dens proceeding from a disregard to their convenience, and those resulting from the inevitable exigencies of society, to discriminate the spirit of liberty from that of licentiousness, cherishing the first, avoiding the last, and uniting a speedy but temperate vigilance against encroachments with an inviolable respect to the laws.

Whether this desirable object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries of learning already established, by the institution of a national university, or by any other expedients, will be well worthy of a place in the deliberations of the legislature.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives :

I saw with peculiar pleasure, at the close of the last session, the resolution entered into by you expressive of your opinion that an adequate provision for the support of the public credit is a matter of high importance to the national honor and prosperity. In this sentiment I entirely concur. And, to a perfect confidence in your best endeavors to devise such a provision as will be truly consistent with the end, I add an equal reliance on the cheerful co-operation of the other branch of the legislature. It would be superfluous to specify inducements to a measure in which the character and permanent interests of the United States are so obviously and so deeply concerned, and which has received so explicit a sanction from your declaration.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives :

I have directed the proper officers to lay before you, respectively, such papers and estimates as regard the affairs particularly recommended to your consideration, and necessary to convey to you that information of the state of the Union which it is my duty to afford.

The welfare of our country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed. And I shall derive great satisfaction from a co-operation with you in the pleasing though arduous task of insuring to our fellow-citizens the blessings which they have a right to expect from a free, efficient, and equal government.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

FEBRUARY 9, 1790.

To the Senate of the United States :

You will perceive, from the papers herewith delivered, and which are enumerated in the annexed list, that a difference subsists between Great Britain and the United States relative to the boundary line between our eastern and their territories. A plan for deciding this difference was laid before the late Congress; and whether that or some other plan of a like kind would not now be eligible, is submitted to your consideration.

In my opinion it is desirable that all questions between this and other nations be speedily and amicably settled; and, in this instance, I think it advisable to postpone any negotiations on the subject until I shall be informed of the result of your deliberations, and receive your advice as to the propositions most proper to be offered on the part of the United States.

As I am taking measures for learning the intentions of Great Britain respecting the further detention of our posts, &c., I am the more solicitous that the business now submitted to you may be prepared for negotiation as soon as the other important affairs which engage your attention will permit.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

AUGUST 4, 1790.

To the Senate of the United States:

In consequence of the general principles agreed to by the senate in August, 1789, the adjustment of the terms of a treaty is far advanced between the United States and the chiefs of the Creek Indians, now in this city, in behalf of themselves and the whole Creek nation.

In preparing this treaty, the present arrangements of trade with the Creeks have caused much embarrassment. It seems to be well ascertained that the said trade is almost exclusively in the hands of a company of British merchants, who, by agreement, make their importations of goods from England into the Spanish ports.

As the trade of the Indians is a main means of their political management, it is therefore obvious that the United States can not possess any security for the performance of treaties with the Creeks, while their trade is liable to be interrupted, or withheld, at the caprice of two foreign

powers.

Hence it becomes an object of real importance to form new channels for the commerce of the Creeks through the United States. But this operation will require time, as the present arrangements can not be suddenly broken without the greatest violation of faith and morals.

It therefore appears to be important to form a secret article of a treaty, similar to the one which accompanies this message.

If the senate should require any further explanation, the secretary of war will attend them for that purpose.

SECRET ARTICLE.

The commerce necessary for the Creek nation shall be carried on through the ports, and by the citizens, of the United States, if substantial and effectual arrangements shall be made for that purpose by the United States on or before the first day of August, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two. In the meantime, the said commerce may be carried on through its present channels, and according to its present arrangements.

And, whereas, the trade of the said Creek nation is now carried on wholly or principally through the territories of Spain, and obstructions thereto may happen by war or prohibitions of the Spanish government: it is therefore agreed between the said parties, that, in the event of any such obstructions happening, it shall be lawful for such persons as

shall designate, to introduce into, and transport through the territories of the United States, to the country of the said Creek nation, any quantity

of goods, wares, and merchandise, not exceeding in value in any one year sixty thousand dollars, and that free from any duties or impositions whatsoever, but subject to such regulations for guarding against abuse as the United States shall judge necessary; which privilege shall continue as long as such obstructions shall continue.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

AUGUST 7, 1790.

To the Senate of the United States :–

I LAY before you a treaty between the United States and the chiefs of the Creek nation, now in this city, in behalf of themselves and the whole Creek nation, subject to the ratification of the president of the United States, with the advice and consent of the senate.

While I flatter myself that this treaty will be productive of present peace and prosperity to our southern frontier, it is expected that it will also in its consequences be the means of firmly attaching the Creeks and the neighboring tribes to the interests of the United States.

At the same time, it is to be hoped that it will afford solid grounds of satisfaction to the state of Georgia, as it contains a regular, full, and definitive relinquishment, on the part of the Creek nation, of the Oconee land, in the utmost extent in which it has been claimed by that state, and thus extinguishes the principal cause of those hostilities from which it has more than once experienced such severe calamities. But although the most valuable of the disputed land is included, yet there is a certain claim of Georgia, arising out of the treaty made by that state at Galphinston, in November, 1785, of land to the eastward of a new temporary line from the forks of the Oconee and Oakmulgee in a southwest direction to the St. Mary's river, which tract of land the Creeks in this city absolutely refuse to yield.

This land is reported to be generally barren, sunken, and unfit for cultivation, except in some instances on the margin of the rivers, on which, by improvement, rice might be cultivated, its chief value depending on the timber fit for the building of ships, with which it is represented as abounding.

While it is thus circumstanced, on the one hand, it is stated by the Creeks, on the other, to be of the highest importance to them, as constituting some of their most valuable winter hunting-ground.

I have directed the commissioner, to whom the charge of adjusting this treaty has been committed, to lay before you such papers and documents, and to communicate to you such information relatively to it, as you may require.

SPECIAL MESSAGE

AUGUST 11, 1790.

To the Senate of the United States :

ALTHOUGH the treaty with the Creeks may be regarded as the main foundation of the future peace and prosperity of the southwestern frontier of the United States, yet, in order fully to effect so desirable an object, the treaties which have been entered into with the other tribes in that quarter must be faithfully performed on our part.

During the last year, I laid before the senate a particular statement of the case of the Cherokees. By a reference to that paper it will appear that the United States formed a treaty with the Cherokees in November, 1785; that the said Cherokees thereby placed themselves under the protection of the United States, and had a boundary assigned them; that the white people, settled on the frontiers, had openly violated the said boundary by intruding on the Indian lands; that the United States, in Congress assembled, on 1st day of September, 1788, issued their proclamation forbidding all such unwarrantable intrusions, and enjoined all those who had settled upon the hunting-grounds of the Cherokees to depart with their families and effects without loss of time, as they would answer their disobedience to the injunctions and prohibitions expressed at their peril.

But information has been received, that, notwithstanding the said treaty and proclamation, upward of five hundred families have settled on the Cherokee land, exclusively of those settled between the forks of French, Broad, and Holstein rivers, mentioned in the said treaty.

As the obstructions to a proper conduct on this matter have been removed since it was mentioned to the senate on the 22d of August, 1789, by the accession of North Carolina to the present Union, and the cessions of the lands in question, I shall conceive myself bound to exert the powers intrusted to me by the constitution, in order to carry into faithful execution the treaty of Hopewell, unless it shall be thought proper to attempt to arrange a new boundary with the Cherokees, embracing the settlements, and compensating the Cherokees for the cessions they shall make on the occasion. On this point, therefore, I state the following questions, and request the advice of the senate thereon:—

1. Is it the judgment of the senate that overtures shall be made to the Cherokees to arrange a new boundary, so as to embrace the settlements made by the white people since the treaty of Hopewell, in November,

1785 ?

2. If so, shall compensation to the amount of dollars annually, or of dollars in gross, be made to the Cherokees for the land they shall relinquish, holding the occupiers of the land accountable to the United States for its value?

3. Shall the United States stipulate solemnly to guaranty the new boundary which may be arranged?

SECOND ANNUAL ADDRESS.

DECEMBER 8, 1790.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives :

IN meeting you again, I feel much satisfaction in being able to repeat my congratulations on the favorable prospects which continue to distinguish our public affairs. The abundant fruits of another year have blessed our country with plenty and with the means of a flourishing commerce. The progress of public credit is witnessed by a considerable rise of American stock abroad as well as at home; and the revenues allotted for this and other national purposes have been productive beyond the calculations by which they were regulated. The latter circumstance is the more pleasing, as it is not only a proof of the fertility of our resources, but as it assures us of a further increase of the national respectability and credit; and, let me add, as it bears an honorable testimony to the patriotism and integrity of the mercantile and marine part of our citizens. The punctuality of the former in discharging their engagements has been exemplary. In conforming to the powers vested in me by acts of the last session, a loan of three millions of florins, toward which some provisional measures had previously taken place, has been completed in Holland. As well the celerity with which it has been filled, as the nature of the terms (considering the more than ordinary demands for borrowing, created by the situation of Europe), give a reasonable hope that the further execution of those powers may proceed with advantage and success. The secretary of the treasury has my direction to communicate such further particulars as may be requisite for more precise information.

Since your last session, I have received communications by which it appears that the district of Kentucky, at present a part of Virginia, has concurred in certain propositions contained in a law of that state; in consequence of which, the district is to become a distinct member of the Union, in case the requisite sanction of Congress be added. For this sanction, application is now made. I shall cause the papers on this very important transaction to be laid before you. The liberality and harmony with which it has been conducted will be found to do great honor to both the parties; and the sentiments of warm attachment to the Union and its present government, expressed by our fellow-citizens of Kentucky, can not fail to add an affectionate concern for their particular welfare to the great national impressions under which you will decide on the case submitted to you.

It has been heretofore known to Congress that frequent incursions have been made on our frontier settlements by certain banditti of Indians from the northwest side of Ohio. These, with some of the tribes dwelling on and near the Wabash, have of late been particularly active in their depredations; and being emboldened by the impunity of their crimes, and aided by such parts of the neighboring tribes as could be seduced to join in their hostilities or afford them a retreat for their prisoners and plunder, have, instead of listening to the humane invitations and overtures made on the part of the United States, renewed their violences with fresh alacrity and greater effect. The lives of a number of valuable citizens have thus been sacrificed, and some of them under circumstances peculiarly shocking while others have been carried into a deplorable captivity.