of the state of the Spanish Monarchy, our
attention was imperiously attracted to the change developing itself in
that portion of West Florida which, though of right appertaining to the
United States, had remained in the possession of Spain awaiting the
result of negotiations for its actual delivery to them. The Spanish
authority was subverted and a situation produced exposing the country to
ulterior events which might essentially affect the rights and welfare of
the Union. In such a conjuncture I did not delay the interposition
required for the occupancy of the territory west of the river Perdido,
to which the title of the United States extends, and to which the laws
provided for the Territory of Orleans are applicable. With this view,
the proclamation of which a copy is laid before you was confided to the
governor of that Territory to be carried into effect. The legality and
necessity of the course pursued assure me of the favorable light in
which it will present itself to the Legislature, and of the promptitude
with which they will supply whatever provisions may be due to the
essential rights and equitable interests of the people thus brought into
the bosom of the American family.

Our amity with the powers of Barbary, with the exception of a recent
occurrence at Tunis, of which an explanation is just received, appears
to have been uninterrupted and to have become more firmly established.

With the Indian tribes also the peace and friendship of the United
States are found to be so eligible that the general disposition to
preserve both continues to gain strength.

I feel particular satisfaction in remarking that an interior view of our
country presents us with grateful proofs of its substantial and
increasing prosperity. To a thriving agriculture and the improvements
related to it is added a highly interesting extension of useful
manufactures, the combined product of professional occupations and of
household industry. Such indeed is the experience of economy as well as
of policy in these substitutes for supplies heretofore obtained by
foreign commerce that in a national view the change is justly regarded
as of itself more than a recompense for those privations and losses
resulting from foreign injustice which furnished the general impulse
required for its accomplishment. How far it may be expedient to guard
the infancy of this improvement in the distribution of labor by
regulations of the commercial tariff is a subje