Journal of the Senate of the United States of America,
TUESDAY, December 3, 1822.

...The following written message was received from the President of the United States, by Mr. Daniel Brent:

(Excerpts)

Fellow Citizens Of The Senate, and House of Representatives:

Many causes unite to make your present meeting peculiarly interesting to our 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....

...In compliance with an Act of the last Session, a Territorial Government has been established in Florida, 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 ninth 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....

...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 Secretary 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 position on the Red River, and that at the Sault of St. Marie, are the only new posts that have been taken. These posts, with those already occupied in the interior, are thought to be well adapted to the protection of our frontiers. All the force, not placed in the garrisons along the coast, and in the ordnance depots, and indispensably necessary there, is placed on the frontiers.

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 co-operation 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, cannot 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 engaged in that trade, and to bring them in for adjudication....

...Under our happy system, the people are the sole and exclusive fountain of power. Each government originates from them, and to them alone, each to its propel' constituents, are they respectively and solely responsible, for the faithful discharge of their duties, within their constitutional limits. And that the people will confine their public agents, of every station, to the strict line of their constitutional duties, there is no cause to doubt....

...Other objects will likewise claim your attention; because, from the station which the United States hold, as a member of the great community of nations, they have rights to maintain, duties to perform, and dangers to encounter.

A strong hope was entertained that peace would, ere this, have been concluded between Spain and the independent governments south of the United States in this hemisphere. Long experience having evinced the competency of those governments to maintain the independence which they had declared, it was presumed that the considerations which induced their recognition by the United States, would have had equal weight with other powers, and that Spain herself, yielding to those magnanimous feelings of which her history furnishes so many examples, would have terminated, on that basis, a controversy so unavailing, and at the same time so destructive. We still cherish the hope that this result will not long be postponed.

Sustaining our neutral position, and allowing to each party, while the war continues, equal rights, it is incumbent on the United States to claim of each, with equal rigor, the faithful observance of our rights, according to the well known law of nations. From each, therefore, a like co-operation is expected in the suppression of the piratical practice which has grown out of this war, and of blockades of extensive coasts on both seas, which, considering the small force employed to sustain them, have not the slightest foundation to rest on.

Europe is still unsettled, and although the war long menaced between Russia and Turkey, has not broken out, there is no certainty that the differences between those Powers will be amicably adjusted. It is impossible to look to the oppressions of the country, respecting which those differences arose, without being deeply affected. The mention of Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments, and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is susceptible. Superior skill and refinement in the arts, heroic gallantry in action, disinterested patriotism, enthusiastic zeal and devotion in favor of public and personal liberty, are associated with our recollections of ancient Greece. That such a country should have been overwhelmed, and so long hidden, as it were, from the world, under a gloomy despotism, has been a cause of unceasing and deep regret to generous minds for ages past. It was natural, therefore, that the re-appearance of those people in their original character, contending in favour of their liberties, should produce that great excitement and sympathy in their favor, which have been so signally displayed throughout the United States. A strong hope is entertained that these people will recover their independence, and resume their equal station among the nations of the earth.

A great effort has been made in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition of the people, and it must be very consoling, to all benevolent minds, to see the extraordinary moderation with which it has been conducted. That it may promote the happiness of both nations, is the ardent wish of this whole people, to the expression of which we confine ourselves; for, whatever may be the feelings or sentiments which every individual under our government has a right to indulge and express, it is, nevertheless, a sacred maxim, equally with the government and people, that the destiny of every independent nation, in what relates to such improvements, of right belongs, and ought to be left, exclusively to themselves.

Whether we reason from the late wars, or from those menacing symptoms which now appear in Europe, it is manifest, that, if a convulsion should take place in any of those countries, it will proceed from causes which have no existence, and are utterly unknown in these states, in which there is but one order, that of the people, to whom the sovereignty exclusively belongs. Should war break out in any of those countries, who can foretell the extent to which it may be carried, or the desolation which it may spread? Exempt as we are from these causes, our internal tranquillity is secure; and,distant as we are from the troubled scene, and faithful to first principles, in regard to other Powers, we might reasonably presume that we should not be molested by them. This, however, ought not to be calculated on as certain. Unprovoked injuries are often inflicted, and even the peculiar felicity of our situation might, with some, be a cause for excitement and aggression. The history of the late wars in Europe furnishes a complete demonstration that no system of conduct, however correct in principle, can protect neutral powers from injury from any party; that a defenceless position, and distinguished love of peace, are the surest, invitations to war; and that there is no way to avoid it, other than by being always prepared, and willing, for just cause, to meet it. If there be a people on earth whose morn especial duty it is to he at all times prepared to defend the rights with which they are blessed, and to surpass all others in sustaining the necessary burthens, and in submitting to sacrifices to make such preparations, it is undoubtedly the people of these states.

When we see that a civil war, of the most frightful character, rages from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; that strong symptoms of war appear in other parts, proceeding from causes, which, should it break out, may become general, and be of long duration; that the war still continues between Spain and the Independent Governments, her late Provinces, in this hemisphere; that it is likewise menaced between Portugal and Brazil, in consequence of the attempt of the latter to dismember itself from the former; and that a system of piracy, of great extent, is maintained in the neighboring seas, which will require equal vigilance and decision to suppress it, the reasons for sustaining the attitude which we now hold, and for pushing forward all our measures of defence with the utmost vigor, appear to me to acquire new force.

The United States owe to the world a great example, and, by means thereof, to the cause of liberty and humanity, a generous support. They have so far succeeded, to the satisfaction of the virtuous and enlightened of every country. There is no reason to doubt, that their whole movement will be regulated by a sacred regard to principle, all our institutions being founded on that basis. The ability to support our own cause, under any trial to which it may be exposed, is the great point on which the public solicitude rests. It has been often charged against free governments, that they leave neither the foresight, nor the virtue, to provide, at the proper season, for great emergencies; that their course is improvident and expensive; that war will always find them unprepared, and whatever may be its calamities, that its terrible warnings will be disregarded and forgotten as soon as peace returns. I have full confidence that this charge, so far as relates to the United States, will be shown to be utterly destitute of truth.

JAMES MONROE.

Washington, December 3, 1822.