tates_:

Having examined and considered the bill entitled "An act for the relief
of Richard Tervin, William Coleman, Edwin Lewis, Samuel Mims, Joseph
Wilson, and the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, in the
Mississippi Territory," I now return the same to the House of
Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objection:

_Because_ the bill in reserving a certain parcel of land of the
United States for the use of said Baptist Church comprises a principle
and precedent for the appropriation of funds of the United States for
the use and support of religious societies, contrary to the article of
the Constitution which declares that "Congress shall make no law
respecting a religious establishment."

JAMES MADISON.

PROCLAMATION.

[From the National Intelligencer, July 25, 1811]

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas great and weighty matters claiming the consideration of the
Congress of the United States form an extraordinary occasion for
convening them, I do by these presents appoint Monday, the 4th day of
November next, for their meeting at the city of Washington, hereby
requiring the respective Senators and Representatives then and there to
assemble in Congress, in order to receive such communications as may
then be made to them, and to consult and determine on such measures as
in their wisdom may be deemed meet for the welfare of the United States.

[SEAL.]

In testimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be
hereunto affixed, and signed the same with my hand, Done at the city of
Washington, the 24th day of July, A.D. 1811, and of the Independence of
the United States the thirty-sixth.

JAMES MADISON.

By the President:
JAMES MONROE,
_Secretary of State_.

THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _November 5, 1811_.

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

In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would
otherwise have been required I yielded to considerations drawn from the
posture of our foreign affairs, and in fixing the present for the time
of your meeting regard was had to the probability of further
developments of the policy of the belligerent powers toward this country
which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be
pursued.

At the close of the last session of Congress it was hoped that the
successive confirmations of th