Thomas Jefferson
5th State of Nation
Washington, DC, 1805-12-03

To the Senate & House of Representatives of the United States:

At a moment when the nations of Europe are in commotion & arming 
against each other, & when those with whom we have principal 
intercourse are engaged in the general contest, & when the 
countenance of some of them toward our peaceable country threatens 
that even that may not be unaffected by what is passing on the 
general theater, a meeting of the representatives of the nation in 
both Houses of Congress has become more than usually desirable.  
Coming from every section of our country, they bring with them the 
sentiments & the information of the whole, & will be enabled to give 
a direction to the public affairs which the will & the wisdom of the 
whole will approve & support.

In taking a view of the state of our country we in the 1st place 
notice the late affliction of 2 of our cities under the fatal fever 
which in latter times has occasionally visited our shores.  
Providence in His goodness gave it an early termination on this 
occasion & lessened the # of victims which have usually fallen before 
it.  In the course of the several visitations by this disease it has 
appeared that it is strictly local, incident to cities & on the tide 
waters only, incommunicable in the country either by persons under 
the disease or by goods carried from diseased places; that its access 
is with the autumn & it disappears with the early frosts.  

These restrictions within narrow limits of time & space give security 
even to our maritime cities during 3/4 of the year, & to the country 
always.  Although from these facts it appears unnecessary, yet to 
satisfy the fears of foreign nations & cautions on their part not to 
be complained of in a danger whose limits are yet unknown to them I 
have strictly enjoined on the officers at the head of the customs to 
certify with exact truth for every vessel sailing for a foreign port 
the state of health respecting this fever which prevails at the place 
from which she sails.  Under every motive from character & duty to 
certify the truth, I have no doubt they have faithfully executed this 
injunction.  Much real injury has, however, been sustained from a 
propensity to identify with this endemic & to call by the same name 
fevers of very different kinds, which have been known at all times & 
in all countries, & never have been placed among those deemed 
contagious.  

As we advance in our knowledge of this disease, as facts develop the 
source from which individuals receive it, the State authorities 
charged with the care of the public health, & Congress with that of 
the general commerce, will become able to regulate with effect their 
respective functions in these departments.  The burthen of 
quarantines is felt at home as well as abroad; their efficacy merits 
examination.  Although the health laws of the States should be found 
to need no present revisal by Congress, yet commerce claims that 
their attention be ever awake to them.

Since our last meeting the aspect of our foreign relations has 
considerably changed.  Our coasts have been infested & our harbors 
watched by private armed vessels, some of them without commissions, 
some with illegal commissions, others with those of legal form, but 
committing practical acts beyond the authority of their commissions.  
They have captured in the very entrance of our harbors, as well as on 
the high seas, not only the vessels of our friends coming to trade 
with us, but our own also.  They have carried them off under pretense 
of legal adjudication, but not daring to approach a court of justice, 
they have plundered & sunk them by the way or in obscure places where 
no evidence could arise against them, maltreated the crews, & 
abandoned them in boats in the open sea or on desert shores without 
food or clothing.  These enormities appearing to be unreached by any 
control of their sovereigns, I found it necessary to equip a force to 
cruise within our own seas, to arrest all vessels of these 
descriptions found hovering on our coasts within the limits of the 
Gulf Stream & to bring the offenders in for trial as pirates.

The same system of hovering on our coasts & harbors under color of 
seeking enemies has been also carried on by public armed ships to the 
great annoyance & oppression of our commerce.  New principles, too, 
have been interpolated into the law of nations, founded neither in 
justice nor in the usage or acknowledgment of nations.  According to 
these a belligerent takes to itself a commerce with its own enemy 
which it denies to a neutral on the ground of its aiding that enemy 
in the war; but reason revolts at such inconsistency, & the neutral 
having equal right with the belligerent to decide the question, the 
interests of our constituents & the duty of maintaining the authority 
of reason, the only umpire between just nations, impose on us the 
obligation of providing an effectual & determined opposition to a 
doctrine so injurious to the rights of peaceable nations.  Indeed, 
the confidence we ought to have in the justice of others still 
countenances the hope that a sounder view of those rights will of 
itself induce from every belligerent a more correct observance of 
them.

With Spain our negotiations for a settlement of differences have not 
had a satisfactory issue.  Spoliations during a former war, for which 
she had acknowledged herself responsible, have been refused to be 
compensated but on conditions affecting other claims in no wise 
connected with them.  Yet the same practices are renewed in the 
present war & are already of great amount.  On the Mobile, our 
commerce passing through that river continues to be obstructed by 
arbitrary duties & vexatious searches.  Propositions for adjusting 
amicably the boundaries of Louisiana have not been acceded to.  
While, however, the right is unsettled, we have avoided changing the 
state of things by taking new posts or strengthening ourselves in the 
disputed territories, in the hope that the other power would not by a 
contrary conduct oblige us to meet their example & endanger conflicts 
of authority the  of which may not be easily controlled.  But in this 
hope we have now reason to lessen our confidence.  

Inroads have been recently made into the Territories of Orleans & the 
Mississippi, our citizens have been seized & their property plundered 
in the very parts of the former which had been actually delivered up 
by Spain, & this by the regular officers & soldiers of that 
Government.  I have therefore found it necesary at length to give 
orders to our troops on that frontier to be in readiness to protect 
our citizens, & to repel by arms any similar aggressions in future.  
Other details necessary for your full information of the state of 
things between this country & that shall be the subject of another 
communication.

In reviewing these injuries from some of the belligerent powers the 
moderation, the firmness, & the wisdom of the Legislature will be 
called into action.  We ought still to hope that time & a more 
correct estimate of interest as well as of character will produce the 
justice we are bound to expect, but should any nation deceive itself 
by false calculations, & disappoint that expectation, we must join in 
the unprofitable contest of trying which party can do the other the 
most harm.

Some of these injuries may perhaps admit a peaceable remedy.  Where 
that is competent it is always the most desirable.  But some of them 
are of a nature to be met by force only, & all of them may lead to 
it.  I can not, therefore, but recommend such preparations as 
circumstances call for.

The 1st object is to place our sea port towns out of the danger of 
insult.  Measures have been already taken for furnishing them with 
heavy cannon for the service of such land batteries as may make a 
part of their defense against armed vessels approaching them.  In aid 
of these it is desirable we should have a competent number of gun 
boats, & the number, to be competent, must be considerable.  If 
immediately begun, they may be in readiness for service at the 
opening of the next season.

Whether it will be necesary to augment our land forces will be 
decided by occurrences probably in the course of your session.  In 
the mean time you will consider whether it would not be expedient for 
a state of peace as well as of war so to organize or class the 
militia as would enable us on any sudden emergency to call for the 
services of the younger portions, unencumbered with the old & those 
having families.  Upward of 300K able-bodied men between the ages of 
18 & 26 years, which the last census shews we may now count within 
our limits, will furnish a competent # for offense or defense in any 
point where they may be wanted, & will give time for raising regular 
forces after the necessity of them shall become certain; & the 
reducing to the early period of life all its active service can not 
but be desirable to our younger citizens of the present as well as 
future times, in as much as it engages to them in more advanced age a 
quiet & undisturbed repose in the bosom of their families.  I can 
not, then, but earnestly recommend to your early consideration the 
expediency of so modifying our militia system as, by a separation of 
the more active part from that which is less so, we may draw from it 
when necessary an efficient corps fit for real & active service, & to 
be called to it in regular rotation.

Considerable provision has been made under former authorities from 
Congress of material for the construction of ships of war of 74 guns.  
These materials are on hand subject to the further will of the 
Legislature.

An immediate prohibition of the exportation of arms & ammunition is 
also submitted to your determination.

Turning from these unpleasant views of violence & wrong, I 
congratulate you on the liberation of our fellow citizens who were 
stranded on the coast of Tripoli & made prisoners of war.  In a 
government bottomed on the will of all the life & liberty of every 
individual citizen become interesting to all.

In the treaty, therefore, which has concluded our warfare with that 
State an article for the ransom of our citizens has been agreed to.  
An operation by land by a small band of our country-men & others, 
engaged for the occasion in conjunction with the troops of the ex-
Bashaw of that country, gallantly conducted by our late consul, 
Eaton, & their successful enterprise on the city of Derne, 
contributed doubtless to the impression which produced peace, & the 
conclusion of this prevented opportunities of which the officers & 
men of our squadron destined for Tripoli would have availed 
themselves to emulate the acts of valor exhibited by their brethren 
in the attack of the last year.  Reflecting with high satisfaction on 
the distinguished bravery displayed whenever occasions permitted it 
in the late Mediterranean service, I think it would be an useful 
encouragement as well as a just reward to make an opening for some 
present promotion by enlarging our peace establishment of captains & 
lieutenants.

With Tunis some misunderstandings have arisen not yet sufficiently 
explained, but friendly discussions with their ambassador recently 
arrived & a mutual disposition to do whatever is just & reasonable 
can not fail of dissipating these, so that we may consider our peace 
on that coast, generally, to be on as sound a footing as it has been 
at any preceding time.  Still, it will not be expedient to withdraw 
immediately the whole of our force from that sea.

The law providing for a naval peace establishement fixes the number 
of frigates which shall be kept in constant service in time of peace, 
& prescribes that they shall be manned by not more than 2/3 of their 
complement of sea men & ordinary sea men.  Whether a frigate may be 
trusted to 2/3 only of her proper complement of men must depend on 
the nature of the service on which she is ordered; that may 
sometimes, for her safety as well as to insure her object, require 
her fullest complement.  In adverting to this subject Congress will 
perhaps consider whether the best limitation on the Executive 
discretion in this case would not be by the # of sea men which may be 
employed in the whole service rather than by the # of vessels.  
Occasions oftener arise for the employment of small than of large 
vessels, & it would lessen risk as well as expense to be authorized 
to employ them of preference.  The limitation suggested by the # of 
sea men would admit a selection of vessels best adapted to the 
service.

Our Indian neighbors are advancing, many of them with spirit, & 
others beginning to engage in the pursuits of agriculture & household 
manufacture.  They are becoming sensible that the earth yields 
subsistence with less labor & more certainty than the forest, & find 
it their interest from time to time to dispose of parts of their 
surplus & waste lands for the means of improving those they occupy & 
of subsisting their families while they are preparing their farms.  
Since your last session the Northern tribes have sold to us the lands 
between the Connecticut Reserve & the former Indian boundary & those 
on the Ohio from the same boundary to the rapids & for a considerable 
depth inland.  The Chickasaws & Cherokees have sold us the country 
between & adjacent to the 2 districts of Tennessee, & the Creeks the 
residue of their lands in the fork of the Ocmulgee up to the 
Ulcofauhatche.  The 3 former purchases are important, in as much as 
they consolidate disjoined parts of our settled country & render 
their intercourse secure; & the 2nd particularly so, as, with the 
small point on the river which we expect is by this time ceded by the 
Piankeshaws, it completes our possession of the whole of both banks 
of the Ohio from its source to near its mouth, & the navigation of 
that river is thereby rendered forever safe to our citizens settled & 
settling on its extensive waters.  The purchase from the Creeks, too, 
has been for some time particularly interesting to the State of 
Georgia.

The several treaties which have been mentioned will be submitted to 
both Houses of Congress for the exercise of their respective 
functions.

Deputations now on their way to the seat of Government from various 
nations of Indians inhabiting the Missouri & other parts beyond the 
Mississippi come hcarged with assurances of their satisfaction with 
the new relations in which they are placed with us, of their 
dispositions to cultivate our peace & friendship, & their desire to 
enter into commercial intercourse with us.  A state of our progress 
in exploring the principal rivers of that country, & of the 
information respecting them hitherto obtained, will be communicated 
as soon as we shall receive some further relations which we have 
reason shortly to expect.

The receipts of the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day 
of September last have exceeded the sum of $13M, which, with not 
quite $5M in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, have enabled 
us after meeting other demands to pay nearly $2M of the debt 
contracted under the British treaty & convention, upward of $4M of 
principal of the public debt, & $4M of interest.  These payments, 
with those which had been made in 3 years & a half preceding, have 
extinguished of the funded debt nearly $18M of principal.  Congress 
by their act of 1803 November 10, authorized us to borrow $1.75M 
toward meeting the claims of our citizens assumed by the convention 
with France.  We have not, however, made use of this authority, 
because the sum of $4.5M, which remained in the Treasury on the same 
30th day of September last, with the receipts of which we may 
calculate on for the ensuing year, besides paying the annual sum of 
$8M appropriated to the funded debt & meeting all the current demands 
which may be expected, will enable us to pay the whole sum of $3.75M 
assumed by the French convention & still leave us a surplus of nearly 
$1M at our free disposal.  Should you concur in the provisions of 
arms & armed vessels recommended by the circumstances of the times, 
this surplus will furnish the means of doing so.

On this 1st occasion of addressing Congress since, by the choice of 
my constituents, I have entered on a 2nd term of administration, I 
embrace the opportunity to give this public assurance that I will 
exert my best endeavors to administer faithfully the executive 
department, & will zealously cooperate with you in every measure 
which may tend to secure the liberty, property, & personal safety of 
our fellow citizens, & to consolidate the republican forms & 
principles of our Government.

In the course of your session you shall receive all the aid which I 
can give for the dispatch of public business, & all the information 
necessary for your deliberations, of which the interests of our own 
country & the confidence reposed in us by others will admit a 
communication.                   - 30 -