The view of the finances of the United States, presented by the President, at this time, was highly favorable: though the revenue derived from imports was not altogether of so large an amount as for the preceding year. A severe shock had been experienced by the manufacturing and commercial interests of Great Britain, which had affected the revenue of the United States, as the importations from England were thereby reduced from those of 1825.* But this diminution, in the opinion of the President, was to be attributed in part to the flourishing condition of domestic manufactures, and was therefore compensated by an equivalent even more important to the nation. This small deficiency in the revenue had not interrupted the payment of the usual portion of the public debt, in conformity to the system of annual reduction established by Congress; being eleven millions of dollars, besides the interest on the whole, amounting to six millions; and leaving five millions and a half in the treasury at the close of the year. The receipts of the year were estimated at twenty-five millions and a half; and the public expenditures, of every description, did not amount to that sum by one and a half million. Within the period of ten years, the annual revenue had not been equal on two occasions to the necessary expenditures of the government, and a resort had been had to loans. But at this time, it was sufficient, after defraying all current expenses, to discharge the usual amount of the national debt, as well as to pay large sums due for interest. This judicious system was matured under the administration of Mr. Monroe; but Mr. Adams observed and confirmed it; and strongly urged a perseverance in this prudent and economical course, that the debt of the nation might be gradually reduced, and wholly

been permitted, but it was required, that such nations as were desirous of engaging in the trade, should, by a formal act within a specified period, agree to the terms proposed. The United States government did not declare its consent and agreement to the act of Parliament within the time mentioned; and when Mr. King, and after him Mr. Gallatin were authorized to negotiate on the subject, the British ministry declined; alleging, that it was a matter for legislative regulation. This determination was wholly unexpected, and served to protract the difficulty and embarrassments of trade to ports in the West Indies, which was formerly pursued with great profit by citizens of the United States.

* Pitkin states the whole amount of imports to be, in 1825, ninety-six millions of dollars, and in 1826, eighty-four millions and nine-hundred thousand dollars; of which sum, in 1825, thirty-six millions seven hundred and ten thousand dollars was from Great Britain; and in 1826, twenty-six millions and one hundred thousand dollars.

+ Mr. Lowndes, of South Carolina, proposed and advocated this provident plan.

extinguished within the period before contemplated. He was in favor of internal improvements, and of a gradual increase of the navy; yet he considered it highly important, that the public debt should be constantly diminished, and the strictest economy practiced in the expenses of the government. In referring to the state of the army and navy, the President said, the former was well disciplined and well g I governed; that although small, it was sufficient for all necessary purposes of the government, and as the germ of an efficient national force in any unforeseen exigency: while employment was found for the officers and soldiers composing it, in building and repairing fortifications, and in protecting the inhabitants on the frontiers. The navy, he recommended to the attention of Congress, and expressed an opinion in favor of its gradual increase, agreeable to a system adopted during the administration of his predecessor. The voice of the country, he observed, was for its support, as the most proper and only safe means of defence, by force, in our government; especially as it was an efficient protection to commerce and navigation, so essential to the prosperity of the United States.

"The gradual increase of the navy," said the President, "was the principle, of which the act of April, 1816, was the first development. It was the introduction of a system, to act upon the character and history of our country, for an indefinite series of ages. It was a declaration of Congress, at that time, to their constituents and to posterity, that it was the destiny and the duty of these confederated States to become, in regular process of time, and by no petty advances, a great naval power.* That which they then proposed to accomplish in eight years, is rather to be considered as the measure of their means, than the limitation of their design. They looked forward for a term of years sufficient to the accomplishment of a definite portion of their purpose; and they left it to their successors to fill up the canvass, of which they had traced the large and prophetic outline. The ships of the line and the frigates, which they had in contemplation, will be shortly completed. The time which they allotted for the accomplishment of the work has more than elapsed. It remains for your consideration how their successors may contribute

*This act provided for the building of nine ships of war, of seventy-four guns each, and twelve of forty-four guns each: and appropriated a million of dollars annually, for eight years, for that purpose. Congress did not manifest an opinion so strongly favorable to the increase of the navy as the President expressed in his message.

their portion of toil and treasure, for the benefit of the succeeding age, in the gradual increase of the navy."

It appeared by the message of the President, on this occasion, that nearly a million and a half of dollars were required to pay the pensions, previously allowed by Congress, to the survivors of the soldiers of the Revolution: but, in his estimation, the appropriation was alike honorable and just.*

The subjects mentioned by the President in his message, and recommended to the notice of Congress, engaged their early attention; and were discussed in each branch of the legislature during the session; but as it was closed the third of March, there was not sufficient time for maturing laws to carry into effect all the measures which he proposed. But few laws, of a very important or general character, were passed at this time, though others were urged with great ability and zeal by several members. There was, at this period, a very strong feeling in Congress, as to the theory and views of the executive; and with many a disposition to scrutinize, more closely than common, the recommendations of the President. Some supposed his objects were visionary or would be needless, and would draw after them great expenses: and he was also

* This very able state paper concluded as follows:-" I trust that it will not be deemed inappropriate to the occasion and purposes on which you are assembled, to indulge a momentary retrospect, combining in a single glance, the period of our origin, as a national confederation with that of our present existence, at the precise interval of half a century from each other. Since your last meeting at this place, the fiftieth anniversary of the day when our Independence was declared, has been celebrated throughout the land: and on that day, when every heart was bounding with joy, and every voice was tuned to gratulation, amid the blessings of freedom and independence, which the sires of a former age had handed down to their children, two of the principal actors in that solemn scene, the hand which penned the ever-memorable declaration, and the voice that sustained it in debate, were, by one summons, at the distance of seven hundred miles from each other, called before the Judge of all, to account for the deeds done upon earth. The departed, were cheered by the benedictions of their country, to which they left the inheritance of their fame and the memory of their bright example. If we turn our thoughts to the condition of their country, in the contrast of the first and last day of that half century, how resplendent and sublime is the transition from gloom to glory! Then glancing through the same lapse of time, in the condition of the individuals, we see the first day marked with the fullness and vigor of youth, in the pledge of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, to the cause of freedom and of mankind: and on the last, extended on the bed of death, with sense and sensibility left to breathe a last aspiration to Heaven of blessing upon their country: may we not humbly hope that to them, too, it was a pledge of transition from gloom to glory; and that, while their mortal vestments were sinking into the clods of the valley, their emancipated spirits were ascending to the bosom of their God."

charged with entertaining such views of the Constitution, as that very extensive and internal improvements might justly be made, though there might be large expenditures in the execution. And the majority, at that period, were opposed to expenditures for such objects, except they were most plainly necessary for the public defence and safety. The political friends and opponents of the administration, were thus very equally divided.

While the national legislature was in session, at this time, intelligence was received from the Envoy at the Court of London, that a Convention had been concluded, in November, between the United States and Great Britain. This Convention did not relate to commercial intercourse between the two countries;* for it has been seen that the British ministry had declined entering into any negotia

* The following articles, proposed by the President, will show his views of a proper commercial Convention with Great Britain-"Whereas, by the trade as it now exists under the respective laws and regulations of the two nations, between certain ports of the British colonies in America and the West Indies, and the ports of the United States, discriminating duties and charges are reciprocally imposed and levied on the vessels and cargoes of each nation in the ports of the other; and as it is the desire of the parties, for the reciprocal advantage of their citizens and subjects, to abolish all such discriminating duties and charges; it is agreed, that upon the vessels of the United States, admitted by law into all and every one of his Britannic Majesty's colonial ports, and upon any goods, wares, or merchandize lawfully imported therein, in the said vessels, no other or higher duties of tonnage or impost, and no other charges of any kind shall be levied or exacted, than upon British vessels, including all vessels of the colonies themselves, or upon the like goods, wares, or merchandize imported into the said colonial ports from any other port or place whatever, including Great Britain and the colonial ports themselves: and that upon the vessels of Great Britain admitted by law into all and every one of the ports of the United States, and upon any goods, wares, and merchandize lawfully imported therein, in the said vessels, no other or higher duties on tonnage or impost, and no other charge of any kind shall be levied or exacted, than upon vessels of each and every one of the said States, or upon the like goods, wares, or merchandize imported into the United States from any other port or place whatever."

"For the more perfect fulfilment of the intention of the high contracting parties, as expressed in the foregoing article, it is agreed, that the trade to which it has reference, shall continue on the footing on which it now stands by the laws and regulations of the two countries respectively; with the exception of the removal, by Great Britain, of the duties specified in an act of Parliament, June, 1822,-and of those specified in an act of Parliament, August, 1822,--and of the removal, by the United States, of all additional duties of tonnage, in the light of foreign tonnage duty, and of all additional duties of impost, in the light of foreign impost, existing against British vessels and merchandize coming to the United States from any of the said colonial ports. And the contracting parties pledge themselves to remove, reciprocally, the duties herein recapitulated, as well as all other discriminating duties and charges of whatever kind they may be, intended by this and the foregoing article, to remove; it being the desire and intention of the parties to place the aforesaid trade upon a footing of perfect equality in all respects."

tions on the subject: but the object of the treaty was to provide for carrying into effect some parts of the treaty of Ghent, of 1815. The chief article was a stipulation to compensate for the capture and detention of slaves belonging to the southern States, during the war of 1812-1814.* This Convention was ratified by the President and Senate soon after it was received: and a law was promptly passed by Congress for giving effect to its provisions.

An appropriation of thirty thousand dollars was made. for repairs on the Cumberland road: lands were reserved for seminaries of learning in Louisiana, in Florida, and in Arkansas; and a grant of public land was made to the asylum of the deaf and dumb, in Kentucky.—In several instances also, the President was authorized to cause surveys to be made for roads, and to lay them out, in the new territories-thus recognizing the propriety of expending the funds and property of the nation for internal improvements, and for the purposes of education and affording proof that the majority in Congress at that time, were in favor of promoting some objects of a general nature, at the expense of the federal government.

A question on the President's authority to appoint diplomatic agents in the recess of the Senate, or rather as to the extent of his constitutional power in the allowances made to them, arose in Congress, at this time; and it was attempted to fasten a charge on the executive of having made a greater allowance in one instance than was proper or usual. The charge was, that the President had authorized an outfit, as well as an additional amount of salary to a son of Mr. King, who was left as Charge d'Affaires, at the British Court, on the return of the father, who had been Envoy Extraordinary to that government: but whose feeble health obliged him to retire from all public business. The propriety of having such a diplomatic agent at the British Court was very generally admitted; it was also admitted, that in the recess of the Senate, the President might justly make such appointment; and it was further considered, that the minister had properly designated his son, the Secretary of that legislation, to act in behalf of the United States after his retirement, so that their interest might not suffer. The principal charge then

The treaty stipulated for the payment, by Great Britain, of the sum of $1,240,000 for compensation on account of the slaves carried away at that time.