A state of our progress in exploring the principal rivers of that country, & of the information respecting them hitherto received, obtained will be communicated so soon as we shall receive some further particulars relations which we have reason shortly to expect. The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day of Sep. last have exceeded the sum of thirteen millions of Dollars, which, with not quite five millions in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled us after meeting other demands, to pay nearly two millions of the debt contracted under the British treaty and convention, upwards of four millions of principal of the public debt, & four millions of Interest. These paiments, with those which had been made in three years and an half preceding, have extinguished of the funded debt nearly eightteen millions of principal. Congress, by their act of Nov. 10, 1803, authorized us to borrow 1,750,000 Dollars towards meeting the claims of our citizens assumed by the convention, with France. We have not however made use of this authority: because the sum of four millions and an half, which remained in the Treasury on the same 30th day of Sep. last, with the receipts which we may calculate on for the ensuing year, besides paying the annual sum of eight millions of Dollars, appropriated to redeem the funded debt-as fast as the original contracts permit, & meeting all the current demands which may be expected, will enable us to pay the whole sum of three millions seven hundred & fifty thousand Dollars assumed by the French convention & still leave us a surplus of nearly a million of dollars at our free disposal. Should you concur in the provisions of arms & armed vessels recommended by the circumstances of the times, this surplus will furnish the means of doing so. 1 1 The duties composing the Mediterranean fund will cease, by the law which established them, three months after the ratification of a treaty of peace with the regency of Tripoli. The surplus 66 In margin and marked in pencil not to be copied ": "Forty thousand stand of arms four hundred thousand; one hundred gunboats three hundred thousand; towards building a seventy four to supply the Philada. & Greene three hundred thousand." already yielded by our permanent revenue renders unnecessary this addition to it. It might perhaps be thought improvident to discontinue taxes at a moment when we may want these & more for the purposes of war. But if we never discontinue taxes while there is a cloud of war visible in our horizon, all taxes will become perpetual. If war is to come upon us, we must meet it with system, into which this fragment of duty could enter for little or nothing. Whenever war supervenes, it will be the war of our constituents, which, forced on them by the injustice of other nations, we need not fear they will be wanting to their own interests & safety. Considering however that the Mediterranean fund is levied on luxuries used chiefly by the rich, and that we have an impost on salt which falls more heavily on the poor, & especially on the farmer, I recommend to your consideration whether it would not be better to commute these duties, not materially different in amount by consolidating the Mediterranean with the general fund & suppressing instead of that the duty on salt. On this first occasion of addressing Congress, since by the choice of my constituents, I have entered on a second term of administration, I embrace the opportunity to give this public assurance that I will exert my best endeavours to administer faithfully the executive department, & will zealously cooperate with you in every measure which may tend to secure the liberty, property & personal safety of our fellow-citizens, & to consolidate the republican forms & principles of our government. In the course of your session you shall receive all the aid which I can give for the despatch of the public business, and all the information necessary for your deliberations, of which the interests of our own country & the confidence reposed in us by others will admit a communication. CONFIDENTIAL MESSAGE ON SPAIN.1 J. MSS. Dec. 6, 1805. To the Senate & House of Representatives of the U. S.: The depredations which had been committed on the commerce of the U. S. during a preceding war, by persons under the authority of Spain, are sufficiently known to all. These made it a duty 1 Transmitted to Congress with the following letter: SIR,-In order to give to Congress the details necessary for their full information of the state of things between Spain & the U. S. I send them the communication & documents now enclosed. Although stated to be confidential, that term is not meant to be extended to all the documents; the greater part of which are proper for the public eye. It is applied only to the message itself, & to the letters from our own & foreign ministers, which, if disclosed, might throw additional difficulties in the way of accommodation. These alone, therefore, are delivered to the legislature in confidence that they will be kept secret. A paper in Jefferson's handwriting, entitled "Notes for Message" follows: "File Dec. 2, 1805. "As we omit in the 2d message to enumerate the aggressions of Spain & refer for them to the documents, we must furnish the documents for every Act, particularly "1. The capture of the Huntress. "2. The carrying our gun boats into Algerinas. "5-3. The late depredations on our commerce in Europe. Extracts from Pinckney's letters. "5-4. Oppressions on our commerce at Mobile. "5-5. Delays in the evacuation of N. Orleans. "5-6. Dissemination of rumours of the probable restoration of Louisiana to Spain. "7. The new post taken on the bay of St. Bernard. "8. The reinforcement of Nacogdoches. "9. The robbery near Apelousa. "II. The Pattroles established on this side Sabine. "5-12. The aggression on the Missisipi territory in the case of the Kem pers. "5-13. The subsequent one in the case of Flanagan and his wife. "5-14. The negociation at Madrid. to require from that government indemnifications for our injured citizens. A convention was accordingly entered into between the minister of the U. S. at Madrid & the minister of that government for foreign affairs, by which it was agreed that spoliations 4. 5. 6. from the offices both of War and State. 3. 12. 13. 14. from the office of State. [Endorsed] : "President's list of documents for 1st session of Congress of 1805." On the subject of Spain, Jefferson drew up the below paper for cabinet consideration. For consideration and correction. Th. J. "1. Resolved, that no armed men, not being citizens of the United States ought to be permitted to enter or remain, nor any authority to be exercised but under the laws of the United States, within the former colony or province of Louisiana in the extent in which it was in the hands of Spain. "2. Resolved, that as to the residue of the said 'former colony or province of Louisiana, in the extent it had when France possessed it,' a peaceable adjustment of that extent is most reasonable and desirable, so far as it can be effected consistently with the honor of the United States. "3. Resolved, that pending measures for such peaceable adjustment, neither party ought to take new posts therein, nor to strengthen those they held before the 1st day of October, 1800, and that any proceeding to the contrary on the part of Spain ought to be opposed by force, and by taking possession of such posts as may be necessary to maintain the rights of the United States. “4. Resolved, that the subjects of Spain still on the Mississippi and its waters ought to be allowed an innocent passage, free from all imposts, along that part of the river which passes through the territory of the United States. And the citizens of the United States on the Mobile and its waters ought to be allowed an innocent passage, free from all imposts, along that part of the river below them which passes through the territory still held by Spain, but claimed by both parties; "Or that imposts should be levied for and by the United States on the navigation of the Mississippi by Spanish subjects, countervailing those which may be levied for and by Spain on the navigation of the Mobile by citizens of the United States. "And that the navigation of the Mississippi by Spanish subjects should be prohibited whensoever that of the Mobile by citizens of the United States shall be prohibited. "5. Resolved, that in support of these resolutions, and of the consequences which may proceed from them, the citizens of the United States, by their Senate and Representatives in Congress assembled, do pledge their lives and fortunes; and that the execution of these resolutions be vested with the President of the United States. "6. Resolved, that for carrying these resolutions into effect, whether amica committed by Spanish subjects & carried into ports of Spain should be paid for by that nation; & that those committed by French subjects, & carried into Spanish ports should remain for further discussion. Before this Convention was returned to bly or by the use of force, the President be authorized to apply any moneys in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated. "7. Resolved, that the President of the United States ought to be authorized by law to employ the armed vessels of the United States which may be in commission, for restraining the irregularities and oppressions of our commerce, other than those which amount to piracy, by privateers cruising within the Gulf Stream, in the Gulf itself, or among the islands bordering on it, and that a bill be brought in for that purpose." After consideration, he sent a revision to Gallatin, with the following letter: "December 4, 1805. "Th. J. to Mr. Gallatin. "Enclosed is a revised edition of the Spanish resolutions, in which you will find most of your ideas conformed to. That respecting money is omitted; that it may be provided in the way you suggest. In the message, also, I have adopted all your amendments except the last, which respected merely the arrangement of the phrases, and could not be satisfactorily altered." The enclosure was : "1. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, that the indemnities for which Spain is answerable to citizens of the United States for spoliations and wrongs committed in violation of the law of nations or of treaty, are objects too just and important not to be pursued to effect by the United States. "2. Resolved, that no armed men, subjects of any foreign power, ought to be permitted to enter or remain, nor any authority but of the United States to be exercised, within the former colony or province of Louisiana, in the extent in which it was delivered by Spain under the Treaty of St. Ildefonso. "3. Resolved that as to the residue of the said former colony or province of Louisiana, and provisions necessary to avoid future collisions and controversies, an equitable adjustment is most reasonable. "4. Resolved, that pending any measures for such adjustment neither party ought to take new posts therein, nor to strengthen those they held before the Ist day of October, 1800, and that any proceeding to the contrary on the part of Spain ought to be opposed by force, and by taking possession of such posts as may be necessary to maintain the rights of the United States. "5. Resolved &c., that the subjects of Spain still on the Mississippi and its waters ought to be allowed an innnocent paasage, free from all imposts, along that part of the river below them which passes through the territory of the United States and the citizens of the United States on the Mobile and its waters ought to be allowed an innocent passage, free from all imposts |