State of the Union Addresses

of Thomas Jefferson

State of the Union Address

December 8, 1801

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me that on meeting the

great council of our nation I am able to announce to them on grounds of

reasonable certainty that the wars and troubles which have for so many

years afflicted our sister nations have at length come to an end, and that

the communications of peace and commerce are once more opening among them.

Whilst we devoutly return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been

pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness, we

are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace

has been preserved through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted

quietly to cultivate the earth and to practice and improve those arts which

tend to increase our comforts. The assurances, indeed, of friendly

disposition received from all the powers with whom we have principle

relations had inspired a confidence that our peace with them would not have

been disturbed. But a cessation of irregularities which had affected the

commerce of neutral nations and of the irritations and injuries produced by

them can not but add to this confidence, and strengthens at the same time

the hope that wrongs committed on unoffending friends under a pressure of

circumstances will now be reviewed with candor, and will be considered as

founding just claims of retribution for the past and new assurance for the

future.

Among our Indian neighbors also a spirit of peace and friendship generally

prevails, and I am happy to inform you that the continued efforts to

introduce among them the implements and the practice of husbandry and the

household arts have not been without success; that they are becoming more

and more sensible of the superiority of this dependence for clothing and

subsistence over the precarious resources of hunting and fishing, and

already we are able to announce that instead of that constant diminution of

their numbers produced by their wars and their wants, some of them begin to

experience an increase of population.

To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only

exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States,

had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and

had permitted itself to denounce war on our failure to comply before a

given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer.

I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean, with assurances

to that power of our sincere desire to remain in peace, but with orders to

protect our commerce against the threatened attack. The measure was

seasonable and salutary. The Bey had already declared war. His cruisers

were out. Two had arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce in the Mediterranean

was blockaded and that of the Atlantic in peril.

The arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger. One of the Tripolitan

cruisers having fallen in with and engaged the small schooner Enterprise,

commanded by Lieutenant Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our larger

vessels, was captured, after a heavy slaughter of her men, without the loss

of a single one on our part. The bravery exhibited by our citizens on that

element will, I trust, be a testimony to the world that it is not the want

of that virtue which makes us seek their peace, but a conscientious desire

to direct the energies of our nation to the multiplication of the human

race, and not to its destruction. Unauthorized by the Constitution, without

the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of defense, the vessel,

being disabled from committing further hostilities, was liberated with its

crew.

The Legislature will doubtless consider whether, by authorizing measures of

offense also, they will place our force on an equal footing with that of

its adversaries. I communicate all material information on this subject,

that in the exercise of this important function confided by the

Constitution to the Legislature exclusively their judgment may form itself

on a knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of weight.

I wish I could say that our situation with all the other Barbary States was

entirely satisfactory. Discovering that some delays had taken place in the

performance of certain articles stipulated by us, I thought it my duty, by

immediate measures for fulfilling them, to vindicate to ourselves the right

of considering the effect of departure from stipulation on their side. From

the papers which will be laid before you you will be enabled to judge

whether our treaties are regarded by them as fixing at all the measure of

their demands or as guarding from the exercise of force our vessels within

their power, and to consider how far it will be safe and expedient to leave

our affairs with them in their present posture.

I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our inhabitants,

to a conformity with which we are now to reduce the ensuing ration of

representation and taxation. You will perceive that the increase of numbers

during the last 10 years, proceeding in geometric ratio, promises a

duplication in little more than 22 years. We contemplate this rapid growth

and the prospect it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries it may

enable us to do others in some future day, but to the settlement of the

extensive country still remaining vacant within our limits to the

multiplication of men susceptible of happiness, educated in the love of

order, habituated to self-government, and valuing its blessings above all

price.

Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers, have produced

an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption in a ratio far beyond

that of population alone; and though the changes in foreign relations now

taking place so desirably for the whole world may for a season affect this

branch of revenue, yet weighing all probabilities of expense as well as of

income, there is reasonable ground of confidence that we may now safely

dispense with all the internal taxes, comprehending excise, stamps,

auctions, licenses, carriages, and refined sugars, to which the postage on

news papers may be added to facilitate the progress of information, and

that the remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the

support of Government, to pay the interest of the public debts, and to

discharge the principals within shorter periods than the laws or the

general expectation had contemplated.

War, indeed, and untoward events may change this prospect of things and

call for expenses which imposts could not meet; but sound principles will

not justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate

treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not, perhaps,

happen but from the temptations offered by that treasure.

These views, however, of reducing our burthens are formed on the

expectation that a sensible and at the same time a salutary reduction may

take place in our habitual expenditures. For this purpose those of the

civil Government, the Army, and Navy will need revisal.

When we consider that this Government is charged with the external and

mutual relations only of these States; that the States themselves have

principal care of our persons, our property, and our reputation,

constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether

our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and

officers have not been multiplied unnecessarily and sometimes injuriously

to the service they were meant to promote.

I will cause to be laid before you an essay toward a statement of those

who, under public employment of various kinds, draw money from the Treasury

or from our citizens. Time has not permitted a perfect enumeration, the

ramifications of office being too multiplied and remote to be completely

traced in a first trial.

Among those who are dependent on Executive discretion I have begun the

reduction of what was deemed unnecessary. The expenses of diplomatic agency

have been considerably diminished. The inspectors of internal revenue who

were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution have been

discontinued. Several agencies created by Executive authorities, on

salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the

expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises

to legislative inspection and sanction.

Other reformations of the same kind will be pursued with that caution which

is requisite in removing useless things, not to injure what is retained.

But the great mass of public offices is established by law, and therefore

by law alone can be abolished. Should the Legislature think it expedient to

pass this roll in review and try all its parts by the test of public

utility, they may be assured of every aid and light which Executive

information can yield.

Considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies and

to increase expense to the ultimate term of burthen which the citizen can

bear, it behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion which presents

itself for taking off the surcharge, that it never may be seen here that

after leaving to labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can

subsist, Government shall itself consume the whole residue of what it was

instituted to guard.

In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted to our direction it

would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation by

appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose susceptible of

definition; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the

appropriation in object or transcending it in amount; by reducing the

undefined field of contingencies and thereby circumscribing discretionary

powers over money, and by bringing back to a single department all

accountabilities for money, where the examinations may be prompt,

efficacious, and uniform.

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, as prepared

by the Secretary of the Treasury, will, as usual, be laid before you. The

success which has attended the late sales of the public lands shews that

with attention they may be made an important source of receipt. Among the

payments those made in discharge of the principal and interest of the

national debt will shew that the public faith has been exactly maintained.

To these will be added an estimate of appropriations necessary for the

ensuing year. This last will, of course, be affected by such modifications

of the system of expense as you shall think proper to adopt.

A statement has been formed by the Secretary of War, on mature

consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be

expedient and of the number of men requisite for each garrison. The whole

amount is considerably short of the present military establishment. For the

surplus no particular use can be pointed out.

For defense against invasion their number is as nothing, nor is it

conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of

peace for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular

point in our circumference where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only

force which can be ready at every point and competent to oppose them is the

body of the neighboring citizens as formed into a militia. On these,

collected from the parts most convenient in numbers proportioned to the

invading force, it is best to rely not only to meet the first attack, but if

it threatens to be permanent to maintain the defense until regulars may be

engaged to relieve them. These considerations render it important that we

should at every session continue to amend the defects which from time to

time shew themselves in the laws for regulating the militia until they are

sufficiently perfect. Nor should we now or at any time separate until we

say we have done everything for the militia which we could do were an enemy

at our door.

The provision of military stores on hand will be laid before you, that you

may judge of the additions still requisite.

With respect to the extent to which our naval preparations should be

expected to appear, but just attention to the circumstances of every part

of the Union will doubtless reconcile all. A small force will probably

continue to be wanted for actual service in the Mediterranean. Whatever

annual sum beyond that you may think proper to appropriate to naval

preparations would perhaps be better employed in providing those articles

which may be kept without waste or consumption, and be in readiness when

any exigence calls them into use. Progress has been made, as will appear by

papers now communicated, in providing materials for 74-gun ships as

directed by law.

How far the authority given by the Legislature for procuring and

establishing sites for naval purposes has been perfectly understood and

pursued in the execution admits of some doubt. A statement of the expenses

already incurred on that subject is now laid before you. I have in certain

cases suspended or slackened these expenditures, that the Legislature might

determine whether so many yards are necessary as have been contemplated.

The works at this place are among those permitted to go on, and 5 of the 7

frigates directed to be laid up have been brought and laid up here, where,

besides the safety of their position, they are under the eye of the

Executive Administration, as well as of its agents, and where yourselves

also will be guided by your own view in the legislative provisions

respecting them which may from time to time be necessary. They are

preserved in such condition, as well the vessels as whatever belongs to

them, as to be at all times ready for sea on a short warning. Two others

are yet to be laid up so soon as they shall have received the repairs

requisite to put them also into sound condition. As a superintending

officer will be necessary at each yard, his duties and emoluments, hitherto

fixed by the Executive, will be a more proper subject for legislation. A

communication will also be made of our progress in the execution of the law

respecting the vessels directed to be sold.

The fortifications of our harbors, more or less advanced, present

considerations of great difficulty. While some of them are on a scale

sufficiently proportioned to the advantages of their position, to the

efficacy of their protection, and the importance of the points within it,

others are so extensive, will cost so much in their first erection, so much

in their maintenance, and require such a force to garrison them as to make

it questionable what is best now to be done. A statement of those commenced

or projected, of the expenses already incurred, and estimates of their

future cost, as far as can be foreseen, shall be laid before you, that you

may be enabled to judge whether any alteration is necessary in the laws

respecting this subject.

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our

prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual

enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes

be seasonably interposed. If in the course of your observations or

inquiries they should appear to need any aid within the limits of our

constitutional powers, your sense of their importance is a sufficient

assurance they will occupy your attention. We can not, indeed, but all feel

an anxious solicitude for the difficulties under which our carrying trade

will soon be placed. How far it can be relieved, otherwise than by time, is

a subject of important consideration.

The judiciary system of the United States, and especially that portion of

it recently erected, will of course present itself to the contemplation of

Congress, and, that they may be able to judge of the proportion which the

institution bears on the business it has to perform, I have caused to be

procured from the several States and now lay before Congress an exact

statement of all the causes decided since the first establishment of the

courts, and of those which were depending when additional courts and judges

were brought in to their aid.

And while on the judiciary organization it will be worthy your

consideration whether the protection of the inestimable institution of

juries has been extended to all the cases involving the security of our

persons and property. Their impartial selection also being essential to

their value, we ought further to consider whether that is sufficiently

secured in those States where they are named by a marshal depending on

Executive will or designated by the court or by officers dependent on

them.

I can not omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of

naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of

citizenship under a residence of 14 years is a denial to a great proportion

of those who ask it, and controls a policy pursued from their first

settlement by many of these States, and still believed of consequence to

their prosperity; and shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from

distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to

our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum

on this globe? The Constitution indeed has wisely provided that for

admission to certain offices of important trust a residence shall be

required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the

general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to

everyone manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes

permanently with us, with restrictions, perhaps, to guard against the

fraudulent usurpation of our flag, an abuse which brings so much

embarrassment and loss on the genuine citizen and so much danger to the

nation of being involved in war that no endeavor should be spared to detect

and suppress it?

These, fellow citizens, are the matters respecting the state of the nation

which I have thought of importance to be submitted to your consideration at

this time. Some others of less moment or not yet ready for communication

will be the subject of separate messages. I am happy in this opportunity of

committing the arduous affairs of our Government to the collected wisdom of

the Union. Nothing shall be wanting on my part to inform as far as in my

power the legislative judgment, nor to carry that judgment into faithful

execution.

The prudence and temperance of your discussions will promote within your

own walls that conciliation which so much befriends rational conclusion,

and by its example will encourage among our constituents that progress of

opinion which is tending to unite them in object and in will. That all

should be satisfied with any one order of things is not to be expected; but

I indulge the pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens will

cordially concur in honest and disinterested efforts which have for their

object to preserve the General and State Governments in their

constitutional form and equilibrium; to maintain peace abroad, and order

and obedience to the laws at home; to establish principles and practices of

administration favorable to the security of liberty and property, and to

reduce expenses to what is necessary for the useful purposes of Government.

State of the Union Address

December 15, 1802

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

When we assemble together, fellow citizens, to consider the state of our

beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those pleasing

circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from whose favor they

flow and the large measure of thankfulness we owe for His bounty. Another

year has come around, and finds us still blessed with peace and friendship

abroad; law, order, and religion at home; good affection and harmony with

our Indian neighbors; our burthens lightened, yet our income sufficient for

the public wants, and the produce of the year great beyond example. These,

fellow citizens, are the circumstances under which we meet, and we remark

with special satisfaction those which under the smiles of Providence result

from the skill, industry, and order of our citizens, managing their own

affairs in their own way and for their own use, unembarrassed by too much

regulation, unoppressed by fiscal exactions.

On the restoration of peace in Europe that portion of the general carrying

trade which had fallen to our share during the war was abridged by the

returning competition of the belligerent powers. This was to be expected,

and was just. But in addition we find in some parts of Europe monopolizing

discriminations, which in the form of duties tend effectually to prohibit

the carrying thither our own produce in our own vessels. From existing

amities and a spirit of justice it is hoped that friendly discussion will

produce a fair and adequate reciprocity. But should false calculations of

interest defeat our hope, it rests with the Legislature to decide whether

they will meet inequalities abroad with countervailing inequalities at

home, or provide for the evil in any other way.

It is with satisfaction I lay before you an act of the British Parliament

anticipating this subject so far as to authorize a mutual abolition of the

duties and countervailing duties permitted under the treaty of 1794. It

shows on their part a spirit of justice and friendly accommodation which it

is our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations. Whether this

would produce a due equality in the navigation between the two countries is

a subject for your consideration.

Another circumstance which claims attention as directly affecting the very

source of our navigation is the defect or the evasion of the law providing

for the return of sea men, and particularly of those belonging to vessels

sold abroad. Numbers of them, discharged in foreign ports, have been thrown

on the hands of our consuls, who, to rescue them from the dangers into

which their distresses might plunge them and save them to their country,

have found it necessary in some cases to return them at the public charge.

The cession of the Spanish Province of Louisiana to France, which took

place in the course of the late war, will, if carried into effect, make a

change in the aspect of our foreign relations which will doubtless have

just weight in any deliberations of the Legislature connected with that

subject.

There was reason not long since to apprehend that the warfare in which we

were engaged with Tripoli might be taken up by some other of the Barbary

Powers. A reenforcement, therefore, was immediately ordered to the vessels

already there. Subsequent information, however, has removed these

apprehensions for the present. To secure our commerce in that sea with the

smallest force competent, we have supposed it best to watch strictly the

harbor of Tripoli. Still, however, the shallowness of their coast and the

want of smaller vessels on our part has permitted some cruisers to escape

unobserved, and to one of these an American vessel unfortunately fell prey.

The captain, one American sea man, and two others of color remain prisoners

with them unless exchanged under an agreement formerly made with the

Bashaw, to whom, on the faith of that, some of his captive subjects had

been restored.

The convention with the State of Georgia has been ratified by their

legislature, and a repurchase from the Creeks has been consequently made of

a part of the Talasscee country. In this purchase has been also

comprehended a part of the lands within the fork of Oconee and Oakmulgee

rivers. The particulars of the contract will be laid before Congress so

soon as they shall be in a state for communication.

In order to remove every ground of difference possible with our Indian

neighbors, I have proceeded in the work of settling with them and marking

the boundaries between us. That with the Choctaw Nation is fixed in one

part and will be through the whole within a short time. The country to

which their title had been extinguished before the Revolution is sufficient

to receive a very respectable population, which Congress will probably see

the expediency of encouraging so soon as the limits shall be declared. We

are to view this position as an outpost of the United States, surrounded by

strong neighbors and distant from its support; and how far that monopoly

which prevents population should here be guarded against and actual

habitation made a condition of the continuance of title will be for your

consideration. A prompt settlement, too, of all existing rights and claims

within this territory presents itself as a preliminary operation.

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 one year upward of $8 millions,

principal and interest, of the public debt, exclusive of upward of $1

million paid by the sale of bank stock, and making in the whole a

reduction of nearly $5.5 millions of principal, and to have now in the

Treasury $4.5 millions 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 one 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

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 $2 millions 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 $11 millions and $12 millions, 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 $3.1 millions exclusive

of interest, and making, with the payment of the preceding year, a

discharge of more than $8.5 millions of the principal of that debt,

besides the accruing interest; and there remain in the Treasury nearly

$6 millions. Of these, $880 thousands have been reserved for payment of

the first installment due under the British convention of January 8th,

1802, 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 $13 millions will then be added to

our public debt, most of which is payable after fifteen 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 $50 thousands 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 $1.5

millions, 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 sanguinary 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

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 two 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 April 30th, 1803, 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.

With the nations of Europe in general our friendship and intercourse are

undisturbed, and from the Governments of the belligerent powers especially

we continue to receive those friendly manifestations which are justly due

to an honest neutrality and to such good offices consistent with that as we

have opportunities of rendering.

The activity and success of the small force employed in the Mediterranean

in the early part of the present year, the reenforcements sent into that

sea, and the energy of the officers having command in the several vessels

will, I trust, by the sufferings of war, reduce the barbarians of Tripoli

to the desire of peace on proper terms. Great injury, however, ensues to

ourselves, as well as to others interested, from the distance to which

prizes must be brought for adjudication and from the impracticability of

bringing hither such as are not sea worthy.

The Bey of Tunis having made requisitions unauthorized by our treaty, their

rejection has produced from him some expressions of discontent, but to

those who expect us to calculate whether a compliance with unjust demands

will not cost us less than a war we must leave as a question of calculation

for them also whether to retire from unjust demands will not cost them less

than a war. We can do to each other very sensible injuries by war, but the

mutual advantages of peace make that the best interest of both.

Peace and intercourse with the other powers on the same coast continue on

the footing on which they are established by treaty.

In pursuance of the act providing for the temporary government of

Louisiana, the necessary officers for the Territory of Orleans were

appointed in due time to commence the exercise of their functions on the

first day of October. The distance, however, of some of them and

indispensable previous arrangements may have retarded its commencement in

some of its parts. The form of government thus provided having been

considered but as temporary, and open to such future improvements as

further information of the circumstances of our brethren there might

suggest, it will of course be subject to your consideration.

In the district of Louisiana it has been thought best to adopt the division

into subordinate districts which had been established under its former

government. These being five in number, a commanding officer has been

appointed to each, according to the provisions of the law, and so soon as

they can be at their stations that district will also be in its due state

of organization. In the mean time, their places are supplied by the

officers before commanding there, and the function of the governor and

judges of Indiana having commenced, the government, we presume, is

proceeding in its new form. The lead mines in that district offer so rich a

supply of that metal as to merit attention. The report now communicated

will inform you of their state and of the necessity of immediate inquiry

into their occupation and titles.

With the Indian tribes established within our newly acquired limits, I have

deemed it necessary to open conferences for the purpose of establishing a

good understanding and neighborly relations between us. So far as we have

yet learned, we have reason to believe that their dispositions are

generally favorable and friendly; and with these dispositions on their

part, we have in our own hands means which can not fail us for preserving

their peace and friendship. By pursuing an uniform course of justice toward

them, by aiding them in all the improvements which may better their

condition, and especially by establishing a commerce on terms which shall

be advantageous to them and only not losing to us, and so regulated as that

no incendiaries of our own or any other nation may be permitted to disturb

the natural effects of our just and friendly offices, we may render

ourselves so necessary to their comfort and prosperity that the protection

of our citizens from their disorderly members will become their interest

and their voluntary care. Instead, therefore, of an augmentation of

military force proportioned to our extension of frontier, I propose a

moderate enlargement of the capital employed in that commerce as a more

effectual, economical, and humane instrument for preserving peace and good

neighborhood with them.

On this side of the Mississippi an important relinquishment of native title

has been received from the Delawares. That tribe, desiring to extinguish in

their people the spirit of hunting and to convert superfluous lands into

the means of improving what they retain, has ceded to us all the country

between the Wabash and Ohio south of and including the road from the rapids

toward Vincennes, for which they are to receive annuities in animals and

implements for agriculture and in other necessaries. This acquisition is

important, not only for its extent and fertility, but as fronting three

hundred miles on the Ohio, and near half that on the Wabash. The produce

of the settled country descending those rivers will no longer pass in

review of the Indian frontier but in a small portion, and, with the

cession heretofore made by the Kaskaskias, nearly consolidates our

possessions north of the Ohio, in a very respectable breadth--from Lake

Erie to the Mississippi. The Piankeshaws having some claim to the country

ceded by the Delawares, it has been thought best to quiet that by fair

purchase also. So soon as the treaties on this subject shall have received

their constitutional sanctions they shall be laid before both houses.

The act of Congress of February 28th, 1803, for building and employing a

number of gun boats, is now in a course of execution to the extent there

provided for. The obstacle to naval enterprise which vessels of this

construction offer for our sea port towns, their utility toward supporting

within our waters the authority of the laws, the promptness with which they

will be manned by the sea men and militia of the place in the moment they

are wanting, the facility of their assembling from different parts of the

coast to any point where they are required in greater force than ordinary,

the economy of their maintenance and preservation from decay when not in

actual service, and the competence of our finances to this defensive

provision without any new burthen are considerations which will have due

weight with Congress in deciding on the expediency of adding to their

number from year to year, as experience shall test their utility, until all

our important harbors, by these and auxiliary means, shall be secured

against insult and opposition to the laws.

No circumstance has arisen since your last session which calls for any

augmentation of our regular military force. Should any improvement occur in

the militia system, that will be always seasonable.

Accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, with estimates

for the ensuing one, will as usual be laid before you.

The state of our finances continues to fulfill our expectations. $11.5

millions, received in the course of the year ending the 30th of September

last, have enabled us, after meeting all the ordinary expenses of the

year, to pay upward of $3.6 millions of the public debt, exclusive of

interest. This payment, with those of the two preceding years, has

extinguished upward of $12 millions of the principal and a greater sum

of interest within that period, and by a proportionate diminution of

interest renders already sensible the effect of the growing sum yearly

applicable to the discharge of the principal.

It is also ascertained that the revenue accrued during the last year

exceeds that of the preceding, and the probable receipts of the ensuing

year may safely be relied on as sufficient, with the sum already in the

Treasury, to meet all the current demands of the year, to discharge upward

of $3.5 millions of the engagements incurred under the British and French

conventions, and to advance in the further redemption of the funded debt as

rapidly as had been contemplated.

These, fellow citizens, are the principal matters which I have thought it

necessary at this time to communicate for your consideration and attention.

Some others will be laid before you in the course of the session; but in

the discharge of the great duties confided to you by our country you will

take a broader view of the field of legislation.

Whether the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, or

navigation can within the pale of your constitutional powers be aided in

any of their relations; whether laws are provided in all cases where they

are wanting; whether those provided are exactly what they should be; whether

any abuses take place in their administration, or in that of the public

revenues; whether the organization of the public agents or of the public

force is perfect in all its parts; in fine, whether anything can be done to

advance the general good, are questions within the limits of your functions

which will necessarily occupy your attention. In these and all other

matters which you in your wisdom may propose for the good of our country,

you may count with assurance on my hearty cooperation and faithful

execution.

TH. JEFFERSON

State of the Union Address

December 3, 1805

The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

At a moment when the nations of Europe are in commotion and arming against

each other, and when those with whom we have principal intercourse are

engaged in the general contest, and when the countenance of some of them

toward our peaceable country threatens that even that may not be unaffected

by what is passing on the general theater, a meeting of the representatives

of the nation in both Houses of Congress has become more than usually

desirable. Coming from every section of our country, they bring with them

the sentiments and the information of the whole, and will be enabled to

give a direction to the public affairs which the will and the wisdom of the

whole will approve and support.

In taking a view of the state of our country we in the first place notice

the late affliction of two of our cities under the fatal fever which in

latter times has occasionally visited our shores. Providence in His

goodness gave it an early termination on this occasion and lessened the

number of victims which have usually fallen before it. In the course of the

several visitations by this disease it has appeared that it is strictly

local, incident to cities and on the tide waters only, incommunicable in

the country either by persons under the disease or by goods carried from

diseased places; that its access is with the autumn and it disappears with

the early frosts.

These restrictions within narrow limits of time and space give security

even to our maritime cities during three quarter of the year, and to the

country always. Although from these facts it appears unnecessary, yet to

satisfy the fears of foreign nations and cautions on their part not to be

complained of in a danger whose limits are yet unknown to them I have

strictly enjoined on the officers at the head of the customs to certify

with exact truth for every vessel sailing for a foreign port the state of

health respecting this fever which prevails at the place from which she

sails. Under every motive from character and duty to certify the truth, I

have no doubt they have faithfully executed this injunction. Much real

injury has, however, been sustained from a propensity to identify with this

endemic and to call by the same name fevers of very different kinds, which

have been known at all times and in all countries, and never have been

placed among those deemed contagious.

As we advance in our knowledge of this disease, as facts develop the source

from which individuals receive it, the State authorities charged with the

care of the public health, and Congress with that of the general commerce,

will become able to regulate with effect their respective functions in

these departments. The burthen of quarantines is felt at home as well as

abroad; their efficacy merits examination. Although the health laws of the

States should be found to need no present revisal by Congress, yet commerce

claims that their attention be ever awake to them.

Since our last meeting the aspect of our foreign relations has considerably

changed. Our coasts have been infested and our harbors watched by private

armed vessels, some of them without commissions, some with illegal

commissions, others with those of legal form, but committing practical acts

beyond the authority of their commissions. They have captured in the very

entrance of our harbors, as well as on the high seas, not only the vessels

of our friends coming to trade with us, but our own also. They have carried

them off under pretense of legal adjudication, but not daring to approach a

court of justice, they have plundered and