Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

It is a circumstance of sincere gratification to me that on meeting the
great council of our nation I am able to announce to them on grounds of
reasonable certainty that the wars and troubles which have for so many
years afflicted our sister nations have at length come to an end, and that
the communications of peace and commerce are once more opening among them.
Whilst we devoutly return thanks to the beneficent Being who has been
pleased to breathe into them the spirit of conciliation and forgiveness, we
are bound with peculiar gratitude to be thankful to Him that our own peace
has been preserved through so perilous a season, and ourselves permitted
quietly to cultivate the earth and to practice and improve those arts which
tend to increase our comforts. The assurances, indeed, of friendly
disposition received from all the powers with whom we have principle
relations had inspired a confidence that our peace with them would not have
been disturbed. But a cessation of irregularities which had affected the
commerce of neutral nations and of the irritations and injuries produced by
them can not but add to this confidence, and strengthens at the same time
the hope that wrongs committed on unoffending friends under a pressure of
circumstances will now be reviewed with candor, and will be considered as
founding just claims of retribution for the past and new assurance for the
future.

Among our Indian neighbors also a spirit of peace and friendship generally
prevails, and I am happy to inform you that the continued efforts to
introduce among them the implements and the practice of husbandry and the
household arts have not been without success; that they are becoming more
and more sensible of the superiority of this dependence for clothing and
subsistence over the precarious resources of hunting and fishing, and
already we are able to announce that instead of that constant diminution of
their numbers produced by their wars and their wants, some of them begin to
experience an increase of population.

To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only
exception exists. Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States,
had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and
had permitted itself to denounce war on our failure to comply before a
given day. The style of the demand admitted but one answer.

I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean, with assurances
to that power of our sincere desire to remain in peace, but with orders to
protect our commerce against the threatened attack. The measure was
seasonable and salutary. The Bey had already declared war. His cruisers
were out. Two had arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce in the Mediterranean
was blockaded and that of the Atlantic in peril.

The arrival of our squadron dispelled the danger. One of the Tripolitan
cruisers having fallen in with and engaged the small schooner Enterprise,
commanded by Lieutenant Sterret, which had gone as a tender to our larger
vessels, was captured, after a heavy slaughter of her men, without the loss
of a single one on our part. The bravery exhibited by our citizens on that
element will, I trust, be a testimony to the world that it is not the want
of that virtue which makes us seek their peace, but a conscientious desire
to direct the energies of our nation to the multiplication of the human
race, and not to its destruction. Unauthorized by the Constitution, without
the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of defense, the vessel,
being disabled from committing further hostilities, was liberated with its
crew.

The Legislature will doubtless consider whether, by authorizing measures of
offense also, they will place our force on an equal footing with that of
its adversaries. I communicate all material information on this subject,
that in the exercise of this important function confided by the
Constitution to the Legislature exclusively their judgment may form itself
on a knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of weight.

I wish I could say that our situation with all the other Barbary States was
entirely satisfactory. Discovering that some delays had taken place in the
performance of certain articles stipulated by us, I thought it my duty, by
immediate measures for fulfilling them, to vindicate to ourselves the right
of considering the effect of departure from stipulation on their side. From
the papers which will be laid before you you will be enabled to judge
whether our treaties are regarded by them as fixing at all the measure of
their demands or as guarding from the exercise of force our vessels within
their power, and to consider how far it will be safe and expedient to leave
our affairs with them in their present posture.

I lay before you the result of the census lately taken of our inhabitants,
to a conformity with which we are now to reduce the ensuing ration of
representation and taxation. You will perceive that the increase of numbers
during the last 10 years, proceeding in geometric ratio, promises a
duplication in little more than 22 years. We contemplate this rapid growth
and the prospect it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries it may
enable us to do others in some future day, but to the settlement of the
extensive country still remaining vacant within our limits to the
multiplication of men susceptible of happiness, educated in the love of
order, habituated to self-government, and valuing its blessings above all
price.

Other circumstances, combined with the increase of numbers, have produced
an augmentation of revenue arising from consumption in a ratio far beyond
that of population alone; and though the changes in foreign relations now
taking place so desirably for the whole world may for a season affect this
branch of revenue, yet weighing all probabilities of expense as well as of
income, there is reasonable ground of confidence that we may now safely
dispense with all the internal taxes, comprehending excise, stamps,
auctions, licenses, carriages, and refined sugars, to which the postage on
news papers may be added to facilitate the progress of information, and
that the remaining sources of revenue will be sufficient to provide for the
support of Government, to pay the interest of the public debts, and to
discharge the principals within shorter periods than the laws or the
general expectation had contemplated.

War, indeed, and untoward events may change this prospect of things and
call for expenses which imposts could not meet; but sound principles will
not justify our taxing the industry of our fellow citizens to accumulate
treasure for wars to happen we know not when, and which might not, perhaps,
happen but from the temptations offered by that treasure.

These views, however, of reducing our burthens are formed on the
expectation that a sensible and at the same time a salutary reduction may
take place in our habitual expenditures. For this purpose those of the
civil Government, the Army, and Navy will need revisal.

When we consider that this Government is charged with the external and
mutual relations only of these States; that the States themselves have
principal care of our persons, our property, and our reputation,
constituting the great field of human concerns, we may well doubt whether
our organization is not too complicated, too expensive; whether offices and
officers have not been multiplied unnecessarily and sometimes injuriously
to the service they were meant to promote.

I will cause to be laid before you an essay toward a statement of those
who, under public employment of various kinds, draw money from the Treasury
or from our citizens. Time has not permitted a perfect enumeration, the
ramifications of office being too multiplied and remote to be completely
traced in a first trial.

Among those who are dependent on Executive discretion I have begun the
reduction of what was deemed unnecessary. The expenses of diplomatic agency
have been considerably diminished. The inspectors of internal revenue who
were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution have been
discontinued. Several agencies created by Executive authorities, on
salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the
expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises
to legislative inspection and sanction.

Other reformations of the same kind will be pursued with that caution which
is requisite in removing useless things, not to injure what is retained.
But the great mass of public offices is established by law, and therefore
by law alone can be abolished. Should the Legislature think it expedient to
pass this roll in review and try all its parts by the test of public
utility, they may be assured of every aid and light which Executive
information can yield.

Considering the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies and
to increase expense to the ultimate term of burthen which the citizen can
bear, it behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion which presents
itself for taking off the surcharge, that it never may be seen here that
after leaving to labor the smallest portion of its earnings on which it can
subsist, Government shall itself consume the whole residue of what it was
instituted to guard.

In our care, too, of the public contributions intrusted to our direction it
would be prudent to multiply barriers against their dissipation by
appropriating specific sums to every specific purpose susceptible of
definition; by disallowing all applications of money varying from the
appropriation in object or transcending it in amount; by reducing the
undefined field of contingencies and thereby circumscribing discretionary
powers over money, and by bringing back to a single department all
accountabilities for money, where the examinations may be prompt,
efficacious, and uniform.

An account of the receipts and expenditures of the last year, as prepared
by the Secretary of the Treasury, will, as usual, be laid before you. The
success which has attended the late sales of the public lands shews that
with attention they may be made an important source of receipt. Among the
payments those made in discharge of the principal and interest of the
national debt will shew that the public faith has been exactly maintained.
To these will be added an estimate of appropriations necessary for the
ensuing year. This last will, of course, be affected by such modifications
of the system of expense as you shall think proper to adopt.

A statement has been formed by the Secretary of War, on mature
consideration, of all the posts and stations where garrisons will be
expedient and of the number of men requisite for each garrison. The whole
amount is considerably short of the present military establishment. For the
surplus no particular use can be pointed out.

For defense against invasion their number is as nothing, nor is it
conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of
peace for that purpose. Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular
point in our circumference where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only
force which can be ready at every point and competent to oppose them is the
body of the neighboring citizens as formed into a militia. On these,
collected from the parts most convenient in numbers proportioned to the
invading force, it is best to rely not only to meet the first attack, but if
it threatens to be permanent to maintain the defense until regulars may be
engaged to relieve them. These considerations render it important that we
should at every session continue to amend the defects which from time to
time shew themselves in the laws for regulating the militia until they are
sufficiently perfect. Nor should we now or at any time separate until we
say we have done everything for the militia which we could do were an enemy
at our door.

The provision of military stores on hand will be laid before you, that you
may judge of the additions still requisite.

With respect to the extent to which our naval preparations should be
expected to appear, but just attention to the circumstances of every part
of the Union will doubtless reconcile all. A small force will probably
continue to be wanted for actual service in the Mediterranean. Whatever
annual sum beyond that you may think proper to appropriate to naval
preparations would perhaps be better employed in providing those articles
which may be kept without waste or consumption, and be in readiness when
any exigence calls them into use. Progress has been made, as will appear by
papers now communicated, in providing materials for 74-gun ships as
directed by law.

How far the authority given by the Legislature for procuring and
establishing sites for naval purposes has been perfectly understood and
pursued in the execution admits of some doubt. A statement of the expenses
already incurred on that subject is now laid before you. I have in certain
cases suspended or slackened these expenditures, that the Legislature might
determine whether so many yards are necessary as have been contemplated.

The works at this place are among those permitted to go on, and 5 of the 7
frigates directed to be laid up have been brought and laid up here, where,
besides the safety of their position, they are under the eye of the
Executive Administration, as well as of its agents, and where yourselves
also will be guided by your own view in the legislative provisions
respecting them which may from time to time be necessary. They are
preserved in such condition, as well the vessels as whatever belongs to
them, as to be at all times ready for sea on a short warning. Two others
are yet to be laid up so soon as they shall have received the repairs
requisite to put them also into sound condition. As a superintending
officer will be necessary at each yard, his duties and emoluments, hitherto
fixed by the Executive, will be a more proper subject for legislation. A
communication will also be made of our progress in the execution of the law
respecting the vessels directed to be sold.

The fortifications of our harbors, more or less advanced, present
considerations of great difficulty. While some of them are on a scale
sufficiently proportioned to the advantages of their position, to the
efficacy of their protection, and the importance of the points within it,
others are so extensive, will cost so much in their first erection, so much
in their maintenance, and require such a force to garrison them as to make
it questionable what is best now to be done. A statement of those commenced
or projected, of the expenses already incurred, and estimates of their
future cost, as far as can be foreseen, shall be laid before you, that you
may be enabled to judge whether any alteration is necessary in the laws
respecting this subject.

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our
prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual
enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes
be seasonably interposed. If in the course of your observations or
inquiries they should appear to need any aid within the limits of our
constitutional powers, your sense of their importance is a sufficient
assurance they will occupy your attention. We can not, indeed, but all feel
an anxious solicitude for the difficulties under which our carrying trade
will soon be placed. How far it can be relieved, otherwise than by time, is
a subject of important consideration.

The judiciary system of the United States, and especially that portion of
it recently erected, will of course present itself to the contemplation of
Congress, and, that they may be able to judge of the proportion which the
institution bears on the business it has to perform, I have caused to be
procured from the several States and now lay before Congress an exact
statement of all the causes decided since the first establishment of the
courts, and of those which were depending when additional courts and judges
were brought in to their aid.

And while on the judiciary organization it will be worthy your
consideration whether the protection of the inestimable institution of
juries has been extended to all the cases involving the security of our
persons and property. Their impartial selection also being essential to
their value, we ought further to consider whether that is sufficiently
secured in those States where they are named by a marshal depending on
Executive will or designated by the court or by officers dependent on
them.

I can not omit recommending a revisal of the laws on the subject of
naturalization. Considering the ordinary chances of human life, a denial of
citizenship under a residence of 14 years is a denial to a great proportion
of those who ask it, and controls a policy pursued from their first
settlement by many of these States, and still believed of consequence to
their prosperity; and shall we refuse to the unhappy fugitives from
distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to
our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum
on this globe? The Constitution indeed has wisely provided that for
admission to certain offices of important trust a residence shall be
required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the
general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to
everyone manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes
permanently with us, with restrictions, perhaps, to guard against the
fraudulent usurpation of our flag, an abuse which brings so much
embarrassment and loss on the genuine citizen and so much danger to the
nation of being involved in war that no endeavor should be spared to detect
and suppress it?

These, fellow citizens, are the matters respecting the state of the nation
which I have thought of importance to be submitted to your consideration at
this time. Some others of less moment or not yet ready for communication
will be the subject of separate messages. I am happy in this opportunity of
committing the arduous affairs of our Government to the collected wisdom of
the Union. Nothing shall be wanting on my part to inform as far as in my
power the legislative judgment, nor to carry that judgment into faithful
execution.

The prudence and temperance of your discussions will promote within your
own walls that conciliation which so much befriends rational conclusion,
and by its example will encourage among our constituents that progress of
opinion which is tending to unite them in object and in will. That all
should be satisfied with any one order of things is not to be expected; but
I indulge the pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens will
cordially concur in honest and disinterested efforts which have for their
object to preserve the General and State Governments in their
constitutional form and equilibrium; to maintain peace abroad, and order
and obedience to the laws at home; to establish principles and practices of
administration favorable to the security of liberty and property, and to
reduce expenses to what is necessary for the useful purposes of Government.