It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to bear witness to the liberal spirit with which the republic of Colombia has made satisfaction for well-established claims of a similar character; and among the documents now communicated to congress, will be distinguished a treaty of commerce and navigation with that republic, the ratifications of which have been exchanged since the last recess of the legislature. The negociation of similar treaties with all the independent South American states has been contemplated, and may yet be accomplished. The basis of them all, as proposed by the United States, has been laid in two principles; the one of entire and unqualified reciprocity; the other the mutual obligation of the parties, to place each other permanently upon the footing of the most favoured nations. These principles are, indeed, indispensable to the effectual emancipation of the American hemisphere from the thraldom of colonizing monopolies and exclusions; an event rapidly realizing in the progress of human affairs, and which the resistance still opposed in certain parts of Europe to the acknowledgment of Southern American republics as independent states, will, it is believed, contribute more effectually to accomplish. The time has been, and that not remote, when some of those states might, in their anxious desire to obtain a nominal recognition, have accepted of a nominal independence, clogged with burthensome conditions, and exclusive commercial privileges granted to the nation from which they have separated, to the disadvantage of all others. They are now well aware that such concessions to any European nation, would be incompatible with that independence which they have declared and maintained. Among the measures which have been suggested to them by the new relations with one another, resulting from the recent changes of their condition is that of assembling at the Isthmus of Panama, a congress at which each of them should be represented, to deliberate upon objects important to the welfare of all. The republics of Colombia, of Mexico, and of central America, have already deputed plenipotentiaries to such a meeting, and they have invited the United States to be also represented there by their ministers. The invitation has been accepted, and ministers on the part of the United States will be commissioned to attend at those deliberations, and to take part in them, so far as may be compatible with that neutrality from which it is neither our intention, nor the desire of the other American States, that we should depart. The commissions under the seventh article of the treaty of Ghent have so nearly completed their labours, that by the report recently received from the agent on the part of the United States, there is reason to expect that the commission will be closed at their next session appointed for the 22nd of May of the ensuing year. ap The other commission, pointed to ascertain the indemnities due for slaves carried away from the United States, after the close of the late war, have met with some difficulty, which has delayed the progress of the inquiry. A reference has been made to the British Government on the subject, which, it may be hoped, will tend to hasten the decision of the commissioners, or necessary so to shape its organizaserve as a substitute for it. Among the powers specifically granted to congress by the constitution are those of establishing uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States, and of providing for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States. The magnitude and complexity of the interests affected by legislation upon these subjects, may account for the fact, that long and often as both of them have occupied the attention, and animated the debates of congress, no systems have yet been devised for fulfilling, to the satisfaction of the community, the duties prescribed by these grants of power. To conciliate the claim of the individual citizen to the enjoyment of personal liberty, with the effective obligation of private contracts, is the difficult problem to be solved by a law of bankruptcy. These are objects of the deepest interest to society; affecting all that is precious in the existence of multitudes of persons, many of them in the classes essentially dependent and helpless; of the age requiring nurture, and of the sex entitled to protection, from the free agency of the parent and the husband. The organization of the militia is yet more indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is only by an effective militia that we can at once enjoy the repose of peace, and bid defiance to foreign aggression; it is by the militia that we are constituted an armed nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defence in the presence of all the nations of the earth. To this end it would be tion as to give it a more united and active energy. There are laws for establishing an uniform militia throughout the United States, and for arming and equipping its whole body. But it is a body of dislocated members, without the vigour of unity, and having little of uniformity but the name. To infuse into this most important institution, the power of which it is susceptible, and to make it available for the defence of the Union at the shortest notice, and at the smallest expense of time, of life, and of treasure, are among the benefits to be expected from the persevering deliberations of congress. Among the unequivocal indications of our national prosperity, is the flourishing state of our finanThe revenues of the present ces. year, from all the principal sources, will exceed the anticipations of the last. The balance in the Treasury, on the 1st of January last, was a little short of two millions and a half, being the moiety of the loan of five millions, authorised by the act of 26th May, 1824. The receipts in the treasury from the 1st of January to the 13th of September, exclusive of the other moiety of the same loan, are estimated at 16,500,000 dollars, and it is expected that those of the current quarter will exceed five millions of dollars; forming an aggregate of receipts of nearly twenty-two millions, independent of the loan. The expenditures of the year will not exceed that sum more than two millions. By those expenditures nearly eight millions of the principal of the public debt have been discharged. More than à million and a half has been de voted to the debt of gratitude to the warriors of the revolution; a nearly equal sum to the construction of fortifications and the acquisition of ordnance, and other permanent preparatives of national defence. Half a million to the gradual increase of the navy; an equal sum for the purchases of territory from the Indians, and payment of annuities to them; and upwards of a million for objects of internal improvement authorised by special acts of the last congress. If we add to these, four millions of dollars for payment of interest upon the public debt, there remains a sum of about seven millions which have defrayed the whole expenses of the administration of government, in its legislative, executive, and judiciary departments, including the support of the military and naval establishments, and all the occasional contingencies of a government co-extensive with the Union. The amount of duties secured on merchandise imported, from the commencement of the year, is about twenty-five millions and a half; and that which will accrue during the current quarter is estimated at five millions and a half; from these thirty-one millions, deducting the draw-backs, estimated at less than seven millions, a sum exceeding twenty-four millions will constitute the revenue of the year, and will exceed the whole expenditures of the year. The entire amount of public debt remaining due on the 1st of January next, will be short of eightyone millions of dollars. By an act of congress of the 3rd of March last, a loan of twelve millions of dollars was authorised at four and a half per cent, or an exchange of stock to that amount of four and a half per cent for a stock of six per cent to create a fund for extinguishing an equal amount of the public debt, bearing an interest of six per cent, redeemable in 1826. An account of the measures taken to give effect to this act will be laid before you by the secretary of the Treasury. As the object which it had in view has been but partially accomplished, it will be for the consideration of congress, whether the power with which it clothed the executive should not be renewed at an early day of the present session, and under what modification. The act of congress of the 3rd of March last directing the secretary of the treasury to subscribe, in the name and for the use of the United States, for one thousand five hundred shares of the capital stock of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal company, has been executed by the actual subscription for the amount specified, and such other measures have been adopted by that officer, under the act, as the fulfilment of its intentions require. The latest accounts received of this important undertaking, authorise the belief that it is in successful progress. The payment into the treasury from proceeds of the sales of the public lands, during the present year, were estimated at one million of dollars. The actual receipts of the first two quarters have fallen very little short of that sum; it is not expected that the second half of the year will be equally productive; but the income of the year from that source may now be safely estimated at a million and a half. The act of congress of the 18th of May, 1824, to provide for the extinguishment of the debt due to The condition of the various branches of the public service resorting from the department of war, and their administration during the current year, will be exhibited in the report from the secretary of war, and the accompanying documents herewith communicated. The organization and discipline of the army are effective and satisfactory. To counteract the prevalence of desertion among the troops, it has been suggested to withhold from the men a small portion of their monthly pay until the period of their discharge; and some expedient appears to be necessary to preserve and maintain among the officers so much of the art of horsemanship as could scarcely fail to be found wanting, on the possible sudden eruption of a war, which should not overtake us unprovided with a single corps of cavalry. The military academy at West Point, under the restrictions of a severe but parental superintendance, recommends itself more and more to the patronage of the nation; and the number of meritorious officers which it forms and introduces to the public service, furnishes the means of multiplying the undertakings of public improvements, to which their acquirements at that institution are peculiarly adapted. The school of artillery practice, established at Fortress Monroe, is well suited to the same purpose, and may need the aid of further legislative provisions to the same end. reports from the various officers at the head of the administrative branches of the military service, connected with the quartering, clothing, subsistence, health, and pay, of the army, exhibit the assiduous vigilance of those officers in the performance of their re The spective duties, and the faithful accountability which has pervaded every part of the system. Our relations with the numerous tribes of aboriginal natives of this country, scattered over its extensive surface, and so dependent, even for their existence, upon our power, have been, during the present year, highly interesting. An act of congress of the 25th of May, 1824, made an appropriation to defray the expenses of making treaties of trade and friendship with the Indian tribes beyond the Mississippi. An act of 3rd March, 1825, authorised treaties to be made with the Indians for their consent to the making of a road from the frontier of Missouri to that of New Mexico. And another act of the same date provided for defraying the expenses of holding treaties with the Sioux, Chippeways, Menomenees, Sauks, Foxes, &c. for the purpose of establishing boundaries, and promoting peace between the said tribes. The first and the last objects of these acts have been accomplished; and the second is yet in a process of execution. The treaties which, since the last session of congress, have been concluded with the several tribes, will be laid before the senate for their consideration, conformably to the constitution. They comprise large and valuable acquisitions of territory; and they secure an adjust ment of boundaries, and give pledges of permanent peace between several tribes which had been long waging bloody wars against each other. On the 12th of February last, a treaty was signed at the Indian springs, between commissioners appointed on the part of the United States, and certain chiefs and individuals of the Creek nation of Indians, which was received at the seat of government only a few days before the close of the last session of congress, and of the late administration. The advice and consent of the senate was given to it on the 3rd of March, too late to receive the sanction of the then president of the United States; it was ratified on the 7th of March, under the unsuspecting impression that it had been negociated in good faith, and in the confidence inspired by the recommendation of the senate. The subsequent transactions in relation to this treaty, will form the subject of a separate message. The appropriations made by congress, for public works, as well in the construction of fortifications, as for purposes of internal improvement, as far as they have been expended, have been faithfully applied. Their progress has been delayed for want of suitable officers for superintending them. An increase of both the corps of engineers, military and topographical, was recommended by my predecessor at the last session of congress. The reasons upon which that recommendation was founded subsist in all their force, and have acquired additional urgency since that time. It may also be expedient to organize the topographical engineers into a corps similar to the establishment of the corps of engineers. The military academy at West Point will furnish, from the cadets annually graduated there, officers well qualified for carrying this measure into effect. The board of engineers for internal improvement, appointed for carrying into execution the act of congress, of the 30th of April, 1824,"to procure the necessary |