In order to correct the error, I have canceled the temporary commissions, and now revoke the nomination which I made of the said Jonathan Palmer to the Senate.

Agreeably to the assurance given in my message at the opening of the present session of Congress, I now lay before you a copy of the proceedings and of the evidence exhibited on the arraignment of Aaron Burr and others before the circuit court of the United States held in Virginia in the course of the present year, in as authentic form as their several parts have admitted.

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 relieved from the objections which candor and good faith can not but feel in its present form.

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.

On this outrage no commentaries are necessary.

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 call us to pursue.

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 our citizens against their armed guests; but the expense of such a standing force and its inconsistence with our principles dispense with those courtesies which would necessarily call for it, and leave us equally free to exclude the navy, as we are the army, of a foreign power from entering our limits.

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 our country, so materially advanced by this precaution, will approve, when done, what they would have seen so important to be done if then assembled.

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 be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States.

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 the city of Washington

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.

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.

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.

Hospitality under such circumstances ceases to be a duty.

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 by the rules of the treaty established between the two countries.