be found bound together by the strongest ties which mutual interest can create.

The situation of this District, it is thought, requires the attention of Congress. By the Constitution, the power of legislation is exclusively vested in the Congress of the United States. In the exercise of this power, in which the people have no participation, Congress legislate in all cases, directly, on the local concerns of the District. As this is a departure, for a special purpose, from the general principles of our system, it may merit consideration, whether an arrangement better adapted to the principles of our government and to the particular interests of the people, may not be devised, which will neither infringe the constitution, nor affect the object which the provision in question was intended to secure. The growing population, already considerable, and the increasing business of the District, which it is believed already interferes with the deliberations of Congress on great national concerns, furnish additional motives for recommending this subject to your consideration.

When we view the greater blessings with which our country has been favored, those which we now enjoy, and the means which we possess of handing them down unimpaired, to our latest posterity, our attention is ir resistibly drawn to the source from whence they flow. Let us, then, unite in offering our most grateful acknowledgements for these blessings to the Divine Author of all good.

November 17, 1818.

JAMES MONROE.

Let the people of the American Republic read this Message, and rejoice in the goodness of Providence, and the wisdom of their Rulers, for the blessings they enjoy.

The approbation bestowed upon the immortal Hero of Tohopeka and New Orleans, was what might be expected from a man who "views the whole ground.” To JAMES MONROE, is the Republic indebted for the acquisition of Louisiana, and of consequence the Mississippi, by the masterly diplomatic skill of that Statesman. TO ANDREW JACKSON is it indebted for the defence of the country by the sword, which was acquired by negociation While America has such men to secure their rights in the Cabinet, and such men to defend them in the field, she has nothing to fear from abroad or at home. May a succession of such men continue to arise with our rising Republic, and through unborn generations transmit unimpaired, the unparalleled blessings we enjoy.

Note.-In page 229, Gen. RIPLEY is said to have been wounded at Bridgewater-He received his wound at Fort Erie.