Mississippi, and at Green Bay, on the Upper Lakes. Commodious barracks have already been erected at most of these posts, with such works as were necessary for their defence. Progress has also been made in opening communications between them, and in raising supplies at each, for the support of the troops by their own labor, particularly those most remote. With the Indians peace has been preserved and a progress made in carrying into effect the act of Congress, making an appropriation for their civilization, with the prospect of favorable results. As connected equally with both these objects, our trade with those tribes is thought to merit the attention of Congress. In their original state, game is their sustenance, and war their occupation; and, if they find no employment from civilized powers, they destroy each other. Left to themselves, their extirpation is inevitable. By a judicious regulation of our trade with them, we supply their wants, administer to their comforts, and gradually, as the game retires, draw them to us. By maintaining posts far in the interior, we acquire a more thorough and direct control over them, without which, it is confidently believed that a complete change in their manners can never be accomplished. By such posts, aided by a proper regulation of our trade with them, and a judicious civil administration over them, to be provided for by law, we shall, it is presumed, be enabled, not only to protect our own settlements from their savage incursions, and preserve peace among the several tribes, but accomplish, also, the great purpose of their civilization.

Considerable progress has also been made in the construction of ships of war, some of which have been launched in the course of the present year.

Our peace with the powers on the coast of Barbary has been preserved, but we owe it altogether to the presence of our squadron in the Mediterranean. It has been found equally necessary to employ some of our vessels for the protection of our commerce in the Indian sea, the Pacific, and along the Atlantic coast. The interests which we have depending in those quarters, which have been much improved of late, are of great extent, and of high importance to the nation, as well as to the parties concerned, and would undoubtedly suffer, if such protection was not extended to them. In execution of the law of the last session, for the suppression of the slave trade, some of our public ships have also been employed on the coast of Africa, where several captures have already been made of vessels engaged in that disgraceful traffic. JAMES MONROE.

Washington, November 14, 1820.

CONSTITUTION

OF

THE STATE OF MISSOURI.

NOVEMBER 16, 1820.

Read, and referred to a select committee.

WASHINGTON:

PRINTED BY GALES & SEATON.

CONSTITUTION OF MISSOURI.

We, the people of Missouri, inhabiting the limits hereinafter designated, by our representatives in convention assembled, at St. Louis, on Monday, the 12th day of June, 1820, do mutually agree to form and establish a free and independent republic, by the name of "The State of Missouri," and for the government thereof do ordain and establish this constitution.

ARTICLE I.

OF BOUNDARIES.

We do declare, establish, ratify, and confirm the following as the permanent boundaries of said state, that is to say: "Beginning in the middle of the Mississippi river, on the parallel of thirty-six degrees of north latitude; thence, west, along the said parallel of latitude, to the St. Francois river; thence, up, and following the course of that river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the parallel of latitude of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes; thence, west, along the same, to a point where the said parallel is intersected by a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river, where the same empties into the Missouri river; thence, from the point aforesaid, north, along the said meridian line, to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes through the rapids of the river Des Moines, making the said line correspond with the Indian boundary line; thence, east, from the point of intersection last aforesaid, along the said parallel of latitude, to the middle of the channel of the main fork of the said river Des Moines; thence. down, and along the middle of the main channel of the said river Des Moines, to the mouth of the same, where it empties into the Mississippi river; thence, due east, to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence, down, and following the course of the Mississippi river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to the place of beginning."

ARTICLE II.

OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS.

The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct departments, each of which shall be confided to a separate magistracy; and no person charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the instances hereinafter expressly directed or permitted.

ARTICLE III.

OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER.

SEC. 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a "General Assembly," which shall consist of a "Senate," and of a "House of Representatives."

SEC. 2. The house of representatives shall consist of members to be chosen every second year, by the qualified electors of the several counties. Each county shall have at least one representative, but the whole number of representatives shall never exceed one hundred.

SEC. 3. No person shall be member of the house of representatives who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-four years; who shall not be a free white male citizen of the United States; who shall not have been an inhabitant of this state two years, and of the county which he represents, one year, next before his election, if such county shall have been so long established, but, if not, then of the county or counties from which the same shall have been taken; and who shall not, moreover, have paid a state or county tax.

SEC. 4. The general assembly, at their first session, and in the years one thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, and one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, respectively, and every fourth year there after, shall cause an enumeration of the inhabitants of this state to be made; and, at the first session after each enumeration, shall apportion the number of representatives among the several counties, according to the number of free white male inhabitants therein.

SEC. 5. The senators shall be chosen by the qualified electors for the term of four years. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years; who shall not be a free white male citizen of the United States; who shall not have been an inhabitant of this state four years, and of the district which he may be chosen to represent, one year, next before his election, if such district shall have been so long established, but, if not, then of the district or districts from which the same shall have been taken; and, who shall not, moreover, have paid a state or county tax.

SEC. 6. The senate shall consist of not less than fourteen, nor more than thirty-three members; for the election of whom the state shall be divided into convenient districts, which may be altered from time to time, and new districts established, as public convenience may require; and the senators shall be apportioned among the