between those places, who had become numerous and entitled to attention. By all these treaties, the sovereignty of the United States was acknowledged, as well as their right to regulate the trade of the Indians with civilized nations.

It having been found impossible to carry into operation the system proposed by Mr. Monroe, for the preservation and civilization of the aborigines, on account of the reluctance of the Indians to dispose of any more of their territory; a modification was proposed by Mr. Barbour, the secretary of war, to the last congress. The outlines of this new plan were: to set apart the territory west of the Mississippi beyond the states and territories, and that east of the Mississippi lying west of lakes Huron and Michigan, for their exclusive abode, under a territorial government, to be maintained by the United States. 2dly. To induce them to remove as individuals, and not in tribes, and to leave those who do not wish to go, in their present possessions. 3dly. When circumstances should justify it, to amalgamate the tribes in one mass, and distribute their property among the individual Indians. Common schools to be established in the villages; assistance to be afforded them in commencing agricultural life; to furnish them with stock,

grain, and fences; and to commute the annuities now paid to them for a fixed sum, to be divided as individual property, were also recommended as the details of this system. The plan of the secretary was reported to the house of representatives by the proper committee, and a bill brought in to carry it into effect. Cominon schools had already been established among the Caddoes, and at Michillimackinac, and were attended by nearly 1200 scholars; thus proving the practicability of introducing instruction among the savages. The other measures had been attended with the most beneficial consequences among the southern Indians, some of whom had attained a high degree of civilization. The zeal and energy with which this subject, so interesting to humanity and momentous to the character of the country, were now taken up, excited sanguine hopes that the condition of the aborigines would be permanently improved, and the remnant preserved, to fulfil the end of their existence as civilized beings. Enough had been done before to evince the sincerity of the government to meliorate their situation; but while Spanish and British agents were permitted to trade with them, and to excite them to hostility against the United States, all our efforts

were counteracted, and the confidence of the Indians, in the views of the American government, destroyed. By the extension of our frontier settlement, since the war with Great Britain, and the judicious positions of the regular troops, this interference was now prevented, and the tribes subjected to the sole superintendence and care of the federal authorities. The benevolent views of the government were now prosecuted without interruption, and a visible improvement was yearly manifested in the condition of the remaining tribes. The appropriations made by the 19th congress, at the first session, to the Indian department, for the civilization of the aborigines, and to fulfil the treaties with them, amounted to nearly $1,000,000, a sum equal to the whole civil list of the government. The number of Indians in the several states and territories, appeared by a report from the secretary of war, at the beginning of the year, to be about 130,000, of which about 97,000 were east of the Mississippi, and south of Michigan. Many of these were partially civilized, as the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw nations, in the south, and some of the eastern Indians, leaving only between 40 and 50,000 Indians whose removal could be effected with propriety.

Towards the Florida Indians, who were in a state of great suffering from want of food, the government manifested its usual humanity. A bill appropriating $20,000, to furnish them with the means of subsistence, was passed by congress, and they were relieved from their distress, which was on the point of becoming extreme. An attempt was made to connect this bill with the policy of removing the aborigines beyond the Mississippi; but the house refused to consider the subjects together, and granted the required relief, without annexing to it the condition of removal.

Another subject which attracted public attention, during the recess of congress, was, the inquiry instituted into the conduct of captains Porter and Stewart.

Shortly before the termination of Mr. Monroe's administration, Captain Porter was recalled from his command in the West Indies, on account of his landing at Foxardo, and compelling the authorities of that place to apologize for their misconduct towards one of the officers of his squadron. The circumstances of this hostile landing on a Spanish island, appeared to Mr. Monroe to be of sufficient importance to warrant a court of inquiry into captain Porter's conduct; and one was ordered, which

assembled at Washington, in the month of May, 1825. After commencing its inquiries, a controversy took place between the accused and the court, which resulted in the withdrawal of captain Porter from the court, and a publication by him of its proceedings, and his reasons for withdrawing. The court proceeded in its inquiries, notwithstanding the absence of the accused, and reported its opinion to the president. The consequence was, that a court martial was ordered to try captain Porter upon two charges; the first for violating his instructions, and committing acts of hostility against the subjects of Spain, by landing at Foxardo; and the other for insubordinate and unbecoming conduct, growing out of his controversy with the court of inquiry. The specifications under this last charge were, certain letters to the president and the secretary of the navy after his recall; the premature publication of an incorrect statement of the proceedings before the court of inquiry, accompanied with disrespectful insinuations against the court and the secretary of the navy; and the publication of his official orders and correspondence without permission. Of these charges, the court martial, which met in the following July, found him guilty, and sentenced him to a suspension of six months.

It afforded no small gratification to the friends of the navy, that in the course of the inquiries into captain Porter's conduct, it was not found tainted with peculation, and that he was actuated with the most earnest desire to promote the interest and honor of his country while on his West India station.

To this was attributed the lightness of the sentence which the court imposed, after bringing him in guilty on both charges.

The charges against captain Stewart were of a graver character, and such as to touch his fame as an officer and man of honor; but the court, after a minute and deliberate investigation, acquitted him of every charge, and accompanied the acquittal with a high compliment to his conduct while in the Pacific.

Shortly after the commencement of Mr. Jefferson's administration, the attention of the general government was directed to the improvement of the internal communications of the country. The Cumberland road was commenced under his administration, and was continued under his two successors. During the late war with Great Britain the difficulty of internal communication, and the danger of transporting goods by sea, had shown the advantages of canals; and the complete success of the New York canal had imparted

great popularity to this species of communication. The advocates of internal improvement soon brought the subject before congress; and while on the one hand the policy was vindicated, by an enumeration of the advantages which must result from certain improvements, to whose completion the resources of the general government alone were adequate, and which, from their passing through several states, naturally fell within the jurisdiction of congress; on the other, the power of appropriating the resources of the country, by congress, to that object was denied, as not being found within the express words of the constitution.

By the constant and uniform decisions of several successive congresses, this constitutional objection seemed to be overruled; and during this year the attention of the federal government was particularly directed to the improvement of the internal communications between the states.

During the last session of the 18th congress, appropriations were made for surveying and laying out roads from Little Rock to Cantonment Gibson, in Arkansa; from St. Mary's river to the bay of Tampa, in Florida; from the western boundary of Missouri to the confines of New Mexico; and from Pensacola to St. Augustine. An appropriation was also made for

making surveys in different parts of the Union, and the secretary of the treasury was authorised to aid the Chesapeake and Delaware canal company by subscribing for 1500 shares of its stock.

The topographical corps, which had been enlarged, was actively employed during the summer of 1825, in executing these surveys ; and the favorable reports from the engineer department on the subject of roads and canals, induced the 19th congress, at its first session, to make further appropriations for new surveys. In addition to $50,000, appropriated for the expenses of exploring and surveying the country at large, specific appropriations were made for the survey of a canal route between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico; for repairing the post roads between Jackson and Columbus, in Mississippi, and between Chatahoochy and Line Creek, in Alabama, and for repairing and continuing the Cumberland road. $150,000 were subscribed on the part of the government to the stock of the Dismal Swamp canal company, and three fifths of the 5 per cent. reserved from the proceeds of the public lands in Mississippi, were given to that state for the purposes of internal improvement. Appropriations were also made for the survey of various harbors on the sea-coast, and for the deepening of

their channels, as well as to secure them from storms. The execution of these several acts for the improvement of the internal communications between the states, was entrusted to the war department.

The attention of the engineers during the summer of 1826, was occupied in surveying a route for a national road, between the seat of government and New Orleans; a road between the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie to Detroit, and thence to Chicago, in Illinois; and the roads specially directed by congress. Surveys were also made of routes for the Chesapeake and Ohio canal; for that between Lake Ponchartrain and the Mississippi; for the Florida canal; and for canals to connect the basin of Baltimore with the Chesapeake and Ohio canal; to connect Kenhawa with James and Roanoake rivers; between Pittsburg and Lake Erie; between Ohio and Lake Erie; and to unite the St. Mary's, St. Joseph and Wabash rivers with the Ohio. The Kennebeck and its branches were also surveyed, and routes for the Gardiner, the Brunswick, the Amonusick, the Sunapee, the Oliverian, the Dover canals, and the Passumpsic and Rutland routes.

Improvements were made in the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi, but the contract made for the removal of the obstructions in those rivers, was very imperfectly execu

ted. The federal authorities now began seriously to apply the resources of the country to its improvement: and scarcely in any way except by the presence of its officers, directing the execution of some work of internal improvement, were the inhabitants of the interior made sensible of the existence of a national government; unless when biennially called upon, to elect their representatives in the national councils.

To the exercise of the power of expending the public monies in making roads and canals by congress, serious objections were entertained by many, who did not doubt the constitutional authority. While they admitted that the national government possessed the power, to construct canals for the purpose of facilitating the commercial intercourse between the states, and that, in some instances, it might be exercised with signal benefit to the whole Union; they feared that it would invest the federal authorities with unlimited patronage, which would ultimately lead to great corruption in the administration of the government; and also, that it would create competition and jealousy among the several states for the aid of the federal government in making canals and roads, wholly of a local character.

The manufacturing establish