The completion of the census of the inhabitants, for which provision was made by law, has been duly notified, (excepting one instance in which the return has been informal; and another, in which it has been omitted or miscarried,) and the returns of the officers who were charged with this duty, which will be laid before you, will give you the pleasing assurance, that the present population of the United States borders on four millions of persons.
Gentlemen of the Senate:
Two treaties which have been provisionally concluded with the Cherokees and Six Nations of Indians, will be laid before you for your consideration and ratification.
Gentlemen of the House of Representatives:
In entering upon the discharge of your legislative trust, you must anticipate, with pleasure, that many of the difficulties, necessarily incident to the first arrangements of a new Government, for an extensive country, have been happily surmounted by the zealous and judicious exertions of your predecessors, in co-operation with the other branch of the Legislature. The important objects which remain to be accomplished, will, I am persuaded, be conducted upon principles equally comprehensive, and equally well calculated for the advancement of the general weal.
It is particularly pleasing to me to be able to announce to you that the revenues which have been established promise to be adequate to their objects, and maybe permitted, if no unforeseen exigency occurs, to supersede, for the present, the necessity of any new burdens upon our constituents.[40]
An object which will claim your early attention is a provision for the current service of the ensuing year, together with such ascertained demands upon the Treasury as require to be immediately discharged, and such casualties as may have arisen in the execution of the public business, for which no specific appropriation may have yet been made; of all which a proper estimate will be laid before you.
Gentlemen of the Senate, and of the House of Representatives:
I shall content myself with a general reference to former communications for several objects, upon which the urgency of other affairs has hitherto postponed any definitive resolution. Their importance will recall them to your attention; and, I trust that the progress already made in the most arduous arrangements of the Government will afford you leisure to resume them with advantage.
There are, however, some of them of which I cannot forbear a more particular mention. These are: the Militia, the Post Office and Post Roads, the Mint, Weights and Measures, and a provision for the sale of the vacant lands of the United States.