can be attempted consistently with maxims for which our country has contended at every hazard, and which constitute the basis of our national sovereignty.

Under these circumstances I can not forbear to reiterate the recommendations which have been formerly made, and to exhort you to adopt with promptitude, decision, and unanimity such measures as the ample resources of the country afford for the protection of our seafaring and commercial citizens, for the defense of any exposed portions of our territory, for replenishing our arsenals, establishing foundries and military manufactures, and to provide such efficient revenue as will be necessary to defray extraordinary expenses and supply the deficiencies which may be occasioned by depredations on our commerce.

The present state of things is so essentially different from that in which instructions were given to the collectors to restrain vessels of the United States from sailing in an armed condition that the principle on which those orders were issued has ceased to exist. I therefore deem it proper to inform Congress that I no longer conceive myself justifiable in continuing them, unless in particular cases where there may be reasonable ground of suspicion that such vessels are intended to be employed contrary to law.

In all your proceedings it will be important to manifest a zeal, vigor,|| and concert in defense of the national rights proportioned to the danger" with which they are threatened.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, April 3, 1798.

Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
In compliance with the request of the House of Representatives ex-
pressed in their resolution of the 2d of this month, I transmit to both
Houses those instructions to and dispatches from the envoys extraordi-
nary of the United States to the French Republic which were mentioned
in my message of the 19th of March last, omitting only some names and
a few expressions descriptive of the persons.

I request that they may be considered in confidence until the members of Congress are fully possessed of their contents and shall have had opportunity to deliberate on the consequences of their publication, after{ which time I submit them to your wisdom.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, April 12, 1798.

A treaty with the Mohawk Nation of Indians has by accident lain long neglected. It was executed under the authority of the Honorable Isaac Smith, a commissioner of the United States. I now submit it to the Senate for their consideration,

JOHN ADAMS.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

UNITED STATES, May 3, 1798.

His Excellency John Jay, esq., governor of New York, has informed me that the Oneida tribe of Indians have proposed to sell a part of their land to the said State, and that the legislature at their late session authorized the purchase, and to accomplish this object the governor has desired that a commissioner may be appointed to hold a treaty with the Oneida tribe of Indians, at which the agents of the State of New York may agree with them on the terms of the purchase. I therefore nominate Joseph Hopkinson, esq., of Pennsylvania, to be the commissioner to hold a treaty with the said Oneida tribe of Indians for the purpose above mentioned. JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, June 21, 1798.

Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: While I congratulate you on the arrival of General Marshall, one of our late envoys extraordinary to the French Republic, at a place of safety, where he is justly held in honor, I think it my duty to communicate to you a letter received by him from Mr. Gerry, the only one of the three who has not received his congé. This letter, together with another from the minister of foreign relations to him of the 3d of April, and his answer of the 4th, will shew the situation in which he remains-his intentions and prospects.

I presume that before this time he has received fresh instructions (a copy of which accompanies this message) to consent to no loans, and therefore the negotiation may be considered at an end.

I will never send another minister to France without assurances that he will be received, respected, and honored as the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, June 27, 1798.

Gentlemen of the Senate and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
I have received a letter from His Excellency Thomas Mifflin, gov.
ernor of Pennsylvania, inclosing some documents which I judge it my
duty to lay before Congress without loss of time.

As my opinion coincides entirely with that of his excellency the governor, I recommend the subject to the consideration of both Houses of Congress, whose authority alone appears to me adequate to the occasion.

JOHN ADAMS.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

UNITED STATES, July 2, 1798.

I nominate George Washington, of Mount Vernon, to be LieutenantGeneral and Commander in Chief of all the armies raised or to be raised in the United States.

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, July 13, 1798.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

Sensible of

A resolution of both Houses of Congress authorizing an adjournment on Monday, the 16th of this month, has been laid before me. the severity of the service in so long a session, it is with great reluctance that I find myself obliged to offer any consideration which may operate against the inclinations of the members; but certain measures of Executive authority which will require the consideration of the Senate, and which can not be matured, in all probability, before Monday or Tuesday, oblige me to request of the Senate that they would continue their session until Wednesday or Thursday.

Gentlemen of the Senate:

JOHN ADAMS.

UNITED STATES, July 17, 1798.

Believing that the letter received this morning from General Washington will give high satisfaction to the Senate, I transmit them a copy of it, and congratulate them and the public on this great event-the General's acceptance of his appointment as Lieutenant-General and Commander in Chief of the Army,

JOHN ADAMS,

President of the United States.

JOHN ADAMS.

MOUNT VERNON, July 13, 1798.

DEAR SIR: I had the honor, on the evening of the 11th instant, to receive from the hands of the Secretary of War your favor of the 7th, announcing that you had, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed me 'Lieutenant-General and Commander in Chief of all the armies raised or to be raised for the service of the United States."

I can not express how greatly affected I am at this new proof of public confidence and the highly flattering manner in which you have been pleased to make the communication. At the same time I must not conceal from you my earnest wish that the choice had fallen upon a man less declined in years and better qualified to encounter the usual vicissitudes of war.

You know, sir, what calculation I had made relative to the probable course of events on my retiring from office, and the determination I had consoled myself with of closing the remnant of my days in my present peaceful abode. You will therefore be at no loss to conceive and appreciate the sensations I must have experienced to bring my mind to any conclusion that would pledge me, at so late a period of life, to leave scenes I sincerely love to enter upon the boundless field of public action, incessant trouble, and high responsibility.

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