T. Transfers of moneys in the War and Navy Departments Tonnage, statement of the district Timber, observations on the seasoning of Transportation allowed to officers of the army Tonnage of French and American vessels employed in the Treasury, statements of the situation of the do do Tennessee mounted gunmen in the Seminole war, memorial of the Treasurer, his agency for the War and Navy Departments the West Indies V.. Virginia, agricultural societies in Virginia, her act authorizing the laying out the Cumberland Virginia, memorial of citizens of Hampshire county, in · War and Navy Department, moneys drawn from the Trea- West Indies, protection afforded to our commerce in the War Department, appropriations for the, in 1820, with un- MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS, AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE SIXTEENTH CONGRESS. NOVEMBER 15, 1820. Head, and committed to a committee of the whole House on the state of the Union, WASHINGTON: PRINTED BY GALES & SEATON. [4] MESSAGE. FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE SENATE, AND OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: IN communicating to you a just view of public affairs, at the commencement of your present labors, I do it with great satisfaction, because, taking all circumstances into consideration, which claim attention, I see much cause to rejoice in the felicity of our situation. In making this remark, I do not wish to be understood to imply, that an unvaried prosperity is to be seen in every interest of this great community. In the progress of a nation, inhabiting a territory of such vast extent, and great variety of climate, every portion of which is engaged in foreign commerce, and liable to be affected, in some degree, by the changes which occur in the condition and regulations of foreign countries, it would be strange if the produce of our soil, and the industry and enterprize of our fellow citizens, received, at all times, and in every quarter, an uniform and equal encouragement. This would be more than we would have a right to expect, under circumstances the most favorable. Pressures on certain interests, it is admitted, have been felt; but, allowing to these their greatest extent, they detract but little from the force of the remark already made. In forming a just estimate of our present situation, it is proper to look at the whole; in the outline, as well as in the detail. A free, virtuous, and enlightened people know well the great principles and causes on which their happiness depends; and even those who suffer most, occasionally, in their transitory concerns, find great relief under their sufferings from the blessings which they otherwise enjoy, and in the consoling and animating hope which they administer.From whence do these pressures come? Not from a government which is founded by, administered for, and supported by, the people. We trace them to the peculiar character of the epoch in which we live, and to the extraordinary occurrences which have signalized it. The convulsions with which several of the powers of Europe have been shaken, and the long and destructive wars, in which all were engaged, with their sudden transition to a state of peace, presenting, in the first instance, unusual encouragement to our commerce, and withdrawing it, in the second, even within its wonted limit, could not fail to be sensibly felt here. The station too which we had to support through this long conflict, compelled, as we were, finally, to become a party to it, with a principal power, and to make great exertions, suffer heavy losses, and to contract considerable debts, disturbing the ordinary course of affairs, by augmenting, to a vast amount the circulating medium, and thereby elevating, at one time, the price of every article above a just standard, and depressing it, at another, below it, had, likewise, its due effect. |