I deem it proper on this occasion to invite the attention of Congress to the presents which have heretofore been made to our public officers, and which have been deposited under the orders of the Government in the Department of State.

To the Senate: I transmit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate as to the ratification thereof, the following Indian treaties that have been received since the adjournment of the last session of Congress

They are approved by me, and in pursuance of the provisions of said act are now communicated to the House of Representatives for the purpose of obtaining to them the sanction of Congress.

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate at its last session, requesting the President to cause to be prepared and laid before the Senate at the commencement of its next session a plan for equalizing the pay of the officers in the…

It is believed the plan they have presented meets substantially the objects of the resolution.

I felt myself, therefore, constrained to withhold from it my approval, and now return it to the Senate, in which it originated, with the reasons on which my dissent is founded.

These ancient compacts are invaluable monuments of an age of virtue, patriotism, and disinterestedness.

I am fully sensible of the importance, as it respects both the harmony and union of the States, of making, as soon as circumstances will allow of it, a proper and final disposition of the whole subject of the public lands.

They exhibit the price that great States which had won liberty were willing to pay for that union without which they plainly saw it could not be preserved.

The many distressing accidents which have of late occurred in that portion of our navigation carried on by the use of steam power deserve the immediate and unremitting attention of the constituted authorities of the country

Since the last adjournment of Congress the Secretary of the Treasury has directed the money of the United States to be deposited in certain State banks designated by him

Our relations with the various Indian tribes have been undisturbed since the termination of the difficulties growing out of the hostile aggressions of the Sac and Fox Indians

The operations of the Navy during the year and its present condition are fully exhibited in the annual report from the Navy Department

It is gratifying to the friends of both to perceive that the intercourse between the two people is becoming daily more extensive

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives

Seeking nothing that is not right and determined to submit to nothing that is wrong

It is not known to me that up to that period any appropriation had been required of the Chambers

whether any, and, if any, what, Indian tribes or nations who joined the enemy in the late war with Great Britain continue to receive annuities from the United States under treaties made prior to the war and not renewed since the peace