John Adams
3rd State of Union
Philadelphia, PA, 1799-12-03

Gentlemen of the Senate & Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

It is with peculiar satisfaction that I meet the 6th Congress of the 
United States of America.  Coming from all parts of the Union at this 
critical & interesting period, the members must be fully possessed of 
the sentiments & wishes of our constituents.

The flattering prospects of abundance from the labors of the people 
by land & by sea; the prosperity of our extended commerce, 
notwithstanding interruptions occasioned by the belligerent state of 
a great part of the world; the return of health, industry, & trade to 
those cities which have lately been afflicted with disease, 7 the 
various & inestimable advantages, civil & religious, which, secured 
under our happy frame of government, are continued to us unimpaired, 
demand of the whole American people sincere thanks to a benevolent 
Deity for the merciful dispensations of His providence.

But while these numerous blessings are recollected, it is a painful 
duty to advert to the ungrateful return which has been made for them 
by some of the people in certain counties of Pennsylvania, where, 
seduced by the arts & misrepresentations of designing men, they have 
openly resisted the law directing the valuation of houses & lands.  
Such defiance was given to the civil authority as rendered hopeless 
all further attempts by judicial process to enforce the execution of 
the law, & it became necessary to direct a military force to be 
employed, consisting of some companies of regular troops, volunteers, 
& militia, by whose zeal & activity, in cooperation with the judicial 
power, order & submission were restored & many of the offenders 
arrested.  Of these, some have been convicted of misdemeanors, & 
others, charged with various crimes, remain to be tried.

To give due effect to the civil administration of Government & to 
insure a just execution of the laws, a revision & amendment of the 
judiciary system is indispensably necessary.  In this extensive 
country it can not but happen that numerous questions respecting the 
interpretation of the laws & the rights & duties of officers & 
citizens must arise.  On the one hand, the laws should be executed; 
on the other, individuals should be guarded from oppression.  Neither 
of these objects is sufficiently assured under the present 
organization of the judicial department.  I therefore earnestly 
recommend the subject to your serious consideration.

Persevering in the pacific & humane policy which had been invariably 
professed & sincerely pursued by the Executive authority of the 
United States, when indications were made on the part of the French 
Republic of a disposition to accommodate the existing differences 
between the 2 countries, I felt it to be my duty to prepare for 
meeting their advances by a nomination of ministers upon certain 
conditions which the honor of our country dictated, & which its 
moderation had given it a right to prescribe.

The assurances which were required of the French Government previous 
to the departure of our envoys have been given through their minister 
of foreign relations, & I have directed them to proceed on their 
mission to Paris.  They have full power to conclude a treaty, subject 
to the constitutional advice & consent of the Senate.  The characters 
of these gentlemen are sure pledges to their country that nothing 
incompatible with its honor or interest, nothing inconsistent with 
our obligations of good faith or friendship to any other nation, will 
be stipulated.

It appearing probable from the information I received that our 
commercial intercourse with some ports in the island of St. Domingo 
might safely be renewed, I took such steps as seemed to me expedient 
to ascertain that point.  The result being satisfactory, I then, in 
conformity with the act of Congress on the subject, directed the 
restraints & prohibitions of that intercourse to be discontinued on 
terms which were made known by proclamation.  Since the renewal of 
this intercourse our citizens trading to those ports, with their 
property, have been duly respected, & privateering from those ports 
has ceased.

In examining the claims of British subjects by the commissioners at 
Philadelphia, acting under the 6th article of the treaty of amity, 
commerce, & navigation with Great Britain, a difference of opinion on 
points deemed essential in the interpretation of that article has 
arisen between the commissioners appointed by the United States & the 
other members of that board, from which the former have thought it 
their duty to withdraw.  It is sincerely to be regretted that the 
execution of an article produced by a mutual spirit of amity & 
justice should have been thus unavoidably interrupted.  It is, 
however, confidently expected that the same spirit of amity & the 
same sense of justice in which it originated will lead to 
satisfactory explanations.  

In consequence of the obstacles to the progress of the commission in 
Philadelphia, His Britannic Majesty has directed the commissioners 
appointed by him under the 7th article of the treaty relating to the 
British captures of American vessels to withdraw from the board 
sitting in London, but with the express declaration of his 
determination to fulfill with punctuality & good faith the 
engagements which His Majesty has contracted by his treaty with the 
United States, & that they will be instructed to resume their 
functions whenever the obstacles which impede the progress of the 
commission at Philadelphia shall be removed.  It being in like manner 
my sincere determination, so far as the same depends on me, that with 
equal punctuality & good faith the engagements contracted by the 
United States in their treaties with His Britannic Majesty shall be 
fulfilled, I shall immediately instruct our minister at London to 
endeavor to obtain the explanation necessary to a just performance of 
those engagements on the part of the United States.  With such 
dispositions on both sides, I can not entertain a doubt that all 
difficulties will soon be removed & that the 2 boards will then 
proceed & bring the business committed to them respectively to a 
satisfactory conclusion.

The act of Congress relative to the seat of the Government of the 
United States requiring that on the 1st Monday of December next it 
should be transferred from Philadelphia to the District chosen for 
its permanent seat, it is proper for me to inform you that the 
commissioners appointed to provide suitable buildings for the 
accommodation of Congress & of the President & of the public offices 
of the Government have made a report of the state of the buildings 
designed for those purposes in the city of Washington, from which 
they conclude that the removal of the seat of Government to that 
place at the time required will be practicable & the accommodation 
satisfactory.  Their report will be laid before you.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

I shall direct the estimates of the appropriations necessary for the 
service of the ensuing year, together with an account of the revenue 
& expenditure, to be laid before you.  During a period in which a 
great portion of the civilized world has been involved in a war 
unusually calamitous & destructive, it was not to be expected that 
the United States could be exempted from extraordinary burthens.  
Although the period is not arrived when the measures adopted to 
secure our country against foreign attacks can be renounced, yet it 
is alike necessary for the honor of the Government & the satisfaction 
of the community that an exact economy should be maintained.  I 
invite you, gentlemen, to investigate the different branches of the 
public expenditure.  The examination will lead to beneficial 
retrenchments or produce a conviction of the wisdom of the measures 
to which the expenditure relates.

Gentlemen of the Senage & Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

At a period like the present, when momentous changes are occurring & 
every hour is preparing new & great events in the political world, 
when a spirit of war is prevalent in almost every nation with whose 
affairs the interests of the United States have any connection, 
unsafe & precarious would be our situation were we to neglect the 
means of maintaining our just rights.  The result of the mission to 
France is uncertain; but however it may terminate, a steady 
perseverance in a system of national defense commensurate with our 
resources & the situation of our country is an obvious dictate of 
wisdom; for, remotely as we are placed from the belligerent nations, 
& desirous as we are, by doing justice to all, to avoid offense to 
any, nothing short of the power of repelling aggressions will secure 
to our country a rational prospect of escaping the calamities of war 
or national degradation.  As to myself, it is my anxious desire so to 
execute the trust reposed in me as to render the people of the United 
States prosperous & happy.  I rely with entire confidence on your 
cooperation in objects equally your care, & that our mutual labors 
will serve to increase & confirm union among our fellow citizens & an 
unshaken attachment to our Government.
                          - 30 -