nation to become a “propagandist” of free principles without arraying against it the combined powers of Europe, and that the result was more likely to be the overthrow of republican liberty here than its establishment there. History has been written in vain for those who can doubt this. France had no sooner established a republican form of government than she manifested a desire to force its blessings on all the world. Her own historian informs us that, hearing of some petty acts of tyranny in a neighboring principality, “the National Convention declared that she would afford succor and fraternity to all nations who wished to recover their liberty, and she gave it in charge to the executive power to give orders to the generals of the French armies to aid all citizens who might have been or should be oppressed in the cause of liberty.” Here was the false step which led to her subsequent misfortunes. She soon found herself involved in war with all the rest of Europe. In less than ten years her Government was changed from a republic to an empire, and finally, after shedding rivers of blood, foreign powers restored her exiled dynasty and exhausted Europe sought peace and repose in the unquestioned ascendency of monarchical principles. Let us learn wisdom from her example. Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before. They were planted in the free charters of self-government under which the English colonies grew up, and our Revolution only freed us from the dominion of a foreign power whose government was at variance with those institutions. But European nations have had no such training for self-government, and every effort to establish it by bloody revolutions has been, and must without that preparation continue to be, a failure. Liberty unregulated by law degenerates into anarchy, which soon becomes the most horrid of all despotisms. Our policy is wisely to govern ourselves, and thereby to set such an example of national justice, prosperity, and true glory as shall teach to all nations the blessings of self-government and the unparalleled enterprise and success of a free people.
We live in an age of progress, and ours is emphatically a country of progress. Within the last half century the number of States in this Union has nearly doubled, the population has almost quadrupled, and our boundaries have been extended from the Mississippi to the Pacific. Our territory is checkered over with railroads and furrowed with canals. The inventive talent of our country is excited to the highest pitch, and the numerous applications for patents for valuable improvements distinguish this age and this people from all others. The genius of one American has enabled our commerce to move against wind and tide and that of another has annihilated distance in the transmission of intelligence. The whole country is full of enterprise. Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the people and our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life. This is in part owing to our peculiar position, to our fertile soil and comparatively sparse population; but much of it is also owing to the popular institutions under which we live, to the freedom which every man feels to engage in any useful pursuit according to his taste or inclination, and to the entire confidence that his person and property will be protected by the laws. But whatever may be the cause of this unparalleled growth in population, intelligence, and wealth, one thing is clear–that the Government must keep pace with the progress of the people. It must participate in their spirit of enterprise, and while it exacts obedience to the laws and restrains all unauthorized invasions of the rights of neighboring states, it should foster and protect home industry and lend its powerful strength to the improvement of such means of intercommunication as are necessary to promote our internal commerce and strengthen the ties which bind us together as a people.
It is not strange, however much it may be regretted, that such an exuberance of enterprise should cause some individuals to mistake change for progress and the invasion of the rights of others for national prowess and glory. The former are constantly agitating for some change in the organic law, or urging new and untried theories of human rights. The latter are ever ready to engage in any wild crusade against a neighboring people, regardless of the justice of the enterprise and without looking at the fatal consequences to ourselves and to the cause of popular government. Such expeditions, however, are often stimulated by mercenary individuals, who expect to share the plunder or profit of the enterprise without exposing themselves to danger, and are led on by some irresponsible foreigner, who abuses the hospitality of our own Government by, seducing the young and ignorant to join in his scheme of personal ambition or revenge under the false and delusive pretense of extending the area of freedom. These reprehensible aggressions but retard the true progress of our nation and tarnish its fair fame. They should therefore receive the indignant frowns of every good citizen who sincerely loves his country and takes a pride in its prosperity and honor.
Our Constitution, though not perfect, is doubtless the best that ever was formed. Therefore let every proposition to change it be well weighed and, if found beneficial, cautiously adopted. Every patriot will rejoice to see its authority so exerted as to advance the prosperity and honor of the nation, whilst he will watch with jealousy any attempt to mutilate this charter of our liberties or pervert its powers to acts of aggression or injustice. Thus shall conservatism and progress blend their harmonious action in preserving the form and spirit of the Constitution and at the same time carry forward the great improvements of the country with a rapidity and energy which freemen only can display.
In closing this my last annual communication, permit me, fellow-citizens, to congratulate you on the prosperous condition of our beloved country. Abroad its relations with all foreign powers are friendly, its rights are respected, and its high place in the family of nations cheerfully recognized. At home we enjoy an amount of happiness, public and private, which has probably never fallen to the lot of any other people. Besides affording to our own citizens a degree of prosperity of which on so large a scale I know of no other instance, our country is annually affording a refuge and a home to multitudes, altogether without example, from the Old World.
We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy Constitution and Government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our children. We must all consider it a great distinction and privilege to have been chosen by the people to bear a part in the administration of such a Government. Called by an unexpected dispensation to its highest trust at a season of embarrassment and alarm, I entered upon its arduous duties with extreme diffidence. I claim only to have discharged them to the best of an humble ability, with a single eye to the public good, and it is with devout gratitude in retiring from office that I leave the country in a state of peace and prosperity.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1852_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation, between the United States and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, signed at Montevideo on the 28th of August last.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _December 8, 1852_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, an additional article, signed in this city on the 16th ultimo, to the convention for the mutual delivery of criminals fugitives from justice in certain cases between the United States on the one part and Prussia and other States of the Germanic Confederation on the other part, concluded on the 15th of June, 1852.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 30th ultimo, requesting information in regard to the establishment of a new British colony in Central America, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 4, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the Senate’s resolution of the 3d instant, calling for information relative to a proposed tripartite convention on the subject of the island of Cuba, I transmit to the Senate a report from the Secretary of State and the papers which accompanied it.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In pursuance of the eleventh article of the treaty with the Chickasaw Indians signed on the 20th day of October, 1832, I herewith transmit a recommendation from the Secretary of the Treasury for the investment of a portion of the funds belonging to said nation, for the purpose of obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate to make the investment as therein recommended.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 12, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In reply to the resolution of your honorable body of the 5th instant, I herewith communicate a report of the Secretary of the Interior giving the information[27] required.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
[Footnote 27: Relating to the Mexican boundary commission.]
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate dated the 13th ultimo, requesting further information in regard to the imprisonment of the United States consul and of other American citizens in the castle at Acapulco, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it is accompanied.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
JANUARY 17, 1853.
WASHINGTON, _January 17, 1853_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit herewith a communication lately received at the Department of State from the minister of Her Most Catholic Majesty, accompanied by a letter of instructions from the Spanish Government relative to the case of the _Amistad_. In Mr. Calderon’s communication reference is had to former letters addressed by him to the Department of State on the same subject, copies of which are herewith transmitted, and an earnest wish is expressed that a final settlement of this long-pending claim should be made. The tone of the letter of instructions from Mr. Manuel Bertran de Lis is somewhat more peremptory than could be wished, but this circumstance will not, probably, prevent Congress from giving his suggestions the attention to which they may be entitled.
The claim of the Spanish Government on behalf of its subjects interested in the _Amistad_ was the subject of discussion during the Administration of President Tyler between the Spanish minister and Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State. In an elaborate letter of the latter, addressed to the Chevalier d’Argais on the 1st of September, 1841, the opinion is confidently maintained that the claim is unfounded. The Administration of President Polk took a different view of the matter. The justice of the claim was recognized in a letter from the Department of State to the Spanish minister of the 19th of March, 1847, and in his annual message of the same year the President recommended its payment.
Under these circumstances the attention of Congress is again invited to the subject. Respect to the Spanish Government demands that its urgent representation should be candidly and impartially weighed. If Congress should be of opinion that the claim is just, every consideration points to the propriety of its prompt recognition and payment, and if the two Houses should come to the opposite conclusion it is equally desirable that the result should be announced without unnecessary delay.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 18, 1853_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I have the honor herewith to transmit a report from the Secretary of the Interior, from which it appears that the efforts of that Department to induce the Indians remaining in Florida to migrate to the country assigned to their tribe west of the Mississippi have been entirely unsuccessful. The only alternative that now remains is either to compel them by force to comply with the treaty made with the tribe in May, 1832, by which they agreed to migrate within three years from that date, or allow the arrangement made with them in 1842, referred to in the Secretary’s report, by which they were permitted to remain in the temporary occupancy of a portion of the peninsula until the Government should see fit to remove them, to continue.
It can not be denied that the withholding so large a portion of her territory from settlement is a source of injury to the State of Florida; and although, ever since the arrangement above referred to, the Indians have manifested a desire to remain at peace with the whites, the presence of a people who may at any time and upon any real or fancied provocation be driven to acts of hostility is a source of constant anxiety and alarm to the inhabitants on that border.
There can be no doubt, also, that the welfare of the Indians would be promoted by their removal from a territory where frequent collisions between them and their more powerful neighbors are daily becoming more inevitable.
On the other hand, there is every reason to believe that any manifestation of a design to remove them by force or to take possession of the territory allotted to them would be immediately retaliated by acts of cruelty on the defenseless inhabitants.
The number of Indians now remaining in the State is, it is true, very inconsiderable (not exceeding, it is believed, 500), but owing to the extent of the country occupied by them and its adaptation to their peculiar mode of warfare, a force very disproportioned to their numbers would be necessary to capture them, or even to protect the white settlements from their incursions. The military force now stationed in that State would be inadequate to these objects, and if it should be determined to enforce their removal or to survey the territory allotted to them some addition to it would be necessary, as the Government has but a small force available for that service. Additional appropriations for the support of the Army would also, in that event, be necessary.
For these reasons I have deemed it proper to submit the whole matter to Congress, for such action as they may deem best.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 19, 1853_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In answer to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 27th ultimo, requesting information relative to the claims on Spain in the cases of the bark _Georgiana_ and the brig _Susan Loud, I_ transmit a report from the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 21, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 10th instant, requesting certain correspondence relative to Central America, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 24, 1853_.
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
In obedience to a resolution of your honorable body of December 27, 1852, in reference to claims of custom-house officers for additional pay, I have the honor herewith to transmit a report from the Secretary of the Treasury giving the desired information; and in answer to the seventh interrogatory, asking “whether in my opinion further legislation is necessary or advisable either to protect the Treasury from unjust claims or to secure to the claimants their just rights,” I would state that in my opinion no further legislation is necessary to effect either object. My views on this subject will be more fully seen on reference to an opinion given by me to the Secretary of the Treasury, a copy of which is annexed to his report.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 24, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant, relative to the award of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, of France, in the case of the brig _General Armstrong_, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents by which it was accompanied.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 13th instant, requesting a copy of correspondence and other documents relative to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the territory claimed by the Mosquito Indians, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State, to whom the resolution was referred.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _January 27, 1853_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
Since my last message to your honorable body, communicating a report from the Treasury Department, in answer to your resolution of the 3d instant [27th ultimo?], in reference to the compensation of weighers and gangers, further communications on that subject have been received from New Orleans, which have just been reported to me by the Secretary of the Treasury and which I deem it my duty to communicate to the House.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit herewith to the Senate in a new draft the convention with the Swiss Confederation, originally negotiated at Berne and concluded in that city on the 25th of November, 1850. On the 7th of March, 1851, it was considered by the Senate of the United States, whose assent was given to it with certain amendments, as will appear from the Journal of the Senate of that day. The convention was sent back to Switzerland with these alterations, which were taken into consideration by the Government of that Confederation, whose action in the premises will be learned by a letter from its President of the 5th of July, 1852.
The modifications which the Government of the Swiss Confederation are desirous of introducing into the amendments made by the Senate of the United States and the articles affected by them are not inconsistent with the object and spirit of those amendments, and appear to me to proceed upon a reasonable principle of compromise.
I have thought it expedient, in submitting them to the Senate with a view to their advice and consent to the ratification of the treaty in its present form, to have the entire instrument taken into a continuous draft, as well the portions–by far the greater part–already assented to by the Senate as the modifications proposed by the Government of the Swiss Confederation in reference to these amendments. In preparing the new draft a few slight alterations have been made in the modifications proposed by the Swiss Government.
Should the convention receive the approbation of the Senate in its present form, it will be immediately transmitted to Switzerland for ratification by the Swiss Confederation.
The delays which have taken place in the negotiation of this treaty have been principally caused by the want of a resident diplomatic agent of the United States at Berne, and are among the reasons for which an appropriation for a charge d’affaires to that Government has recently, by my direction, been recommended in a letter from the Department of State to the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 3, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of the 11th ultimo, asking for information with regard to the execution of the postal convention between the United States and Great Britain, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 7, 1853_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
Having in my message to Congress at the opening of the session adverted to the pending negotiations between this Government and that of Great Britain relative to the fisheries and commercial reciprocity with the British American Provinces, I transmit for the information of Congress the accompanying report from the Department of State on the present state of the negotiations, and I respectfully invite the attention of the two Houses to the suggestion in the latter part of the report.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 9, 1853_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I herewith transmit a communication from the Secretary of the Navy, accompanied by the first part of Lieutenant Herndon’s report of the exploration of the valley of the Amazon and its tributaries, made by him in connection with lieutenant Gardner Gibbon, under instructions from the Navy Department.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 14, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I herewith communicate to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a convention on the subject of the extradition of fugitives from justice between the United States and Belgium, concluded and signed in this city on the 11th instant by the respective plenipotentiaries.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1853_.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, embodying the substance of recent communications made by the minister of Her Britannic Majesty to the Department of State on the subject of the interoceanic canal by the Nicaragua route, which formed the chief object of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain of the 19th April, 1850, and the relations of Great Britain to the protectorate of Mosquito, which she expresses herself desirous of relinquishing on terms consistent with her honorable engagements to the Indians of that name.
In consequence of these communications and other considerations stated in the report, it is deemed advisable by the Department that our diplomatic relations with the States of Central America should be placed on a higher and more efficient footing, and this measure meets my approbation. The whole subject is one of so much delicacy and importance that I should have preferred, so near the close of my Administration, not to make it the subject of an Executive communication. But inasmuch as the measure proposed can not, even if deemed expedient by my successor, take effect for near a twelvemonth unless an appropriation is made by this Congress, I have thought it my duty to submit the report of the Department to the two Houses. The importance of the measure seemed to require an exposition somewhat in detail of the grounds on which it is recommended.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, with the view to its ratification, a convention which was yesterday concluded between the United States and Great Britain for the establishment of international copyright.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 19, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 14th instant, relative to the fisheries on the coasts of Florida, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In compliance with your resolution of the 19th of February instant, I herewith communicate a report from the Secretary of War, containing the report of Lieutenant Meigs, of the Engineer Corps, on the surveys, projects, and estimates for supplying the cities of Washington and Georgetown with an unfailing and abundant supply of water.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 21, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I have the honor to transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Treasury of the 21st instant, in reference to the reinvestment of certain moneys belonging to the Chickasaw Nation of Indians which will come into the Treasury during the succeeding vacation of the Senate, and I respectfully concur in the recommendation made by the Secretary.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 23, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for advice and consent with a view to ratification, a convention between the United States and Her Britannic Majesty for the adjustment of certain claims of citizens of the United States on the British Government and of British subjects on the Government of the United States, signed in London on the 8th instant. Although it is stipulated by the terms of the first article of the convention that the commissioner on the part of this Government shall be appointed by the President of the United States, it is not understood that this stipulation was intended to dispense with the concurrence of the Senate in such appointment.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 25, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a consular convention concluded in this city on the 23d instant between the United States and His Majesty the Emperor of the French.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 26, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I transmit a copy of a proclamation of yesterday, which I deemed it advisable to issue, relative to an extraordinary session of the Senate on the 4th of March next.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 17th January last, requesting information in regard to the fisheries on the coasts of the British North American Provinces, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State and the documents which accompanied it.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
WASHINGTON, _February 28, 1853_.
_To the Senate of the United States_:
I herewith transmit, for the consideration and advice of the Senate, a treaty recently entered into with the Apache Indians in New Mexico by Colonel Stunner and Mr. Greiner, acting on behalf of the United States, together with the letter of Colonel Sumner on the subject of the treaty and reports thereon from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
PROCLAMATION.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
The attention of the President having been called to the proceedings of Congress at the close of its session on the 4th of March, 1851, from which it appears that the constitutional term of that body was held not to have expired until 12 o’clock at noon of that day, and a notice having been issued, agreeably to former usage, to convene the Senate at 11 o’clock a. m. on the 4th of March next, it is apparent that such call is in conflict with the decision aforesaid:
Now, therefore, as well for the purpose of removing all doubt as to the legality of such call as of establishing a precedent of what is deemed a proper mode of convening the Senate, I, Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, have considered it to be my duty to issue this my proclamation, revoking said call and hereby declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction of business at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on Friday, the 4th day of March next, at 12 o’clock at noon of that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required to take notice.
[SEAL.]
Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at Washington, this 25th day of February, A.D. 1853, and of the Independence Of the United States the seventy-seventh.
MILLARD FILLMORE.
By the President:
EDWARD EVERETT,
_Secretary of State_.