tion and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires, we have, in the results of our legislation, arrayed section against section, interest against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations of our Union. It is time to pause in our career, to review our principles, and if possible, revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise which distinguished the sages of the revolu tion, and the fathers of our Union. If we cannot at once, in justice to the interests vested under improvident legislation, make our government what it ought to be, we can, at least, take a stand against all new grants of monopolies and exclusive privileges, against any prostitution of our Government to the advancement of the few at the expense of the many, and in favor of compromise and gradual reform in our code of laws and system of political economy.

I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained by my fellow citizens, I shall be grateful and happy; if not, I shall find, in the motives which impel me, ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the difficulties which surround us, and the dangers which threaten our institutions, there is cause for neither dismay nor alarm, For relief and deliverance let us firmly rely on that kind Providence which, I am sure, watches with peculiar care over the destinies of our Republic, and on the intelligence and wisdom of our countrymen. Through His abundant goodness, and their patriotic devotion, our liberty and Union will be preserved,

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE,

DECEMBER 4, 1832.

Fellow Citizens of the Senate

and House of Representatives:

It gives me pleasure to congratulate you upon your re turn to the Seat of Government, for the purpose of discharging your duties to the people of the United States. Although the pestilence, which had traversed the Old World, has entered our limits, and extended its ravages over much of our land, it has pleased Almighty God to mitigate its severity, and lessen the number of its victims, compared with those who have fallen in most other countries over which it has spread its terrors. Notwithstanding this visitation, our country presents, on every side, marks of prosperity and happiness, unequalled, perhaps, in any other portion of the world. If we fully appreciate our comparative condition, existing causes of discontent will appear unworthy of attention, and with hearts of thankfulness to that Divine Being who has filled our cup of prosperity, we shall feel our resolution strengthened to preserve and hand down to posterity that liberty and that Union which we have received from our fathers, and which constitute the sources and the shield of all our blessings.

The relations of our country continue to present the same picture of amicable intercourse that I had the sat

isfaction to hold up to your view at the opening of your last session. The same friendly professions, the same desire to participate in our flourishing commerce, the same disposition to refrain from injuries unintentionally. offered, are, with few exceptions, evinced by all nations with whom we have any intercourse. This desirable state of things may be mainly ascribed to our undeviating practice of the rule which has long guided our national policy, to require no exclusive privileges in commerce, and to grant none. It is daily producing its beneficial effect in the respect shown to our flag, the protection of our citizens and their property abroad, and in the increase of our navigation, and the extension of our mercantile operations. The returns which have been made out since we last met, will show an increase, during the last preceding year, of more than 80,000 tons in our shipping, and of near forty millions of dollars in the aggregate of our imports and exports.

Nor have we less reason to felicitate ourselves on the position of our political than of our commercial concerns. They remain in the state in which they were when I last addressed you—a state of prosperity and peace, the effect of a wise attention to the parting advice of the revered Father of his Country, on this subject, condensed into a maxim for the use of posterity, by one of his most distinguished successors, to cultivate free commerce and honest friendship with all nations, but to make entangling alliances with none. A strict adherence to this policy has kept us aloof from the perplexing questions that now agitate the European world, and have more than once deluged those countries with blood. Should those scenes unfortunately recur, the parties to the contest may count on a faithful performance of the duties incumbent on us as a neutral nation, and our own citizens may equally rely on the firm assertion of their neutral rights.

With the nation that was our earliest friend and ally in the infancy of our political existence, the most friendly relations have subsisted through the late revolutions, of its Government; and, from the events of the last, promise a permanent duration. It has made an approximation in some of its political institutions to our own, and raised a

monarch to the throne who preserves, it is said, a friendly recollection of the period during which he acquired among our citizens the high consideration that could then have been produced by his personal qualifications alone.

Our commerce with that nation is gradually assuming a mutually beneficial character, and the adjustment of the claims of our citizens has removed the only obstacle there was to an intercourse not only lucrative, but productive of literary and scientific improvement.

From Great Britain, I have the satisfaction to inform you that I continue to receive assurances of the most amicable disposition, which have, on my part, on all proper occasions, been promptly and sincerely reciprocated. The attention of that Government has latterly been so much engrossed by matters of a deeply interesting domestic character, that we could not press upon it the re'newal of negotiations which had been unfortunately broken off by the unexpected recal of our minister, who had commenced them with some hopes of success. My great object was the settlement of questions which, though now dormant, might hereafter be revived under circumstances that would endanger the good understanding which it is the interest of both parties to preserve inviolate, cemented, as it is, by a community of language, manners, and social habits, and by the high obligations we owe to our British ancestors for many of our most valuable institutions, and for that system of representative Government which has enabled us to preserve and improve them.

The question of our northeastern boundary still remains unsettled. In my last annual message, I explained to you the situation in which I found that business on my coming into office, and the measures I thought it my duty to pursue for asserting the rights of the United States, before the sovereign who had been chosen by my predecessor to determine the question; and also the manner in which he had disposed of it. A special message to the Senate, in their executive capacity, afterwards brought before them the question, whether they would advise a submission to the opinion of the sovereign arbiter. That body having considered the award as not obligatory,

and advised me to open a further negotiation, the proposition was immediately made to the British Government; but the circumstances to which I have alluded, have hitherto prevented any answer being given to the overture. Early attention, however, has been promised to the subject, and every effort, on my part, will be made for a satisfactory settlement of this question, interesting to the Union generally, and particularly so to one of its members. The claims of our citizens on Spain are not yet acknowledged. On a closer investigation of them than appears to have heretofore taken place, it was discovered that some of these demands, however strong they might be upon the equity of that Government, were not such as could be made the subject of national interference. And, faithful to the principle of asking nothing but what was clearly right, additional instructions have been sent to modify our demands, so as to embrace those only on which according to the laws of nations, we had a strict right to insist. An inevitable delay in procuring the documents necessary for this review of the merits of these claims, retarded this operation, until an unfortunate malady, which has afflicted his Catholic Majesty, prevented an examination of them. Being now, for the first time, presented in an unexceptionable form, it is confidently hoped the application will be successful.

I have the satisfaction to inform you that the application I directed to be made for the delivery of a part of the ar chives of Florida, which had been carried to the Havanna, has produced a royal order for their delivery, and that measures have been taken to procure its execution.

By the report of the Secretary of State, communicated to you on the 25th June last, you were informed of the conditional reduction obtained by the minister of the United States, at Madrid, of the duties on tonnage levied on American shipping in the ports of Spain. The condition of that reduction having been complied with on our part, by the act passed the 13th of July last, I have the satisfaction to inform you that our ships now pay no higher nor other duties, in the continental ports of Spain, than are levied on their national vessels.

The demands against Portugal for illegal captures in