TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE.
December 24, 1803.
Amidst the anxieties which are felt for the favorable issue of measures adopted for promoting the public good, it is a consolation to meet the approbation of those on whose behalf they are instituted. I shall certainly endeavor to merit a continuance of the good opinion which the legislature of Tennessee have been pleased to express in their address of the 8th November, by a zealous attention to the interests of my constituents; and shall count on a candid indulgence whenever untoward events may happen to disappoint well-founded expectations.
In availing our western brethren of those circumstances which occur for promoting their interests, we only perform that duty which we owe to every portion of the Union, under occurrences equally favorable; and, impressed with the inconveniences to which the citizens of Tennessee are subjected by a want of contiguity in the portions composing their State, I shall be ready to do for their relief, whatever the general legislature may authorize, and justice to our neighbors permit.
The acquisition of Louisiana, although more immediately beneficial to the western States, by securing for their produce a certain market, not subject to interruption by officers over whom we have no control, yet is also deeply interesting to the maritime portion of our country, inasmuch as by giving the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi, it avoids the burthens and sufferings of a war, which conflicting interests on that river would inevitably have produced at no distant period. It opens, too, a fertile region for the future establishments in the progress of that multiplication so rapidly taking place in all parts.
I have seen with great satisfaction the promptitude with which the first portions of your militia repaired to the standard of their country. It was deemed best to provide a force equal to any event which might arise out of the transaction, and especially to the preservation of order, among our newly-associated brethren, in the first moments of their transition from one authority to another. I tender to the legislature of Tennessee assurances of my high respect and consideration.