ch will always
be found highly instructive and useful to their successors. From these
I shall endeavor to derive all the advantages which they may afford.
Of my immediate predecessor, under whom so important a portion of this
great and successful experiment has been made, I shall be pardoned for
expressing my earnest wishes that he may long enjoy in his retirement
the affections of a grateful country, the best reward of exalted talents
and the most faithful and meritorious services. Relying on the aid to
be derived from the other departments of the Government, I enter on the
trust to which I have been called by the suffrages of my fellow citizens
with my fervent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously
pleased to continue to us that protection which He has already so
conspicuously displayed in our favor.

MARCH 4, 1817.

PROCLAMATION.

[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 12, p. 176.]

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of the tract
of land at the lower rapids of Sandusky River," passed on the 27th day
of April, 1816, it was enacted that all the lands in the said tract,
except the reservations made in the said act, should be offered for
sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, under the
direction of the register of the land office and the receiver of public
moneys at Wooster, and on such day or days as shall, by a public
proclamation of the President of the United States, be designated for
that purpose; and

Whereas by an act entitled "An act providing for the sale of the tract
of land at the British fort at the Miami of the Lake, at the foot of the
rapids, and for other purposes," passed the 27th day of April, 1816, it
was enacted that all the land contained in the said tract, except the
reservations and exceptions made in the said act, should be offered for
sale to the highest bidder at Wooster, in the State of Ohio, under the
direction of the register of the land office and the receiver of public
moneys at Wooster, and on such day or days as shall, by a public
proclamation of the President of the United States, be designated for
that purpose:

Wherefore I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in conformity
with the provisions of the acts before recited, do hereby declare and
make known that the lands authorized to be sold by the first mentioned
act shall be offered for sale to the highest bidder at