STATE PAPERS. 



442 



be secured against the evils of 

 which she complains. He seeks, 

 on the other hand, that the citi- 

 zens of the United States should 

 be protected against a practice, 

 which, while it degrades the na- 

 tion, deprives them of their right 

 as freemen, takes them by force 

 frcmi their families and their coun- 

 try, into a foreign service, to fight 

 the battles of a foreign power, per- 

 haps against their own kindred 

 and country. 



I abstain from entering, in this 

 communication, into other grounds 

 of difference. The Orders in 

 Council having been repealed (with 

 a reservation not impairing a cor- 

 responding right on the part of the 

 United States), and no illegal 

 blockades revived or instituted in 

 their stead, and an understanding 

 being obtained on the subject of 

 impressment, in the mode herein 

 proposed, the President is willing 

 to agree to a cessation of hostili- 

 ties, with a view to arrange, by 

 treaty, in a more distinct and am- 

 ple manner, and to the satisfaction 

 of both parties, every other sub- 

 ject of controversy. 



I will only add, that if there be 

 no objection to an accommodation 

 of the difference relating to im- 

 pressment, in the mode proposed, 

 other than the suspension of the Bri- 

 tish claims to impressment during 

 the armistice, there can be none to 

 proceeding, without the armistice, 

 to an immediate discussion and 

 arrangement of an article on that 

 subject. This great question be- 

 ing satisfactorily adjusted, the way 

 will be open either for an armis- 

 tice or any other course [leading 

 most conveniently and expediti- 

 ously to a general pacification. 

 I have the honour to be, &c. 

 James Monrue. 



American President's Message. 



Washington City, Nov. 4. 

 The President of the United 

 States this day communicated to 

 Mr. Coles, his private Secretary, 

 the following Message to Con- 

 gress ; — 



Fellow Citizens of the Senate and 

 House of Representatives. 

 On our present meeting, it is 

 my first duty to invite your at- 

 tention to the providential favours 

 which our country has experienced 

 in the unusual degree of health 

 dispensed to its inhabitants, and in 

 the rich abundance with which 

 the earth has rewarded the labours 

 bestowed on it. In the successful 

 cultivation of other branches of 

 industry, and in the progress of 

 general improvement favourable to 

 the national prosperity, there is 

 just occasion also for our mutual 

 congratulations and thankfulness. 

 With these blessings are natu- 

 rally mingled the pressures and 

 vicissitudes incidental to the state 

 of war into which the United 

 States have been forced by the 

 perseverance of a foreign power iu 

 its system of injustice and aggres- 

 sion. Previous to its declaration, 

 it was deemed proper, as a mea- 

 sure of precaution and forecast, 

 that a considerable force should 

 be placed in the Michigan terri- 

 tory, with a general view to its 

 security ; and, in the event of 

 war, to such operations in the up- 

 permost Canada, as would inter- 

 cept the hostile influence of Great 

 Britain over the savages ; obtain 

 the command of the lake on which 

 that part of Canada borders ; and 

 maintain co-operating relations with 

 such forces as might be most 

 conveniently 



