branches of military instruction, and by the establishment of an additional academy at the seat of Government or elsewhere. The means by which war, as well for defense as for offense, are now carried on render these schools of the more scientific operations an indispensable part of every adequate system. Even among nations whose large standing armies and frequent wars afford every other opportunity of instruction these establishments are found to be indispensable for the due attainment of the branches of military science which require a regular course of study and experiment. In a government happily without the other opportunities seminaries where the elementary principles of the art of war can be taught without actual war, and without the expense of extensive and standing armies, have the precious advantage of uniting an essential preparation against external danger with a scrupulous regard to internal safety. In no other way, probably, can a provision of equal efficacy for the public defense be made at so little expense or more consistently with the public liberty. The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th of September last (and amounting to more than $8,500,000) have exceeded the current expenses of the Government, including the interest on the public debt. For the purpose of reimbursing at the end of the year $3,750,000 of the principal, a loan, as authorized by law, had been negotiated to that amount, but has since been reduced to $2,750,000, the reduction being permitted by the state of the Treasury, in which there will be a balance remaining at the end of the year estimated at $2,000,000. For the probable receipts of the next year and other details I refer to statements which will be transmitted from the Treasury, and which will enable you to judge what further provisions may be necessary for the ensuing years. Reserving for future occasions in the course of the session whatever other communications may claim your attention, I close the present by expressing my reliance, under the blessing of Divine Providence, on the judgment and patriotism which will guide your measures at a period particularly calling for united councils and inflexible exertions for the welfare of our country, and by assuring you of the fidelity and alacrity with which my cooperation will be afforded. JAMES MADISON. SPECIAL MESSAGES. DECEMBER 12, 1810. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I lay before Congress, and recommend to their early attention, a report of the Secretary of State, from which it will be seen that considerable demand beyond the legal appropriations has been incurred very for the support of seamen distressed by seizures, in different parts of Europe, of the vessels to which they belonged. JAMES MADISON. WASHINGTON, January 3, 1811. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I communicate to Congress, in confidence, a letter of the 2d of December from Governor Folch, of West Florida, to the Secretary of State, and another of the same date from the same to John McKee. I communicate in like manner a letter from the British chargé d'affaires to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the latter. Although the letter can not have been written in consequence of any instruction from the British Government founded on the late order for taking possession of the portion of West Florida well known to be claimed by the United States; although no communication has ever been made by that Government to this of any stipulation with Spain contemplating an interposition which might so materially affect the United States, and although no call can have been made by Spain in the present instance for the fulfillment of any such subsisting engagement, yet the spirit and scope of the document, with the accredited source from which it proceeds, required that it should not be withheld from the consideration of Congress. Taking into view the tenor of these several communications, the posture of things with which they are connected, the intimate relation of the country adjoining the United States eastward of the river Perdido to their security and tranquillity, and the peculiar interest they otherwise have in its destiny, I recommend to the consideration of Congress the seasonableness of a declaration that the United States could not see without serious inquietude any part of a neighboring territory in which they have in different respects so deep and so just a concern pass from the hands of Spain into those of any other foreign power. I recommend to their consideration also the expediency of authorizing the Executive to take temporary possession of any part or parts of the said Territory, in pursuance of arrangements which may be desired by the Spanish authorities, and for making provision for the government of the same during such possession. The wisdom of Congress will at the same time determine how far it may be expedient to provide for the event of a subversion of the Spanish authorities within the Territory in question, and an apprehended occupancy thereof by any other foreign power. JAMES MADISON. JANUARY 10, 1811. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I communicate to Congress, in confidence, the translation of a letter from Louis de Onis to the captain-general of Caraccas. The tendency of misrepresentations and suggestions which it may be inferred from this specimen enter into more important correspondences of the writer to promote in foreign councils at a critical period views adverse to the peace and to the best interests of our country renders the contents of the letter of sufficient moment to be made known to the Legislature. JAMES MADISON. JANUARY 30, 1811. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I transmit to Congress copies of a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, accompanied by copies of the Laws, Treaties, and other Documents Relative to the Public Lands, as collected and arranged pursuant to the act passed April 27, 1810. JAMES MADISON. JANUARY 31, 1811. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I lay before Congress a letter from the chargé d'affaires of the United States at Paris to the Secretary of State, and another from the same to the French minister of foreign relations; also two letters from the agent of the American consul at Bordeaux to the Secretary of State. JAMES MADISON. FEBRUARY 16, 1811. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I now lay before Congress the treaty concluded on the roth of November, 1808, on the part of the United States with the Great and Little Osage tribes of Indians, with a view to such legal provisions as may be deemed proper for fulfilling its stipulations. VETO MESSAGES. JAMES MADISON. FEBRUARY 21, 1811. To the House of Representatives of the United States: Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act incorporating the Protestant Episcopal Church in the town of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia," I now return the bill to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections: Because the bill exceeds the rightful authority to which governments are limited by the essential distinction between civil and religious functions, and violates in particular the article of the Constitution of the United States which declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment." The bill enacts into and establishes by law sundry rules and proceedings relative purely to the organization and polity of the church incorporated, and comprehending even the election and removal of the minister of the same, so that no change could be made therein by the particular society or by the general church of which it is a member, and whose authority it recognizes. This particular church, therefore, would so far be a religious establishment by law, a legal force and sanction being given to certain articles in its constitution and administration. Nor can it be considered that the articles thus established are to be taken as the descriptive criteria only of the corporate identity of the society, inasmuch as this identity must depend on other characteristics, as the regulations established are generally unessential and alterable according to the principles and canons by which churches of that denomination govern themselves, and as the injunctions and prohibitions contained in the regulations would be enforced by the penal consequences applicable to a violation of them according to the local law. Because the bill vests in the said incorporated church an authority to provide for the support of the poor and the education of poor children of the same, an authority which, being altogether superfluous if the provision is to be the result of pious charity, would be a precedent for giving to religious societies as such a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty. JAMES MADISON. FEBRUARY 28, 1811. To the House of Representatives of the United States: Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act for the relief of Richard Tervin, William Coleman, Edwin Lewis, Samuel Mims, Joseph Wilson, and the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, in the Mississippi Territory," I now return the same to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objection: Because the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land of the United States for the use of said Baptist Church comprises a principle and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of the Constitution which declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting a religious establishment." JAMES MADISON. PROCLAMATION. [From the National Intelligencer, July 25, 1811.] BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 4th day of November next, for their meeting at the city of Washington, hereby requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may then be made to them, and to consult and determine on such measures as in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States. In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand. [SEAL.] Done at the city of Washington, the 24th day of July, A. D. 1811, and of the Independence of the United States the thirtysixth. By the President: JAMES MONROE, JAMES MADISON. Secretary of State. THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE. WASHINGTON, November 5, 1811. Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives: In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would otherwise have been required I yielded to considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign affairs, and in fixing the present for the time of your meeting regard was had to the probability of further developments of the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be pursued. At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the Government of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council, and thereby authorize a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United States. Instead of this reasonable step toward satisfaction and friendship |