ischarge of their duties within their constitutional limits;
and that the people will confine their public agents of every station
to the strict line of their constitutional duties there is no cause to
doubt. Having, however, communicated my sentiments to Congress at the
last session fully in the document to which I have referred, respecting
the right of appropriation as distinct from the right of jurisdiction
and sovereignty over the territory in question, I deem it improper to
enlarge on the subject here.

From the best information that I have been able to obtain it appears
that our manufactures, though depressed immediately after the peace,
have considerably increased, and are still increasing, under the
encouragement given them by the tariff of 1816 and by subsequent
laws. Satisfied I am, whatever may be the abstract doctrine in favor of
unrestricted commerce, provided all nations would, concur in it and it
was not liable to be interrupted by war, which has never occurred and
can not be expected, that there are other strong reasons applicable to
our situation and relations with other countries which impose on us the
obligation to cherish and sustain our manufactures. Satisfied, however,
I likewise am that the interest of every part of our Union, even of
those most benefited by manufactures, requires that this subject should
be touched with the greatest caution, and a critical knowledge of
the effect to be produced by the slightest change. On full consideration
of the subject in all its relations I am persuaded that a further
augmentation may now be made of the duties on certain foreign articles
in favor of our own and without affecting injuriously any other
interest. For more precise details I refer you to the communications
which were made to Congress during the last session.

So great was the amount of accounts for moneys advanced during the late
war, in addition to others of a previous date which in the regular
operations of the Government necessarily remained unsettled, that it
required a considerable length of time for their adjustment. By a report
from the First Comptroller of the Treasury it appears that on the 4th of
March, 1817, the accounts then unsettled amounted to $103,068,876.41, of
which, on the 30th of September of the present year, $93,175,396.56 had
been settled, leaving on that day a balance unsettled of $9,893,479.85.
That there have been drawn from the Treasury, in paying the public debt
and su