Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856 (4 of 16 vol.). United States. Congress

the United States, who informed them that he had no further communications to make to the two Houses of Congress.

      Ordered, That the Secretary notify the House of Representatives that the Senate having finished the business before them, are about to adjourn.

      The Secretary having performed that duty, the Senate adjourned without day.

      EXTRA SESSION

      The President of the United States

to – , Senator for the State of —:

      Certain matters touching the public good requiring that the Senate should be convened on Saturday, the fourth day of March next, you are desired to attend at the Senate Chamber, in the city of Washington, on that day; then and there to deliberate on such communications as shall be made to you.

TH. JEFFERSON.

      Washington, Dec. 30, 1808.

      Saturday, March 4

      In conformity with the summons from the President of the United States, the Senate assembled in the Chamber of the House of Representatives.

PRESENT:

      • John Milledge, from the State of Georgia, President pro tempore.

      • Nicholas Gilman, and Nahum Parker, from New Hampshire.

      • Timothy Pickering, from Massachusetts.

      • Chauncey Goodrich, from Connecticut.

      • Elisha Mathewson, from Rhode Island.

      • Stephen R. Bradley, from Vermont.

      • John Smith, from New York.

      • Aaron Kitchel, from New Jersey.

      • Andrew Gregg, from Pennsylvania.

      • James A. Bayard, from Delaware.

      • Philip Reed, from Maryland.

      • William B. Giles, from Virginia.

      • James Turner, and Jesse Franklin, from North Carolina.

      • Thomas Sumter, and John Gaillard, from South Carolina.

      • William H. Crawford, from Georgia.

      • Buckner Thruston, and John Pope, from Kentucky.

      • Daniel Smith, from Tennessee.

      • Edward Tiffin, from Ohio.

      John Lambert, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of New Jersey for six years, and Samuel Smith, appointed a Senator by the Executive of the State of Maryland, attended, and their credentials were read.

      James Lloyd, junior, appointed a Senator by the Legislature of the State of Massachusetts, attended, stating that he was elected, but not in possession of his credentials.

      Joseph Anderson, from the State of Tennessee; Richard Brent, from the State of Virginia; James Hillhouse, from the State of Connecticut; Michael Leib, from the State of Pennsylvania; Return J. Meigs, from the State of Ohio; Jonathan Robinson, from the State of Vermont; Samuel White, from the State of Delaware, severally attended.

      The oath required by law was administered to the Senators above mentioned, in the six years' class, respectively, except to Mr. Brent.

      The President of the United States attended, and communicated the following

ADDRESS:

      Unwilling to depart from examples of the most revered authority, I avail myself of the occasion now presented, to express the profound impression made on me by the call of my country to the station, to the duties of which I am about to pledge myself by the most solemn of sanctions. So distinguished a mark of confidence, proceeding from the deliberate and tranquil suffrage of a free and virtuous nation, would, under any circumstances, have commanded my gratitude and devotion, as well as filled me with an awful sense of the trust to be assumed. Under the various circumstances which give peculiar solemnity to the existing period, I feel that both the honor and the responsibility allotted to me are inexpressibly enhanced.

      The present situation of the world is, indeed, without a parallel, and that of our own country full of difficulties. The pressure of these, too, is the more severely felt, because they have fallen upon us at a moment when the national prosperity being at a height not before attained, the contrast, resulting from the change, has been rendered the more striking. Under the benign influence of our Republican institutions, and the maintenance of peace with all nations, whilst so many of them were engaged in bloody and wasteful wars, the fruits of a just policy were enjoyed in an unrivalled growth of our faculties and resources. Proofs of this were seen in the improvements of agriculture; in the successful enterprises of commerce; in the progress of manufactures and useful arts; in the increase of the public revenue, and the use made of it in reducing the public debt; and in the valuable works and establishments every where multiplying over the face of our land.

      It is a precious reflection that the transition from this prosperous condition of our country, to the scene which has for some time been distressing us, is not chargeable on any unwarrantable views, nor, as I trust, on any involuntary errors in the public councils. Indulging no passions which trespass on the rights or the repose of other nations, it has been the true glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice; and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war, by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality. If there be candor in the world, the truth of these assertions will not be questioned; posterity, at least, will do justice to them.

      This unexceptionable course could not avail against the injustice and violence of the belligerent powers. In their rage against each other, or impelled by more direct motives, principles of retaliation have been introduced, equally contrary to universal reason and acknowledged law. How long their arbitrary edicts will be continued, in spite of the demonstrations that not even a pretext for them has been given by the United States, and of the fair and liberal attempt to induce a revocation of them, cannot be anticipated. Assuring myself, that, under every vicissitude, the determined spirit and united councils of the nation will be safeguards to its honor and its essential interests, I repair to the post assigned me with no other discouragement than what springs from my own inadequacy to its high duties. If I do not sink under the weight of this deep conviction, it is because I find some support in a consciousness of the purposes, and a confidence in the principles which I bring with me into this arduous service.

      To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations having correspondent dispositions; to maintain sincere neutrality towards belligerent nations; to prefer, in all cases, amicable discussion and reasonable accommodation of differences, to a decision of them by an appeal to arms; to exclude foreign intrigues and foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries, and so baneful to free ones; to foster a spirit of independence, too just to invade the rights of others, too proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices ourselves, and too elevated not to look down upon them in others; to hold the union of the States as the basis of their peace and happiness; to support the constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people, as equally incorporated with, and essential to the success of, the general system; to avoid the slightest interference with the rights of conscience or the functions of religion, so wisely exempted from civil jurisdiction; to preserve, in their full energy, the other salutary provisions in behalf of private and personal rights, and of the freedom of the press; to observe economy in public expenditures; to liberate the public resources by an honorable discharge of the public debts; to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of Republics; that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe; to promote, by authorized means, improvements friendly to agriculture, to manufactures, and to external as well as internal commerce; to favor, in like manner, the advancement of science and the diffusion of information, as the best aliment to true liberty; to carry on the benevolent plans which have been so meritoriously applied to the conversion of our aboriginal neighbors from the degradation and wretchedness of savage life, to a participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible