cents; making a total amount of balances due to the department, of three hundred and ninety-oue thousand nine hundred and ninety-four dollars and fifty-nine cents. These balances embrace all delinquencies of postmasters and contractors which have taken place since the organization of the department. There was due by the department to contractors, on the first day of July last, twenty-six thousand five hundred and forty-eight dollars and sixty-four cents.

The transportation of the mail within five years past has been greatly extended, and the expenditures of the department proportionably increased. Although the postage which has accrued within the last three years has fallen short of the expenditures two hundred and sixty-two thousand eight hundred and twenty-one dollars and forty-six cents, it appears that collections have been made from the outstanding balances to meet the principal part of the current demands.

It is estimated that not more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the above balances can be collected, and that a considerable part of this sum can only be realized by a resort to legal process. Some improvement in the receipts for postage is expected. A prompt attention to the collection of moneys received by postmasters, it is believed, will enable the department to continue its operations without aid from the treasury, unless the expenditures shall be increased by the establishment of new mail routes.

A revision of some parts of the postoffice law may be necessary; and it is submitted whether it would not be proper to provide for the appointment of postmasters, where the compensation exceeds a certain amount, by nomination to the senate, as other officers of the general government are appointed.

Having communicated my views to Congress, at the commencement of the last session, respecting the encouragement which ought to be given to our manufactures, and the principle on which it should be founded, I have only to add that those views remain unchanged, and that the present state of those countries with which we have the most immediate political relations and greatest commercial intercourse, tends to confirm them. Under this impression I recommend a review of the tariff, for the purpose of affording such additional protection to those articles which we are prepared to manufacture, or which are more immediately connected with the defence and independence of the country.

The actual state of the public accounts furnishes additional evidence of the efficiency of the present system of accountability, in relation to the public expenditure. Of the moneys drawn from the treasury since the 4th of March, 1817, the sum remaining unaccounted for, on the 30th of September last, is more than one million five hundred thousand dollars less than on the 30th of September preceding; and during the same period, a reduction of nearly a million of dollars has been made in the amount of the unsettled accounts for money advanced previously to the 4th of March, 1817. It will be obvious that, in proportion as the mass of accounts of the latter description is diminished by settlement, the difficulty of settling the residue is increased, from the consideration that in many instances it can be obtained only by legal process. For more precise details on this subject, I refer to a report from the first comptroller of the treasury.

The sum which was appropriated at the last session for the repair of the Cumberland road has been applied with good effect to that object. A final report has not yet been received from the agent who was appointed

to superintend it. As soon as it is received it shall be communicated to Congress,

Many patriotic and enlightened citizens, who have made the subject an object of particular investigation, have suggested an improvement of still greater importance. They are of opinion that the waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio may be connected together by one continued canal, and at an expense far short of the value and importance of the object to be obtained. If this could be accomplished, it is impossible to calculate the beneficial consequences which would result from it. A great portion of the produce of the very fertile country through which it would pass would find a market through that channel. Troops might be moved with great facility in war, with cannon and every kind of munition, and in either direction. Connecting the Atlantic with the western country, in a line passing through the seat of the national government, it would contribute essentially to strengthen the bond of union itself. Believing as I do that Congress possess the right to appropriate money for such a national object (the jurisdiction remaining to the states through which the canal would pass), I submit it to your consideration whether it may not be advisable to authorize, by an adequate appropriation, the employment of a suitable number of the officers of the corps of engineers, to examine the unexplored ground during the next session, and to report thereon. It will likewise be proper to extend their examination to the several routes through which the waters of the Ohio may be connected by canals with those of Lake Erie.

As the Cumberland road will require annual repairs, and Congress have not thought it expedient to recommend to the states an amendment to the constitution for the purpose of vesting in the United States a power to adopt and execute a system of internal improvement, it is also submitted to your consideration whether it may not be expedient to authorize the executive to enter into an arrangement with the several states through which the road passes, to establish tolls, each within its limits, for the purpose of defraying the expense of future repairs, and of providing, also, by suitable penalties, for its protection against future injuries.

The act of Congress of the 7th of May, 1822, appropriated the sum of twenty-two thousand seven hundred dollars, for the purpose of erecting two piers as a shelter for vessels from ice, near Cape Henlopen, Delaware bay. To effect the object of the act, the officers of the board of engineers, with Commodore Bainbridge, were directed to prepare plans and estimates of piers sufficient to answer the purpose intended by the act. It appears by their report, which accompanies the documents from the war department, that the appropriation is not adequate to the purpose intended; and as the piers would be of great service, both to the navigation of the Delaware bay, and the protection of vessels on the adjacent parts of the coast, I submit for the consideration of Congress, whether additional and sufficient appropriations should not be made.

The board of engineers were also directed to examine and survey the entrance of the harbor of the port of Presque Isle in Pennsylvania, in order to make an estimate of the expense of removing the obstructions to the entrance, with a plan of the best mode of effecting the same, under the appropriation for that purpose, by act of Congress passed on the 3d of March last. The report of the board accompanies the papers from the war department, and is submitted for the consideration of Congress.

A strong hope has long been entertained, founded on the heroic struggle

of the Greeks, that they would succeed in their contest, and resume their equal station among the nations of the earth. It is believed that the whole civilized world takes a deep interest in their welfare. Although no power has declared in their favor, yet none, according to our information, has taken part against them. Their cause and their name have protected them from dangers which would, ere this, have overwhelmed any other people. The ordinary calculations of interest, and of acquisition, with a view to aggrandizement, which mingles so much in the transactions of nations, seem to have had no effect in regard to them. From the facts which have come to our knowledge, there is good cause to believe that their enemy has lost, for ever, all dominion over them; that Greece will become again an independent nation. That she may obtain that rank is the object of our most ardent wishes.

It was stated, at the commencement of the last session, that a great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal, to improve the condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the result has been, so far, very different from what was then anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced, that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective governments. And to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new governments and Spain, we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgment of the competent authorities of this government, shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security.

The late events in Spain and Portugal show that Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced, than that the allied

powers should have thought it proper, on a principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle, is a question to which all independent powers, whose governments differ from theirs, are interested; even those most remote, and surely none more so than the United States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the goverment, de facto, as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy; meeting, in all instances, the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to these continents, circumstances are eminently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can any one believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition, in any form, with indifference. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new governments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that other powers will pursue the same

course.

If we compare the present condition of our Union with its actual state at the close of our revolution, the history of the world furnishes no example of a progress in improvement, in all the important circumstances which constitute the happiness of a nation, which bears any resemblance to it. At the first epoch our population did not exceed three millions. By the last census it amounted to about ten millions, and what is more extraordinary, it is almost altogether native, for the immigration from other countries has been inconsiderable. At the first epoch half the territory within our acknowledged limits was uninhabited and a wilderness. Since then, new territory has been acquired, of vast extent, comprising within it many rivers, particularly the Mississippi, the navigation of which to the ocean was of the highest importance to the original states. Over this territory our population has expanded in every direction, and new states have been established, almost equal in number to those which formed the first bond of our Union. This expansion of our populatiou and accession of new states to our Union, have had the happiest effect on all its highest interests. That it has eminently augmented our resources, and added to our strength and respectability as a power, is admitted by all. But it is not in these important circumstances only that this happy effect is felt. It is manifest that, by enlarging the basis of our system, and increasing the number of states, the system itself has been greatly strengthened in both its branches. Consolidation and disunion have thereby been rendered equally impracticable. Each government, confiding in its own strength, has less to apprehend from the other; and in consequence, each enjoying a greater freedom of action, is rendered more efficient for all the purposes for which it was instituted. It is unnecessary to treat here of the vast improvement made in the system itself by the adoption of this constitution, and of its happy effect in elevating the character, and in protecting the rights of the nation, as well as of individuals. To what then do we owe these bles

sings? It is known to all that we derive them from the excellence of our institutions. Ought we not then to adopt every measure which may be necessary to perpetuate them.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 24, 1824.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:— I HEREWITH transmit to Congress certain documents relating to a claim of Massachusetts for services rendered by the military of that state in the late war, and for which the payment was made by the state. From the particular circumstances attending this claim, I have thought it proper to submit the subject to the consideration of Congress.

In forming a just estimate of this claim, it will be necessary to recur to the cause which prevented its admission, or the admission of any part thereof, at an earlier day. It will be recollected, that when a call was made on the militia of that state for service, in the late war, under an arrangement which was alike applicable to the militia of all the states, and in conformity with the acts of Congress, the executive of Massachusetts refused to comply with the call, on the principle that the power vested in Congress by the constitution, to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, was not a competent power for those purposes, but conditional, and dependent on the consent of the executives of the several states; and also, that when called into service, such consent being given, they could not be commanded by a regular officer of the United States, or other officer than that of the militia, except by the president in person. That this decision of the executive of Massachusetts was repugnant to the constitution of the United States, and of dangerous tendency, especially when it is considered, that we were then engaged in a war with a powerful nation for the defence of our common rights, was the decided opinion of this government; and when the period at which that decision was formed was considered, it being as early as the 5th of August, 1812, immediately after the war was declared, and that it was not relinquished during the war, it was inferred by the executive of the United States that the decision of the executive of that state was alike applicable to all the services that were rendered by the militia of the state during the war.

In the correspondence with the governor of Massachusetts at that important epoch, and on that very interesting subject, it was announced to him by the secretary of war, that if the militia of the state were called into service by the executive of the state, and not put under the command of the major-general of the United States, as the militia of the other states were, the expense attending their service would be chargeable to the state, and not the United States. It was also stated to him at the same time, that any claim which the state might have for the reimbursement of such expenses could not be allowed by the executive of the United States, since it would involve principles on which that branch of the government could

not decide.

Under these circumstances a decision on the claim of the state of Massa