alternative, when the sword was drawn in the cause which gave birth to our national independence; and none who contemplate the magnitude, and feel the value of that glorious event, will shrink from a struggle to maintain the high and happy ground on which it placed the American people.

With all good citizens, the justice and necessity of resisting wrongs and usurpations no longer to be borne, will sufficiently outweigh the privations and sacrifices, inseparable from a state of war. But it is a reflection, moreover, peculiarly consoling, that whilst wars are generally aggravated by their baneful effects on the internal improvements and permanent prosperity of the nations engaged in them, such is the favoured situation of the United States, that the calamities of the contest into which they have been compelled to enter, are mitigated by improvements and advantages of which the contest itself is the source.

If the war has increased the interruptions of our commerce, it has at the same time cherished and multiplied our manufactures, so as to make us independent of all other countries for the more essential branches, for which we ought to be dependent on none; and is even rapidly giving them an extent which will create additional staples in our future intercourse with foreign markets.

If much treasure has been expended, no inconsiderable portion of it has been applied to objects durable in their value, and necessary to our permanent safety.

If the war has exposed us to increased spoliations on the ocean, and to predatory incursions on the land, it has developed the national means of retaliating the former, and of providing protection against the latter; demonstrating to all, that every blow aimed at our maritime independence is an impulse accelerating the growth of our maritime power.

By diffusing through the mass of the nation the elements of military discipline and instruction; by augmenting and distributing warlike preparations, applicable to future use; by evincing the zeal and valour with which they will be employed, and the cheerfulness with which every necessary burden will be borne, a greater respect for our rights and a longer duration of our future peace are promised, than could be expected without these proofs of the national character and resources.

The war has proved, moreover, that our free government, like other free governments, though slow in its early movements, acquires in its progress a force proportioned to its freedom; and that the union of these states, the guardian of

the freedom and safety of all and of each, is strengthened by every occasion that puts it to the test.

In fine, the war, with all its vicissitudes, is illustrating the capacity and, the destiny of the United States to be a great, a flourishing, and a powerful nation; worthy of the friendship which it is disposed to cultivate with all others; and authorised, by its own example, to require from all an observance of the laws of justice and reciprocity. Beyond these their claims have never extended; and, in contending for these, we behold a subject for our congratulations, in the daily testimonies of increasing harmony throughout the nation, and may humbly repose our trust in the smiles of Heaven on so righteous a cause.

Washington, Dec. 7, 1813.

JAMES MADISON.

Message from the President of the United States, recommending an Embargo, &c.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. The tendency of our commercial and navigation laws, in their present state, to favour the enemy and thereby prolong the war, is more and more developed by experience. Supplies of the most essential kind, find their way, not only to British ports and British armies at a distance; but the armies in our neighbourhood, with which our own are contending, derive from our ports and outlets a subsistence attainable with difficulty, if at all, from other sources. Even the fleets and troops infesting our coasts and waters, are, by like supplies, accommodated and encouraged in their predatory and incursive warfare.

Abuses having a like tendency take place in our import trade. British fabrics and products find their way into our ports under the name and from the ports of other countries; and often in British vessels disguised as neutrals by false colours and papers.

To these abuses it may be added that illegal importations are openly made with advantage to the violaters of the law, produced by under valuations or other circumstances involved in the course of the judicial proceedings against them.

It is found also, that the practice of ransoming is a cover for collusive captures, and a channel for intelligence advantageous to the enemy.

VOL. III.

[B]

To remedy as much as possible these evils, I recommend: That an effectual embargo on exports be immediately enacted.

That all articles known to be derived either not at all, or in an immaterial degree only, from the productions of any other country than Great Britain, and particularly the extensive articles made of wool and cotton materials, and ardent spirits made from the cane, be expressly and absolutely prohibited, from whatever port or place or in whatever vessels the same may be brought into the United States; and that all violations of the non-importation act be subjected to adequate penalties.

That among the proofs of the neutral and national character of foreign vessels, it be required that the masters and supercargoes and three-fourths at least of the crews, be citizens or subjects of the country under whose flag the ves

sels sail.

That all persons concerned in collusive captures by the enemy; or in ransoming vessels or their cargoes from the enemy, be subjected to adequate penalties.

To shorten as much as possible the duration of the war, it is indispensable that the enemy should feel all the pressure that can be given to it; and the restraints having that tendency, will be borne with the greater cheefulness by all good citizens; as the restraints will affect those most who are most ready to sacrifice the interest of their country, in pursuit of their own.

December 9, 1813.

JAMES MADISON.

Letter from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, respecting the Public Lands of the United States.

Sir,

Treasury Department,

General Land Office, Dec. 30th, 1813. I have the honour herewith to enclose a report respecting the public lands of the United States, and am with great respect,

Your most obedient humble servant,

EDWARD TIFFIN. The honourable the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States.

Sir,

Treasury Department,

General Land Office, Dec. 30th, 1813. Although the law establishing the General Land Office does not require the commissioner to make an annual report of the state of that part of the public concerns confided to his care, yet as there has been a considerable accession of new members to the national legislature, I have thought it would be acceptable to have a comprehensive view of the extent and situation of the public lands, that such legislative provisions as are required may be the more readily perceived.

A report made to the senate on the 19th of February, 1812, by the chairman of a committee charged with an inquiry into the state of the public lands, together with the accompanying documents from the honourable the secretary of the treasury, afforded the most ample information which the nature of such inquiry could at that time furnish, and has much abridged the labour that would otherwise have been necessary in preparing this memoir.

It appears from public documents in this department, that the United States, after deducting all that has been sold, and leaving a sufficiency to satisfy every lawful claim, will possess a national domain of at least four hundred million acres of land, embracing a variety of soil and climate capable of furnishing all that is necessary for supplying the wants, and affording most of the luxuries of life to man, and which if properly managed, will secure auxiliary aids to the government for ages yet to come.

This four hundred million of acres are situated as follows:

In the Indiana and Illinois south of parallel of latitude passing by the southern extremity of lake Michigan.

Lands to which the Indian title

has been extinguished,

Lands to which the Indian title

has not been extinguished,

33,000,000

23,200,000

Total number of acres in Indiana and Illi

nois,

In the territory west of lake Michigan and north of said parallel of latitude.

Lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished,

56,200,000

5,500,000

Lands to which the Indian title

54,500,000

60,000,000

has not been extinguished,

Total number of acres west of Michigan,

In the Mississippi territory.

Lands to which the Indian title has been extinguished,

Lands to which the Indian title has not been extinguished,

5,900,000

49,100,000

Total number of acres in the Mississippi, In the cession made by the French government the 30th of April, 1803, and including the territory of Missouri, the state of Louisiana, and the lands east of the river Mississippi and island of New Orleans as far as the river Perdido, at least,

Grand total number of acres of land,

55,000,000

200,000,000

400,000,000

In the last described portion of territory, it has not yet been correctly ascertained what proportion of the Indian title has been extinguished; but prior to the period when the United States became possessed of the country, a considerable quantity had been ceded by the Indians, and since that period cessions have been obtained of the Sacs, Foxes, and Osages, which with the lands in the occupancy of the inhabitants, are supposed to amount to from twenty-five to thirty million of acres.

This delightful region, embracing a surface of two hundred million of acres, has heretofore been least known; but our