Sources from which the above was raised, and value of remaining property. D nation from the Commonwealth of Virginia 120,000 00 72,000 00 732,717 68 924,717 68 927,900 00 5155 lots unsold, at same rate, viz. $180 each Value of wharves, water lots and stone quarries The City is, by an act of the Council, divided into six wards, viz: "All that part to the west of 15th street west shall constitute the first ward; that part to the east of 15th and west of 10th, the 2d ward; that part east of 10th west of 1st, and north of south E, the 3d ward; that part to the east of is, street west, to the west of 8th street east, and to the north of E street southt the 4th ward; that part to the east of 10th street west, south of E street, south, and to the west of 4th street east, the 5th ward; and the residue east, the 6th ward. The expenses of the City are borne by assessments upon real and personal property, other than the property of the United States, which assessments are, in conformity wilh an Act of Congress, levied according to the actual cash valuation of the property, at the time of the assessment; which is made once in five years. After the payment of the general expenses of the City, the taxes raised in each ward are to be expended upon improvements the rein, and in no other. The following is a statement of the assessments in 1830, with the additions made in 1831. The number of inhabitants were, at different periods, as follows: Number of Dwellings erected in each of the several Wards, in eleven years. Total Number of Dwelling Houses and cther Buildings in the City of Washington, on the 31st of December, 1830, with the number erected in 1831, from actual count. Brick Dwellings. Front. Wood Dwellings. Back. Front. Back. No. of Brick. No. of Wood. Shops, &c. separ ate from Dwell'gs. Public Buiidings 38 Total Dwellings. Total Buildings. 4 13 1 2 1 5 18 23 12 29 24 53 23 8 53 MESSAGE From the President of the United States, transmitted to both Houses of Congress, at the commencement of the first Session, twenty-second Congress, on Tuesday 6th of December, 1831. Fellow Citizens of the Senate, and House of Representatives: The representation of the people has been renewed for the twenty-second time since the constitution they tormed has been in force. For near half a century, the chief magistrates who have been successively chosen, have made their annual communications of the state of the nation to its representatives. General y, these communications have been of the mos gratifying nature, testifying an advance in al the improvements of social, and all the secur stics of political life. But frequently, and justly, as you have been called on to be grateful for the bounties of Providence, at few periods have they been more abundantly or extensively bestowed than at the present: rarely, if ever, have we had greater reason to congratulate each other on the continued and increasing prosperity of our beloved country. Agriculture, the first and most important occupation of man, has compensated the labors of the husbandman with plentiful crops of all the varied products of our extensive country. Manufactures have been established, in which the funds of the capitalist find a profitable investment, and which give, employment and subsistence to a numerous and increasing body of industrious and dexterous mechanics. The laborer is rewarded by high wages, in the construction of works of interna! improvement, which are extending with unprece dented rapidity. Science is steadily penetrating the recesses of nature and disclosing her secrets, while the ingenuity of free minds is subjecting the elements to the power of man, and making each new conquest auxiliary to his comfort. By ou mails, whose speed is regularly increased, and whose routes are every year extended, the communication of public intelligence and private business is rendered frequent and safe-the intercourse between distant cities, which it formerly required weeks to accomplish, is now effected in a few days; and in the construction of rail roads, and the application of steam power, we have a reason able prospect that the extreme parts of our country will be so much approximated, and those most isolated by the obstacles of nature rendered so accessible, as to remove an apprehension sometimes entertained, that the great extent of the Union would endanger its permanent existence. If, from the satisfactory view of our agriculture, manufactures, and internal improvements, we turn to the state of our navigation and trade with foreign nations and between the States, we shall scarcely find less cause for gratulation. A beneficent Providence has provided, for their exercise and encouragement, an extensive coast indented by capacious bays, noble rivers, inland seas; with a country productive of every material for ship building, and every commodity for gainful commerce, and filled with a population, active, intelligent, well informed, and fearless of danger. These advantages are not neglected; and an impulse has lately be given to commercial enterprise, which fills our ship yards with new constructions, encourages all the arts and branches of industry connected with them, crowds the wharves of our cities with vessels, and covers the most distant seas with our canvass, Let us be grateful for these blessings to the beneficent Being who has conferred them, and who suffers us to indulge a reasonable hope of their continuance and extension, while we neglect not the means by which they may be preserved. If we may dare to judge of His future designs by the manner in which his past favours have been bestowed, he has made our national prosperity to depend on the preservation of our liberties-our national force on our federal union-and our individua! happiness on the maintenance of our State rights and wise institutions. If we are prosperous at home, and respected abroad, it is because we are free, united, industrious and obedient to the laws. While we continue so, we shall, by the blessing of Heaven, go on in the happy career we have begun, and which has brought us, in the short period of our political existence, from a population of three to thirteen millions from thirteen separate Colonies to twenty-four United States-from weakness to strengthfrom a rank scare ly marked in the scale of Nations to a high place in their respect. This last advantage is one that has resulted, in a great degree, from the principles which have guided our intercourse with foreign powers, since we have assumed an equal station among them: and hence, the annual account which the executive renders to the country, of the manner in which that branch of his duties has been fulfilled, proves instructive and salutary. The pacific and wise policy of our Government kept us in a state of neutrality during the wars that have, at different periods since our political existence, been carried on by other powers: but this policy, while it gave activity and extent to our commerce, exposed it in the same proportion to injuries from the belligerent nations. Hence have arisen claims of indemnity for those injuries. England, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark. Naples, and lately Portugal, had all in a greater or less degree infringed our neutral rights. VOL. X.-APP. |