offices consistent with that as we have opportunities of rendering.The activity and success of the small force employed in the Mediterranean in the early part of the present year, the reinforcements sent into that sea, and the energy of the officers having command in the several vessels, will, I trust, by the sufferings of war, reduce the barbarians of Tripoli to the desire of peace, on proper terms. Great injury, however, ensues to ourselves, as well as to others interested, from the distance to which the prizes must be brought for adjudication, and from the impracticability of bringing hither such as are not sea-worthy. The bey of Tunis having made requisitions unauthorised by our treaty, their rejection has produced from him some expressions of discontent. But to those who expect us to calculate whether a compliance with unjust demands will not cost us less than a war, we must leave as a question of calculation for them also, whether to retire from unjust demands will not cost them less than a war. We can do to each other very sensible injuries by war. But the mutual advantages of peace make that the best interest of both. Peace and intercourse with the other powers on the same coast continue on the footing on which they are established by treaty. In pursuance of the act, providing for the temporary government of Louisiana, the necessary officers for the territory of Orleans, were appointed in due time to commence the exercise of their functions on the 1st day of October. The distance, however, of some of them, and indispensible previous arrangements, may have retarded its commencement in some of its parts. The form of government thus provided, having been considered but as temporary, and open to such future improvements, as further information of the circumstances of our brethren there might suggest, it will of course be subject to fair consideration. In the district of Louisiana it has been thought best to adopt the division into subordinate districts which had been established under its former government. These being five in number, a commanding officer has been appointed to each, according to the provisions of the law; and so soon as they can be at their stations, that district will also be in its due state of organization. In the mean time, their places are supplied by officers before commanding there, and the functions of the governor and judges of Indiana having commenced, the government, we presume, is proceeding in its new form. The lead mines in that district offer so rich a supply of that metal as to merit attention. The report now committed will inform you of their state, and of the necessity of immediate inquiry into their occupation and titles. With the Indian tribes established within our newlyacquired limits, I have deemed it necessary to open conferences for the purpose of establishing a good understanding and neighbourly relations between us. So far as we have yet learned, we have reason to believe that their dispositions are generally favourable and friendly. And with these dispositions on their part, we have in our hands means which cannot fail for preserving their peace and friendship. Instead of an ang mentation of military force, proportioned to an augmentation of frontier, I propose a moderate enlargement largement of the capital employed in that commerce, as a more effectual, economical, and humane in strument for preserving peace and good neighbourhood with them.On this side the Mississippi, an important relinquishment of native title has been received from the Delawares, that tribe desiring to extinguish the spirit of hunting, and to convert superfluous lands into the means of improving what they retain, has ceded to us all the country between the Wabash and the Ohio, south of, and including the road from the Rapids towards Vincennes, for which they are to receive annuities in animals and implements of agriculture. The Pinkeshaws having some claim to the country ceded by the Delawares, it has been thought better to quiet that claim by fair purchase also. So soon as the treaties on this subject shall have received their constitutional sanctions, they shall be laid before both houses. The act of Congress of February 28, 1803, for building and employing a number of gun-boats is now in a course of exccution to the extent there provided, for the obstacle to naval enterprise, which vessels of this construction offer to our sea-port towns, their utility towards supporting, within our waters, the authority of the law, the promptness with which they will be manned by the seamen and militia of the place, in the moment they are wanting, the facility of their assembling, from different parts of the coast, to any point where they are required in greater force than ordinary, the economy of their maintenance, and preservation from decay, when not in actual service, and of the competence of our finances to this defensive provi The sion, without any new burthen, are considerations which will have due weight with congress in deciding on the expediency of adding to their number from year to year, as experience will test their utility, until all our important harbours, by these and auxiliary means, shall be secured against insult and opposition to the laws. No circumstance has arisen since your last session, which calls for any augmentation of our militia force. Should any improvement occur in the militia system, that will be always seasonable.Accounts of the receipts and expeaditure of the last year, with estimates for the ensuing one, will be, as usual, laid before you. state of our finances continue to fulfil our expectations: eleven millions and a half of dollars received in the course of last year, ending the 30th of September last, have enabled us, after meeting all the ordinary expences of the year, to pay upwards of 3,600,000 dollars of the debt incurred, exclusive of interest. This payment, with those of the two preceding years, has extinguished upwards of twelve millions of principal. But in the discharge of the great duties confided to you by our country, you will take a broader view of the field of legislation. Whether the great interests of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, navigation, can, within the pale of your constitutional powers, be aided in any of their relations; whether laws are provided in all cases where they are wanting; whether any abuses take place in their administration, or to that of the public revenues? Whether the orga nization of the public agents, or of the public force, is perfect in all its parts? In fine, whether any thing can can be done to advance the general good? Are questions within the limits of your functions, which will necessarily occupy your attention. In these and all other matters which you, in your wisdom, may propose for the good of our country, you may count with assurance on my hearty co-operation and faithful execution. the sport of the passions of men, or their injustice, and of the caprices of fortune; mutilated victims of the cupidity of white Frenchmen ; after having fattened with our toils these insatiate blood-suckers, with a patience and resignation unexampled, we should again have seen that sacrilegious horde making an attempt upon our destruction, without any Thomas Jefferson. distinction of sex or age; and we, Proclamation by Dessalines, as Governor-General of the Island, dated at the Cape, April 28, 1804; first Year of Independence. Crimes, the most atrocious, such as were until then unheard of, and would cause nature to shudder, have been perpetrated. The measure was overheaped. At length the hour of vengeance has arrived, and the implacable enemies of the rights of man have suffered the punishment due to their crimes. My arm, raised over their heads, has too long delayed to strike. At that signal, which the justice of God has urged, your hands, righteously armed, have brought the axe upon the ancient tree of slavery and prejudices. In vain had time, and more especially the infernal politics of Europeans, surrounded it with triple brass; you have stripped it of its armour; you have placed it upon your heart, that you may become (like your natural enemies) cruel and merciless. Like an overflowing mighty torrent, that tears down all opposition, your vengeful fury has carried away every thing in its impetuous course. Thus perish all tyrants over innocence, all oppressors of mankind!-What then? Bent for many ages under an iron yoke: men without energy, of no virtue, of no delicate sensibility, should not we have plunged in their breast the dagger of desperation? Where is that vile Haytian, so unworthy of his regeneration, who thinks he has not accomplished the decrees of the Eternal, by exterminating these bloodthirsty tygers? If there be one, let him fly; indignant nature discards him from our bosom; let him hide his shame far from hence: the air we breathe is not suited to his gross organs; it is the pure air of liberty, august and triumphant.Yes, we have rendered to these true cannibals war for war, crime for crime, outrage for outrage: yes, I have saved my country; I have avenged America. The avowal I make of it, in the face of earth and heaven, constitutes my pride and my glory. Of what consequence to me is the opinion which contemporary and future generations will pronounce upon my conduct? I have performed my duty; I enjoy my own approbation; me that is sufficient. But what do I say? The preservation of my unfortunate brothers, the testimony of my own conscience, are not my only recompence: I have seen two classes of men, born to cherish, assist, and succour one anothermixed in a world, and blended together-crying for vengeance, and. for disputing disputing the honour of the first blow. Blacks and yellows, whom the refined duplicity of Europeans has for a long time endeavoured to divide; you, who are now consolidated, and make but one family; without doubt it was necessary that our perfect reconciliation should be sealed with the blood of your butchers. Similar calamities have hung over your proscribed heads; a similar ardour to strike your enemies has signalised you: the like fate is reserved for you: and the like interests must therefore render you for ever one, indivisible and inseparable. Maintain that precious concord, that happy harmony amongst yourselves: it is the pledge of your happiness, your salvation, and your success: it is the secret of being invincible. Is it necessary, in order to strengthen these ties, to recall to your remembrance the catalogue of atrocities committed against our species; the massacre of the entire population of this island, meditated in the silence and sangfroid of the cabinet; the execution of that abominable project, to me unblushingly proposed, and already begun by the French, with the calmness and serenity of a countenance accustomed to similar crimes. Guadaloupe, pillaged and destroyed; its ruins still reeking with the blood of the children, women, and old men put to the sword; Pelage (himself the victim of their craftiness), after having basely betrayed his country and his brothers; the brave and immortal Delgresse, blown into the air with the fort which he defended, rather than accept their offered chains. Magnanimous warrior! that noble death, far from enfeebling our courage, serves only to rouse within us the determination of avenging or of following thee. Shall I again recall to your memory the plots lately framed at Jeremie? the terrible explosion which was to be the result, notwithstanding the ge nerous pardon granted to these incorrigible beings at the expulsion of the French army? The deplorable fate of our departed brothers in Europe? and (dread harbinger of death) the frightful despotism exercised at Martinique? Unfortunate people of Martinique, could I but fly to your assistance, and break your fetters! Alas! an insurmountable barrier separates us. Perhaps a spark from the same fire which enflames us, will alight into your bosoms: perhaps, at the sound of this commotion, suddenly awakened from your lethargy, with arms in your hands, you will reclaim your sacred and imprescriptible rights.After the terrible example which I have just given, that, sooner or later, Divine justice will unchain on earth some mighty minds, above the weakness of the vulgar, for the destruction and terror of the wicked; tremble, tyrants, usurpers, scourges of the new world! our daggers are sharpened; your punishment is ready! sixty thousand men, equipped, inured to war, obedient to my orders, burn to offer a new sacrifice to the names of their assassinated brothers. Let that nation come, who may be mad and daring enough to attack me. Already at its approach, the irritated genius of Hayti, arising out of the bosom of the ocean, appears; his menacing aspect throws the waves into commotion, excites tempests, and with his mighty hand disperses ships, or dashes them in pieces; to his formidable voice the laws of nature pay obedience; dis eases, eases, plague, famine, conflagration, poison, are his constant attendants. But why calculate on the assistance of the climate and of the elements? Have I forgot that I commanded a people of no common cast, brought up in adversity, whose audacious daring frowns at obstacles and increases by dangers? Let them come, then, these homicidal cohorts! I wait for them with firmness and with a steady eye. I abandon to them freely the sea shore, and the places where cities have existed; but woe to those who may approach too near the mountains! It were better for them that the sea received them into its profound abyss, than to be devoured by the anger of the children of Hayti.- War to death to tyrants!" this is my motto! “liberty! independence!" this is our rallying cry.Generals, officers, soldiers, a little unlike him who has preceded me, the ex-general Toussaint Louverture, I have been faithful to the promise which I made to you when I took up arms against tyranny, and whilst the last spark of life remains in me I shall keep my oath- Never again shall a colonist or an European set his foot upon this territory with the title of master or proprietor." This resolution shall henceforward form the fundamental basis of our consitution. Should other chiefs, after me, by pursuing a conduct diame. trically opposite to mine, dig their own graves and those of their own species, you will have to accuse only the laws of destiny, which shall have taken me away from the happiness and welfare of my fellow citizens. May my successors follow the path I shall have traced out for them! It is the system best adapted for consolidating their pow. er; it is the highest homage they can render to my memory.—As it is derogatory to my character and my dignity to punish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty, a handful of whites, commendable by the religion they have always professed, and who have besides taken the oath to live with us in the woods, have experienced my clemency. I order that the sword respect them, and that they be unmolested.—Í recommend anew and order to all the generals of departments, &c. to grant succours, encouragement, and protection to all neutral and friendly nations, who may wish to establish commercial relations in this island. Proclamation by Dessalines, dated at the Cape, May 8, 1804; first Year of Independence. Scarce had the French army been expelled, when you hastened to acknowledge my authority: by a free and spontaneous movement of your heart, you ranged yourselves under my subjection. More careful of the prosperity than the ruin of that part which you inhabit, I gave to this homage a favourable reception. From that moment I have considered you as my children, and my fidelity to you remains undiminished. As a proof of my paternal solicitude, within the places which have submitted to my power, I have proposed for chiefs none but men chosen from amongst yourselves. Jealous of counting you in the rank of my friends, that I might give you all the time necessary for recollection, and that I might assure myself of your fidelity, I have hitherto restrained the burning ardour of my soldiers. |