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titled, a similar appropriation for a further provision of them is recommend. ed for the ensuing year.

A further appropriation will also be necessary for repairing fortifications already established, and the erection of such other works as may have read effect in obstructing the approach of an enemy to our sea-port towns, or their remaining before them.

In a country whose constitution is derived from the will of the people, di. rectly expressed by their free suffrages ; where the principal executive functionaries, and those of the legislature, are renewed by them at short periods ; where, under the characters of jurors, they exercise in person the greatest portion of the judiciary powers; where the laws are consequently so formed and administered as so bear with equal weight and favour on all, restraining no man in the pursuits of honest industry, and securing to every one the property which that acquires, it would not be supposed that any safeguards could be needed against insurrection, or enterprize, on the pub. lick peace or authority. The laws, however, aware that these should not be trusted to moral restraints only, have wisely provided punishment for these crimes when committed. But would it not be salutary to give also the means of preventing their commission ? Where an enterprize is meditated by private individuals, against a forcign nation, in amity with the Uni. ted States, powers of prevention, to a certain extent, are given by the laws. Would they not be as reasonable, and useful, where the enterprize prepar. ing is against the United States ?-While adverting to this branch of law, it is proper to observe, that, in enterprizes meditated against foreign nations, the ordinary process of binding to the observance of the peace and good be haviour, could it be extended to acts to be done out of the jurisdiction of the United States, would be effectual in some cases where the offender is able to keep out of sight erery indication of his purpose which could draw on hiin the exercise of the powers now given by law.

The states on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to respect our peace and friendship. With Tunis alone, some uncertainty re. mains. Persuaded that it is our interest to maintain our peace with them on equal terms, or not at all, I propose to send in due time a reinforcement into the Mediterrancan,unless previous information shall shew it to be unnecessary.

We continue to receive proofs of the growing attachment of our Indian neighbours and of their disposition to place all their interests under the patronage of the United States. These dispositions are inspired by their confidence in our justice and in the sincere concern we feel for their welfare. And as long as we discharge these high and honourable functions with the integrity, and good faith which alone can entitle us to their continuance, we may expect to reap the just reward in their peace and friendship.

The expedition of Messrs. Lewis, and Clarke, for exploring the river Missouri, and the best communication from that to the Pacifick Ocean, has had all the success which could have been expected. They have traced the Missouri nearly to its source, descended the Columbia to the Pacifick Ocean, ascertained with accuracy the geography of that interesting commu. nication across our continent, learnt the character of the country, of its commerce and inhabitants, and it is but justice to say that Messrs. Lewis and Clarke, and their brave companions, have, by this arduous service, de. served well of their country.

The attempt to explore the Red River, under the direction of Mr. Free. man, though conducted' with a zeal and prudence meriting entire approba. tion, has not been equally successful. After proceeding up about six hund.red miles nearly as far as the French settlements had extended, while the country was in their possession, our geographers were obliged to return without completing their work.

Very useful additions have also been made to our knowledge of the Mississippi, by Lieutenant Pike, who has ascended it to its source, and whose journal and map, giving the details of his journey, will shortly be ready for communication to both houses of congress. Those of Messrs. Lewis, Clarke and Freeman, will require further time to be digested and prepared. These important surveys, in addition to those before possessed, furnish materials for commencing an accurate map of the Mississippi and its western waters. Some principal rivers however remain still to be explored, towards which the authorisation of congress, by moderate appropriations, will be requisite.

I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights, which have been so long continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the reputation, and the best interests of our country, have long been eager to proscribe. Although no law you may pass can take prohibitory effect till the first day of the year one-thousand eight hundred and eight, yet the intervening period is not too long to prevent, by timely notice, expeditions, which cannot be completed before that day.

The receipts at the treasury, during the year ending on the 30th day of Sept. last, have amounted to near fifteen millions of dollars: which have enabled us, after meeting the current demands, to pay two millions seven hundred thousand dollars of the American claims, in part of the price of Louisiana; to pay, of the funded debt, upwards of three millions of principal, and nearly four of interest, and in addition to reimburse, in the course of the present month, near two millions of five and a half per cent. stock. These payments and reimbursements of the funded debt, with those which have been made in the four years and a half preceding, will, at the close of the present year, have extinguished upwards of 23 millions of principal.

The duties composing the Mediterranean fund will cease, by law, at the end of the present session. Considering, however, that they are levied chiefly on luxuries, and that we have an impost of salt, a necessary of life, the free use of which otherwise is so important, I recommend to your consideration the suppression of the duties on salt, and the continuation of the Mediterranean fund, instead thereof, for a short time, after which that also will become unnecessary for any purpose now within contemplation.

When both of these branches of revenue shall, in this way, be relinquished, there will still, ere long, be an accumulation of monies in the treasury, beyond the instalments of publick debt which we are permitted by contract to pay. They cannot then, without a modification, assented to by the pub lick creditors, be applied to the extinguishment of this debt, and the complete liberation of our revenues, the most desirable of all objects. Nor, if our peace continues, will they be wanting for any other existing purpose. The question, therefore, now comes forward, to what other objects shall these surplusses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost, after the entire discharge of the publick debt, and during those intervals when the purposes of war shall not call for them? Shall we suppress the impost, and give that advantage to foreign over domestiek manufactures? On a few articles, of more general and necessary use, the suppression, in due season, will doubtless be right; but the great mass of the articles, on which impost is paid, are foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them.-Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the publick edu cation, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of publick improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of fed

eral powers. By these operations, new channels of communication will be opened between the States ; the lines of separation will disappear, their interests will be identified, and their union cemented by new and indissolu. ble ties. Education is here placed among the articles of publick care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprize, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal ; but a publick institution cari alone supply those sciences, which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation. The subject is now proposed for the consideration of congress, because, if approved, by the time the state legislatures shall have deliberated on this extension of the federal trusts and the laws shall be passed, and other arrangements made for their execution, the neces. sary funds will be on hand, and without employment. I suppose an amendment of the constitution, by the consent of the States, necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among those enumerated in the constitution, and to which it permits the publick monies to be applied.

The present consideration for a national establishment for education par. ticularly, is rendered proper by this circumstance also, that, if Congress, approving the proposition, shall yet think it more eligible to found it on a donation of lands, they have it now in their power to endow it with those which will be among the earliest to produce the necessary income. This foundation would have the advantage of being independent on war, which may suspend other improvements by requiring for its own purposes the resources destined for them.

This, fellow citizens, is the state of the publick interests, at the present moment, and according to the information now possessed. But such is the situation of the nations of Europe, and such too the predicament in which we stand with some of them, that we cannot rely with certainty on the present aspect of our affairs, that may change from moment to moment, dur. ing the course of your session, or after you shall have separated. Our duty therefore is to act upon things as they are, and to make a reasonable provi. sion for whatever they may be. Were armies to be raised whenever a speck of war is visible in our horizon, we never should have been without them. Our resources would have been exhausted on dangers which have never happened, instead of being reserved for what is really to take place. A steady, perhaps a quickened pace, in preparations for the defence of our seaport towns and waters, an early settlement of the most exposed and vulnerable parts of our country, a militia so organized that its effective portions can be called to any point in the union, or volunteers instead of them, to serve a sufficient time, are means which may always be ready, yet never preying on our resources until actually called into use. They will maintain the publick interests, while a more permanent force shall be in a course of preparation. But much will depend on the promptitude with which these mcans can be brought into activity. If war be forced upon us in spite of our long and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and vigorous movements, in its outset, will go far towards securing us in its course and issue, and towards throwing its burthens on those who render necessary the resort from reason to force.

The result of our negociations, or such incidents in their course as may enable us to infer their probable' issue ; such further movements also, on our western frontiers as may shew whether war is to be pressed there, while negociation is protracted elsewhere, shall be communicated to you frotn time to time, as they become known to me ; with whatever other informa. tion I possess or may receive, which may aid your deliberations on the great Dational interents committed to your charge. TH. JEFFERSON.

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