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A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS

BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON

A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE


VOLUME I



1897




Prefatory Note


In compliance with the authorization of the Joint Committee on Printing,
I have undertaken this compilation.

The messages of the several Presidents of the United States--annual,
veto, and special--are among the most interesting, instructive, and
valuable contributions to the public literature of our Republic. They
discuss from the loftiest standpoint nearly all the great questions of
national policy and many subjects of minor interest which have engaged
the attention of the people from the beginning of our history, and
so constitute important and often vital links in their progressive
development. The proclamations, also, contain matter and sentiment no
less elevating, interesting, and important. They inspire to the highest
and most exalted degree the patriotic fervor and love of country in the
hearts of the people.

It is believed that legislators and other public men, students of our
national history, and many others will hail with satisfaction the
compilation and publication of these messages and proclamations in
such compact form as will render them easily accessible and of ready
reference. The work can not fail to be exceedingly convenient and useful
to all who have occasion to consult these documents. The Government has
never heretofore authorized a like publication.

In executing the commission with which I have been charged I have sought
to bring together in the several volumes of the series all Presidential
proclamations, addresses, messages, and communications to Congress
excepting those nominating persons to office and those which simply
transmit treaties, and reports of heads of Departments which contain
no recommendation from the Executive. The utmost effort has been made
to render the compilation accurate and exhaustive.

Although not required by the terms of the resolution authorizing the
compilation, it has been deemed wise and wholly consistent with its
purpose to incorporate in the first volume authentic copies of the
Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the
Constitution of the United States, together with steel engravings of
the Capitol, the Executive Mansion, and of the historical painting the
"Signing of the Declaration of Independence." Steel portraits of the
Presidents will be inserted each in its appropriate place.

The compilation has not been brought even to its present stage without
much labor and close application, and the end is far from view; but if
it shall prove satisfactory to Congress and the country, I will feel
compensated for my time and effort.

JAMES D. RICHARDSON.

WASHINGTON, D.C.,

_February 22, 1896_.





Declaration of Independence

July 4, 1776




Declaration of Independence

NOTE.--The words "Declaration of Independence" do not appear on
the original.


IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them,
a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.--We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure
these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed,--That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in
such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety
and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long
established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed
to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by
abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for
their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these
Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter
their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of
Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all
having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over
these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid
world.--He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good.--He has forbidden his Governors to pass
Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their
operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he
has utterly neglected to attend to them.--He has refused to pass other
Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature,
a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.--He has
called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,
and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.--He has
dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly
firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.--He has refused for
a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected;
whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned
to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the
mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and
convulsions within.--He has endeavoured to prevent the population of
these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization
of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations
hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.--He
has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to
Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.--He has made Judges dependent
on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries.--He has erected a multitude of New Offices,
and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out
their substance.--He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing
Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.--He has affected to
render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.--He
has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their
Acts of pretended Legislation:--For quartering large bodies of armed
troops among us:--For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment
for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these
States:--For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:--For
imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:--For depriving us in many
cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:--For transporting us beyond
Seas to be tried for pretended offences:--For abolishing the free System
of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an
Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render
it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies:--For taking away our Charters,
abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms
of our Governments:--For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.--He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of
his Protection and waging War against us.--He has plundered our seas,
ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our
people.--He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign
Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny,
already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head
of a civilized nation.--He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken
Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become
the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by
their Hands.--He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these
Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our
repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince,
whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant,
is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting
in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time
to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable
jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice
and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt
our connections and correspondence They too have been deaf to the voice
of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the
necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold
the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.--

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of
America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme
Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name,
and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish
and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be
Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all
Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection
between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally
dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power
to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and
to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right
do.--And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

JOHN HANCOCK

  JOSIAH BARTLETT
  W'M WHIPPLE
  SAM'L. ADAMS
  JOHN ADAMS
  ROB'T. TREAT PAINE
  ELBRIDGE GERRY
  STEP. HOPKINS
  WILLIAM ELLERY
  ROGER SHERMAN
  SAM'EL HUNTINGTON
  W'M WILLIAMS
  OLIVER WOLCOTT
  MATTHEW THORNTON
  W'M FLOYD
  PHIL. LIVINGSTON
  FRAN'S LEWIS
  LEWIS MORRIS
  RICH'D STOCKTON
  JN'O. WITHERSPOON
  FRA'S. HOPKINSON
  JOHN HART
  ABRA CLARK
  ROB'T. MORRIS
  BENJAMIN RUSH
  BENJ'A. FRANKLIN
  JOHN MORTON
  GEO CLYMER
  JA'S. SMITH.
  GEO. TAYLOR
  JAMES WILSON
  GEO. ROSS
  CAESAR RODNEY
  GEO READ
  THO M'KEAN
  SAMUEL CHASE
  W'M. PACA
  THO'S. STONE
  CHARLES CARROLL of Carrollton
  GEORGE WYTHE
  RICHARD HENRY LEE.
  TH. JEFFERSON
  BENJ'A. HARRISON
  THO'S. NELSON jr.
  FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE
  CARTER BRAXTON
  W'M. HOOPER
  JOSEPH HEWES.
  JOHN PENN
  EDWARD RUTLEDGE.
  THO'S. HEYWARD Jun'r.
  THOMAS LYNCH Jun'r.
  ARTHUR MIDDLETON
  BUTTON GWINNETT
  LYMAN HALL
  GEO WALTON.

       *       *       *       *       *




Articles of Confederation



Articles of Confederation

NOTE.--The original is indorsed: Act of Confederation of The
United States of America.

To all to whom these Presents shall come, we the undersigned
Delegates of the States affixed to our Names send greeting. Whereas the
Delegates of the United States of America in Congress assembled did on
the fifteenth day of November in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven
Hundred and Seventy seven, and in the Second Year of the Independence of
America agree to certain articles of Confederation and perpetual Union
between the States of Newhampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia
in the Words following, viz. "Articles of Confederation and perpetual
Union between the states of Newhampshire, Massachusetts-bay, Rhodeisland
and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina,
South-Carolina and Georgia."

Article I. The Stile of this confederacy shall be "The United States of
America."

Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom an independence,
and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this
confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress
assembled.

Article III. The said states hereby severally enter into a firm league
of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security
of their Liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding
themselves to assist each other, against all force offered to, or
attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion,
sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatsoever.

Article IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and
intercourse among the people of the different states in this union,
the free inhabitants of each of these states, paupers, vagabonds and
fugitives from Justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges
and immunities of free citizens in the several states; and the people
of each state shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other
state, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce,
subject to the same duties, impositions and restrictions as the
inhabitants thereof respectively, provided that such restriction shall
not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into
any state, to any other state of which the Owner is an inhabitant;
provided also that no imposition, duties or restriction shall be laid
by any state, on the property of the united states, or either of them.

If any Person guilty of, or charged with treason, felony, or other high
misdemeanor in any state, shall flee from Justice, and be found in any
of the united states, he shall upon demand of the Governor or executive
power, of the state from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to
the state having jurisdiction of his offence.

Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these states to the
records, acts and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates
of every other state.

Article V. For the more convenient management of the general interests
of the united states, delegates shall be annually appointed in such
manner as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in
Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power
reserved to each state, to recal its delegates, or any of them, at
any time within the year, and to send others in their stead, for the
remainder of the Year.

No state shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more
than seven Members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate
for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any
person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the
united states, for which he, or another for his benefit receives any
salary, fees or emolument of any kind.

Each state shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the states,
and while they act as members of the committee of the states.

In determining questions in the united states, in Congress assembled,
each state shall have one vote.

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or
questioned in any Court, or place out of Congress, and the members
of congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and
imprisonments, during the time of their going to and from, and
attendance on congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of
the peace.

Article VI. No state without the Consent of the united states in
congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy
from, or enter into any conferrence, agreement, alliance or treaty with
any King prince or state; nor shall any person holding any office of
profit or trust under the united states, or any of them, accept of any
present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatever from any king,
prince or foreign state; nor shall the united states in congress
assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility.

No two or more states shall enter into any treaty, confederation or
alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the united states
in congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the
same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue.

No state shall lay any imposts or duties, which may interfere with any
stipulations in treaties, entered into by the united states in congress
assembled, with any king, prince or state, in pursuance of any treaties
already proposed by congress, to the courts of France and Spain.

No vessels of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any state, except
such number only, as shall be deemed necessary by the united states in
congress assembled, for the defence of such state, or its trade; nor
shall any body of forces be kept up by any state, in time of peace,
except such number only, as in the judgment of the united states, in
congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts
necessary for the defence of such state; but every state shall always
keep up a well regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed
and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use,
in public stores, a due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper
quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage.

No state shall engage in any war without the consent of the united
states in congress assembled, unless such state be actually invaded
by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution
being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such state, and the
danger is so imminent as not to admit of a delay, till the united
states in congress assembled can be consulted: nor shall any state grant
commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or
reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the united states
in congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state and
the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under
such regulations as shall be established by the united states in
congress assembled, unless such state be infested by pirates, in which
case vessels of war may be fitted