SPECIAL MESSAGES.
Reading edition
Washington, December 14, 1825.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice with regard to their ratification, the following treaties:
1. A treaty between the United States and the Great and Little Osage tribes of Indians, concluded at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, on the 2d day of June last, by William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, commissioner on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the same tribes, duly authorized and empowered by their respective tribes or nations.
2. A treaty between the United States and the Kanzas Nation of Indians, concluded at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, on the 3d day of June last, by William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, commissioner on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the said nation, duly authorized and empowered by the same.
3. A convention between the United States and the Shawnee Nation of Indians residing within the State of Missouri, signed at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, on the 7th day of November last, by William Clark, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and the chiefs and headmen of the said nation, duly authorized and empowered by the same.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 15, 1825.
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith to the Senate, for their consideration in reference to its ratification, a general convention of peace, amity, commerce, and navigation between the United States of America and the Federation of the Centre of America, signed at this place on the 5th instant by the Secretary of State and the minister plenipotentiary from the Republic of Central America to the United States.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 26, 1825
To the Senate of the United States:
In the message to both Houses of Congress at the commencement of the session it was mentioned that the Governments of the Republics of Colombia, of Mexico, and of Central America had severally invited the Government of the United States to be represented at the Congress of American nations to be assembled at Panama to deliberate upon objects of peculiar concernment to this hemisphere, and that this invitation had been accepted.
Although this measure was deemed to be within the constitutional competency of the Executive, I have not thought proper to take any step in it before ascertaining that my opinion of its expediency will concur with that of both branches of the Legislature, first, by the decision of the Senate upon the nominations to be laid before them, and, secondly, by the sanction of both Houses to the appropriations, without which it can not be carried into effect.
A report from the Secretary of State and copies of the correspondence with the South American Governments on this subject since the invitation given by them are herewith transmitted to the Senate. They will disclose the objects of importance which are expected to form a subject of discussion at this meeting, in which interests of high importance to this Union are involved. It will be seen that the United States neither intend nor are expected to take part in any deliberations of a belligerent character; that the motive of their attendance is neither to contract alliances nor to engage in any undertaking or project importing hostility to any other nation.
But the Southern American nations, in the infancy of their independence, often find themselves in positions with reference to other countries with the principles applicable to which, derivable from the state of independence itself, they have not been familiarized by experience. The result of this has been that sometimes in their intercourse with the United States they have manifested dispositions to reserve a right of granting special favors and privileges to the Spanish nation as the price of their recognition. At others they have actually established duties and impositions operating unfavorably to the United States to the advantage of other European powers, and sometimes they have appeared to consider that they might interchange among themselves mutual concessions of exclusive favor, to which neither European powers nor the United States should be admitted. In most of these cases their regulations unfavorable to us have yielded to friendly expostulation and remonstrance. But it is believed to be of infinite moment that the principles of a liberal commercial intercourse should be exhibited to them, and urged with disinterested and friendly persuasion upon them when all assembled for the avowed purpose of consulting together upon the establishment of such principles as may have an important bearing upon their future welfare.
The consentaneous adoption of principles of maritime neutrality, and favorable to the navigation of peace, and commerce in time of war, will also form a subject of consideration to this Congress. The doctrine that free ships make free goods and the restrictions of reason upon the extent of blockades may be established by general agreement with far more ease, and perhaps with less danger, by the general engagement to adhere to them concerted at such a meeting, than by partial treaties or conventions with each of the nations separately. An agreement between all the parties represented at the meeting that each will guard by its own means against the establishment of any future European colony within its borders may be found advisable. This was more than two years since announced by my predecessor to the world as a principle resulting from the emancipation of both the American continents. It may be so developed to the new southern nations that they will all feel it as an essential appendage to their independence.
There is yet another subject upon which, without entering into any treaty, the moral influence of the United States may perhaps be exerted with beneficial consequences at such a meeting-the advancement of religious liberty. Some of the southern nations are even yet so far under the dominion of prejudice that they have incorporated with their political constitutions an exclusive church, without toleration of any other than the dominant sect. The abandonment of this last badge of religious bigotry and oppression may be pressed more effectually by the united exertions of those who concur in the principles of freedom of conscience upon those who are yet to be convinced of their justice and wisdom than by the solitary efforts of a minister to any one of the separate Governments.
The indirect influence which the United States may exercise upon any projects or purposes originating in the war in which the southern Republics are still engaged, which might seriously affect the interests of this Union, and the good offices by which the United States may ultimately contribute to bring that war to a speedier termination, though among the motives which have convinced me of the propriety of complying with this invitation, are so far contingent and eventual that it would be improper to dwell upon them more at large.
In fine, a decisive inducement with me for acceding to the measure is to show by this token of respect to the southern Republics the interest that we take in their welfare and our disposition to comply with their wishes. Having been the first to recognize their independence, and sympathized with them so far as was compatible with our neutral duties in all their struggles and sufferings to acquire it, we have laid the foundation of our future intercourse with them in the broadest principles of reciprocity and the most cordial feelings of fraternal friendship. To extend those principles to all our commercial relations with them and to hand down that friendship to future ages is congenial to the highest policy of the Union, as it will be to that of all those nations and their posterity. In the confidence that these sentiments will meet the approbation of the Senate, I nominate Richard C. Anderson, of Kentucky, and John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, to be envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary to the assembly of American nations at Panama, and William B. Rochester, of New York, to be secretary to the mission.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 27, 1825
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 20th instant, I now transmit a copy of the message of President Jefferson to both Houses of Congress on the 18th of January, 1803, recommending an exploring expedition across this continent.[001] It will be perceived on the perusal of this message that it was confidential, for which reason the copy of it is now communicated in the same manner, leaving to the judgment of the House to determine whether any adequate reason yet remains for withholding it from publication. I possess no other document or information in relation to the same subject which I consider as coming within the scope of the resolution of the House.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 27, 1825 To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 20th instant, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with copies of such portions of the correspondence between the United States and Great Britain on the subject of the convention for suppressing the slave trade as have not heretofore been, and which can be communicated without detriment to the public interest.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, December 27, 1825
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 23d instant, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with the correspondence between the Department of War and Generals Pinckney and Jackson, and all the instructions given to the said Generals Pinckney and Jackson relating to the treaty with the Creek Indians, afterwards made at Fort Jackson, so far as the same can be communicated without prejudice to the public interest.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 3, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 23d of last month, I communicate herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with the documents touching the treaty with the Cherokee Indians, ratified in 1819, by which the Cherokee title to a portion of lands within the limits of North Carolina was extinguished.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 9, 1826
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 3d instant, I communicate herewith, in confidence, a report[002] from the Secretary of State, with translations of the conventions and documents, containing information of the nature referred to in the said resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 9, 1826
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate, for their consideration and advice with regard to the ratification, the following treaties:
1. A treaty signed at the Poncar village at the mouth of White Point Creek, the first below the Qui Carre River, on the 9th of June, 1825, by Brigadier-General Henry Atkinson and Major Benjamin O'Fallon, commissioners on the part of the United States, and certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Poncar tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
2. A treaty signed at Fort Look-out, hear the Three Rivers of the Sioux Pass, on the 22d June, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Teton, Yancton, and Yanctonies bands of the Sioux tribe of Indians on the part of the said bands.
3. A treaty signed at the mouth of the Teton River on the 5th of July, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Sione and Ogalla bands of Sioux Indians, and on the 12th of July, 1825, at Camp Hidden Creek, by chiefs and warriors of the Siounes of the Fireheart's band on the part of their respective bands.
4. A treaty signed at the mouth of the Teton River on the 6th of July, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Chayenne tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
5. A treaty signed at the Auricara village on the 16th July, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Hunkpapas band of the Sioux tribe of Indians on the part of said band.
6. A treaty signed at the Ricara village on the 18th July, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Ricara tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
7. A treaty signed at the Mandan village on the 30th of July, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs and warriors of the Mandan tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
8. A treaty signed at the lower Mandan village on the 30th of July, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs and warriors of the Belantse Etea, or Minnetaree, tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
9. A treaty signed at the Mandan village on the 4th of August, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs and warriors of the Crow tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
10. A treaty signed at Fort Atkinson, Council Bluffs, on the 25th of September, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Ottoe and Missouri tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
11. A treaty signed at Fort Atkinson, Council Bluffs, on the 30th of September, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Pawnee tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
12. A treaty signed at Fort Atkinson, Council Bluffs, on the 6th of October, 1825, by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and by certain chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Maha tribe of Indians on the part of said tribe.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 10, 1826
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit to the Senate a treaty signed at Prairie des Chiens, in the Territory of Michigan, on the 19th of August, 1825, by William Clark and Lewis Cass, commissioners on the part of the United States, and certain chiefs and warriors of the Sioux, Chippeways, Socs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, Menominies, Ottoways, Potawatamies, and Ioway tribes of Indians on the part of said tribes, and I request the advice of the Senate with regard to its ratification.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 20, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 23d ultimo, I transmit herewith reports[003] from the Secretary of War and the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the statements desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 23, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 27th December last, requesting a statement of moneys paid out of the public Treasury to the late President of the United States as compensation for his services in various other offices which he has filled under the Government of the United States, and on other accounts, and also of claims for allowances made by him upon the Government which have been disallowed, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Treasury, with documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 24, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th December last, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the documents and proceedings of the naval courts-martial in the cases of Captain Charles Stewart and of Lieutenants Joshua R. Sands and William M. Hunter.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 30, 1826
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith to the Senate, for their consideration and advice with regard to their ratification-
1. A treaty concluded on the 10th day of August, 1825, at Council Grove by Benjamin H. Reeves, George C. Sibley, and Thomas Mather, commissioners on the part of the United States, and certain chiefs and headmen of the Great and Little Osage tribes of Indians on the part of the said tribe.
2. A treaty concluded on the 16th day of August, 1825, at the Sora Kanzas Creek by the same commissioners on the part of the United States and certain chiefs and headmen of the Kanzas tribe or nation of Indians on the part of said tribe.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 31, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 18th instant, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence with the British Government, relating to the boundary of the United States on the Pacific Ocean, desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, January 31, 1826
To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith to the Senate, for their consideration and advice with regard to its ratification, a treaty concluded by the Secretary of War, duly authorized thereto, with the chiefs and headmen of the Creek Nation, deputed by them, and now in this city.
It has been agreed upon, and is presented to the consideration of the Senate as a substitute for the treaty signed at the Indian Springs on the 12th of February last. The circumstances under which this received on the 3d of March last your advice and consent to its ratification are known to you. It was transmitted to me from the Senate on the 5th of March, and ratified in full confidence yielded to the advice and consent of the Senate, under a firm belief, founded on the journal of the commissioners of the United States and on the express statements in the letter of one of them of the 16th of February to the then Secretary of War, that it had been concluded with a large majority of the chiefs of the Creek Nation and with a reasonable prospect of immediate acquiescence by the remainder.
This expectation has not merely been disappointed. The first measures for carrying the treaty into execution had scarcely been taken when the two principal chiefs who had signed it fell victims to the exasperation of the great mass of the nation, and their families and dependents, far from being able to execute the engagements on their part, fled for life, safety, and subsistence from the territories which they had assumed to cede, to our own. Yet, in this fugitive condition, and while subsisting on the bounty of the United States, they have been found advancing pretensions to receive exclusively to themselves the whole of the sums stipulated by the commissioners of the United States in payment for all the lands of the Creek Nation which were ceded by the terms of the treaty. And they have claimed the stipulation of the eighth article, that the United States would "protect the emigrating party against the encroachments, hostilities, and impositions of the whites and of all others," as an engagement by which the United States were bound to become the instruments of their vengeance and to inflict upon the majority of the Creek Nation the punishment of Indian retribution to gratify the vindictive fury of an impotent and helpless minority of their own tribe.
In this state of things the question is not whether the treaty of the 12th of February last shall or shall not be executed. So far as the United States were or could be bound by it I have been anxiously desirous of carrying it into execution. But, like other treaties, its fulfillment depends upon the will not of one but of both the parties to it. The parties on the face of the treaty are the United States and the Creek Nation, and however desirous one of them may be to give it effect, this wish must prove abortive while the other party refuses to perform its stipulations and disavows its obligations. By the refusal of the Creek Nation to perform their part of the treaty the United States are absolved from all its engagements on their part, and the alternative left them is either to resort to measures of war to secure by force the advantages stipulated to them in the treaty or to attempt the adjustment of the interest by a new compact. In the preference dictated by the nature of our institutions and by the sentiments of justice and humanity which the occasion requires for measures of peace the treaty herewith transmitted has been concluded, and is submitted to the decision of the Senate. After exhausting every effort in our power to obtain the acquiescence of the Creek Nation to the treaty of the 12th of February, I entertained for some time the hope that their assent might at least have been given to a new treaty, by which all their lands within the State of Georgia should have been ceded. This has also proved impracticable, and although the excepted portion is of comparatively small amount and importance, I have assented to its exception so far as to place it before the Senate only from a conviction that between it and a resort to the forcible expulsion of the Creeks from their habitations and lands within the State of Georgia there was no middle term.
The deputation with which this treaty has been concluded consists of the principal chiefs of the nation-able not only to negotiate but to carry into effect the stipulations to which they have agreed. There is a deputation also here from the small party which undertook to contract for the whole nation at the treaty of the 12th of February, but the number of which, according to the information collected by General Gaines, does not exceed 400. They represent themselves, indeed, to be far more numerous, but whatever their number may be their interests have been provided for in the treaty now submitted. Their subscriptions to it would also have been received but for unreasonable pretensions raised by them after all the arrangements of the treaty had been agreed upon and it was actually signed. Whatever their merits may have been in the facility with which they ceded all the lands of their nation within the State of Georgia, their utter inability to perform the engagements which they so readily contracted and the exorbitancy of their demands when compared with the inefficiency of their own means of performance leave them with no claims upon the United States other than of impartial and rigorous justice.
In referring to the impressions under which I ratified the treaty of the 12th of February last, I do not deem it necessary to decide upon the propriety of the manner in which it was negotiated. Deeply regretting the recriminations and recriminations to which these events have given rise, I believe the public interest will best be consulted by discarding them altogether from the discussion of the subject. The great body of the Creek Nation inflexibly refuse to acknowledge or to execute that treaty. Upon this ground it will be set aside, should the Senate advise and consent to the ratification of that now communicated, without looking back to the means by which the other was effected. And in the adjustment of the terms of the present treaty I have been peculiarly anxious to dispense a measure of great liberality to both parties of the Creek Nation, rather than to extort from them a bargain of which the advantages on our part could only be purchased by hardship on theirs.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 1, 1826
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 50th ultimo, I communicate herewith, in confidence, a report[004] from the Secretary of State, with the documents, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 7, 1826.
To the Senate of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of the 15th of December last, I communicate herewith reports from the Secretaries of the Treasury and War and from the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with documents, relating to the lead mines and salt springs, containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 14, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 12th ultimo, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with the statements relating to naval courts of inquiry and courts-martial since the 1st January, 1824, requested by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 15, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the late Secretary of War to the late President of the United States, with documents, containing information requested by a resolution of the House of April 10, 1824, relating to the purchases of real estate in behalf of the United States within the territorial limits of any State since the 4th July, 1776.
These papers were prepared during the last session of Congress, but by some accident were not then communicated to the House.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 16, 1826
To the Senate of the United States:
In answer to the two resolutions of the Senate of the 15th instant, marked executive, and which I have received, I state respectfully that all the communications from me to the Senate relating to the congress at Panama have been made, like all other communications upon executive business, in confidence. and most of them in compliance with a resolution of the Senate requesting them confidentially. Believing that the established usage of free confidential communication between the Executive and the Senate ought for the public interest to be preserved unimpaired, I deem it my indispensable duty to leave to the Senate itself the decision of a question involving a departure hitherto, so far as I am informed, without example from that usage, and upon the motives for which, not being informed of them, I do not feel myself competent to decide.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 17, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of the Navy, with a further document, prepared in compliance with a resolution of the House of the 10th of April, 1824, and containing information relating to purchasers of real estate in behalf of the United States within the territorial limits of any State since the 4th of July, 1776.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, February 17, 1826
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit herewith to both Houses of Congress a letter from the Secretary of War, with a report from the Ordnance Department, relating to the site of the arsenal of the United States at Augusta, in Georgia, and with regard to which the interposition of the legislative authority is submitted to your consideration as desirable.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 1, 1826
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I communicate to Congress a letter from the Secretary of War, together with a representation from Colonel Brooke, relating to the present condition of the Indians in Florida, and which I recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 1, 1826
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
A resolution of the House of Representatives adopted at the first session of the Eighteenth Congress, and bearing date the 6th of May, 1824, requested the President of the United States to lay before the House at their then next session a detailed report of the system and plan of fortifications then contemplated and recommended by the Board of Engineers, with various particulars specified in the resolution; and on the 5th of January last a further resolution was adopted requesting similar information. I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of War, with a letter from the Chief Engineer, and documents, containing, so far as it has been found practicable to obtain and compile it, the information requested by these resolutions.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 5, 1826.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I now submit to the consideration of Congress the propriety of making the appropriation for carrying into effect the appointment of a mission to the congress at Panama.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 7, 1826.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I communicate to both Houses of Congress a letter from the Secretary of War, together with copies of one to him from the Senators of the State of Maryland, and several other documents, relating to a claim of that State upon the Government of the United States for interest upon certain expenditures during the late war, which I the more readily recommend to the favorable and early consideration of Congress inasmuch as the principle upon which the claim is advanced appears to have been settled by the act of Congress of 3d March, 1825, authorizing the payment of interest due to the State of Virginia.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 8, 1826.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
I transmit to the House of Representatives a report from the Secretary of State, with the proceedings of the court and marshal of the United States for the district of Alabama, and other documents, in relation to the cargoes of certain slave ships, the Constitution, Louisa. and Marino. containing the information requested by a resolution of the House of February 16, 1825.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 8, 1826.
To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of the 10th ultimo, requesting information relating to the proceedings of the joint commission of indemnities due under the award of the Emperor of Russia for slaves and other private property carried away by the British forces in violation of the treaty of Ghent, I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State and documents containing the information desired by the resolution.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 15, 1826.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
I communicate to Congress a letter from the Secretary of War and copies of a resolution of that legislature of the State of Georgia, with a correspondence of the governor of that State, relating to the running and establishing of the line between that State and Florida, which I recommend to the favorable consideration of Congress.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 15, 1826. To the House of Representatives of the United States:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of the 5th ultimo, requesting me to cause to be laid before the House so much of the correspondence between the Government of the United States and the new States of America, or their ministers, respecting the proposed congress or meeting of diplomatic agents at Panama, and such information respecting the general character of that expected congress as may be in my possession and as may, in my opinion, be communicated without prejudice to the public interest, and also to inform the House, so far as in my opinion the public interest may allow, in regard to what objects the agents of the United States are expected to take part in the deliberations of that congress, I now transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of State, with the correspondence and information requested by the resolution.
With regard to the objects in which the agents of the United States are expected to take part in the deliberations of that congress, I deem it proper to premise that these objects did not form the only, nor even the principal, motive for my acceptance of the invitation. My first and greatest inducement was to meet in the spirit of kindness and friendship an overture made in that spirit by three sister Republics of this hemisphere.
The great revolution in human affairs which has brought into existence, nearly at the same time, eight sovereign and independent nations in our own quarter of the globe has placed the United States in a situation not less novel and scarcely less interesting than that in which they had found themselves by their own transition from a cluster of colonies to a nation of sovereign States. The deliverance of the Southern American Republics from the oppression under which they had been so long afflicted was hailed with great unanimity by the people of this Union as among the most auspicious events of the age. On the 4th of May, 1822, an act of Congress made an appropriation of $100,000 "for such missions to the independent nations on the American continent as the President of the United States might deem proper." In exercising the authority recognized by this act my predecessor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate appointed successively ministers plenipotentiary to the Republics of Colombia, Buenos Ayres, Chili, and Mexico. Unwilling to raise among the fraternity of freedom questions of precedency and etiquette, which even the European monarchs had of late found it necessary in a great measure to discard, he dispatched these ministers to Colombia, Buenos Ayres, and Chili without exacting from those Republics, as by the ancient principles of political primogeniture he might have done, that the compliment of a plenipotentiary mission should have been paid first by them to the United States. The instructions, prepared under his direction, to Mr. Anderson, the first of our ministers to the southern continent, contain at much length the general principles upon which he thought it desirable that our relations, political and commercial, with these our new neighbors should be established for their benefit and ours and that of the future ages of our posterity. A copy of so much of these instructions as relates to these general subjects is among the papers now transmitted to the House. Similar instructions were furnished to the ministers appointed to Buenos Ayres, Chili, and Mexico, and the system of social intercourse which it was the purpose of those missions to establish from the first opening of our diplomatic relations with those rising nations is the most effective exposition of the principles upon which the invitation to the congress at Panama has been accepted by me, as well as of the objects of negotiation at that meeting, in which, it was that our plenipotentiaries should take part.
The House will perceive that even at the date of these instructions the first treaties between some of the southern Republics had been concluded, by which they had stipulated among themselves this diplomatic assembly at Panama. And it will be seen with what caution, so far as it might concern the policy of the United States, and at the same time with what frankness and good will toward those nations, he gave countenance to their design of inviting the United States to this high assembly for consultation upon American interests. It was not considered a conclusive reason for declining this invitation that the proposal for assembling such a Congress had not first been made by ourselves. It had sprung from the urgent, immediate, and momentous common interests of the great communities struggling for independence, and, as it were, quickening into life. From them the proposition to us appeared respectful and friendly; from us to them it could scarcely have been made without exposing ourselves to suspicions of purposes of ambition, if not of domination, more suited to rouse resistance and excite distrust than to conciliate favor and friendship. The first and paramount principle upon which it was deemed wise and just to lay the corner stone of all our future relations with them was disinterestedness; the next was cordial good will to them; the third was a claim of fair and equal reciprocity. Under these impressions when the invitation was formally and earnestly given, had it even been doubtful whether any of the objects proposed for consideration and discussion at the Congress were such as that immediate and important interests of the United States would be affected by the issue, I should, nevertheless, have determined so far as it depended upon me to have accepted the invitation and to have appointed ministers to attend the meeting. The proposal itself implied that the Republics by whom it was made believed that important interests of ours or of theirs rendered our attendance there desirable. They had given us notice that in the novelty of their situation and in the spirit of deference to our experience they would be pleased to have the benefit of our friendly counsel. To meet the temper with which this proposal was made with a cold repulse was not thought congenial to that warm interest in their welfare with which the people and Government of the Union had hitherto gone hand in hand through the whole progress of their revolution. To insult them by a refusal of their overture, and then invite them to a similar assembly to be called by ourselves, was an expedient which never presented itself to the mind. I would have sent ministers to the meeting had it been merely to give them such advice as they might have desired, even with reference to their own interests, not involving ours. I would have sent them had it been merely to explain and set forth to them our reasons for declining any proposal of specific measures to which they might desire our concurrence, but which we might deem incompatible with our interests or our duties. In the intercourse between nations temper is a missionary perhaps more powerful than talent. Nothing was ever lost by kind treatment. Nothing can be gained by sullen repulses and aspiring pretensions.
But objects of the highest importance, not only to the future welfare of the whole human race, but bearing directly upon the special interests of this Union, will engage the deliberations of the congress of Panama whether we are represented there or not. Others, if we are represented, may be offered by our plenipotentiaries for consideration having in view both these great results-our own interests and the improvement of the condition of man upon earth. It may be that in the lapse of many centuries no other opportunity so favorable will be presented to the Government of the United States to subserve the benevolent purposes of Divine Providence; to dispense the promised blessings of the Redeemer of Mankind; to promote the prevalence in future ages of peace on earth and good will to man, as will now be placed in their power by participating in the deliberations of this congress.
Among the topics enumerated in official papers published by the Republic of Colombia, and adverted to in the correspondence now communicated to the House, as intended to be presented for discussion at Panama, there is scarcely one in which the result of the meeting will not deeply affect the interests of the United States. Even those in which the belligerent States alone will take an active part will have a powerful effect upon the state of our relations with the American, and probably with the principal European, States. Were it merely that we might be correctly and speedily informed of the proceedings of the congress and of the progress and issue of their negotiations, I should hold it advisable that we should have an accredited agency with them, placed in such confidential relations with the other members as would insure the authenticity and the safe and early transmission of its reports. Of the same enumerated topics are the preparation of a manifesto setting forth to the world the justice of their cause and the relations they desire to hold with other Christian powers, and to form a convention of navigation and commerce applicable both to the confederated States and to their allies.
It will be within the recollection of the House that immediately after the close of the war of our independence a measure closely analogous to this congress of Panama was adopted by the Congress of our Confederation, and for purposes of precisely the same character. Three commissioners with plenipotentiary powers were appointed to negotiate treaties of amity, navigation, and commerce with all the principal powers of Europe. They met and resided for that purpose about one year at Paris, and the only result of their negotiations at that time was the first treaty between the United States and Prussia-memorable in the diplomatic annals of the world, and precious as a monument of the principles, in relation to commerce and maritime warfare, with which our country entered upon her career as a member of the great family of independent nations. This treaty, prepared in conformity with the instructions of the American plenipotentiaries, consecrated three fundamental principles of the foreign intercourse which the Congress of that period were desirous of establishing: First, equal reciprocity and the mutual stipulation of the privileges of the most favored nation in the commercial exchanges of peace; secondly, the abolition of private war upon the ocean, and thirdly, restrictions favorable to neutral commerce upon belligerent practices with regard to contraband of war and blockades. A painful, it may be said a calamitous, experience of more than forty years has demonstrated the deep importance of these same principles to the peace and prosperity of this nation and to the welfare of all maritime States, and has illustrated the profound wisdom with which they were assumed as cardinal points of the policy of the Union.
At that time in the infancy of their political existence, under the influence of those principles of liberty and of right so congenial to the cause in which they had just fought and triumphed, they were able but to obtain the sanction of one great and philosophical, though absolute, sovereign in Europe to their liberal and enlightened principles. They could obtain no more. Since then a political hurricane has gone over three-fourths of the civilized portions of the earth, the desolation of which it may with confidence be expected is passing away, leaving at least the American atmosphere purified and refreshed. And now at this propitious moment the new-born nations of this hemisphere, assembling by their representatives at the 1sthmus between its two continents to settle the principles of their future international intercourse with other nations and with us, ask in this great exigency for our advice upon those very fundamental maxims which we from our cradle at first proclaimed and partially succeeded to introduce into the code of national law.
Without recurring to that total prostration of all neutral and commercial rights which marked the progress of the late European wars, and which finally involved the United States in them, and adverting only to our political relations with these American nations, it is observable that while in all other respects those relations have been uniformly and without exception of the most friendly and mutually satisfactory character, the only causes of difference and dissension between us and them which ever have arisen originated in those never-failing fountains of discord and irritation-discriminations of commercial favor to other nations, licentious privateers, and paper blockades. I can not without doing injustice to the Republics of Buenos Ayres and Colombia forbear to acknowledge the candid and conciliatory spirit with which they have repeatedly yielded to our friendly representations and remonstrances on these subjects-in repealing discriminative laws which operated to our disadvantage and in revoking the commissions of their privateers, to which Colombia has added the magnanimity of making reparation for unlawful captures by some of her cruisers and of assenting in the midst of war to treaty stipulations favorable to neutral navigation. But the recurrence of these occasions of complaint has rendered the renewal of the discussions which result in the removal of them necessary, while in the meantime injuries are sustained by merchants and other individuals of the United States which can not be repaired, and the remedy lingers in overtaking the pernicious operation of the mischief. The settlement of general principles pervading with equal efficacy all the American States can alone put an end to these evils, and can alone be accomplished at the proposed assembly.
If it be true that the noblest treaty of peace ever mentioned in history is that by which the Carthagenians were bound to abolish the practice of sacrificing their own children because it was stipulated in favor of human nature. I can not exaggerate to myself the unfading glory with which these United States will go forth in the memory of future ages if by their friendly counsel, by their moral influence, by the power of argument and persuasion alone they can prevail upon the American nations at Panama to stipulate by general agreement among themselves, and so far as any of them may be concerned, the perpetual abolition of private war upon the ocean. And if we can not yet flatter ourselves that this may be accomplished, as advances toward it the establishment of the principle that the friendly flag shall cover the cargo, the curtailment of contraband of war, and the proscription of fictitious paper blockades-engagements which we may reasonably hope will not prove impracticable-will, if successfully inculcated, redound proportionally to our honor and drain the fountain of many a future sanguinary war.
The late President of the United States, in his message to Congress of the 2d December, 1823, while announcing the negotiation then pending with Russia, relating to the northwest coast of this continent, observed that the occasion of the discussions to which that incident had given rise had been taken for asserting as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States were involved that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they had assumed and maintained, were thenceforward not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power. The principle had first been assumed in that negotiation with Russia. It rested upon a course of reasoning equally simple and conclusive. With the exception of the existing European colonies, which it was in nowise intended to disturb, the two continents consisted of several sovereign and independent nations, whose territories covered their whole surface. By this their independent condition the United States enjoyed the right of commercial intercourse with every part of their possessions. To attempt the establishment of a colony in those possessions would be to usurp to the exclusion of others a commercial intercourse which was the common possession of all. It could not be done without encroaching upon existing rights of the United States. The Government of Russia has never disputed these positions nor manifested the slightest dissatisfaction at their having been taken. Most of the new American Republics have declared their entire assent to them, and they now propose, among the subjects of consultation at Panama, to take into consideration the means of making effectual the assertion of that principle, as well as the means of resisting interference from abroad with the domestic concerns of the American Governments.
In alluding to these means it would obviously be premature at this time to anticipate that which is offered merely as matter for consultation, or to pronounce upon those measures which have been or may be suggested. The purpose of this Government is to concur in none which would import hostility to Europe or justly excite resentment in any of her States. Should it be deemed advisable to contract any conventional engagement on this topic, our views would extend no further than to a mutual pledge of the parties to the compact to maintain the principle in application to its own territory, and to permit no colonial lodgments or establishment of European jurisdiction upon its own soil; and with respect to the obtrusive interference from abroad-if its future character may be inferred from that which has been and perhaps still is exercised in more than one of the new States-a joint declaration of its character and exposure of it to the world may be probably all that the occasion would require. Whether the United States should or should not be parties to such a declaration may justly form a part of the deliberation. That there is an evil to be remedied heeds little insight into the secret history of late years to know, and that this remedy may best be concerted at the Panama meeting deserves at least the experiment of consideration. A concert of measures having reference to the more effectual abolition of the African slave trade and the consideration of the light in which the political condition of the island of Hayti is to be regarded are also among the subjects mentioned by the minister from the Republic of Colombia as believed to be suitable for deliberation at the congress. The failure of the negotiations with that Republic undertaken during the late administration, for the suppression of that trade, in compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives, indicates the expediency of listening with respectful attention to propositions which may contribute to the accomplishment of the great end which was the purpose of that resolution, while the result of those negotiations will serve as admonition to abstain from pledging this Government to any arrangement which might be expected to fail of obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate by a constitutional majority to its ratification.
Whether the political condition of the island of Hayti shall be brought at all into discussion at the meeting may be a question for preliminary advisement. There are in the political constitution of Government of that people circumstances which have hitherto forbidden the acknowledgment of them by the Government of the United States as sovereign and independent. Additional reasons for withholding that acknowledgment have recently been seen in their acceptance of a nominal sovereignty by the grant of a foreign prince under conditions equivalent to the concession by them of exclusive commercial advantages to one nation, adapted altogether to the state of colonial vassalage and retaining little of independence but the name. Our plenipotentiaries will be instructed to present these views to the assembly at Panama, and should they not be concurred in to decline acceding to any arrangement which may be proposed upon different principles.
The condition of the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico is of deeper import and more immediate bearing upon the present interests and future prospects of our Union. The correspondence herewith transmitted will show how earnestly it has engaged the attention of this Government. The invasion of both those islands by the united forces of Mexico and Colombia is avowedly among the objects to be matured by the belligerent States at Panama. The convulsions to which, from the peculiar composition of their population, they would be liable in the event of such an invasion, and the danger therefrom resulting of their falling ultimately into the hands of some European power other than Spain, will not admit of our looking at the consequences to which the congress at Panama may lead with indifference. It is unnecessary to enlarge upon this topic or to say more than that all our efforts in reference to this interest will be to preserve the existing state of things, the tranquillity of the islands, and the peace and security of their inhabitants.
And lastly, the congress of Panama is believed to present a fair occasion for urging upon all the new nations of the south the just and liberal principles of religious liberty; not by any interference whatever in their internal concerns, but by claiming for our citizens whose occupations or interests may call them to occasional residence in their territories the inestimable privilege of worshipping their Creator according to the dictates of their own consciences. This privilege, sanctioned by the customary law of nations and secured by treaty stipulations in numerous national compacts, secured even to our own citizens in the treaties with Colombia and with the Federation of Central America, is yet to be obtained in the other South American States and Mexico. Existing prejudices are still struggling against it, which may, perhaps, be more successfully combated at this general meeting than at the separate seats of Government of each Republic.
I can scarcely deem it otherwise than superfluous to observe that the assembly will be in its nature diplomatic and not legislative; that nothing can be transacted there obligatory upon any one of the States to be represented at the meeting, unless with the express concurrence of its own representatives, nor even then, but subject to the ratification of its constitutional authority at home. The faith of the United States to foreign powers can not otherwise be pledged. I shall, indeed, in the first instance, consider the assembly as merely consultative; and although the plenipotentiaries of the United States will be empowered to receive and refer to the consideration of their Government any proposition from the other parties to the meeting, they will be authorized to conclude nothing unless subject to the definitive sanction of this Government in all its constitutional forms. It has therefore seemed to me unnecessary to insist that every object to be discussed at the meeting should be specified with the precision of a judicial sentence or enumerated with the exactness of a mathematical demonstration. The purpose of the meeting itself is to deliberate upon the great and common interests of several new and neighbouring nations. If the measure is new and without precedent, so is the situation of the parties to it. That the purposes of the meeting are somewhat indefinite, far from being an objection to it is among the cogent reasons for its adoption. It is not the establishment of principles of intercourse with one, but with seven or eight nations at once. That before they have had the means of exchanging ideas and communicating with one another in common upon these topics they should have definitively settled and arranged them in concert is to require that the effect should precede the cause; it is to exact as a preliminary to the meeting that for the accomplishment of which the meeting itself is designed.
Among the inquiries which were thought entitled to consideration before the determination was taken to accept the invitation was that whether the measure might not have a tendency to change the policy, hitherto invariably pursued by the United States, of avoiding all entangling alliances and all unnecessary foreign connections.
Mindful of the advice given by the father of our country in his Farewell Address, that the great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible, and faithfully adhering to the spirit of that admonition, I can not overlook the reflection that the counsel of Washington in that instance, like all the counsels of wisdom, was founded upon the circumstances in which our country and the world around us were situated at the time when it was given; that the reasons assigned by him for his advice were that Europe had a set of primary interests which to us had none or a very remote relation; that hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the, causes of which were essentially foreign to our concerns; that our detached and distant situation invited and enabled us to pursue a different course; that by our union and rapid growth, with an efficient Government, the period was not far distant when we might defy material injury from external annoyance, when we might take such an attitude as would cause our neutrality to be respected, and, with reference to belligerent nations, might choose peace or war, as our interests, guided by justice, should counsel.
Compare our situation and the circumstances of that time with those of the present day, and what, from the very words of Washington then, would be his counsels to his countrymen now? Europe has still her set of primary interests, with which we have little or a remote relation. Our distant and detached situation with reference to Europe remains the same. But we were then the only independent nation of this hemisphere, and we were surrounded by European colonies, with the greater part of which we had no more intercourse than with the inhabitants of another planet. Those colonies have now been transformed into eight independent nations, extending to our very borders, seven of them Republics like ourselves, with whom we have an immensely growing commercial, and must have and have already important political, connections; with reference to whom our situation is neither distant nor detached; whose political principles and systems of government, congenial with our own, must and will have an action and counteraction upon us and ours to which we can not be indifferent if we would.
The rapidity of our growth, and the consequent increase of our strength, has more than realized the anticipations of this admirable political legacy. Thirty years have nearly elapsed since it was written, and in the interval our population, our wealth, our territorial extension, our power-physical and moral-have nearly trebled. Reasoning upon this state of things from the sound and judicious principles of Washington, must we not say that the period which he predicted as then not far off has arrived; that America has a set of primary interests which have none or a remote relation to Europe; that the interference of Europe, therefore, in those concerns should be spontaneously withheld by her upon the same principles that we have never interfered with hers, and that if she should interfere, as she may, by measures which may have a great and dangerous recoil upon ourselves, we might be called in defense of our own altars and firesides to take an attitude which would cause our neutrality to be respected, and choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, should counsel.
The acceptance of this invitation, therefore, far from conflicting with the counsel or the policy of Washington, is directly deducible from and conformable to it. Nor is it less conformable to the views of my immediate predecessor as declared in his annual message to Congress of the 2d December, 1823, to which I have already adverted, and to an important passage of which I invite the attention of the House:
The citizens of the United States (said he) cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that (the European) side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of hecessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments. And to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations subsisting between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere; but with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have on great consideration and on just principles acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purposes of oppressing them or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which in the judgment of the competent authorities of this Government shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security.
To the question which may be asked, whether this meeting and the principles which may be adjusted and settled by it as rules of intercourse between the American nations may not give umbrage to the holy league of European powers or offense to Spain, it is deemed a sufficient answer that our attendance at Panama can give no just cause of umbrage or offense to either, and that the United States will stipulate nothing there which can give such cause. Here the right of inquiry into our purposes and measures must stop. The holy league of Europe itself was formed without inquiring of the United States whether it would or would not give umbrage to them. The fear of giving umbrage to the holy league of Europe was urged as a motive for denying to the American nations the acknowledgment of their independence. That it would be viewed by Spain as hostility to her was not only urged, but directly declared by herself. The Congress and administration of that day consulted their rights and duties, and not their fears. Fully determined to give no heedless displeasure to any foreign power, the United States can estimate the probability of their giving it only by the right which any foreign state could have to take it from their measures. Neither the representation of the United States at Panama nor any measure to which their assent may be yielded there will give to the holy league or any of its members, nor to Spain, the right to take offense; for the rest the United States must still, as heretofore, take counsel from their duties rather than their fears.
Such are the objects in which it is expected that the plenipotentiaries of the United States, when commissioned to attend the meeting at the Isthmus, will take part, and such are the motives and purposes with which the invitation of the three Republics was accepted. It was, however, as the House will perceive from the correspondence, accepted only upon condition that the nomination of commissioners for the mission should receive the advice and consent of the Senate.
The concurrence of the House to the measure by the appropriations necessary for carrying it into effect is alike subject to its free determination and indispensable to the fulfillment of the intention.
That the congress at Panama will accomplish all, or even any, of the transcendent benefits to the human race which warmed the conceptions of its first proposer it were perhaps indulging too sanguine a forecast of events to promise. It is in its nature a measure speculative and experimental. The blessing of Heaven may turn it to the account of human improvement; accidents unforeseen and mischances not to be anticipated may baffle all its high purposes and disappoint its fairest expectations. But the design is great, is benevolent, is humane.
It looks to the melioration of the condition of man. It is congenial with that spirit which prompted the declaration of our independence, which inspired the preamble of our first treaty with France, which dictated our first treaty with Prussia and the instructions under which it was negotiated, which filled the hearts and fired the souls of the immortal founders of our Revolution.
With this unrestricted exposition of the motives by which I have been governed in this transaction, as well as of the objects to be discussed and of the ends, if possible, to be attained by our representation at the proposed congress, I submit the propriety of an appropriation to the candid consideration and enlightened patriotism of the Legislature.
John Quincy Adams.
Washington, March 16, 1826.
To the Senate of the United States:
Some additional documents having relation to the objects of the mission to the congress at Panama, and received since the communication of those heretofore sent, are now transmitted to the Senate.
John Quincy Adams.