connected with the change, he incurs expenses to which he would not otherwise have been subjected.

II. Claims for outfits and salaries by chargés des affaires and secretaries of legation, who have not been appointed by the president by and with the advice and consent of the senate.

By the second section of the act of 1810, it is provided, "That, to entitle any chargé d'affaires, or secretary of any legation, or embassy to any foreign country, or secretary of any minister plenipotentiary, to the compensation herein before provided, they shall respectively be appointed by the president of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the senate; but in the recess of the senate, the president is hereby authorized to make such appointments, which shall be submitted to the senate at the next session thereafter, for their advice and consent; and no compensation shall be allowed to any chargé d'affaires, or any of the secretaries herein before described, who shall not be appointed as aforesaid." Notwithstanding the explicit language of this act, claims for outfits and salaries have been made, and allowed at the treasury, by chargés des affaires and secretaries of legation who had not been appointed in the manner specified. Among the accompanying documents will be found several claims of this description, of which a detailed statement is given in the letter of the fifth auditor. The case of Mr. William B. Lawrence, late chargé d'affaires at London, is of a still more peculiar character, in consequence of his having actually drawn his outfit and salary from the bankers employed by the government, and from the length of time he officiated in that capacity. Mr. Lawrence's accounts were rendered to the late administration, but not settled. I have refused to sanction the allowance claimed, because the law does not authorize it; but have refrained from directing any proceedings to compel a reimbursement of the money thus, in my judgment, illegally received, until an opportunity should be afforded to Congress to pass upon the equity of the claim.

Appropriations are annually and necessarily made "for the contingent expenses of all the missions abroad," and "for the contingent expenses of foreign intercourse," and the expenditure of these funds intrusted to the discretion of the president. It is out of those appropriations that allowances of this character have been claimed, and, it is presumed, made. Deeming, however, that the discretion thus committed to the executive, does not extend to the allowances of charges prohibited by express law, I nave felt it my duty to refer all existing claims to the action of Congress, and to submit to their consideration, whether any alteration of the law in this respect is necessary.

III. The allowance of a quarter's salary to ministers and chargés des affaires, to defray their expenses home.

This allowance has been uniformly made, but is without authority by law. Resting in executive discretion, it has, according to circumstances, been extended to cases where the ministers died abroad, to defray the return of his family, and was recently claimed in a case where the minister had no family, on grounds of general equity. A charge of this description can hardly be regarded as a contingent one, and if allowed at all, must be in lieu of salary. As such, it is altogether arbitrary, although it is not believed that the interests of the treasury are, upon the whole, much affected by the substitution. In some cases, the allowance is for a longer period than is occupied in the return of the minister; in others, for one somewhat less; and it seems to do away all inducement to unnecessary delay. The

subject is, however, susceptible of positive regulation by law; and it is, on many accounts, highly expedient that it should be placed on that footing. I have, therefore, without directing any alteration in the existing practice, felt it my duty to bring it to your notice.

IV. Travelling and other expenses in following the court, in cases where its residence is not stationary.

The only legations by which expenses of this description are incurred and charged are those to Spain and the Netherlands, and to them they have, on several occasions, been allowed. Among the documents herewith communicated, will be found, with other charges requiring legislative interference, an amount for travelling expenses, with a statement of the grounds upon which their reimbursement is claimed. This account has been suspended by the officer of the treasury to whom its settlement belongs; and as the question will be one of frequent recurrence, I have deemed the occasion a fit one to submit the whole subject to the revision of Congress. The justice of these charges, for extraordinary expenses unavoidably incurred, has been admitted by former administrations, and the claims allowed. My difficulty grows out of the language of the act of 1310, which expressly declares, that the salary and outfit it authorizes to the minister and chargé d'affaires shall be "a compensation for all his personal services and expenses." The items which ordinarily form the contingent expenses of a foreign mission are of a character distinct from the personal expenses of the minister. The difficulty of regarding those now referred to in that light is obvious. There are certainly strong considerations of equity in favor of a remuneration for them at the two courts where they are alone incurred; and if such should be the opinion of Congress, it is desirable that authority to make it be expressly conferred by law, rather than continue to rest upon doubtful construction.

V. Charges of consuls for discharging diplomatic functions, without appointment, during a temporary vacancy in the office of chargé d'affaires.

It has sometimes happened, that consuls of the United States, upon the occurrence of vacancies, at their places of residence, in the diplomatic offices of the United States, by the death or retirement of our minister or chargé d'affaires, have taken under their care the papers of such mission, and usefully discharged diplomatic functions, in behalf of their government and fellow-citizens, till the vacancies were regularly filled. In some instances, this is stated to have been done to the abandonment of other pursuits, and at a considerably increased expense of living. There are exist ing claims of this description, which can not be finally adjusted or allowed without the sanction of Congress. A particular statement of them accompanies this communication.

The nature of this branch of the public service makes it necessary to commit portions of the expenses incurred in it to executive discretion; but it is desirable that such portions should be as small as possible. The purity and permanent success of our political institutions depend, in a great measure, upon definite appropriations, and a rigid adherence to the enactments of the legislature disposing of public money. My desire is, to have the subject placed upon a more simple and precise, but not less liberal footing, than it stands on at present, so far as that may be found practicable. An opinion, that the salaries allowed by law to our agents abroad are, in many cases, inadequate, is very general; and it is reasonable to suppose, that this impression has not been without its influence in the construction of the laws by which those salaries are fixed. These are

certainly motives, which it is difficult to resist, to an increased expense on the part of some of our functionaries abroad, greatly beyond that which would be required at home.

Should Congress be of opinion that any alteration for the better can be made, either in the rate of salaries now allowed, or in the rank and gradation of our diplomatic agents, or both, the present would be a fit occasion for a revision of the whole subject.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

MAY 30, 1830.

To the Senate of the United States :

"An act

GENTLEMEN: I have approved and signed the bill entitled, making appropriations for examinations and surveys, and also for certain works of internal improvement;" but as the phraseology of the section, which appropriates the sum of eight thousand dollars for the road from Detroit to Chicago, may be construed to authorize the application of the appropriation for the continuance of the road beyond the limits of the territory of Michigan, I desire to be understood, as having approved this bill with the understanding, that the road, authorized by this section, is not to be extended beyond the limits of the said territory.

MAYSVILLE ROAD VET O.

MAY 27, 1830.

To the House of Representatives :

GENTLEMEN: I have maturely considered the bill proposing to authorize "a subscription of stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike-road Company," and now return the same to the house of representatives, in which it originated, with my objections to its passage.

Sincerely friendly to the improvement of our country by means of roads and canals, I regret that any difference of opinion in the mode of contributing to it should exist between us; and if, in stating this difference, I go beyond what the occasion may be deemed to call for, I hope to find an apology in the great importance of the subject, an unfeigned respect for the high source from which this branch of it has emanated, and an anxious wish to be correctly understood by my constituents in the discharge of all my duties. Diversity of sentiment among public functionaries, actuated by the same general motives, on the character and tendency of particular measures, is an incident common to all governments, and the more to be expected in one which like ours owes its existence to the freedom of opinion, and must be upheld by the same influence. Controlled as we thus are by a higher tribunal, before which our respective acts will be canvassed with the indulgence due to the imperfections of our nature, and with that intelligence

and unbiased judgment which are the true correctives of error, all that our responsibility demands is that the public good should be the measure of our views, dictating alike their frank expression and honest maintenance.

In the message which was presented to Congress at the opening of its present session, I endeavored to exhibit briefly my views upon the important and highly interesting subject to which our attention is now to be directed. I was desirous of presenting to the representatives of the several states in Congress assembled, the inquiry whether some mode could not be devised which would reconcile the diversity of opinion concerning the powers of this government over the subject of internal improvements, and the manner in which these powers, if conferred by the constitution, ought to be exercised. The act which I am called upon to consider has therefore been passed with a knowledge of my views on this question, as these are expressed in the message referred to. In that document the following suggestion will be found :

"After the extinction of the public debt it is not probable that any adjustment of the tariff upon principles satisfactory to the people of the Union will, until a remote period, if ever, leave the government without a considerable surplus in the treasury beyond what may be required for its current service. As, then, the period approaches when the application of the revenue to the payment of debts will cease, the disposition of the surplus will present a subject for the serious deliberation of Congress; and it may be fortunate for the country that it is yet to be decided. Considered in connexion with the difficulties which have heretofore attended appropriations for purposes of internal improvement, and with those which this experience tells us will certainly arise, whenever power over such subjects may be exercised by the general government, it is hoped that it may lead to the adoption of some plan which will reconcile the diversified interests of the states, and strengthen the bonds which unite them. Every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland navigation, and the construction of highways in the several states. Let us then endeavor to obtain this benefit in a mode which will be satisfactory to all. That hitherto adopted has been deprecated as an infraction of the constitution by many of our fellow-citizens, while by others it has been viewed as inexpedient. All feel that it has been employed at the expense of harmony in the legislative councils." And adverting to the constitutional power of Congress to make what I consider a proper disposition of the surplus revenue, I subjoin the following remarks: "To avoid these evils it appears to me that the most safe, just, and federal disposition which could be made of the surplus revenue would be its apportionment among the several states according to their ratio of representation; and should this measure not be found warranted by the constitution, that it would be expedient to propose to the states an amendment authorizing it."

The constitutional power of the federal government to construct or promote works of internal improvement presents itself in two points of view: the first, as bearing upon the sovereignty of the states within whose limits their execution is contemplated, if jurisdiction of the territory which they may occupy be claimed as necessary to their preservation and use; the second, as asserting the simple right to appropriate money from the national treasury in aid of such works when undertaken by state authority surrendering the claim of jurisdiction. In the first view, the question of power is an open one, and can be decided without the embarrassment attending

the other, arising from the practice of the government. Although frequently and strenuously attempted, the power to this extent has never been exercised by the government in a single instance. It does not, in my opinion, possess it; and no bill, therefore, which admits it can receive my official sanction.

But in the other view of the power the question is differently situated. The ground taken at an early period of the government was, "that whenever money has been raised by the general authority, and is to be applied to a particular measure, a question arises whether the particular measure be within the enumerated authorities vested in Congress. If it be, the money requisite for it may be applied to it; if not, no such application can be made." The document in which this principle was first advanced is of deservedly high authority, and should be held in grateful remembrance for its immediate agency in rescuing the country from much existing abuse, and for its conservative effect upon some of the most valuable principles of the constitution. The symmetry and purity of the government would doubtless have been better preserved if this restriction of the power of appropriation could have been maintained without weakening its ability to fulfil the general objects of its institution-an effect so likely to attend its admission, notwithstanding its apparent fitness, that every subsequent administration of the government, embracing a period of thirty out of the forty-two years of its existence, has adopted a more enlarged construction of the power. It is not my purpose to detain you by a minute recital of the acts which sustain this assertion, but it is proper that I should notice some of the most prominent, in order that the reflections which they suggest to my mind may be better understood.

In the administration of Mr. Jefferson we have two examples of the exercise of the right of appropriation, which, in the considerations that led to their adoption, and in their effects upon the public mind, have had a greater agency in marking the character of the power than any subsequent events. I allude to the payment of fifteen millions of dollars for the purchase of Louisiana, and to the original appropriation for the construction of the Cumberland road; the latter act deriving much weight from the acquiescence and approbation of three of the most powerful of the original members of the confederacy, expressed through their respective legislatures. Although the circumstances of the latter case may be such as to deprive so much of it as relates to the actual construction of the road of the force of an obligatory exposition of the constitution, it must nevertheless be admitted that so far as the mere appropriation of money is concerned, they present the principle in its most imposing aspect. No less than twenty-three different laws have been passed through all the forms of the constitution, appropriating upward of two millions and a half of dollars out of the national treasury in support of that improvement, with the approbation of every president of the United States, including my predecessor, since its

commencement.

Independently of the sanction given to appropriations for the Cumberland and other roads and objects, under this power, the administration of Mr. Madison was characterized by an act which furnishes the strongest evidence of his opinion of its extent. A bill was passed through both houses of Con-. gress and presented for his approval, "setting apart and pledging certain funds for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water-courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several states, and to render more easy and less ex.