1801 Message · Founding Made Plain

1II. First Annual Message to Congress, 8 December 1801

2Fellow citizens of the Senate & House of Representatives.

3It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me,

4 that on meeting

5 the great council of the nation,

6 I am able to announce to them,

7 on grounds of reasonable certainty,

8 that the wars and troubles,

9 which have for so many years

10 afflicted our sister-nations,

11 have at length come to an end;

12 and that the communications

13 of peace and commerce

14 are once more opening among them.

15whilst we devoutly return thanks

16 to the beneficent being

17 who has been pleased to breathe into them

18 the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness,

19 we are bound,

20 with peculiar gratitude,

21 to be thankful to him

22 that our own peace has been preserved

23 through so perilous a season,

24 and ourselves permitted quietly

25 to cultivate the earth,

26 and to practise and improve

27 those arts

28 which tend to increase our comforts.

29the assurances indeed

30 of friendly disposition

31 recieved from all the powers,

32 with whom we have principal relations,

33 had inspired a confidence

34 that our peace with them

35 would not have been disturbed.

36but a cessation of the irregularities

37 which had afflicted

38 the commerce of neutral nations,

39 and of the irritations and injuries

40 produced by them,

41 cannot but add to this confidence;

42 and strengthens at the same time,

43 the hope

44 that wrongs committed

45 on unoffending friends,

46 under a pressure of circumstances,

47 will now be reviewed with candor,

48 and will be considered as founding

49 just claims of retribution for the past,

50 and new assurance for the future.

51Among our Indian neighbors also

52 a spirit of peace & friendship

53 generally prevails;

54and I am happy to inform you

55 that the continued efforts

56 to introduce among them

57 the implements and the practice

58 of husbandry

59 and of the houshold arts

60 have not been without success:

61that they are become

62 more and more sensible

63 of the superiority of this dependance,

64 for clothing and subsistence,

65 over the precarious resources

66 of hunting and fishing:

67and already we are able to announce

68 that, instead of that constant diminution

69 of numbers

70 produced by their wars and their wants,

71 some of them begin to experience

72 an increase of population.

73To this state of general peace

74 with which we have been blessed,

75 one only exception exists.

76Tripoli,

77 the least considerable of the Barbary states,

78 had come forward with demands

79 unfounded either in right or in compact,

80 and had permitted itself to denounce war,

81 on our failure to comply

82 before a given day.

83the style of the demand

84 admitted but one answer.

85I sent a small squadron of frigates

86 into the Mediterranean,

87 with assurances to that power

88 of our sincere desire to remain in peace;

89 but with orders to protect our commerce

90 against the threatened attack.

91the measure was seasonable and salutary.

92the Bey had already declared war in form.

93his cruisers were out.

94two had arrived at Gibralter.

95our commerce in the Mediterranean was blockaded;

96 and that of the Atlantic in peril.

97the arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger.

98one of the Tripolitan cruisers

99 having fallen in with, and engaged

100 the small schooner Enterprize,

101 commanded by Lieut. Sterritt,

102 which had gone out

103 as a tender to our larger vessels,

104 was captured,

105 after a heavy slaughter of her men,

106 without the loss of a single one on our part.

107the bravery exhibited by our citizens

108 on that element will, I trust,

109 be a testimony to the world,

110 that it is not a want of that virtue

111 which makes us seek their peace;

112 but a conscientious desire

113 to direct the energies of our nation

114 to the multiplication of the human race,

115 and not to its destruction.

116unauthorised by the constitution,

117 without the sanction of Congress,

118 to go beyond the line of defence,

119 the vessel being disabled

120 from committing further hostilities,

121 was liberated with it's crew.

122the legislature will doubtless consider

123 whether, by authorising measures of offence also,

124 they will place our force

125 on an equal footing

126 with that of it's adversaries.

127I communicate all material information

128 on this subject,

129 that in the exercise

130 of the important function,

131 confided by the constitution

132 to the legislature exclusively,

133 their judgment may form itself

134 on a knolege and consideration

135 of every circumstance of weight.

136I wish I could say

137 that our situation

138 with all the other Barbary states

139 was entirely satisfactory.

140discovering that some delays had taken place

141 in the performance of certain articles

142 stipulated by us,

143 I thought it my duty,

144 by immediate measures for fulfilling them,

145 to vindicate to ourselves the right

146 of considering the effect

147 of departure from stipulation

148 on their side.

149from the papers which will be laid before you,

150 you will be enabled to judge

151 whether our treaties are regarded by them

152 as fixing at all the measure of their demands,

153 or as guarding, against the exercise of force,

154 our vessels within their power:

155 and to consider how far it will be safe

156 and expedient

157 to leave our affairs with them

158 in their present posture.

159I lay before you the result of the census

160 lately taken of our inhabitants,

161 to a conformity with which

162 we are now to reduce

163 the ensuing ratio

164 of representation and taxation.

165you will percieve

166 that the increase of numbers

167 during the last ten years,

168 proceeding in geometrical ratio,

169 promises a duplication

170 in little more than twenty two years.

171we contemplate this rapid growth,

172 and the prospect it holds up to us,

173 not with a view to the injuries

174 it may enable us to do to others

175 in some future day,

176 but to the settlement

177 of the extensive country

178 still remaining vacant within our limits,

179 to the multiplication of men,

180 susceptible of happiness,

181 educated in the love of order,

182 habituated to self-government,

183 and valuing it's blessings above all price.

184Other circumstances,

185 combined with the increase of numbers,

186 have produced an augmentation of revenue

187 arising from consumption

188 in a ratio far beyond

189 that of population alone:

190and tho the changes in foreign relations,

191 now taking place so desireably

192 for the whole world,

193 may for a season affect this branch of revenue,

194yet weighing all probabilities of expence,

195 as well as of income,

196 there is reasonable ground of confidence

197 that we may now safely dispense

198 with all the internal taxes,

199 comprehending excises,

200 stamps, auctions, licenses,

201 carriages and refined sugars:

202 to which the postage on newspapers

203 may be added

204 to facilitate the progress of information:

205 and that the remaining sources of revenue

206 will be sufficient

207 to provide for the support of government,

208 to pay the interest of the public debts,

209 and to discharge the principals

210 in shorter periods

211 than the laws,

212 or the general expectation had contemplated.

213war indeed and untoward events

214 may change this prospect of things,

215 and call for expences

216 which the impost could not meet.

217but sound principles will not justify

218 our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens

219 to accumulate treasure

220 for wars to happen we know not when,

221 and which might not perhaps happen

222 but from the temptations

223 offered by that treasure.

224These views however of reducing our burthens,

225 are formed on the expectation

226 that a sensible,

227 and at the same time a salutary reduction

228 may take place in our habitual expenditures.

229for this purpose

230 those of the civil government,

231 the army and navy,

232 will need revisal.

233when we consider

234 that this government is charged

235 with the external and mutual relations only

236 of these states,

237 that the states themselves

238 have principal care

239 of our persons, our property,

240 and our reputation,

241 constituting the great field of human concerns,

242 we may well doubt

243 whether our organisation

244 is not too complicated, too expensive;

245 whether offices and officers

246 have not been multiplied unnecessarily,

247 and some times injuriously

248 to the service they were meant to promote.

249I will cause to be laid before you

250 an essay towards a statement,

251 of those who, under public employment

252 of various kinds,

253 draw money from the treasury,

254 or from our citizens.

255time has not permitted a perfect enumeration,

256 the ramifications of office

257 being too multiplied and remote

258 to be compleatly traced in a first trial.

259among those who are dependant

260 on Executive discretion,

261 I have begun the reduction

262 of what was deemed unnecessary.

263the expences of diplomatic agency

264 have been considerably diminished.

265the Inspectors of internal revenue,

266 who were found to obstruct

267 the accountability of the institution,

268 have been discontinued.

269several agencies,

270 created by Executive authority,

271 on salaries fixed by that also,

272 have been suppressed,

273 and should suggest the expediency

274 of regulating that power by law,

275 so as to subject it's exercises

276 to legislative inspection and sanction.

277other reformations of the same kind

278 will be pursued with that caution

279 which is requisite,

280 in removing useless things,

281 not to injure what is retained.

282but the great mass of public offices

283 is established by law,

284 and therefore by law alone can be abolished.

285should the legislature think it expedient

286 to pass this roll in review,

287 and to try all it's parts

288 by the test of public utility,

289 they may be assured

290 of every aid and light

291 which Executive information can yield.

292considering the general tendency

293 to multiply offices and dependancies,

294 and to increase expence

295 to the ultimate term of burthen

296 which the citizen can bear,

297 it behoves us to avail ourselves

298 of every occasion,

299 which presents itself,

300 for taking off the surcharge;

301 that it never may be seen here that,

302 after leaving to labour

303 the smallest portion of it's earnings

304 on which it can subsist,

305 government shall itself consume the residue

306 of what it was instituted to guard.

307In our care too of the public contributions

308 entrusted to our direction,

309 it would be prudent

310 to multiply barriers against their dissipation,

311 by appropriating specific sums

312 to every specific purpose

313 susceptible of definition;

314 by disallowing all applications of money

315 varying from the appropriation in object,

316 or transcending it in amount;

317 by reducing the undefined field

318 of contingencies,

319 and thereby circumscribing

320 discretionary powers over money;

321 and by bringing back to a single department

322 all accountabilities for money,

323 where the examinations may be

324 prompt, efficacious, and uniform.

325An account of the reciepts and expenditures

326 of the last year,

327 as prepared by the Secretary of the Treasury,

328 will as usual be laid before you.

329the success which has attended

330 the late sales of the public lands

331 shews that, with attention,

332 they may be made

333 an important source of reciept.

334among the payments,

335 those made in discharge

336 of the principal and interest

337 of the national debt,

338 will shew that the public faith

339 has been exactly maintained.

340to these will be added

341 an estimate of appropriations

342 necessary for the ensuing year.

343this last will of course be effected

344 by such modifications

345 of the system of expence

346 as you shall think proper to adopt.

347A statement has been formed

348 by the Secretary at war,

349 on mature consideration of all the posts

350 and stations

351 where garrisons will be expedient,

352 and of the number of men

353 requisite for each garrison.

354the whole amount is considerably short

355 of the present military establishment.

356for the surplus no particular use

357 can be pointed out.

358for defence against invasion,

359 their number is as nothing.

360nor is it considered needful or safe

361 that a standing army should be kept up,

362 in time of peace,

363 for that purpose.

364uncertain as we must ever be

365 of the particular point in our circumference

366 where an enemy may chuse to invade us,

367 the only force

368 which can be ready at every point,

369 and competent to oppose them,

370 is the body of neighboring citizens,

371 as formed into a militia.

372on these, collected from the parts most convenient,

373 in numbers proportioned to the invading force,

374 it is best to rely,

375 not only to meet the first attack,

376 but, if it threatens to be permanent,

377 to maintain the defence

378 until regulars may be engaged

379 to relieve them.

380these considerations render it important

381 that we should, at every session,

382 continue to amend the defects,

383 which from time to time shew themselves,

384 in the laws for regulating the militia,

385 until they are sufficiently perfect:

386nor should we now, or at any time, separate

387 until we can say we have done every thing,

388 for the militia,

389 which we could do,

390 were an enemy at our door.

391The provision of military stores on hand

392 will be laid before you,

393 that you may judge

394 of the additions still requisite.

395With respect to the extent

396 to which our naval preparations should be carried

397 some difference of opinion

398 may be expected to appear:

399but just attention

400 to the circumstances of every part of the Union

401 will doubtless reconcile all.

402a small force will probably continue to be wanted,

403 for actual service,

404 in the Mediterranean.

405what ever annual sum beyond that

406 you may think proper to appropriate

407 to naval preparations,

408 would perhaps be better employed

409 in providing those articles

410 which may be kept

411 without waste or consumption,

412 and be in readiness

413 when any exigence calls them into use.

414Progress has been made,

415 as will appear by papers now communicated,

416 in providing materials

417 for seventy-four-gun ships

418 as directed by law.

419How far the authority given by the legislature

420 for procuring and establishing sites

421 for naval purposes,

422 has been perfectly understood and pursued

423 in the execution,

424 admits of some doubt.

425a statement of the expences already incurred

426 on that subject

427 is now laid before you.

428I have in certain cases,

429 suspended or slackened these expenditures,

430 that the legislature might determine

431 whether so many yards are necessary

432 as have been contemplated.

433the works at this place

434 are among those permitted to go on:

435and five of the seven frigates

436 directed to be laid up,

437 have been brought and laid up, here,

438 where, besides the safety of their position,

439 they are under the eye

440 of the executive administration,

441 as well as of it's agents,

442 and where yourselves also

443 will be guided by your own view,

444 in the legislative provisions

445 respecting them,

446 which may from time to time be necessary.

447they are preserved in such condition,

448 as well the vessels

449 as whatever belongs to them,

450 as to be at all times ready for sea

451 on a short warning.

452two others are yet to be laid up,

453 so soon as they shall have recieved the repairs

454 requisite to put them also

455 into sound condition.

456as a superintending officer

457 will be necessary at each yard,

458 his duties and emoluments,

459 hitherto fixed by the Executive,

460 will be a more proper subject for legislation.

461a communication will also be made

462 of our progress in the execution of the law

463 respecting the vessels directed to be sold.

464The fortifications of our harbours,

465 more or less advanced,

466 present considerations of great difficulty.

467while some of them are on a scale

468 sufficiently proportioned

469 to the advantages of their position,

470 to the efficacy of their protection,

471 and the importance of the points within it,

472 others are so extensive,

473 will cost so much in their first erection,

474 so much in their maintenance,

475 and require such a force to garrison them,

476 as to make it questionable

477 what is best now to be done.

478a statement of those commenced, or projected,

479 of the expences already incurred,

480 and estimates of their future cost

481 as far as can be foreseen,

482 shall be laid before you,

483 that you may be enabled to judge

484 whether any alteration is necessary

485 in the laws respecting this subject.

486Agriculture, manufactures,

487 commerce and navigation,

488 the four pillars of our prosperity,

489 are then most thriving

490 when left most free to individual enterprize.

491protection from casual embarrasments however

492 may sometimes be seasonably interposed.

493if in the course of your observations or enquiries,

494 they should appear to need any aid,

495 within the limits of our constitutional powers,

496 your sense of their importance

497 is a sufficient assurance

498 they will occupy your attention.

499we cannot indeed but all feel

500 an anxious solicitude

501 for the difficulties

502 under which our carrying trade

503 will soon be placed.

504how far it can be relieved,

505 otherwise than by time,

506 is a subject of important consideration.

507The judiciary system of the United States,

508 and especially that portion of it

509 recently erected,

510 will of course present itself

511 to the contemplation of Congress.

512and that they may be able to judge

513 of the proportion

514 which the institution bears

515 to the business it has to perform,

516 I have caused to be procured

517 from the several states,

518 and now lay before Congress,

519 an exact statement of all the causes

520 decided since the first establishment

521 of the courts,

522 and of those which were depending

523 when additional courts and judges

524 were brought in to their aid.

525And while on the Judiciary organisation,

526 it will be worthy your consideration

527 whether the protection

528 of the inestimable institution of juries

529 has been extended to all the cases

530 involving the security

531 of our persons and property.

532their impartial selection also

533 being essential to their value,

534 we ought further to consider

535 whether that is sufficiently secured

536 in those states

537 where they are named by a marshal

538 depending on Executive will,

539 or designated by the court,

540 or by officers dependant on them.

541I cannot omit recommending a revisal

542 of the laws on the subject of naturalization.

543considering the ordinary chances of human life,

544 a denial of citizenship,

545 under a residence of fourteen years,

546 is a denial to a great proportion

547 of those who ask it;

548 and controuls a policy pursued,

549 from their first settlement,

550 by many of these states,

551 and still believed of consequence

552 to their prosperity.

553and shall we refuse

554 to the unhappy fugitives from distress,

555 that hospitality

556 which the savages of the wilderness

557 extended to our fathers

558 arriving in this land?

559shall oppressed humanity

560 find no asylum on this globe?

561the constitution indeed has wisely provided

562 that, for admission

563 to certain offices of important trust,

564 a residence shall be required,

565 sufficient to develope character and design.

566but might not the general character

567 and capabilities of a citizen

568 be safely communicated to every one

569 manifesting a bona fide purpose

570 of embarking his life and fortunes

571 permanently with us?

572with restrictions perhaps

573 to guard against

574 the fraudulent usurpation of our flag;

575 an abuse which brings so much embarrasment

576 and loss on the genuine citizen,

577 and so much danger to the nation

578 of being involved in war,

579 that no endeavor should be spared

580 to detect and suppress it.

581These, fellow citizens,

582 are the matters,

583 respecting the state of the nation,

584 which I have thought of importance

585 to be submitted to your consideration

586 at this time.

587some others of less moment,

588 or not yet ready for communication,

589 will be the subject of separate messages.

590I am happy in this opportunity

591 of committing the arduous affairs

592 of our government

593 to the collected wisdom of the Union.

594nothing shall be wanting on my part

595 to inform, as far as in my power,

596 the legislative judgment;

597 nor to carry that judgment

598 into faithful execution.

599the prudence and temperance of your discussions

600 will promote, within your own walls,

601 that conciliation

602 which so much befriends rational conclusion:

603 and by it's example, will encourage

604 among our constitutents

605 that progress of opinion

606 which is tending to unite them

607 in object and in will.

608that all should be satisfied

609 with any one order of things

610 is not to be expected:

611but I indulge the pleasing persuasion

612 that the great body of our citizens

613 will cordially concur

614 in honest and disinterested efforts,

615 which have for their object

616 to preserve

617 the general and state governments

618 in their constitutional form

619 and equilibrium;

620 to maintain

621 peace abroad,

622 and order and obedience to the laws at home,

623 to establish principles and practices

624 of administration

625 favorable to the security

626 of liberty and property,

627 and to reduce expences

628 to what is necessary

629 for the useful purposes of government.

630Th: Jefferson