with a view to the great interests of the nation. He passed through Charleston, Savannah, Augusta, Nashville, the Cherokee nation, Louisville, Lexington, and thence returned to Washington. In December, Alabama was admitted into the union. This territory having long been a bone of contention, we add the following:

After the peace of 1783, Georgia laid claim to this territory, and exercised jurisdiction over it, until the beginning of the present century. In 1795, an act passed the legislature of Georgia, by which twenty-five millions of acres, of its western territory, were sold to companies for five hundred thousand dollars, and the purchase money was paid into the treasury. The purchasers of these lands soon after sold them at advanced prices. The sale of the territory excited a warm opposition in Georgia, and at a subsequent meeting of the legislature, the transaction was impeached on the ground of bribery, corruption, and unconstitutionality.

The records respecting the sale were ordered to be burnt, and the five hundred thousand dollars to be refunded to the purchasers. Those who had acquired titles of the original purchasers, instituted suits in the federal courts. In 1802, however, Georgia ceded to the United States all her western territory, for one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. On this event the purchasers of the Yazoo land petitioned congress for redress and compensation. After considerable opposition, an act passed for reimbursing them with funded stock, called the Mississippi stock.

In the following year, Maine, which had formerly be longed to Massachusetts, was erected into an independent state, and joined the federal union. The separation from the parent state was on the most amicable

terms.

Mr. Monroe having been re-elected president, took the usual oath of office on the 5th of March, 1821, and Mr. Tompkins was again elected vice-president. On the 10th of August, the proclamation of the president announced, that Missouri was admitted into the federal compact as an integral part.

Upon the cession of Louisiana to the United States,

the district, which now forms the state of Louisiana, was separated from the territory, and made a distinct government, by the name of the territory of Orleans. In 1811 the territory of Orleans became a state, by the name of Louisiana. The remaining part of the original province of Louisiana, extending to the Pacific, was erected into a territorial government, and called Missouri. In 1818-19, application was made to congress, by the people of this territory, to form a state constitution. A bill was accordingly introduced for the purpose, a provision of which forbade slavery, or involuntary servitude. The bill, with this provision, passed the house of representatives, but was rejected in the senate, and, in consequence of this disagreement, the measure, for the time, failed.

In the session of 1819-20, the bill was revived, and, after long and animated debates, a compromise was effected, by which slavery was to be tolerated in Missouri, and forbidden in all that part of Louisiana, as ceded by France, lying north of 36° 30′ north latitude, except so much as was included within the limits of the state. In the mean

time, the people of Missouri had formed a state constitution. When this constitution was presented to congress in 1820-21, a provision in it, which required the legislature to pass laws "to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to, and settling in, the state," was strenuously opposed, on the ground that it violated the rights of such persons of that description as were citizens of any of the United States.

The contest occupied a great part of the session, and it was finally determined, by a small majority, that Missouri should be admitted, upon the fundamental condition, that the contested clause should not be construed to authorize the passage of any laws excluding citizens of other states from enjoying the privileges to which they are entitled by the constitution of the United States. It was also provided, that if the legislature of Missouri should, by a solemn public act, previously to the fourth Monday of November, 1821, declare the assent of the state to this fundamental condition, the president should issue his proclamation, declaring the admission complete. On the

24th of June, 1821, the legislature of Missouri assented to the fundamental condition; and, on the 10th of August following, the president's proclamation was issued, declaring the admission complete.

During the first session of the seventeenth congress, a territorial government was established for Florida. At the opening of the second session, the president informed congress, that, in June, a convention of navigation and commerce, resting essentially on a basis of reciprocal and equal advantage to the two countries, had been concluded between France and the United States; that the prohibition which had been imposed on commerce between the United States and the British colonies, in the West Indies, and on this continent, had been removed, and that the ports of those colonies had been opened to the vessels of the United States, by an act of the British parliament.

In a second message, a few days subsequently, the president introduced to the notice of congress, the interesting subject of the "multiplied outrages and depredations recently committed on our seamen and commerce, by pirates in the West Indies, and Gulf of Mexico," and recommended the immediate organization of an efficient force to suppress them. A bill was accordingly introduced, authorizing the president to provide such a force, and to despatch it immediately to the protection of our persecuted seamen.

Immediately after the passage of the above bill, Commodore Porter was appointed to this service, and, soon after, hoisting his broad pennant on board the Peacock, stretched his way, with a respectable force, to chastise those miscreants, that regard no law, and that feel no

mercy.

This session closed on the 3d of March, 1823, in which little business of general importance had been transacted.

At the opening of the first session of the eighteenth congress, in December, the president spoke in high terms of the prosperous state of the finances, and of our amicable relations with foreign nations. In relation to the efforts of the executive to stop the depredations of the

pirates on the national commerce, the president stated, that in the West Indies, and the Gulf of Mexico, the naval force had been augmented, according to the provisions of congress. "This armament," said he, "has been eminently successful in the accomplishment of its object. The piracies by which our commerce, in the neighbourhood of the Island of Cuba, has been afflicted, have been repressed, and the confidence of the merchants, in a great measure, restored."

In allusion to the Greek revolution, the president has the following judicious remarks; and though his halfprophetic wishes are not yet realized, the prospect that they will soon be is certainly a bright one. "A strong hope has been long entertained, founded on the heroic struggle of the Greeks, that they would succeed in their contest, and resume their equal station among the nations of the earth. It is believed that the whole civilized world takes a deep interest in their welfare.

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Although no power has declared in their favour, yet none, according to our information, has taken part against them. Their cause, and their name, have protected them from dangers which might, ere this, have overwhelmed any other people. The ordinary calculations of interest, and of acquisition, with a view to aggrandizement, which mingle so much in the transactions of nations, seem to have had no effect in regard to them. From the facts which have come to our knowledge, there is good cause to believe that their enemy has lost, for ever, all dominion over them—that Greece will again become an independent nation. That she may obtain that rank, is the object of our most ardent wishes."

Speaking of Spain and Portugal, in relation to the attempts of the "Holy Alliance" to extend their political system to South America, the executive observed, "but, on this topic, the citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favour of the liberty and happiness of their fellow men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to do.

"It is only when our rights are invaded, or seriously

menaced, that we resent injuries, or make preparation for our defence. With the movements in this hemisphere, we are, of necessity, more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different, in this respect, from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective governments. And to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of our most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candour, and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers, to declare, that we should consider any attempt, on their part, to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere, as dangerous to our peace and safety.

"With existing colonies, or dependencies of any European power, we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration, and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States. In the war between those new governments and Spain, we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur, which, in the judgmen of the competent authority of this government, shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security."

To this language, so temperate, just, and independent, every good citizen responded amen. His remarks on the state of the country, in the same message, are too valuable to be omitted.

"If we compare the present condition of our Union, with its actual state at the close of our revolution, the