ecretary of State_.

[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 3, p. 101.]

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas information has been received that a number of individuals who
have deserted from the Army of the United States have become sensible of
their offenses and are desirous of returning to their duty, a full
pardon is hereby granted and proclaimed to each and all such individuals
as shall within four months from the date hereof surrender themselves to
the commanding officer of any military post within the United States or
the Territories thereof.

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, the 8th day of October, A.D. 1812, and
of the Independence of the United States the thirty-seventh.

JAMES MADISON.

By the President:
JAMES MONROE,
_Secretary of State_.

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _November 4, 1812_.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:

On our present meeting it is my first duty to invite your attention to
the providential favors which our country has experienced in the unusual
degree of health dispensed to its inhabitants, and in the rich abundance
with which the earth has rewarded the labors bestowed on it. In the
successful cultivation of other branches of industry, and in the
progress of general improvement favorable to the national prosperity,
there is just occasion also for our mutual congratulations and
thankfulness.

With these blessings are necessarily mingled the pressures and
vicissitudes incident to the state of war into which the United States
have been forced by the perseverance of a foreign power in its system of
injustice and aggression.

Previous to its declaration it was deemed proper, as a measure of
precaution and forecast, that a considerable force should be placed in
the Michigan Territory with a general view to its security, and, in
the event of war, to such operations in the uppermost Canada as would
intercept the hostile influence of Great Britain over the savages,
obtain the command of the lake on which that part of Canada borders,
and maintain cooperating relations with such forces as might be most
conveniently employed against other parts. Brigadier-General Hull was
charged with this provisional service, having under his command a body
of