Pennsylva and N. York, you see the fruit in the state lying between them, where the federalists have recovered a majority in one branch of the legislature, are very near it in the other, & as soon as they shall reach it, they place the executive & every office under it in federal hands. If the two sections of republicans were irreconcileable, still the minor one should not have coalesced with, and voted for federalists. If on the contrary they would keep themselves independent & set up their own ticket, their whole body would come forward & vote, which would give them the benefit of that part of their force which kept back because it could not support federalists, and the federalists themselves having no hope of bringing in men of their own would have to chuse between the two republican tickets that least disagreeable to themselves. This would only bring into the public councils the different shades of republicans so that the whole body should be represented.

For my part I determined from the first dawn of the first schism never to take part in any schism of republicans, nor in distributing the public trusts ever to ask of which section a party was. The port of retirement is now within sight, it is viewed with longing eyes, and my greatest consolation in it will be the undivided approbation of those with whom, & for whom I have labored. Accept my friendly salutations & the assurances of my respect.

PROCLAMATION AGAINST BURR'S PLOT.

J. MSS.

[Nov. 27, 1806]

Whereas information has been received that sundry persons, citizens of the U. S. or resident within the same, are conspiring & confederating together to begin & set on foot, provide & prepare the means for a military expedition or enterprise against the dominions of Spain, against which nation war has not been declared by the constitutional authority of the U. S.; that for this purpose they are fitting out & arming vessels in the western waters of the U. S., collecting provisions, arms, military stores & other means; are deceiving & seducing honest & well meaning citizens under various pretences to engage in their criminal enterprises; are organizing, officering & arming themselves for the same, contrary to the laws in such cases made & provided, I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, warning and enjoining all faithful citizens who have been led to participate in the sd unlawful enterprises without due knolege or consideration to withdraw from the same without delay & commanding all persons whatsoever engaged or concerned in the same to cease all further proceedings therein as they will answer the contrary at their peril, and will incur prosecution with all the rigors of the law. And I hereby enjoin and require all officers civil or military, of the U. S. or of any of the states or territories, & especially all governors, & other executive authorities, all judges, justices, and other officers of the peace, all military officers of the army or navy of the U. S., & officers of the militia, to be vigilant, each within his respective department and according to his functions in searching out & bringing to condign punishment all persons engaged or concerned in such enterprise and in seizing & detaining subject to the dispositions, of the law all vessels, arms, military stores, or other means provided or providing for the same, & in general in preventing the carrying on such expedition or enterprise by all the lawful means within their power. And I require all good & faithful citizens, and others within the U. S. to be aiding & assisting herein & especially in the discovery, apprehension, & bringing to justice, of all such offenders, and in the giving information against them to the proper authorities.

VOL. VIII.-31

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the U. S. to be affixed to these presents & have signed the same with my hand. Given at the city of Washington on the 27th day of November 1806 and of the sovereignty & independence of the U. S. the 31st.

SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. 1
1

December 2, 1806.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled:

It would have given me, fellow citizens, great satisfaction to announce in the moment of your meeting that the difficulties in our foreign relations, existing at the time of your last separation, 'On Nov. 14, 1806, Jefferson wrote to Gallatin :

"1. As to the 500 cavalry. If we have peace with Spain, we shall not want them; if war, all our plans must be new moulded. It is, therefore, only during the present unsettled state. This cannot exceed six months from October 1, about which time they probably went into service. This will cost 100,000 D. The proposing to Congress to establish them during the present unsettled state of things is merely to show Spain, that we seriously mean to take justice if she will not do it. The men are in service under a previous law. This is the only extra expense I contemplate to meet the present state. Mr. Smith proposes to ask only the ordinary annual appropriation.

"2. As to the salt tax. If that and the Mediterranean fund, continued to the end of 1808, will pay the Florida purchase, suppose the act of commutation lets the salt tax run to the end of 1807,-will not its amount for 1808 be made up by the increase of impost and land sales beyond calculation, and the sweepings of the Treasury? or if they still leave a deficit, would not the perpetuity of the Mediterranean fund enable us to anticipate enough for the deficit?

"3. The university. This proposition will pass the States in all the winter of 1807-8, and Congress will not meet, and consequently cannot act on it, till the winter of 1808-9. The Florida debt will therefore be paid off before the university can call for anything.

The only difficulty in the whole, then, seems to be the amount of the salt tax for 1808, which I am in hopes will not be insuperable."

Other papers relating to this message are as follows:

Madison's Memoranda.

(Indorsed: "Received Nov. 16, 06, Message.")

Foreign Relations. Insert 'since' before 'taken place' at the beginning of line 11. The preceding delay did not altogether proceed from events inde

had been amicably and justly terminated. I lost no time in taking those measures which were most likely to bring them to such a termination, by special missions charged with such powers and instructions as in the event of failure could leave no imputation on either our moderation or forbearance. The delays which have since taken place in our negotiations with the British government appears to have proceeded from causes which do not forbid the expectation that during the course of the session I may be enabled to lay before you their final issue. What will be that of the negotiations for settling our differences with Spain, nothing which had taken place at the date of the last despatches enables us to pronounce. On the western side of the Mississippi she advanced in considerable force, and took post at the settlement of Bayou Pierre, on the Red river. This village was

pendent of the will of one of the parties, and those who are chargeable with it, ought not to be acquitted of the consequences. Perhaps the following change of the whole sentence would answer. 'The delays which have since taken place in our negotiations with the British govt appear to have proceeded from causes which leave me in expectation that &c.'

"Spain. Instead of Spain has 'consented' &c., it might be better to say Spain has taken steps preparatory to the negotiation at Paris in which our ministers are authorized to meet her. The term used may seem to imply a proposition from the U. S. wch was consented to.

“In the penult line of p. 1. For hope of friendly settlement' perhaps 'course of friendly negotiation' might be a more suitable expression. Such a change however cannot be material if proper.

"The last instructions to Wilkinson do not assume the Sabine as the essential line of separation for the troops. They authorize him to settle a provisional line, and in no event to pass himself beyond that river. It may be well therefore to vary the sentence on that point so as to run in that quarter to maintain a temporary line, separating the troops of the two nations & to permit no new settlement or post to be taken eastward of the Sabine river.'

"Would it not be well to allude to a continuance of our friendly standing with France, & the other belligerent nations, or generally with other nations of Europe.

"New Orleans. Instead of 'to secure that point by all the means in our power' -'to provide for that point a more adequate security.'

"Insurrections. This paragraph suggests several legal questions; such as whether in strictness any preventive measures are consistent with our principles except security for the peace & good behavior. Whether this remedy is not already applicable to the case in question, where a preparation of force justifies

originally settled by France, was held by her as long as she held Louisiana, and was delivered to Spain only as a part of Louisiana. Being small, insulated, and distant, it was not observed, at the moment of redelivery to France and the United States, that

a suspicion of criminal intention, and whether the existing provision for the case of an enterprise meditated vs. a foreign nation is not rather penal agst a crime actually committed by the preparation of means with such an intention, than preventive of the actual commission of a crime. To guard agst the criticisms which may be founded on these questions, some such change as the following is suggested for consideration:

For those crimes when actually committed the laws make provision. Would it not moreover be salutary to provide for cases where the means of force are prepared only for a meditated enterprise agst the U. S. as has been done for cases where the enterprise is meditated by private individuals against a foreign nation? It merits consideration also whether the preventive process of binding to the observance of the peace and good behaviour ought not to be expressly extended to acts without the limits of the U. S. in cases where the acts are contrary to law and there is sufficient ground for suspecting the intention to commit them.'

"This change is suggested on the supposition that the occasion requires a paragraph should be addressed to Congress; manifestly alluding to the late information &c. Perhaps the question may be decided with the advantage of new lights from the westward in time for the message.

་

'Barbary. The late mission' may be equivocal or obscure. With Tunis alone some uncertainty remains' would perhaps be sufficient.

64

Missouri. The tenor of this paragraph ought to be such as to give as little topic as possible for foreign jealousy or complaint; especially as we are not prepared to say that the expedition did not enter limits within which Spain has real or plausible claims. It is certain that it will be presented to Spain as a measure at which she has a right to take offence. The paragraph might better parry the inconvenience, by being made less particular & by avoiding any allusion to the uses to which the Pacific country may be applied.

"Red River. Nearly as far as the French establishments &c' has the advantage of suggesting a plausible reason for not going on: but may it not also imply that those establishments were the limit to our claim?

"Mississippi. The survey of the Mississippi furnished, certainly, a very apt occasion for bringing into view our legitimate boundaries in the latitude 49; but as the mere assertion by ourselves will not strengthen our title, and may excite British sensations unseasonably, it may be doubted whether that much of the paragraph had not as well be omitted.

64

'University &c. The denounciation of standing armies, navies, & fortifications cannot be better expressed, if there be no room to apprehend that so emphatic a one may not at the present juncture embolden the presumption in