180] ANNUAL REGISTER, 181S. 



Other inestimable advantages 

 will follow : our produce will be 

 augmented to an incalculable 

 amount, in articles of the greatest 

 value, for domestic use and fo- 

 reign commerce. Our navigation 

 will, in like degree, be increased; 

 and, as the shipping of the 

 Atlantic states will be employed 

 in the transportation of the vast 

 produce of the western country, 

 even those parts of the United 

 . States which are the most remote 

 from each other will be further 

 bound together by the strongest 

 ties which mutual interest can 

 create. 



The situation of this district, 

 it is thought, requires the atten- 

 tion of Congress. By the con- 

 stitution the power of legislation 

 is exclusively vested in the Con- 

 gress of the United States. In 

 the exercise of this power, in 

 which the people have no partici- 

 pation, Congress legislate in all 

 cases directly on the local con- 

 cerns of the district. As this is a 

 departure, for a special purpose, 

 from the general principles of our 

 Bystem, it may merit considera- 

 tion whether an arrangement 



better adapted to the principles 

 of our government, and to the 

 particular interests of the people, 

 may not be devised, which will 

 neither infringe the constitution, 

 nor affect the object which the 

 provision in question was intended 

 to secure. The growing popula- 

 tion, already considerable, and 

 the increasing business of the 

 district, which, it is believed, al- 

 ready interferes with the delibera- 

 tions of Congress on great 

 national concerns, furnish addi- 

 tional motives for recommending 

 this subject to your considera- 

 tion. 



When we view the great bless- 

 ings with which our country has 

 been favoured, those which we 

 now enjoy, and the means which 

 we possess of handing them down, 

 unimpaired, to our latest poste- 

 rity, our attention is irresistibly 

 drawn to the source from whence 

 they flow. Let us then unite in 

 offering our most grateful ac- 

 knowledgments for these bless- 

 ings to the Divine Author of all 

 good. 



James Monroe. 



Nov. 17, 1818. 



CHAPTER 



