According to the request expressed in your resolution of the 18th instant, I now transmit a copy of my proclamation interdicting our harbors and waters to British armed vessels and forbidding intercourse with them.

I have thought it due to the Senate as well as to myself to explain to them the circumstances which have withheld from their knowledge, as they did from my own, a modification which, had it been placed in the public treaty, would have been…

These aggravations necessarily lead to the policy either of never admitting an armed vessel into our harbors or of maintaining in every harbor such an armed force as may constrain obedience to the laws and protect the lives and property of…

It is a great consolation that it will become known at a moment when the supreme council of the nation is assembled at its post, and ready to give the aids of its wisdom and authority to whatever course the good of our country shall then…

On this outrage no commentaries are necessary.

I shall think it my duty to lay before you the proceedings and the evidence publicly exhibited on the arraignment of the principal offenders before the circuit court of Virginia.

I did not hesitate, therefore, to authorize engagements for such supplements to our existing stock as would render it adequate to the emergencies threatening us, and I trust that the Legislature, feeling the same anxiety for the safety of…

a full pardon is hereby proclaimed to each and all of such individuals as shall within four months from the date hereof surrender themselves to the commanding officer of any military post within the United States or the Territories thereof.

hereby requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may then be made to them, and to consult and determine on such measures as in their wisdom may…

Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 26th day of October next, for their meeting at…

Taking no part in the questions which animate these powers against each other, nor permitting themselves to entertain a wish but for the restoration of general peace, they have observed with good faith the neutrality they assumed.

Hospitality under such circumstances ceases to be a duty.

This extreme resort is equally opposed to the interests of both, as it is to assurances of the most friendly dispositions on the part of the British Government.

I have thought proper, in pursuance of the authorities specially given by law, to issue this my proclamation.

In truth, these abuses of the laws of hospitality have, with few exceptions, become habitual to the commanders of the British armed vessels hovering on our coasts and frequenting our harbors.

Also a letter from Cowles Mead, secretary of the Mississippi Territory, acting as governor, informing us that Aaron Burr had surrendered himself to the civil authority of that Territory.

I transmit to Congress a letter from our ministers plenipotentiary at London, informing us that they have agreed with the British commissioners to conclude a treaty on all the points which had formed the object of their negotiation, and on…

Also a letter from our minister plenipotentiary at Paris covering one to him from the minister of marine of that Government assuring him that the imperial decree lately passed was not to affect our commerce, which would still be governed…

From two of the States no returns have ever been received.

It must be superfluous to observe that this species of naval armament is proposed merely for defensive operation; that it can have but little effect toward protecting our commerce in the open seas, even on our own coast; and still less can…

I communicate, for the information of Congress, a letter from Cowles Mead, secretary of the Mississippi Territory, to the Secretary of War, by which it will be seen that Mr. Burr had reached that neighborhood on the 13th of January

The efficacy of gunboats for the defense of harbors and of other smooth and inclosed waters may be estimated in part from that of galleys formerly much used but less powerful, more costly in their construction and maintenance, and…

I lay before Congress the laws for the government of Louisiana, passed by the governor and judges of the Indiana Territory at their session at Vincennes begun on the 1st of October, 1804.

I now lay his memoir thereon before the Legislature, the only authority competent to a final decision on the same.

Some matters suggested in the report belong exclusively to the Legislature.