this provisional service; having under his command a body of troops, composed of regulars, and of volunteers from the state of Ohio. Having reached his destination after his knowledge of the war, and possessing discretionary authority to act offensively, he passed into the neighbouring territory of the enemy, with a prospect of easy and victorious progress. The expedition, nevertheless, terminated unfortunately, not only in a retreat to the town and fort of Detroit, but in the surrender of both, and of the gallant corps commanded by that officer. The causes of this painful reverse will be investigated by a military tribunal.

A distinguishing feature in the operations which preceded and followed this adverse event, is the use made by the enemy of the merciless savages under their influence. Whilst the benevolent policy of the United States invariably recommended peace, and promoted civilization among that wretched portion of the human race; and was making exertions to dissuade them from taking either side in the war, the enemy has not scrupled to call to his aid their ruthless ferocity, armed with the horrors of those instruments of carnage and torture, which are known to spare neither age nor sex. In this outrage against the laws of honourable war, and against the feelings sacred to humanity, the British commanders cannot resort to a plea of retaliation: for it is committed in the face of our example. They cannot mitigate it by calling it a self-defence against men in arms: for it embraces the most shocking butcheries of defenceless families. Nor can it be pretended that they are not answerable for the atrocities perpetrated; since the savages are employed with a knowledge, and even with menaces, that their fury could not be controuled. Such is the spectacle which the deputed authorities of a nation, boasting its religion and morality, have not been restrained from presenting to an enlightened age.

The misfortune at Detroit was not, however, without a consoling effect. It was followed by signal proofs that the national spirit rises according to the pressure on it. The loss of an important post, and of the brave men surrendered with it, inspired every where new ardour and determination. In the states and districts least remote, it was no sooner known, than every citizen was ready to fly with his arms, at once to protect his brethren against the blood-thirsty savages let loose by the enemy on an extensive frontier, and to convert a partial calamity into a source of invigorated efforts. This patriotic zeal, which it was necessary rather to limit than excite, has embodied an ample force from the states of Kentucky and Ohio, and from parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

It is placed, with the addition of a few regulars, under the command of brigadier-general Harrison, who possesses the entire confidence of his fellow-soldiers, among whom are citizens, some of them volunteers in the ranks, not less distinguished by their political stations, than by their personal merits. The greater portion of this force is proceeding on its destination towards the Michigan territory, having succeeded in relieving an important frontier post, and in several incidental operations against hostile tribes of savages, rendered indispensable by the subserviency into which they had been seduced by the enemy; a seduction the more cruel, as it could not fail to impose a necessity of precautionary severities against those who yielded to it.

At a recent date, an attack was made on a post of the enemy near Niagara, by a detachment of the regulars and other forces, under the command of major-general Van Rensselaer, of the militia of the state of New York. The attack, it appears, was ordered in compliance with the ardour of the troops, who executed it with distinguished gallantry, and were for a time victorious; but not receiving the expected support, they were compelled to yield to reinforcements of British regulars and savages. Our loss has been considerable, and is deeply to be lamented. That of the enemy, less ascertained, will be the more felt, as it includes, amongst the killed, the commanding general, who was also the governor of the province; and was sustained by veteran troops, from unexperienced soldiers, who must daily improve in the duties of the field.

Our expectation of gaining the command of the lakes by the invasion of Canada from Detroit having been disappointed, measures were instantly taken to provide on them a naval force superior to that of the enemy. From the talents and activity of the officer charged with this object, every thing that can be done may be expected. Should the present season not admit of complete success, the progress made will insure for the next a naval ascendancy, where it is essential to our permanent peace with, and controul over, the savages.

Among the incidents to the measures of the war, I am constrained to advert to the refusal of the governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, to furnish the required detachments of militia towards the defence of the maritime frontier. The refusal was founded on a novel and unfortunate exposition of the provisions of the constitution, relating to the militia. The correspondences, which will be laid before you, contain the requisite information on the subject. It is obvious, that if the authority of the United

.

States to call into service and command the militia for the public defence can be thus frustrated, even in a state of declared war, and of course under apprehensions of invasion preceding war, they are not one nation for the purpose most of all requiring it; and that the public safety may have no other resource than in those large and permanent military establishments which are forbidden by the principle of our free government, and against the necessity of which the militia were meant to be a constitutional bulwark.

On the coasts, and on the ocean, the war has been as successful as circumstances inseparable from its early stages could promise. Our public ships and private cruisers, by their activity, and, where there was occasion, by their intrepidity, have made the enemy sensible of the difference between a reciprocity of captures, and the long confinement of them to their side. Our trade, with little exception, has safely reached our ports; having been much favoured in it, by the course pursued by a squadron of our frigates under the command of commodore Rodgers. And in the instance in which skill and bravery were more particularly tried with those of the enemy, the American flag had an auspicious triumph. The frigate Constitution, commanded by captain Hull, after a close and short engagement, completely disabled and captured a British frigate; gaining for that officer and all on board, a praise which cannot be too liberally bestowed; not merely for the victory actually achieved, but for that prompt and cool exertion of commanding talents, which, giving to courage its highest character, and to the force applied its full effect, prove that more could have been done, in a contest requiring more.

Anxious to abridge the evils from which a state of war cannot be exempt, I lost no time after it was declared, in conveying to the British government, the terms on which its progress might be arrested, without awaiting the delays of a formal and final pacification. And our charge d'affaires at London was, at the same time, authorized to agree to an armistice founded upon them. These terms required, that the orders in council should be repealed as they affected the United States, without a revival of blockades violating acknowledged rules; and that there should be an immediate discharge of American seamen from British ships, and a stop to impressment from American ships, with an understanding that an exclusion of the seamen of each nation, from the ships of the other, should be stipulated; and that the armistice should be improved into a definitive and comprehensive adjustment of depending controversies. Although a repeal of the orders, susceptible of explanations meeting the views of this government, had

taken place before this pacific advance had been communicated to that of Great Britain, the advance was declined, from an avowed repugnance to a suspension of the practice of impressments during the armistice, and without any intimation that the arrangement proposed with respect to seamen would be accepted. Whether the subsequent communications from this government, affording an occasion for re-considering the subject on the part of G. Britain, will be viewed in a more favourable light, or received in a more accommodating spirit, remains to be known. It would be unwise to relax our measures, in any respect, on a presumption of such a result.

The documents from the department of state, which relate to this subject, will give a view also of the propositions for an armistice which have been received here, one of them from the authorities at Halifax and in Canada, the other from the British government itself, through admiral Warren; and of the grounds on which neither of them could be accepted.

Our affairs with France retain the posture which they held at my last communications to you. Notwithstanding the authorized expectations of an early as well as favourable issue to the discussions on foot; these have been procrastinated to the latest date. The only intervening occurrence meriting attention, is the promulgation of a French decree, purporting to be a definitive repeal of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This proceeding, although made the ground of the repeal of the British orders in council, is rendered, by the time and manner of it, liable to many objec

tions.

The final communications from our special minister to Denmark, afford further proofs of the good effects of his mission, and of the amicable disposition of the Danish government. From Russia we have the satisfaction to receive assurances of continued friendship, and that it will not be affected by the rupture between the United States and Great Britain. Sweden also professes sentiments favourable to the subsisting harmony.

With the Barbary powers, excepting that of Algiers, our affairs remain on the ordinary footing. The consul-general residing with that regency has suddenly and without cause been banished, together with all the American citizens found there. Whether this was the transitory effect of capricious despotism, or the first act of pre-determined hostility, is not ascertained. Precautions were taken by the consul on the latter supposition.

The Indian tribes, not under foreign instigations, remain at peace, and receive the civilizing attentions, which have proved so beneficial to them.

With a view to that vigorous prosecution of the war, to which our national faculties are adequate, the attention of congress will be particularly drawn to the insufficiency of existing provisions for filling up the military establishment. Such is the happy condition of our country, arising from the facility of subsistence and the high wages for every species of occupation, that, notwithstanding the augmented inducements provided at the last session, a partial success only has attended the recruiting service. The deficiency has been necessarily supplied during the campaign by other than regular troops, with all the inconveniences and expense incident to them. The remedy lies in establishing more favourably for the private soldier the proportion between his recompense and the term of his enlistment. And it is a subject which cannot too soon or too seriously be taken into consideration.

The same insufficiency has been experienced in the provisions for volunteers made by an act of the last session. The recompense for the service required in this case is still less attractive than in the other. And although patriotism alone has sent into the field some valuable corps of that description, those alone who can afford the sacrifice can be reasonably expected to yield to that impulse.

It will merit consideration also, whether, as auxiliary to the security of our frontiers, corps may not be advantageously organized, with a restriction of their services to particular districts convenient to them. And whether the local and occasional services of mariners and others in the seaport towns, under a similar organization, would not be a provident addition to the means of their defence.

I recommend a provision for an increase of the general officers of the army, the deficiency of which has been illustrated by the number and distance of separate commands, which the course of the war and the advantage of the service have required.

And I cannot press too strongly on the earliest attention of the legislature, the importance of the re-organization of the staff establishment; with a view to render more distinct and definite the relations and responsibilities of its several departments. That there is room for improvements which will materially promote both economy and success, in what appertains to the army and the war, is equally inculcated by the examples of other countries, and by the experience of our own.

A revision of the militia laws, for the purpose of rendering them more systematic, and better adapting them to emergencies of the war, is at this time particularly desirable.