the course of the session I may be enabled to lay before you their final
issue. What will be that of the negotiations for settling our differences
with Spain nothing which had taken place at the date of the last dispatches
enables us to pronounce. On the western side of the Mississippi she
advanced in considerable force, and took post at the settlement of Bayou
Pierre, on the Red River. This village was originally settled by France,
was held by her as long as she held Louisiana, and was delivered to Spain
only as a part of Louisiana. Being small, insulated, and distant, it was
not observed at the moment of redelivery to France and the United States
that she continued a guard of half a dozen men which had been stationed
there. A proposition, however, having been lately made by our commander in
chief to assume the Sabine River as a temporary line of separation between
the troops of the two nations until the issue of our negotiations shall be
known, this has been referred by the Spanish commandant to his superior,
and in the mean time he has withdrawn his force to the western side of the
Sabine River. The correspondence on this subject now communicated will
exhibit more particularly the present state of things in that quarter.
The nature of that country requires indispensably that an unusual
proportion of the force employed there should be cavalry or mounted
infantry. In order, therefore, that the commanding officer might be enabled
to act with effect, I had authorized him to call on the governors of
Orleans and Mississippi for a corps of 500 volunteer cavalry. The temporary
arrangement he has proposed may perhaps render this unnecessary; but I
inform you with great pleasure of the promptitude with which the
inhabitants of those Territories have tendered their services in defense of
their country. It has done honor to themselves, entitled them to the
confidence of their fellow citizens in every part of the Union, and must
strengthen the general determination to protect them efficaciously under
all circumstances which may occur.
Having received information that in another part of the United States a
great number of private individuals were combining together, arming and
organizing themselves contrary to law, to carry on a military expedition
against the territories of Spain, I thought it necessary, by proclamation
as well as by special orders, to take measures for preventing and
suppressing this enterprise, for seizing the vessels, arms, and other means
provided for it, and for arresting and bringing to justice its authors and
abettors. It was due to that good faith which ought ever to be the rule of
action in public as well as in private transactions, it was due to good
order and regular government, that while the public force was acting
strictly on defensive and merely to protect our citizens from aggression
the criminal attempts of private individuals to decide for their country
the question of peace or war by commencing active and unauthorized
hostilities should be promptly and efficaciously suppressed.
Whether it will be necessary to enlarge our regular forces will depend on
the result of our negotiations with Spain; but as it is uncertain when that
result will be known, the provisional measures requisite for that, and to
meet any pressure intervening in that quarter, will be a subject for your
early consideration.
The possession of both banks of the Mississippi reducing to a single point
the defense of that river, its waters, and the country adjacent, it becomes
highly necessary to provide for that point a more adequate security. Some
position above its mouth, commanding the passage of the river, should be
rendered sufficiently strong to cover the armed vessels which may be
stationed there for defense, and in conjunction with them to present an
insuperable obstacle to any force attempting to pass. The approaches to the
city of New Orleans from the eastern quarter also will require to be
examined and more effectually guarded. For the internal support of the
country the encouragement of a strong settlement on the western side of the
Mississippi, within reach of New Orleans, will be worthy the consideration
of the Legislature.
The gun boats authorized by an act of the last session are so advanced that
they will be ready for service in the ensuing spring. Circumstances
permitted us to allow the time necessary for their more solid construction.
As a much larger number will still be wanting to place our sea port towns
and waters in that state of defense to which we are competent and they
entitled, a similar appropriation for a further provision for them is
recommended for the ensuing year.
A further appropriation will also be necessary for repairing fortifications
already established and the erection of such other works as may have real
effect in obstructing the approach of an enemy to our sea port towns, or
their remaining before them.
In a country whose constitution is derived from the will of the people,
directly expressed by their free suffrages; where the principal executive
functionaries and those of the legislature are renewed by them at short
periods; where under the character of jurors they exercise in person the
greatest portion of the judiciary powers; where the laws are consequently
so formed and administered as to bear with equal weight and favor on all,
restraining no man in the pursuits of honest industry and securing to
everyone the property which that acquires, it would not be supposed that
any safe-guards could be needed against insurrection or enterprise on the
public peace or authority. The laws, however, aware that these should not
be trusted to moral restraints only, have wisely provided punishment for
these crimes when committed. But would it not be salutary to give also the
means of preventing their commission? Where an enterprise is meditated by
private individuals against a foreign nation in amity with the United
States, powers of prevention to a certain extent are given by the laws.
Would they not be as reasonable and useful where the enterprise preparing
is against the United States? While adverting to this branch of law it is
proper to observe that in enterprises meditated against foreign nations the
ordinary process of binding to the observance of the peace and good
behavior, could it be extended to acts to be done out of the jurisdiction
of the United States, would be effectual in some cases where the offender
is able to keep out of sight every indication of his purpose which could
draw on him the exercise of the powers now given by law.
The States on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to
respect our peace and friendship; with Tunis alone some uncertainty
remains. Persuaded that it is our interest to maintain our peace with them
on equal terms or not at all, I propose to send in due time a reenforcement
into the Mediterranean unless previous information shall show it to be
necessary.
We continue to receive proofs of the growing attachment of our Indian
neighbors and of their dispositions to place all their interests under the
patronage of the United States. These dispositions are inspired by their
confidence in our justice and in the sincere concern we feel for their
welfare; and as long as we discharge these high and honorable functions
with the integrity and good faith which alone can entitle us to their
continuance we may expect to reap the just reward in their peace and
friendship.
The expedition of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke for exploring the river Missouri
and the best communication from that to the Pacific Ocean has had all the
success which could have been expected. They have traced the Missouri
nearly to its source, descended the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean,
ascertained with accuracy the geography of that interesting communication
across our continent, learnt the character of the country, of its commerce
and inhabitants; and it is but justice to say that Messrs. Lewis and Clarke
and their brave companions have by this arduous service deserved well of
their country.
The attempt to explore the Red River, under the direction of Mr. Freeman,
though conducted with a zeal and prudence meriting entire approbation, has
not been equally successful. After proceeding up it about 600 miles, nearly
as far as the French settlements had extended while the country was in
their possession, our geographers were obliged to return without completing
their work.
Very useful additions have also been made to our knowledge of the
Mississippi by Lieutenant Pike, who has ascended it to its source, and
whose journal and map, giving the details of his journey, will shortly be
ready for communication to both Houses of Congress. Those of Messrs. Lewis,
Clarke, and Freeman will require further time to be digested and prepared.
These important surveys, in addition to those before possessed, furnish
materials for commencing an accurate map of the Mississippi and its western
waters. Some principal rivers, however, remain still to be explored, toward
which the authorization of Congress by moderate appropriations will be
requisite.
I congratulate you, fellow citizens, on the approach of the period at which
you may interpose your authority constitutionally to withdraw the citizens
of the United States from all further participation in those violations of
human rights which have been so long continued on the unoffending
inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best
of our country have long been eager to proscribe. Although no law you may
pass can take prohibitory effect Ôtil the 1st day of the year 1808,
yet the intervening period is not too long to prevent by timely notice
expeditions which can not be completed before that day.
The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day of
September last have amounted to near $15M, which have enabled us, after
meeting the current demands, to pay $2.7M of the American claims in part of
the price of Louisiana; to pay of the funded debt upward of $3M of
principal and nearly $4M of interest, and, in addition, to reimburse in the
course of the present month near $2M of 5.5% stock. These payments and
reimbursements of the funded debt, with those which had been made in the 4
years and a half preceding, will at the close of the present year have
extinguished upward of $23M of principal.
The duties composing the Mediterranean fund will cease by law at the end of
the present session. Considering, however, that they are levied chiefly on
luxuries and that we have an impost on salt, a necessary of life, the free
use of which otherwise is so important, I recommend to your consideration
the suppression of the duties on salt and the continuation of the
Mediterranean fund instead thereof for a short time, after which that also
will become unnecessary for any purpose now within contemplation.
When both of these branches of revenue shall in this way be relinquished
there will still ere long be an accumulation of moneys in the Treasury
beyond the installments of public debt which we are permitted by contract
to pay. They can not then, without a modification assented to by the public
creditors, be applied to the extinguishment of this debt and the complete
liberation of our revenues, the most desirable of all objects. Nor, if our
peace continues, will they be wanting for any other existing purpose. The
question therefore now comes forward, To what other objects shall these
surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost, after the
entire discharge of the public debt, and during those intervals when the
purposes of war shall not call for them? Shall we suppress the impost and
give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures? On a few
articles of more general and necessary use the suppression in due season
will doubtless be right, but the great mass of the articles on which impost
is paid are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough
to afford themselves the use of them.
Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to
the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such
other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to
the constitutional enumeration of Federal powers. By these operations new
channels of communications will be opened between the States, the lines of
separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their
union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. Education is here placed among
the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its
ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so
much better all the concerns to which it is equal, but a public institution
can alone supply those sciences which though rarely called for are yet
necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the
improvement of the country and some of them to its preservation.
The subject is now proposed for the consideration of Congress, because if
approved by the time the State legislatures shall have deliberated on this
extension of the Federal trusts, and the laws shall be passed and other
arrangements made for their execution, the necessary funds will be on hand
and without employment.
I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by consent of the States,
necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among those
enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it permits the public moneys
to be applied.
The present consideration of a national establishment for education
particularly is rendered proper by this circumstance also, that if
Congress, approving the proposition, shall yet think it more eligible to
found it on a donation of lands, they have it now in their power to endow
it with those which will be among the earliest to produce the necessary
income. This foundation would have the advantage of being independent of
war, which may suspend other improvements by requiring for its own purposes
the resources destined for them.
This, fellow citizens, is the state of the public interests at the present
moment and according to the information now possessed. But such is the
situation of the nations of Europe and such, too, the predicament is which
we stand with some of them that we can not rely with certainty on the
present aspect of our affairs, that may change from moment to moment during
the course of your session or after you shall have separated.
Our duty is, therefore, to act upon things as they are and to make a
reasonable provision for whatever they may be. Were armies to be raised
whenever a speck of war is visible in our horizon, we never should have
been without them. Our resources would have been exhausted on dangers which
have never happened, instead of being reserved for what is really to take
place. A steady, perhaps a quickened, pace in preparation for the defense
of our sea port towns and waters; an early settlement of the most exposed
and vulnerable parts of our country; a militia so organized that its
effective portions can e called to any point in the Union, or volunteers
instead of them to serve a sufficient time, are means which may always be
ready, yet never preying on our resources until actually called into use.
They will maintain the public interests while a more permanent force shall
be in course of preparation. But much will depend on the promptitude with
which these means can be brought into activity. If war be forced upon us,
in spite of our long and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and
vigorous movements in its outset will go far toward securing us in its
course and issue, and toward throwing its burthens on those who render
necessary the resort from reason to force.
The result of our negotiations, or such incidents in their course as may
enable us to infer their probably issue; such further movements also on our
western frontiers as may shew whether war is to be pressed there while
negotiation is protracted elsewhere, shall be communicated to you from time
to time as they become known to me, with whatever other information I
possess or may receive, which may aid your deliberations on the great
national interests committed to your charge. TH. JEFFERSON
***
State of the Union Address
Thomas Jefferson
October 27, 1807
The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
Circumstance, fellow citizens, which seriously threatened the peace of our
country have made it a duty to convene you at an earlier period than usual.
The love of peace so much cherished in the bosoms of our citizens, which
has so long guided the proceedings of their public councils and induced
forbearance under so many wrongs, may not insure our continuance in the
quiet pursuits of industry. The many injuries and depredations committed on
our commerce and navigation upon the high seas for years past, the
successive innovations on those principles of public law which have been
established by the reason and usage of nations as the rule of their
intercourse and the umpire and security of their rights and peace, and all
the circumstances which induced the extraordinary mission to London are
already known to you.
The instructions given to our ministers were framed in the sincerest spirit
of amity and moderation. They accordingly proceeded, in conformity
therewith, to propose arrangements which might embrace and settle all the
points in difference between us, which might bring us to a mutual
understanding on our neutral and national rights and provide for a
commercial intercourse on conditions of some equality. After long and
fruitless endeavors to effect the purposes of their mission and to obtain
arrangements within the limits of their instructions, they concluded to
sign such as could be obtained and to send them for consideration, candidly
declaring to the other negotiators at the same time that they were acting
against their instructions, and that their Government, therefore, could not
be pledged for ratification.
Some of the articles proposed might have been admitted on a principle of
compromise, but others were too highly disadvantageous, and no sufficient
provision was made against the principal source of the irritations and
collisions which were constantly endangering the peace of the two nations.
The question, therefore, whether a treaty should be accepted in that form
could have admitted but of one decision, even had no declarations of the
other party impaired our confidence in it. Still anxious not to close the
door against friendly adjustment, new modifications were framed and further
concessions authorized than could before have been supposed necessary; and
our ministers were instructed to resume their negotiations on these
grounds.
On this new reference to amicable discussion we were reposing in
confidence, when on the 22nd day of June last by a formal order from a
British admiral the frigate Chesapeake, leaving her port for a distant
service, was attacked by one of those vessels which had been lying in our
harbors under the indulgences of hospitality, was disabled from proceeding,
had several of her crew killed and 4 taken away. On this outrage no
commentaries are necessary. Its character has been pronounced by the
indignant voices of our citizens with an emphasis and unanimity never
exceeded. I immediately, by proclamation, interdicted our harbors and
waters to all British armed vessels, forbade intercourse with them, and
uncertain how far hostilities were intended, and the town of Norfolk,
indeed, being threatened with immediate attack, a sufficient force was
ordered for the protection of that place, and such other preparations
commenced and pursued as the prospect rendered proper. An armed vessel of
the United States was dispatched with instructions to our ministers at
London to call on that Government for the satisfaction and security
required by the outrage. A very short interval ought now to bring the
answer, which shall be communicated to you as soon as received; then also,
or as soon after as the public interests shall be found to admit, the
unratified treaty and proceedings relative to it shall be made known to
you.
The aggression thus begun has been continued on the part of the British
commanders by remaining within our waters in defiance of the authority of
the country, by habitual violations of its jurisdiction, and at length by
putting to death one of the persons whom they had forcibly taken from on
board the Chesapeake. These aggravations necessarily lead to the policy
either of never admitting an armed vessel into our harbors or of
maintaining in every harbor such an armed force as may constrain obedience
to the laws and protect the lives and property of our citizens against
their armed guests; but the expense of such a standing force and its
inconsistence with our principles dispense with those courtesies which
would necessarily call for it, and leave us equally free to exclude the
navy, as we are the army, of a foreign power from entering our limits.
To former violations of maritime rights another is now added of very
extensive effect. The Government of that nation has issued an order
interdicting all trade by neutrals between ports not in amity with them;
and being now at war with nearly every nation on the Atlantic and
Mediterranean seas, our vessels are required to sacrifice their cargoes at
the first port they touch or to return home without the benefit of going to
any other market. Under this new law of the ocean our trade on the
Mediterranean has been swept away by seizures and condemnations, and that
in other seas is threatened with the same fate.
Our differences with Spain remain still unsettled, no measure having been
taken on her part since my last communications to Congress to bring them to
a close. But under a state of things which may favor reconsideration they
have been recently pressed, and an expectation is entertained that they may
now soon be brought to an issue of some sort. With their subjects on our
borders no new collisions have taken place nor seem immediately to be
apprehended. To our former grounds of complaint has been added a very
serious one, as you will see by the decree a copy of which is now
communicated. Whether this decree, which professes to be conformable to
that of the French Government of 1806 November 21, heretofore communicated
to Congress, will also be conformed to that in its construction and
application in relation to the United States had not been ascertained at
the date of our last communications. These, however, gave reason to expect
such a conformity.
With the other nations of Europe our harmony has been uninterrupted, and
commerce and friendly intercourse have been maintained on their usual
footing.
Our peace with the several states on the coast of Barbary appears as firm
as at any former period and as likely to continue as that of any other
nation.
Among our Indian neighbors in the northwestern quarter some fermentation
was observed soon after the late occurrences, threatening the continuance
of our peace. Messages were said to be interchanged and tokens to be
passing, which usually denote a state of restless among them, and the
character of the agitators pointed to the sources of excitement. Measures
were immediately taken for providing against that danger; instructions were
given to require explanations, and, with assurances of our continued
friendship, to admonish the tribes to remain quiet at home, taking no part
in quarrels not belonging to them. As far as we are yet informed, the
tribes in our vicinity, who are most advanced in the pursuits of industry,
are sincerely disposed to adhere to their friendship with us and to their
peace with all others, while those more remote do not present appearances
sufficiently quiet to justify the intermission of military precaution on
our part.