Part 1
# A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term ### By Unknown
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MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS:
ANDREW JACKSON
March 4, 1829, to March 4, 1833
Edited by James D. Richardson
ANDREW JACKSON
Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw Settlement, North or South Carolina, on the 15th of March, 1767. He was a son of Andrew Jackson, an Irishman, who emigrated to America in 1765 and died in 1767. The name of his mother was Elizabeth Hutchinson. There is little definite information about the schools that he attended. According to Parton, "He learned to read, to write, and cast accounts--little more." Having taken arms against the British in 1781, he was captured, and afterwards wounded by an officer because he refused to clean the officer's boots. About 1785 he began to study law at Salisbury, N.C. In 1788 removed to Nashville, Tenn., where he began to practice law. About 1791 he married Rachel Robards, originally Rachel Donelson, whose first husband was living and had taken preliminary measures to obtain a divorce, which was legally completed in 1793. The marriage ceremony was again performed in 1794. He was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of Tennessee in 1796, and in the autumn of that year was elected Representative to Congress by the people of Tennessee, which State was then entitled to only one member. Supported Thomas Jefferson in the Presidential election of 1796. In 1797 became a Senator of the United States for the State of Tennessee. Resigned his seat in the Senate in 1798; was a judge of the supreme court of Tennessee from 1798 till 1804. After war had been declared against Great Britain, General Jackson (who several years before had been appointed major-general of militia) offered his services and those of 2,500 volunteers in June, 1812. He was ordered to New Orleans, and led a body of 2,070 men in that direction; but at Natchez he received an order, dated February 6, 1813, by which his troops were dismissed from public service. In October, 1813, he took the field against the Creek Indians, whom he defeated at Talladega in November. By his services in this Creek war, which ended in 1814, he acquired great popularity, and in May, 1814, was appointed a major-general in the Regular Army; was soon afterwards ordered to the Gulf of Mexico, to oppose an expected invasion of the British. In November he seized Pensacola, which belonged to Spain, but was used by the British as a base of operations. About the 1st of December he moved his army to New Orleans, where he was successful in two engagements with the British, and afterwards gained his famous victory on January 8, 1815. This was the last battle of the war, a treaty of peace having been signed on December 24, 1814. In 1817-18 he waged a successful war against the Seminoles in Florida, seized Pensacola, and executed Arbuthnot and Ambrister, two British subjects, accused of inciting the savages to hostile acts against the Americans. He was appointed governor of Florida in 1821. In 1823 was elected a Senator of the United States, and nominated as candidate for the Presidency by the legislature of Tennessee. His competitors were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. Jackson received 99 electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. As no candidate had a majority, the election devolved on the House of Representatives, and it resulted in the choice of Mr. Adams. In 1828 Jackson was elected President, receiving 178 electoral votes, while Adams received 83; was reelected in 1832, defeating Henry Clay. Retired to private life March 4, 1837. He died at the Hermitage on the 8th of June, 1845, and was buried there.
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT.
CITY OF WASHINGTON, _March 2, 1829._ J.C. CALHOUN, _Vice-President of the United States_.
Sir: Through you I beg leave to inform the Senate that on Wednesday, the 4th instant, at 12 o'clock, I shall be ready to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution previously to entering on a discharge of my official duties, and at such place as the Senate may think proper to designate.
I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
ANDREW JACKSON.
FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
Fellow-Citizens: About to undertake the arduous duties that I have been appointed to perform by the choice of a free people, I avail myself of this customary and solemn occasion to express the gratitude which their confidence inspires and to acknowledge the accountability which my situation enjoins. While the magnitude of their interests convinces me that no thanks can be adequate to the honor they have conferred, it admonishes me that the best return I can make is the zealous dedication of my humble abilities to their service and their good.
As the instrument of the Federal Constitution it will devolve on me for a stated period to execute the laws of the United States, to superintend their foreign and their confederate relations, to manage their revenue, to command their forces, and, by communications to the Legislature, to watch over and to promote their interests generally. And the principles of action by which I shall endeavor to accomplish this circle of duties it is now proper for me briefly to explain.
In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority. With foreign nations it will be my study to preserve peace and to cultivate friendship on fair and honorable terms, and in the adjustment of any differences that may exist or arise to exhibit the forbearance becoming a powerful nation rather than the sensibility belonging to a gallant people.
In such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the rights of the separate States I hope to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members of our Union, taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to the Confederacy.
The management of the public revenue--that searching operation in all governments--is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Under every aspect in which it can be considered it would appear that advantage must result from the observance of a strict and faithful economy. This I shall aim at the more anxiously both because it will facilitate the extinguishment of the national debt, the unnecessary duration of which is incompatible with real independence, and because it will counteract that tendency to public and private profligacy which a profuse expenditure of money by the Government is but too apt to engender. Powerful auxiliaries to the attainment of this desirable end are to be found in the regulations provided by the wisdom of Congress for the specific appropriation of public money and the prompt accountability of public officers.
With regard to a proper selection of the subjects of impost with a view to revenue, it would seem to me that the spirit of equity, caution, and compromise in which the Constitution was formed requires that the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures should be equally favored, and that perhaps the only exception to this rule should consist in the peculiar encouragement of any products of either of them that may be found essential to our national independence.
Internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of high importance.
Considering standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment, nor disregard that salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to the civil power. The gradual increase of our Navy, whose flag has displayed in distant climes our skill in navigation and our fame in arms; the preservation of our forts, arsenals, and dockyards, and the introduction of progressive improvements in the discipline and science of both branches of our military service are so plainly prescribed by prudence that I should be excused for omitting their mention sooner than for enlarging on their importance. But the bulwark of our defense is the national militia, which in the present state of our intelligence and population must render us invincible. As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending; and so long as it is worth defending a patriotic militia will cover it with an impenetrable aegis. Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe. To any just system, therefore, calculated to strengthen this natural safeguard of the country I shall cheerfully lend all the aid in my power.
It will be my sincere and constant desire to observe toward the Indian tribes within our limits a just and liberal policy, and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and their wants which is consistent with the habits of our Government and the feelings of our people.
The recent demonstration of public sentiment inscribes on the list of Executive duties, in characters too legible to be overlooked, the task of _reform_, which will require particularly the correction of those abuses that have brought the patronage of the Federal Government into conflict with the freedom of elections, and the counteraction of those causes which have disturbed the rightful course of appointment and have placed or continued power in unfaithful or incompetent hands.
In the performance of a task thus generally delineated I shall endeavor to select men whose diligence and talents will insure in their respective stations able and faithful cooperation, depending for the advancement of the public service more on the integrity and zeal of the public officers than on their numbers.
A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction.
MARCH 4, 1829.
SPECIAL MESSAGES.
_March 6, 1829_. _the Senate of the United States_.
GENTLEMEN: The Executive nominations made during the past session of Congress, and which remain unacted on by the Senate, I hereby withdraw from their consideration.
ANDREW JACKSON.
_March 6, 1829_. _Gentlemen of the Senate_:
The treaty of commerce and navigation concluded at Washington on the 1st of May, 1828, between the United States and the King of Prussia, was laid before the Senate, who, by their resolution of the 14th of that month, advised and consented to its ratification by the President.
By the sixteenth article of that treaty it was agreed that the exchange of ratifications should be made within nine months from its date.
On the 15th day of February last, being fifteen days after the time stipulated for the exchange by the terms of the treaty, the chargé d'affaires of the King of Prussia informed the Secretary of State that he had received the Prussian ratification and was ready to exchange it for that of the United States. In reply he was informed of the intention of the President, my late predecessor, not to proceed to the exchange in consequence of the expiration of the time within which it was to be made.
Under these circumstances I have thought it my duty, in order to avoid all future questions, to ask the advice and consent of the Senate to make the proposed exchange.
I send you the original of the treaty, together with a printed copy of it.
ANDREW JACKSON.
_March 11, 1829_. _To the Senate of the United States_.
GENTLEMEN: Brevet rank for ten years' faithful service has produced much confusion in the Army. For this reason the discretion vested in the President of the United States on this subject would not be exercised by any submission of those cases to the Senate but that it has been heretofore the practice to do so. They are accordingly submitted, with other nominations, to fill the offices respectively annexed to their names in the inclosed lists,[1] for the consideration of the Senate.
ANDREW JACKSON.
[Footnote 1: Omitted.]
PROCLAMATIONS.
By the President of the United States of America.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 7th of January, 1824, entitled "An act concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost," it is provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied within the ports of the said nation upon vessels belonging wholly to citizens of the United States, or upon merchandise the produce or manufacture thereof imported in the same, the President is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said nation and the merchandise of its produce or manufacture imported into the United States in the same, the said suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given to the President of the United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, and merchandise, as aforesaid, therein laden, shall be continued, and no longer; and
Whereas satisfactory evidence has been received by me from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria, through the Baron de Lederer, his consul-general in the United States, that vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States are not, nor shall be, on their entering any Austrian port, from and after the 1st day of January last, subject to the payment of higher duties of tonnage than are levied on Austrian ships:
Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts imposing duties on the tonnage of ships arriving in the United States as imposed a discriminating duty between the vessels of the Empire of Austria and vessels of the United States are suspended and discontinued, the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned and to continue henceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the United States shall be continued in the ports of the imperial dominions of Austria.
(SEAL.)
Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 11th day of May, A.D. 1829, and the fifty-second[2] of the Independence of the United States.
ANDREW JACKSON.
By the President: M. Van Buren, _Secretary of State_.
[Footnote 2: Should be "third" instead of "second."]
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas by an act of the Congress of the United States of the 24th of May, 1828, entitled "An act in addition to an act entitled 'An act concerning discriminating duties of tonnage and impost,' and to equalize the duties on Prussian vessels and their cargoes," it is provided that upon satisfactory evidence being given to the President of the United States by the government of any foreign nation that no discriminating duties of tonnage or impost are imposed or levied in the ports of the said nation upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States, or upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United States or from any foreign country, the President is thereby authorized to issue his proclamation declaring that the foreign discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of the said foreign nation and the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the said foreign nation or from any other foreign country, the said suspension to take effect from the time of such notification being given to the President of the United States and to continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, and their cargoes, as aforesaid, shall be continued, and no longer; and
Whereas satisfactory evidence has lately been received by me from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria, through an official communication of the Baron de Lederer, his consul-general in the United States, under date of the 29th of May, 1829, that no other or higher duties of tonnage and impost are imposed or levied since the 1st day of January last in the ports of Austria upon vessels wholly belonging to citizens of the United States and upon the produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported in the same from the United States and from any foreign country whatever than are levied on Austrian ships and their cargoes in the same ports under like circumstances:
Now, therefore, I, Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America, do hereby declare and proclaim that so much of the several acts imposing discriminating duties of tonnage and impost within the United States are, and shall be, suspended and discontinued so far as respects the vessels of Austria and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported into the United States in the same from the dominions of Austria and from any other foreign country whatever, the said suspension to take effect from the day above mentioned and to continue thenceforward so long as the reciprocal exemption of the vessels of the United States and the produce, manufactures, and merchandise imported into the dominions of Austria in the same, as aforesaid, shall be continued on the part of the Government of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria.
Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 3d day of June, A.D. 1829, and the fifty-third of the Independence of the United States.
ANDREW JACKSON.
By the President: M. VAN BUREN, _Secretary of State_.
EXECUTIVE ORDER.
In all applications by any invalid to obtain a pension in consequence of any disability incurred, no payment therefor shall commence until proof shall be filed in the Department and the decision of the Secretary had thereon; and no pension will be allowed to anyone while acting as an officer of the Army except in cases which have been heretofore adjudged.
Approved, 8th April, 1829.
ANDREW JACKSON.
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:
It affords me pleasure to tender my friendly greetings to you on the occasion of your assembling at the seat of Government to enter upon the important duties to which you have been called by the voice of our countrymen. The task devolves on me, under a provision of the Constitution, to present to you, as the Federal Legislature of twenty-four sovereign States and 12,000,000 happy people, a view of our affairs, and to propose such measures as in the discharge of my official functions have suggested themselves as necessary to promote the objects of our Union.
In communicating with you for the first time it is to me a source of unfeigned satisfaction, calling for mutual gratulation and devout thanks to a benign Providence, that we are at peace with all mankind, and that our country exhibits the most cheering evidence of general welfare and progressive improvement. Turning our eyes to other nations, our great desire is to see our brethren of the human race secured in the blessings enjoyed by ourselves, and advancing in knowledge, in freedom, and in social happiness.
Our foreign relations, although in their general character pacific and friendly, present subjects of difference between us and other powers of deep interest as well to the country at large as to many of our citizens. To effect an adjustment of these shall continue to be the object of my earnest endeavors, and notwithstanding the difficulties of the task, I do not allow myself to apprehend unfavorable results. Blessed as our country is with everything which constitutes national strength, she is fully adequate to the maintenance of all her interests. In discharging the responsible trust confided to the Executive in this respect it is my settled purpose to ask nothing that is not clearly right and to submit to nothing that is wrong; and I flatter myself that, supported by the other branches of the Government and by the intelligence and patriotism of the people, we shall be able, under the protection of Providence, to cause all our just rights to be respected.
Of the unsettled matters between the United States and other powers, the most prominent are those which have for years been the subject of negotiation with England, France, and Spain. The late periods at which our ministers to those Governments left the United States render it impossible at this early day to inform you of what has been done on the subjects with which they have been respectively charged. Relying upon the justice of our views in relation to the points committed to negotiation and the reciprocal good feeling which characterizes our intercourse with those nations, we have the best reason to hope for a satisfactory adjustment of existing differences.
With Great Britain, alike distinguished in peace and war, we may look forward to years of peaceful, honorable, and elevated competition. Everything in the condition and history of the two nations is calculated to inspire sentiments of mutual respect and to carry conviction to the minds of both that it is their policy to preserve the most cordial relations. Such are my own views, and it is not to be doubted that such are also the prevailing sentiments of our constituents. Although neither time nor opportunity has been afforded for a full development of the policy which the present cabinet of Great Britain designs to pursue toward this country, I indulge the hope that it will be of a just and pacific character; and if this anticipation be realized we may look with confidence to a speedy and acceptable adjustment of our affairs.
Under the convention for regulating the reference to arbitration of the disputed points of boundary under the fifth article of the treaty of Ghent, the proceedings have hitherto been conducted in that spirit of candor and liberality which ought ever to characterize the acts of sovereign States seeking to adjust by the most unexceptionable means important and delicate subjects of contention. The first statements of the parties have been exchanged, and the final replication on our part is in a course of preparation. This subject has received the attention demanded by its great and peculiar importance to a patriotic member of this Confederacy.