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and no other definite line can be drawn between the inesti→ mable liberty of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its supplement must be sought in the censorship of publiek opinion.

Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally, as auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to our country sincere congratulations. With those too, not yet rallied to the same point, the disposition to do so is gaining strength ; facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them; and our doubting brethren will at length see, that the mass of their fellow citizens with whom they cannot yet resolve to act, as to principles and measures, think as they think, and desire what they desire; that our wish, as well as theirs, is that the publick efforts may be directed honestly to the publick good, that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order preserved, equality of rights maintained, and that state of property equal or unequal which results to every man from his own industry or that of his fathers. When satisfied of these views, it is not in human nature that they should not approve and support them; in the mean time let us cherish them with patient affection; let us do them justice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest; and we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own interests, will at length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country, and will complete that entire union of opinion, which gives to a nation the blessing of harmony, and the benefit of all its strength.

I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow eitizens have again called me; and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved. I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from the path of justice; but the weaknesses of human nature and the limits of my own understanding will produce errours of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests; I shall need therefore all the indulgence I have

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heretofore experienced-the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need too the favour of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our forefathers, as Israel of old, from their native land, and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with his Providence, and our riper years with his wisdom and power; and to whose goodness I ask you to join with me in supplications, that he will so enlighten the minds of your seryants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures, that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all THOMAS JEFFERSON. nations.

March 4th, 1805.

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE NINTH CONGRESS. DECEMBER 3, 1805.

Ar a moment when the nations of Europe are in commotion and arming against each other, when those with whom we have principal intercourse are engaged in the general contest, and when the countenance of some of them towards our peaceable country threatens that even that may not be unaffected by what is passing on the general theatre, 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 and the information of the whole, and will be enabled to give a direction to the publick affairs which the will and the wisdom of the whole will approve and support. In taking a view of the state of our country, we, in the first place, notice the late affliction of two 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, and lessened the number of victims which have usually fallen before it. In the course of the several visitations by this disease, it has appeared to be strictly local, incident to cities and 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, and it disappears with the early frosts. These restrictions, within narrow limits of time and space, give security, even to our maritime cities, during three fourths of the year, and to the country always; although from these facts it appears unnecessary, yet, to satisfy the fears of foreign nations, and 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 and 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 endemick, and to call by the same name, fevers of very different kinds, which have been known at all times and in all countries, and 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 publick health, and congress with that of the general commerce, will become able to regulate with effect their respective functions in these departments. The burden 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, and our harbours watched, by private armed vessels, some of them without commissions, some with illegal commissions, others, with those of legal form, but committing piratical acts beyond the authority of their commissions. They have captured in the very entrance of our harbours, 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 pretence of legal adjudication, but, not daring to approach a court of justice, they have plundered and sunk them by the way, or in obscure places, where no evidence could arise against them, maltreated the crews, and abandoned them in boats, in the open sea, or on desert shores, without food or covering. 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, and to bring the offenders in for trial as pirates.

The same system of hovering on our coasts and harbours, under colour of seeking enemies, has been also carried on by publick armed ships, to the great annoyance and oppression of our commerce. New principles too have been interpolated into the law of nations, founded neither in justice, nor 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 an inconsistency; and the neutral having equal right with the belligerent to decide the question, the interests of our constituents, and the duty of maintaining the authority of reason, the only umpire between just nations, impose on us the obligation of providing an effectual and 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 the former war, for which she had formally acknowledged herself responsible, have been refused to be com pensated but on conditions affecting other claims in no wise connected with them. Yet the same practices are renewed in the present war, and are already of great amount. On the Mobile, our commerce, passing through that river, continues to be obstructed by arbitrary duties and 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, and endanger conflicts of authority, the issue 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 OrJeans and the Mississippi. Our citizens have been seized and their property plundered in the very parts of the former, which had been actually delivered up by Spain; and this by the regular officers and soldiers of that government. I have, therefore, found it necessary at length to give orders to our troops on that frontier to be in readiness to protect our citizens, and to repel by arms any similar aggressions in future. Other details, necessary for your full information of the state of things between this country and that, shall be the subject of another communication.

In reviewing these injuries from some of the belligerent powers, the moderation, the firmness, and the wisdom of the legislature will all be called into action. We ought still to hope, that time and a more correct estimate of interest, as well as of character, will produce the justice we are bound to expect.

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