with the estimates for the service of the ensuing year, will be laid before you by the Secretary of the Treasury, so soon as the receipts of the last quarter shall be returned from the more distant states. It is already ascertained that the amount paid into the treasury, for that year, has been between eleven and twelve millions of dollars, and that the revenue, accrued during the same term, exceeds the sum counted on, as sufficient for our current expences, and to extinguish the public debt, within the period heretofore proposed.

The amount of debt paid, for the same year, is about three millions one hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of interest, and making, with the payment of the preceding year, a discharge of more than eight millions and an half of dollars of the principal of that debt, besides the accruing interest and there remain in the Treasury nearly six millions of dollars. Of these eight hundred and eighty thousand have been reserved for payment of the first instalment due, under the British convention of January eighth, one thousand eight hundred and two, and two millions are, what have been before mentioned, as placed by Congress un. der the power and accountability of the President, towards the price of New-Orleans and other territories acquired, which, remaining untouched, are still applicable to that object, and go in diminution of the sum to be funded for it.

Should the acquisition of Louisiana be constitutionally confirmed and carried into effect, a sum of nearly thirteen millions of dollars will then be added to our public debt, most of which is payable after fifteen years; before which term the present existing debts will all be discharged, by the established operation of the sinking fund. When we contemplate the ordinary, annual augmentation of impost from increasing population and wealth, the augmentation of the same revenue, by its extension

to the new acquisition, and the economies which may still be introduced into our publicexpenditures, I cannot but hope that Congress, in reviewing their resourses, will find means to meet the intermediate interest of this additional debt, without recurring to new taxes, and applying to this object only the ordinary progression of our revenue. Its extraordinary increase, in times of foreign war, will be the proper and sufficient fund for any measures of safety or precaution, which that state of things may render necessary in our neutral position.

Remittances for the instalments of our foreign debt having been found practicable without loss, it has not been thought expedient to use the power given by a former act of Congress, of continuing them by reloans, and of redeeming, instead thereof, equal sums of domestic debt, although no dif ficulty was found in obtaining that accommoda

tion.

The sum of fifty thousand dollars, appropriated by Congress for providing gun-boats, remains unexpended. The favorable and peaceable turn of affairs, on the Mississippi, rendered an immediate execution of that law unnecessary; and time was desirable, in order that the institution of that branch of our force might begin on models the most ap proved by experience. The same issue of events dispensed with a resort to the appropriation of a million and an half of dollars, contemplated for purposes which were effected by happier means.

We have seen with sincere concern the flames of war lighted up again in Europe, and nations, with which we have the most friendly and useful relations, engaged in mutual destruction. While we regret the miseries in which we see others in. volved, let us bow with gratitude to that kind Providence, which, inspiring with wisdom and mode. ration our late legislative councils, while placed under the urgency of the greatest wrongs, guarded

us from hastily entering into the sanguinary contest, and left us only to look on and to pity its ra. vages. These will be heaviest on those immedi.. ately engaged; yet the nations pursuing peace will not be exempt from all evil. In the course of this conflict let it be our endeavor, as it is our interest and desire, to cultivate the friendship of the belligerent nations by every act of justice and of innocent kindness; to receive their armed vessels, with hospitality, from the distresses of the sea, but to administer the means of annoyance to none; to establish in our harbors, such a police as may maintain law and order; to restrain our citizens from embarking individually in a war in which their country takes no part; to punish severely those persons, citizen or alien, who shall usurp the cover of our flag, for vessels not entitled to it, infecting thereby with suspicion those of real Americans, and committing us into controversies for the redress of wrongs not our own; to exact from every nation the observance, towards our vessels and citizens, of those principles and practices which all civilised people acknowledge; to merit the character of a just nation, and maintain that of an independent one, preferring every consequence to insult and habitual wrong. Congress will consider whether the existing laws enable us efficaciously to maintain this course with our citizens in all places and with others while within the limits of our jurisdiction, and will give them the new modifications nesessary for these objects. Some contraventions of right have already taken place, both within our jurisdictional limits, and on the high seas. The friendly disposition of the governments from whose agents they have proceeded, as well as their wisdom and regard for justice, leave us in reasonable expectation, that they will be rectified and prevented in future: and that no act will be countenanced by them which threatens

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to disturb our friendly intercourse. Separated by a wide ocean from the nations of Europe, and from the political interests which entangle them together, with productions and wants which render our commerce and friendship useful to them, and theirs to us, it cannot be the interest of any to assail us, nor ours to disturb them. We should be most unwise indeed, were we to cast away the singular blessings of the position in which nature has placed us, the opportunity she has endowed us with, of pursuing, at a distance from foreign contentions, the paths of industry, peace, and happiness, of cultivating general friendship, and of bringing collisions of interest to the umpirage of reason, rather than of force. How desirable then must it be, in a government like ours, to see its citizens. adopt individually the views, the interests, and the conduct which their country should pursue, divesting themselves of those passions and partiali. ties, which tend to lessen useful friendships, and to embarrass and embroil us in the calamitous scenes of Europe. Confident, fellow citizens, that you will duly estimate the importance of neutral dispositions, towards the observance of neutral conduct, that you will be sensible how much it is our duty to look on the bloody Arena spread before us, with commiseration indeed, but with no other wish than to see it closed, I am persuaded you will cordially cherish these dispositions, in all discussions among yourselves, and in all communica tions with your constituents. And I anticipate with satisfaction the measures of wisdom, which the great interests now committed to you, will give you an opportunity of providing and myself that of approving, and of carrying into execution, with the fidelity I owe to my country.

October 17th, 1803.

TH: JEFFERSON.

EIGHTH CONGRESS.

SECOND SESSION.

PRESIDENT's MESSAGE.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States.

TO a people, fellow-citizens, who

sincerely desire the happiness and prosperity of other nations, to those who justly calculate that their own well being is advanced by that of the nations with which they have intercourse, it will be a satisfaction to observe that the war which was lighted up in Europe a little before our last meeting, has not yet extended its flames to other nations, nor been marked by the calamities which sometimes stain the footsteps of war. The irregularities too on the ocean, which generally harrass the commerce of neutral nations, have, in distant parts, disturbed ours less than on former oc casions. But, in the American seas, they have been greater from peculiar causes; and even within our harbors and jurisdiction, infringements on the authority of the laws have been committed which have called for serious attention. The friendly conduct of the governments from whose officers and subjects these acts have proceeded, in other respects, and in places more under their ob servation and control, gives us confidence that our representations on this subject will have been properly regarded.