Indian tribes therein mentioned since the last session of Congress, with their documents, viz: With the Weas, Kickapoos, Chippeways, Ottawas, Choctaws, and Mahas; and also a treaty with the Kickapoos amended as proposed by a resolution of the Senate at their last session. To the House of Representatives: JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, December 14, 1820. In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 21st November last, requesting the President to lay before the House information relating to the progress and expenditures of the commissioners under the fifth, sixth, and seventh articles of the treaty of Ghent, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with documents containing all the information in the possession of that Department requested by the resolution. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, January 1, 1821. To the House of Representatives of the United States: In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d of November last, requesting the President to inform that House what naval force has been stationed for the protection of the commerce of our citizens in the West India Islands and parts adjacent during the present year, and whether any depredations by pirates or others upon the property of citizens of the United States engaged in such commerce have been reported to our Government, I now submit for the information of the House a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with accompanying documents, which contains all the information in the possession of the Government required by that resolution. To the House of Representatives: JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, January 4, 1821. I communicate to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, which, with the papers accompanying it, contains all the information in the possession of the Executive requested by a resolution of the House of the 4th December last, on the subject of the African slave trade. To the House of Representatives: JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, January 4, 1821. In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 15th of December last, requesting the President of the United States to cause to be laid before that House a statement of expenditures and receipts in the Indian Department; also the nature and extent of the contracts entered into, and with whom, from the 2d of March, 1811, to the present period, I now transmit a letter from the Secretary of War, with a report of the superintendent of Indian trade, which contains the information desired. JAMES MONROE. WASHINGTON, January 12, 1821. To the House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, with the inclosed documents, relating to the negotiation for the suppression of the slave trade, which should have accompanied a message on that subject communicated to the House some time since, but which were accidentally omitted. JAMES MONROE. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, January 18, 1821. In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 4th instant, "requesting the President of the United States to communicate to the Senate any information he may have as to the power or authority which belonged to Don John Bonaventure Morales and to the Baron Carondelet to grant and dispose of the lands of Spain in Louisiana previously to the year 1803," I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, submitting a letter of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the document to which it refers. JAMES MONROE. To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, January 18. 1821. In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives requesting the President to inform the House, if in his opinion proper, whether any, and, if any, what, negotiations since the 1st of January, 1816, have been had with the Six Nations of Indians, or any portion of them, who the commissioners or agents were, the objects of the negotiation, the expenses of the same, the compensation of each commissioner, secretary, or agent, and to whom the moneys were paid, I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War communicating the information desired. JAMES MONROE. THE BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG, N. Y. September 11, 1814 This engagement is adequately described in the articles entitled "Plattsburg (N. Y.), Battle of," and "Lake Champlain, Battle of," in the Encyclopedic Index. One phase of the matter, however, though not strictly military, deserves thought: The fifteen hundred inhabitants of Plattsburg, like many other Americans in New York and Vermont, throve on an illicit trade with Canada. The embargo had shut our ports to British shipping, but a constant stream of goods flowed across the border. Grains by the wagon train and meat by the herd were traded to the British army. In fact, by the natural conformation of the land the trade of northern New York and Vermont went to Canada. The St. Lawrence bore their produce instead of the Hudson; Montreal was their Capital instead of Albany. If invention had not transformed the modes of transportation that section would ultimately have connected itself politically with the Dominion. WASHINGTON, January 31, 1821. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress a report from the Secretary of the Treasury submitting copies of the instructions given to the commissioners appointed under the act of the 15th of May, 1820, authorizing the location of a road from Wheeling, in the State of Virginia, to a point on the left bank of the Mississippi River between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois River, and copies of the report made by the said commissioners to the Treasury Department of the progress they have made in the execution of the duties prescribed by the said act, together with maps of the country through which the location is to be made. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MONROE. FEBRUARY 5, 1821. I herewith transmit, in confidence, to the Senate reports from the Secretary of State and of the Treasury, with the papers containing the correspondence and the information in possession of the Government the communication of which was requested by the resolution of the Senate of the 23d of last month. It is desired that the original letters may, when the Senate shall have no further use for them, be returned. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MONROE. FEBRUARY 8, 1821. In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 1st instant, requesting the President of the United States "to cause to be laid before the Senate any information he may have in relation to the claims of citizens of Georgia against the Creek Nation of Indians, and why these claims, if any exist, have not been heretofore adjusted and settled under the provisions of the treaties of 1790 and 1796," I now transmit a report from the Secretary of War, with accompanying documents, which contains all the information on this subject in the possession of the Executive. To the Senate of the United States: JAMES MONROE. FEBRUARY 13, 1821. The ratification by the Spanish Government of the treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between the United States and Spain, signed on the 22d of February, 1819, and on the 24th of that month ratified on the part of the United States, has been received by the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of that power at this place, who has given notice that he is ready to exchange the ratifications. By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was stipulated that the ratifications should be exchanged within six months from the day of its |