The rights of a neutral to carry on a commercial intercourse with every part of the dominions of a belligerent, permitted by the laws of the country (with the exception of blockaded ports and contraband of war), was believed to have been decided between Great Britain and the United States by the sentence of the commissioners mutually appointed to decide on that and other questions of difference between the two nations, and by the actual payment of damages awarded by them against Great Britain for the infractions of that right. When, therefore, it was perceived that the same principle was revived with others more novel, and extending the injury, instructions were given to the minister plenipotentiary of the United States at the court of London, and remonstrances duly made by him on this subject, as will appear by documents transmitted herewith. These were followed by a partial and temporary suspension only, without any disavowal of the principle. He has therefore been instructed to urge this subject anew, to bring it more fully to the bar of reason, and to insist on the rights too evident and too important to be surrendered. In the meantime, the evil is proceeding under adjudications founded on the principle which is denied. Under these circumstances the subject presents itself for the consideration of Congress.
On the impressment of our seamen our remonstrances have never been intermitted. A hope existed at one moment of an arrangement which might have been submitted to, but it soon passed away, and the practice, though relaxed at times in the distant seas, has been constantly pursued in those in our neighborhood. The grounds on which the reclamations on this subject have been urged, will appear in an extract from instructions to our minister at London now communicated.
SPECIAL MESSAGE.—February 3, 1806.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:—
A letter has been received from the Governor of South Carolina, covering an act of the legislature of that state, ceding to the United States various forts and fortifications, and sites for the erection of forts in that state, on the conditions therein expressed. This letter and the act it covered are now communicated to Congress.
I am not informed whether the positions ceded are the best which can be taken for securing their respective objects. No doubt is entertained that the legislature deemed them such. The river of Beaufort particularly, said to be accessible to ships of very large size, and capable of yielding them a protection which they cannot find elsewhere, but very far to the north, is, from these circumstances, so interesting to the Union in general, as to merit particular attention and inquiry, as to the positions on it best calculated for health as well as safety.
SPECIAL MESSAGE.—February 19, 1806.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:—
In pursuance of a measure submitted to Congress by a message of January 18th, 1803, and sanctioned by their appropriation for carrying it into execution, Captain Meriwether Lewis, of the first regiment of infantry, was appointed, with a party of men, to explore the river Missouri from its mouth to its source; and, crossing the highlands by the shortest portage, to seek the best water communication thence to the Pacific ocean; and Lieutenant Clarke was appointed second in command. They were to enter into conference with the Indian nation on their route, with a view to the establishment of commerce with them. They entered the Missouri, May 14th, 1804, and on the 1st of November, took up their winter quarters near the Maudan towns, 1609 miles above the mouth of the river, in latitude 47° 21´ 47´´ north, and longitude 99° 24´ 45´´ west, from Greenwich. On the 8th of April, 1805, they proceeded up the river in pursuance of the objects prescribed to them. A letter of the preceding day, April the 7th, from Captain Lewis, is herewith communicated. During his stay among the Maudans', he had been able to lay down the Missouri according to courses and distances taken under his passage up it, corrected by frequent observations of longitude and latitude, and to add to the actual survey of this portion of the river, a general map of the country between the Mississippi and Pacific, from the thirty-fourth to the fifty-fourth degrees of latitude. These additions are from information collected from Indians with whom he had opportunity of communicating during his journey and residence among them. Copies of this map are now presented to both houses of Congress. With these I communicate, also, a statistical view, procured and forwarded by him, of the Indian nations inhabiting the territory of Louisiana, and the countries adjacent to its northern and western borders; of their commerce, and of other interesting circumstances respecting them.
In order to render the statement as complete as may be, of the Indians inhabiting the country west of the Mississippi, I add Dr. Sibley's account of those residing in and adjacent to the territory of Orleans.