Provided, also, That nothing in this act, or the act to which this is a supplement, shall be construed to affect any vessels owned wholly by a citizen or citizens of the United States, or the cargoes of any such vessels which shall have cleared out from any port in the West Indies within —— days after the 2d of February, 1811.

Yeas.—Lemuel J. Alston, Willis Alston, jun., William Anderson, David Bard, William T. Barry, Burwell Bassett, William W. Bibb, Adam Boyd, Robert Brown, William A. Burwell, William Butler, Joseph Calhoun, Langdon Cheves, Matthew Clay, James Cochran, William Crawford, Richard Cutts, Joseph Desha, John W. Eppes, William Findlay, Meshack Franklin, Barzillai Gannett, Gideon Gardner, Thomas Gholson, Peterson Goodwyn, James Holland, Jacob Hufty, Richard M. Johnson, Thomas Kenan, John Love, Aaron Lyle, Samuel McKee, William McKinley, Pleasant M. Miller, Samuel L. Mitchill, John Montgomery, Nicholas R. Moore, Thomas Moore, Jeremiah Morrow, Gurdon S. Mumford, Thos. Newbold, Thos. Newton, John Porter, Peter B. Porter, John Rea of Pennsylvania, John Rhea of Tennessee, Matthias Richards, Samuel Ringgold, Erastus Root, Ebenezer Sage, John A. Scudder, Ebenezer Seaver, Adam Seybert, Samuel Shaw, Dennis Smelt, John Smilie, Geo. Smith, John Smith, Uri Tracy, George M. Troup, Charles Turner, jr., Robert Weakley, Robert Whitehill, and Robert Witherspoon.

Nays.—Abijah Bigelow, Barent Gardenier, Richard Jackson, jr., William Kennedy, Nathaniel Macon, Elisha R. Potter, John Randolph, Richard Stanford, Jacob Swoope, Archibald Van Home, Laban Wheaton, and Ezekiel Whitman.

Be it enacted, &c., That no vessel, owned wholly by a citizen or citizens of the United States, which shall have departed from a British port, prior to the 2d day of February, 1811, and no merchandise owned wholly by a citizen or citizens of the United States, imported in such vessel, shall be liable to seizure or forfeiture on account of any infraction or presumed infraction of the provisions of the act to which this act is a supplement.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That, in case Great Britain shall so revoke or modify her edicts, as that they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States, the President of the United States shall declare the fact by proclamation; and such proclamation shall be admitted as evidence, and no other evidence shall be admitted of such revocation or modification in any suit or prosecution which may be instituted under the fourth section of the act to which this act is a supplement. And the restrictions imposed, or which may be imposed, by virtue of the said act, shall, from the date of such proclamation, cease and be discontinued.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That, until the proclamation aforesaid shall have been issued, the several provisions of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eighteenth sections of the act, entitled "An act to interdict the commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain and France, and their dependencies, and for other purposes," shall have full force and be immediately carried into effect against Britain, her colonies, and dependencies: Provided, however, That any vessel or merchandise which may, in pursuance thereof, be seized, prior to the fact being ascertained, whether Great Britain shall, on or before the second day of February, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, have revoked or modified her edicts in the manner above mentioned, shall, nevertheless, be restored, on application of the parties, on their giving bond with approved sureties to the United States, in a sum equal to the value thereof, to abide the decision of the proper court of the United States thereon; and any such bond shall be considered as satisfied if Great Britain shall, on or before the second day of February, one thousand eight hundred and eleven, have revoked or modified her edicts in the manner above mentioned: Provided, also, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect any ships or vessels, or the cargoes of ships or vessels, wholly owned by a citizen or citizens of the United States, which had cleared out for the Cape of Good Hope, or for any port beyond the same, prior to the tenth of November, one thousand eight hundred and ten.

"The committee to whom was referred the memorial of the Stockholders of the Bank of the United States, report:

"That they have carefully examined the various matters set forth in the said memorial, and attentively listened to the representations of the gentlemen who have appeared in behalf of the said petitioners. The object of the memorialists is to obtain extension of their corporate powers beyond the period limited for the expiration of their charter, so as to enable them to prosecute for their debts, and to arrange, liquidate, and close the various concerns of the company.

"The committee are of opinion that a law of Congress, granting the powers prayed for, would facilitate the final adjustment of the affairs of the bank, although they do not think such a law indispensable to that object. But believing, as your committee do, that, in granting the original charter to the stockholders, Congress transcended the legitimate powers of the constitution; the same objection now presents itself to the extension of any of their corporate capacities.

"If the committee had time to go into the investigation, and to present to the House the various reasons which have conduced to this opinion, it would be more than useless to divert its attention from the important concerns of the nation, at this late period of the session, to a subject which, but a few days since, was so fully and elaborately discussed.

"They therefore beg leave to introduce the following resolution:

"Resolved, That the prayer of the memorialists ought not to be granted."

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:

I acknowledge, with grateful sensibility, the aid you have afforded me in the discharge of the duties of Speaker. Your approbation of my conduct in the important office you have been pleased to assign me, affords me very great consolation; and permit me to assure you, gentlemen, that you have my most ardent wishes for your individual prosperity and happiness.

Fellow-citizens of the Senate
and House of Representatives:

In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would otherwise have been required, I yielded to considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign affairs; and in fixing the present, for the time of your meeting, regard was had to the probability of further developments of the policy of the belligerent powers towards this country, which might the more unite the National Councils in the measures to be pursued.

At the close of the last session of Congress, it was hoped that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the Government of Great Britain to repeal its Orders in Council, and thereby authorize a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United States.

Instead of this reasonable step towards satisfaction and friendship between the two nations, the Orders were, at a moment when least to have been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated through the British Envoy just arrived, that, whilst the revocation of the edicts of France, as officially made known to the British Government, was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition of the repeal of the British Orders that commerce should be restored to a footing that would admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her enemy; the United States being given to understand that, in the mean time, a continuance of their non-importation act would lead to measures of retaliation.

At a later date, it has indeed appeared that a communication to the British Government, of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees against our neutral trade, was followed by an intimation that it had been transmitted to the British Plenipotentiary here, in order that it might receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This communication appears not to have been received; but the transmission of it hitherto, instead of founding on it an actual repeal of the orders, or assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on any effective change in the British Cabinet. To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to proceed, in the mean time, in adapting our measures to the views which have been disclosed through that Minister, will best consult our whole duty.

In the friendly spirit of those disclosures, indemnity and redress for other wrongs have continued to be withheld; and our coasts, and the mouths of our harbors, have again witnessed scenes not less derogatory to the dearest of our national rights, than vexatious to the regular course of our trade.

Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships of war hovering on our coasts, was an encounter between one of them and the American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on the part of the latter, by a fire, commenced without cause, by the former; whose commander is therefore alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately shed in maintaining the honor of the American flag. The proceedings of a court of inquiry, requested by Captain Rodgers, are communicated, together with the correspondence relating to the occurrence between the Secretary of State and His Britannic Majesty's Envoy. To these are added the several correspondences which have passed on the subject of the British Orders in Council; and to both, the correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made acquainted with the interposition which the Government of Great Britain has thought proper to make against the proceeding of the United States.

The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of the United States towards France, both before and since the revocation of her decrees, authorized an expectation that her Government would have followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs done to the United States, and particularly to restore the great amount of American property seized and condemned under edicts which, though not affecting our neutral relations, and therefore not entering into questions between the United States and other belligerents, were, nevertheless, founded in such unjust principles that the reparation ought to have been prompt and ample.

In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation, the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous and unexpected restrictions to which their trade with the French dominions has been subjected; and which, if not discontinued, will require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from France into the United States.

On all those subjects, our Minister Plenipotentiary, lately sent to Paris, has carried with him the necessary instructions; the result of which will be communicated to you, and by ascertaining the ulterior policy of the French Government towards the United States, will enable you to adapt to it that of the United States towards France.

Our other foreign relations remain without unfavorable changes. With Russia they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports of Sweden have afforded proofs of friendly dispositions towards our commerce in the Councils of that nation also. And the information from our special Minister to Denmark, shows that the mission had been attended with valuable effects to our citizens, whose property had been so extensively violated and endangered by cruisers under the Danish flag.

Under the ominous indications which commanded attention, it became a duty to exert the means committed to the Executive department in providing for the general security. The works of defence on our maritime frontier have accordingly been prosecuted with an activity leaving little to be added for the completion of the most important ones; and, as particularly suited for co-operation in emergencies, a portion of the gunboats have, in particular harbors, been ordered into use. The ships of war before in commission, with the addition of a frigate, have been chiefly employed as a cruising guard to the rights of our coast. And such a disposition has been made of our land forces, as was thought to promise the services most appropriate and important. In this disposition is included a force, consisting of regulars and militia, embodied in the Indiana Territory, and marched towards our Northwestern frontier. This measure was made requisite by the several murders and depredations committed by Indians, but more especially by the menacing preparations and aspect of a combination of them on the Wabash, under the influence and direction of a fanatic of the Shawanese tribe. With these exceptions, the Indian tribes retain their peaceable dispositions towards us, and their usual pursuits.

I must now add that the period is arrived which claims from the Legislative guardians of the national rights a system of more ample provisions for maintaining them. Notwithstanding the scrupulous justice, the protracted moderation, and the multiplied efforts, on the part of the United States, to substitute for the accumulating dangers to the peace of the two countries, all the mutual advantages of re-established friendship and confidence, we have seen that the British Cabinet perseveres, not only in withholding a remedy for other wrongs, so long and so loudly calling for it, but in the execution, brought home to the threshold of our territory, of measures which, under existing circumstances, have the character, as well as the effect, of war on our lawful commerce.

With this evidence of hostile inflexibility, in trampling on rights which no independent nation can relinquish, Congress will feel the duty of putting the United States into an armor and an attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding with the national spirit and expectations.

I recommend, accordingly, that adequate provision be made for filling the ranks and prolonging the enlistments of the regular troops; for an auxiliary force, to be engaged for a more limited term; for the acceptance of volunteer corps, whose patriotic ardor may court a participation in urgent services; for detachments, as they may be wanted, of other portions of the militia; and for such a preparation of the great body as will proportion its usefulness to its intrinsic capacities. Nor can the occasion fail to remind you of the importance of those military seminaries which, in every event, will form a valuable and frugal part of our Military Establishment.

The manufacture of cannon and small arms has proceeded with due success; and the stock and resources of all the necessary munitions are adequate to emergencies. It will not be inexpedient, however, for Congress to authorize an enlargement of them.

Your attention will, of course, be drawn to such provisions on the subject of our naval force as may be required for the services to which it may be best adapted. I submit to Congress the seasonableness also of an authority to augment the stock of such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or may not at once be attainable.

In contemplating the scenes which distinguish this momentous epoch, and estimating their claims to our attention, it is impossible to overlook those developing themselves among the great communities which occupy the Southern portion of our hemisphere, and extend into our neighborhood. An enlarged philanthropy, and an enlightened forecast, concur in imposing on the national Councils an obligation to take a deep interest in their destinies, to cherish reciprocal sentiments of good will, to regard the progress of events, and not to be unprepared for whatever order of things may be ultimately established.

Under another aspect of our situation, the early attention of Congress will be due to the expediency of further guards against evasions and infractions of our commercial laws. The practice of smuggling, which is odious every where, and particularly criminal in free Governments, where the laws being made by all for the good of all, a fraud is committed on every individual as well as on the State, attains its utmost guilt when it blends, with a pursuit of ignominious gain, a treacherous subserviency in the transgressors to a foreign policy, adverse to that of their own country. It is then that the virtuous indignation of the public should be enabled to manifest itself through the regular animadversions of the most competent laws.

To secure greater respect to our mercantile flag, and to the honest interests which it covers, it is expedient also that it be made punishable in our citizens to accept licenses from foreign Governments for a trade unlawfully interdicted by them to other American citizens; or to trade under false colors or papers of any sort.

A prohibition is equally called for against the acceptance, by our citizens, of special licenses to be used in a trade with the United States; and against the admission into particular ports of the United States of vessels from foreign countries authorized to trade with particular ports only.

Although other subjects will press more immediately on your deliberations, a portion of them cannot but be well bestowed on the just and sound policy of securing to our manufactures the success they have attained, and are still attaining, in some degree, under the impulse of causes not permanent; and to our navigation the fair extent of which it is at present abridged by the unequal regulations of foreign Governments.

Besides the reasonableness of saving our manufacturers from sacrifices which a change of circumstances might bring on them, the national interest requires that, with respect to such articles at least as belong to our defence and our primary wants, we should not be left in unnecessary dependence on external supplies. And whilst foreign Governments adhere to the existing discriminations in their ports against our navigation, and an equality or lesser discrimination is enjoyed by their navigation in our ports, the effect cannot be mistaken, because it has been seriously felt by our shipping interests; and in proportion as this takes place, the advantages of an independent conveyance of our products to foreign markets, and of a growing body of mariners, trained by their occupation for the service of their country in times of danger, must be diminished.

The receipts into the Treasury during the year ending on the thirtieth of September last, have exceeded thirteen millions and a half of dollars, and have enabled us to defray the current expenses, including the interest on the public debt, and to reimburse more than five millions of dollars of the principal, without recurring to the loan authorized by the act of the last session. The temporary loan obtained in the latter end of the year one thousand eight hundred and ten, has also been reimbursed, and is not included in that amount.

The decrease of revenue arising from the situation of our commerce and the extraordinary expenses which have and may become necessary, must be taken into view, in making commensurate provisions for the ensuing year. And I recommend to your consideration the propriety of insuring a sufficiency of annual revenue, at least to defray the ordinary expenses of Government, and to pay the interest on the public debt, including that on new loans which may be authorized.

I cannot close this communication without expressing my deep sense of the crisis in which you are assembled, my confidence in a wise and honorable result to your deliberations, and assurances of the faithful zeal with which my co-operating duties will be discharged; invoking, at the same time, the blessing of Heaven on our beloved country, and on all the means that may be employed in vindicating its rights and advancing its welfare.

JAMES MADISON.

Washington, November 5, 1811.

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

I communicate to Congress copies of a correspondence between the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain and the Secretary of State, relative to the aggressions committed by a British ship of war on the United States frigate Chesapeake, by which it will be seen that that subject of difference between the two countries is terminated by an offer of reparation, which has been acceded to.

JAMES MADISON.

Washington, Nov. 13, 1811.

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

I lay before Congress two letters received from Governor Harrison, of the Indiana Territory, reporting the particulars and the issue of the expedition under his command, of which notice was taken in my communication of November 5th.

While it is deeply lamented that so many valuable lives have been lost in the action which took place on the 7th ultimo, Congress will see, with satisfaction, the dauntless spirit and fortitude victoriously displayed by every description of the troops engaged, as well as the collected firmness which distinguished their commander, on an occasion requiring the utmost exertions of valor and discipline.

It may reasonably be expected that the good effects of this critical defeat and dispersion of a combination of savages, which appears to have been spreading to a greater extent, will be experienced not only in a cessation of the murders and depredations committed on our frontier, but in the prevention of any hostile incursions otherwise to have been apprehended.

The families of those brave and patriotic citizens who have fallen in this severe conflict, will doubtless engage the favorable attention of Congress.

JAMES MADISON.

Washington, Dec. 18, 1811.

Yeas.—Messrs. Anderson, Bibb, Bradley, Campbell of Ohio, Campbell of Tennessee, Condit, Crawford, Cutts, Franklin, Gaillard, German, Gilman, Gregg, Horsey, Howell, Leib, Lloyd, Pope, Reed, Robinson, Smith of New York, Tait, Taylor, Turner, Varnum, and Worthington.

Nays.—Messrs. Dana, Goodrich, Hunter, and Lambert.

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

I communicate to Congress copies of an act of the Legislature of New York, relating to a canal from the great Lakes to Hudson's River. In making the communication, I consult the respect due to that State in whose behalf the commissioners appointed by the act have placed it in my hands for the purpose.

The utility of canal navigation is universally admitted. It is not less certain, that scarcely any country offers more extensive opportunities for that branch of improvements than the United States; and none, perhaps, inducements equally persuasive to make the most of them. The particular undertaking contemplated by the State of New York, which marks an honorable spirit of enterprise, and comprises objects of national as well as more limited importance, will recall the attention of Congress to the signal advantages to be derived to the United States from a general system of internal communication and conveyance; and suggest to their consideration whatever steps may be proper, on their part, towards its introduction and accomplishment. As some of those advantages have an intimate connection with arrangements and exertions for the general security, it is at a period calling for these that the merits of such a system will be seen in the strongest lights.

JAMES MADISON.

Washington, December 23, 1811.

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

I lay before Congress copies of resolutions entered into by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which have been transmitted to me, with that view, by the Governor of that State, in pursuance of one of the said resolutions.

JAMES MADISON.

Washington, December 27, 1811.

Resolved, That the members of this House will wear crape on the left arm for one month, in testimony of the national respect and sorrow for the unfortunate persons who perished in the city of Richmond, in Virginia, on the night of the 26th of the present month.

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

I communicate to Congress a letter from the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain to the Secretary of State, with the answer of the latter.

The continued evidence afforded in this correspondence, of the hostile policy of the British Government against our national rights, strengthens the considerations recommending and urging the preparation of adequate means for maintaining them.

JAMES MADISON.

Washington, January 16, 1812.