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ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by

D. APPLETON & COMPANY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

TWENTY-SECOND CONGRESS.-SECOND SESSION.

PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE.

MONDAY, December 3, 1832.
Election of President pro tem.

At 12 o'clock, the Senate was called to order by the Secretary, Mr. LowRIE, (the VICE PRESIDENT being absent, and the President pro tempore, Mr. TAZEWELL, having resigned his seat in the Senate,) and thirty-two members appearing in their seats, and there being a quorum, Mr. SMITH, of Maryland, moved to proceed to the election of President pro tempore, which was agreed to.

The Hon. HUGH L. WHITE, of Tennessee, having received a majority of all the votes, was declared duly elected President of the Senate, pro tempore, and being conducted to the chair by Mr. TYLER, of Virginia, returned his acknowledgments to the Senate, as follows:

To the members of the Senate I tender my sincere acknowledgments for the distinguished honor conferred by their vote.

No person who has been so long a member of this body could have been selected who has made the rules of its proceedings less an object of his study. This circumstance will make my errors more numerous than might be anticipated, and will throw me oftener on the kind indulgence of the Senate.

Whatever my errors may be, I have the consolation of knowing that they can be revised and corrected at the instance of any member; and I beg every one to believe that so far from feeling hurt at the correctness of my decisions being questioned, it will be matter of gratification that the sense of the Senate may be taken in every instance when it may be supposed I am mistaken.

Whatever industry and attention can do towards removing defects in qualifications I promise shall be done, and I shall take the chair, determined that in anxious desire to do that which is just towards every member, and that which will most promote the correct discharge of the important business we may have to perform, I will not be exceeded by any who have preceded me.

On motion it was ordered that messages communicating the election of Mr. WHITE as President pro tempore, be sent to the House of Representatives, and to the President of the United States.

Messrs. GRUNDY and FRELINGHUYSEN Were appointed on the Joint Committee, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him of the readiness of the two Houses to receive from him any communication.

TUESDAY, December 4.

The sitting to-day was occupied in receiving and reading the President's Message as follows: Fellow Citizens of the Senate

and House of Representatives:

It gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon your return to the seat of Government, for the purpose of discharging your duties to the people of the United States. Although the pestilence which had traversed the Old World has entered our limits, and extended its ravages over much of our land, it has pleased Almighty God to mitigate its severity, and lessen the number of its victims, compared with those who have fallen in most other countries over which it has spread its terrors. Notwithstanding this visitation, our country presents, on every side, marks of prosperity and happiness, unequalled, perhaps, in any other portion of the world. If we fully appreciate our comparative condition, existing causes of discontent will appear unworthy of attention, and, with hearts of thankfulness to that Divine Being who has filled our cup of prosperity, we shall feel our resolution strengthened to preserve and hand down to posterity that liberty and that union which we have received from our fathers, and which constitute the sources and the shield of all our blessings.

The relations of our country continue to present the same picture of amicable intercourse that I had the satisfaction to hold up to your view at the open

SENATE.]

The President's Message.

[DECEMBER, 1832.

ing of your last session. The same friendly profes- | ties to preserve inviolate, cemented, as it is, by a sions, the same desire to participate in our flourish- community of language, manners, and social habits, ing commerce, the same disposition to refrain from and by the high obligations we owe to our British injuries unintentionally offered, are, with few ex- ancestors for many of our most valuable instituceptions, evinced by all nations with whom we have tions, and for that system of representative Governany intercourse. This desirable state of things may ment which has enabled us to preserve and improye be mainly ascribed to our undeviating practice of them. the rule which has long guided our national policy, to require no exclusive privileges in commerce, and to grant none. It is daily producing its beneficial effect, in the respect shown to our flag, the protection of our citizens and their property abroad, and in the increase of our navigation, and the extension of our mercantile operations. The returns which have been made out since we last met will show an increase during the last preceding year of more than 80,000 tons in our shipping, and of near forty millions of dollars in the aggregate of our imports and exports.

The question of our North-eastern boundary still remains unsettled. In my last annual Message I explained to you the situation in which I found that business on my coming into office, and the measures I thought it my duty to pursue for asserting the rights of the United States before the Sovereign who had been chosen by my predecessor to determine the question; and, also, the manner in which he had disposed of it. A special message to the Senate in their executive capacity, afterwards brought before them the question, whether they would advise a submission to the opinion of the sovereign arbiter. That body having considered the award as not obligatory, and advised me to open a further negotiation, the proposition was im

the circumstances to which I have alluded, have hitherto prevented any answer being given to the overture. Early attention, however, has been promised to the subject, and every effort, on my part, will be made for a satisfactory settlement of this question, interesting to the Union generally, and particularly so to one of its members.

Nor have we less reason to felicitate ourselves on the position of our political than of our commercial concerns. They remain in the state in which they were when I last addressed you-a state of prosper-mediately made to the British Government: but ity and peace, the effect of a wise attention to the parting advice of the revered father of his country on this subject condensed into a maxim for the use of posterity by one of his most distinguished successors, to cultivate free commerce and honest friendship with all nations, but to make entangling alliances with none. A strict adherence to this policy has kept us aloof from the perplexing questions that now agitate the European world, and have more than once deluged those countries with blood. Should those scenes unfortunately recur, the parties to the contest may count on a faithful performance of the duties incumbent on us as a neutral nation, and our citizens may equally rely on the firm assertion of their neutral rights.

With the nation that was our earliest friend and ally in the infancy of our political existence, the most friendly relations have subsisted through the late revolutions of its Government, and, from the events of the last, promise a permanent duration. It has made an approximation in some of its political institutions to our own, and raised a monarch to the throne, who preserves, it is said, a friendly recollection of the period during which he acquired among our citizens the high consideration that could then have been produced by his personal qualifications alone.

The claims of our citizens on Spain are not yet acknowledged. On a closer investigation of them than appears to have heretofore taken place, it was discovered that some of these demands, however strong they might be upon the equity of that Government, were not such as could be made the subject of national interference. And, faithful to the principle of asking nothing but what was clearly right, additional instructions have been sent to modify our demands, so as to embrace those only on which, according to the laws of nations, we had a strict right to insist. An inevitable delay in procuring the documents necessary for this review of the merits of these claims, retarded this operation, until an unfortunate malady which has afflicted his Catholic Majesty, prevented an examination of them. Being now, for the first time, presented in an unexceptionable form, it is confidently hoped the application will be successful.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the apOur commerce with that nation is gradually as-plication I directed to be made for the delivery of a suming a mutually beneficial character, and the adjustment of the claims of our citizens has removed the only obstacle there was to an intercourse not only lucrative, but productive of literary and scientific improvement.

part of the archives of Florida, which had been carried to the Havana, has produced a royal order for their delivery, and that measures have been taken to procure its execution.

By the report of the Secretary of State, commuFrom Great Britain I have the satisfaction to in-nicated to you on the 25th of June last, you were form you that I continue to receive assurances of informed of the conditional reduction obtained by the most amicable disposition, which have, on my the Minister of the United States at Madrid, of the part, on all proper occasions, been promptly and duties on tonnage levied on American shipping in sincerely reciprocated. The attention of that Gov- the ports of Spain. The condition of that reducernment has latterly been so much engrossed by tion having been complied with on our part, by the matters of a deeply interesting domestic character act passed the 13th of July last, I have the satisfacthat we could not press upon it the renewal of ne- tion to inform you that our ships now pay no highgotiations which had been unfortunately broken off er nor other duties in the continental ports of Spain by the unexpected recall of our Minister, who had than are levied on their national vessels. commenced them with some hopes of success. My great object was the settlement of questions which, though now dormant, might hereafter be revived under circumstances that would endanger the good understanding which it is the interest of both par

The demands against Portugal for illegal captures in the blockade of Terceira, have been allowed to the full amount of the accounts presented by the claimants, and payment was promised to be made in three instalments. The first of these has been

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paid; the second, although due, had not, at the date of our last advices, been received, owing, it was alleged, to embarrassments in the finances, consequent on the civil war in which that nation is engaged.

[SENATE.

occasion been evinced by this interesting country, I made a second attempt in this year to establish a diplomatic intercourse with them, but the death of the distinguished citizen whom I had appointed for that purpose, has retarded the execution of measures The payments stipulated by the Convention with from which I hoped much advantage to our comDenmark have been punctually made, and the merce. The union of the three States which formamount is ready for distribution among the claim-ed the Republic of Colombia has been dissolved; ants, as soon as the Board now sitting shall have performed their functions.

I regret that, by the last advices from our Chargé d'Affaires at Naples, that Government had still delayed the satisfaction due to our citizens; but at that date the effect of the last instructions was not known. Despatches from thence are hourly expected, and the result will be communicated to you without delay.

With the rest of Europe our relations, political and commercial, remain unchanged. Negotiations are going on, to put on a permanent basis the liberal system of commerce now carried on between us and the Empire of Russia. The treaty concluded with Austria is executed by His Imperial Majesty with the most perfect good faith; and, as we have no diplomatic agent at his court, he personally inquired into, and corrected, a proceeding of some of his subaltern officers, to the injury of our Consul in one of his ports.

Our treaty with the Sublime Porte is producing its expected effects on our commerce. New markets are opening for our commodities, and a more extensive range for the employment of our ships. A slight augmentation of the duties on our commerce, inconsistent with the spirit of the treaty, had been imposed; but, on the representation of our Chargé d'Affaires, it has been promptly withdrawn, and we now enjoy the trade and navigation of the Black Sea, and of all the ports belonging to the Turkish Empire and Asia, on the most perfect equality with all foreign nations.

but they all, it is believed, consider themselves as separately bound by the Treaty which was made in their federal capacity. The Minister accredited to the Federation continues in that character near the Government of New Granada, and hopes were entertained that a new Union would be formed between the separate States, at least for the purposes of foreign intercourse. Our Minister has been instructed to use his good offices, whenever they shall be desired, to produce the re-union so much to be wished, for the domestic tranquillity of the parties, and the security and facility of foreign commerce. Some agitations, naturally attendant on an infant reign, have prevailed in the empire of Brazil, which have had the usual effect upon commercial operations; and while they suspended the consideration of claims created on similar occasions, they have given rise to new complaints on the part of our citizens. A proper consideration for calamities and difficulties of this nature has made us less urgent and peremptory in our demands for justice than duty to our fellow-citizens would, under other circumstances, have required. But their claims are not neglected, and will on all proper occasions be urged, and, it is hoped, with effect.

I refrain from making any communication on the subject of our affairs with Buenos Ayres, because the negotiation communicated to you in my last annual Message was, at the date of our last advices, still pending, and in a state that would render a publication of the details inexpedient.

A Treaty of Amity and Commerce has been formed with the Republic of Chili, which, if approved by the Senate, will be laid before you. That Government seems to be established, and at peace with its neighbors; and its ports being the resorts of our ships which are employed in the highly important trade of fisheries, this commercial convention cannot but be of great advantage to our fellow-citizens engaged in that perilous but profitable business.

I wish earnestly that, in announcing to you the continuance of friendship and the increase of a profitable commercial intercourse with Mexico, with Central America, and the States of the South, I could accompany it with the assurance that they all are blessed with that internal tranquillity and foreign peace which their heroic devotion to the cause of their independence merits. In Mexico, a sanguinary struggle is now carried on, which has caused some embarrassment to our commerce; but both parties profess the most friendly disposition towards us. To the termination of this contest we look for the establishment of that secure intercourse so necessary to nations whose territories are contiguous. How important it will be to us we may calculate from the fact, that, even in this unfavorable state of things, our maritime commerce has in-pointment of any agent for that purpose. creased, and an internal trade by caravans, from St. Louis to Santa Fe, under the protection of escorts furnished by the Government, is carried on to great advantage, and is daily increasing. The agents provided for, by the treaty with this power, to designate the boundaries which it established, have been named on our part; but one of the evils of the civil war now raging there has been that the appointment of those with whom they were to cooperate has not yet been announced to us.

Our commerce with the neighboring State of Peru, owing to the onerous duties levied on our principal articles of export, has been on the decline, and all endeavors to procure an alteration have hitherto proved fruitless. With Bolivia we have yet no diplomatic intercourse, and the continued contests carried on between it and Peru have made me defer, until a more favorable period, the ap

An act of atrocious piracy having been committed on one of our trading ships by the inhabitants of a settlement on the west coast of Sumatra, a frigate was despatched with orders to demand satisfaction for the injury, if those who committed it should be found members of a regular government, capable of maintaining the usual relations with foreign nations; but if, as it was supposed, and as they proved to be, they were a band of lawless pirates, to inflict such a chastisement as would deter The Government of Central America has expelled them and others from like aggressions. This last from its territory the party which some time since was done, and the effect has been an increased redisturbed its peace. Desirous of fostering a favorable spect for our flag in those distant seas, and addidisposition towards us, which has on more than one I tional security for our commerce.

SENATE.]

The President's Message.

[DECEMBER, 1832.

In the view I have given of our connection with | have confided the Executive power to my charge, foreign powers, allusions have been made to their fifty-eight millions of dollars will have been applied domestic disturbances or foreign wars, to their rev- to the payment of the public debt. That this has olutions or dissensions. It may be proper to ob- been accomplished without stinting the expendserve that this is done solely in cases where those itures for all other proper objects, will be seen by events affect our political relations with them, or to referring to the liberal provision made during the show their operation on our commerce. Further same period for the support and increase of our than this it is neither our policy nor our right to means of maritime and military defence, for interinterfere. Our best wishes on all occasions, our nal improvements of a national character, for the good offices when required, will be afforded to pro- removal and preservation of the Indians, and lastly, mote the domestic tranquillity and foreign peace of for the gallant veterans of the Revolution. all nations with whom we have any intercourse. Any intervention in their affairs further than this, even by the expression of an official opinion, is contrary to our principles of international policy, and will always be avoided.

The final removal of this great burden from our resources, affords the means of further provision for all the objects of general welfare and public defence which the constitution authorizes, and presents the occasion for such further reduction in the revenue as may not be required for them. From the report of the Secretary of the Treasury it will be seen that after the present year such a reduction may be made to a considerable extent; and the subject is earnestly recommended to the consideration of Congress, in the hope that the combined wisdom of the Representatives of the people will devise such means of effecting that salutary object as may remove those burdens which shall be found to fall unequally upon any, and as may promote all the great interests of the community.

The report which the Secretary of the Treasury will, in due time, lay before you, will exhibit the national finances in a highly prosperous state. Owing to the continued success of our commercial enterprise, which has enabled the merchants to fulfil their engagements with the Government, the receipts from customs during the year will exceed the estimate presented at the last session; and, with the other means of the Treasury, will prove fully adequate, not only to meet, the increased expenditures resulting from the large appropriations made by Congress, but to provide for the payment of all the public debt which is at present redeemable. It is now estimated that the customs will yield to the Treasury, during the present year, upwards of twenty-eight millions of dollars. The public lands, however, have proved less productive than was anticipated, and, according to present information, will not much exceed two millions. The expenditures for all objects other than the public debt are estimated to amount, during the year, to about six-ited to what, by an economical administration, shall teen millions and a half, while a still larger sum, viz., eighteen millions of dollars, will have been applied to the principal and interest of the public debt.

It is expected, however, that, in consequence of the reduced rates of duty which will take effect after the 3d of March next, there will be a considerable falling off in the revenue from customs in the year 1833. It will, nevertheless, be amply sufficient to provide for all the wants of the public service, estimated even upon a liberal scale, and for the redemption and purchase of the remainder of the public debt. On the first of January next the entire public debt of the United States, funded and unfunded, will be reduced to within a fraction of seven millions of dollars, of which $2,227,363 are not of right redeemable until the 1st of January, 1834, and $4,735,296 not until the 2d of January, 1835. The Commissioners of the Sinking Fund, however, being invested with full authority to purchase the debt at the market price, and the means of the Treasury being ample, it may be hoped that the whole will be extinguished within the year

1833.

I cannot too cordially congratulate Congress and my fellow-citizens on the near approach of that memorable and happy event, the extinction of the public debt of this great and free nation. Faithful to the wise and patriotic policy marked out by the Legislature of the country for this object, the present Administration has devoted to it all the means which a flourishing commerce has supplied, and a prudent economy preserved, for the public Treasury.

Within the four years for which the people

Long and patient reflection has strengthened the opinions I have heretofore expressed to Congress on this subject, and I deem it my duty, on the present occasion, again to urge them upon the attention of the Legislature. The soundest maxims of public policy, and the principles upon which our Republican institutions are founded, recommend a proper adaptation of the revenue to the expenditure, and they also require that the expenditure shall be lim

be consistent with the simplicity of the Government, and necessary to an efficient public service. In effecting this adjustment it is due, in justice to the interests of the different States, and even to the preservation of the Union itself, that the protection afforded by existing laws to any branches of the national industry should not exceed what may be necessary to counteract the regulations of foreign nations, and to secure a supply of those articles of manufacture essential to the national independence and safety in time of war. If, upon investigation, it shall be found, as it is believed it will be, that the legislative protection granted to any particular interest is greater than is indispensably requisite for these objects, I recommend that it be gradually diminished, and that, as far as may be consistent with these objects, the whole scheme of duties be reduced to the revenue standard as soon as a just regard to the faith of the Government, and to the preservation of the large capital invested in establishments of domestic industry, will permit.

That manufactures adequate to the supply of our domestic consumption would, in the abstract, be beneficial to our country, there is no reason to doubt; and to effect their establishment, there is perhaps, no American citizen who would not, for a while, be willing to pay a higher price for them. But, for this purpose, it is presumed that a tariff of high duties, designed for perpetual protection, has entered into the minds of but few of our statesmen. The most they have anticipated is a temporary and generally incidental protection, which they maintain has the effect to reduce the price, by domestic competition, below that of the foreign arti

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