said laws have been enforced in
all cases against securities who are liable for the payment of any
arrears due; whether any disbursing officer, within the knowledge of
the President, has given conclusive evidence of his insolvency, and,
if so, whether he is still retained in the service of the United States,
I transmit to the House a report from the Secretary of the Treasury,
with the documents mentioned therein.

The report has been confined to the operations of the law. Respecting
the circumstances of individuals in their transactions without the
sphere of their public duties I have no means of information other
than those which are common to all.

JAMES MONROE.

WASHINGTON, _March 7, 1823_.

_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:

In compliance with a resolution of the House of Representatives of this
day, requesting information of the measures taken with regard to the
illegal blockade of the ports of the Spanish Main, and to depredations
of privateers fitted out from Porto Rico and other Spanish islands on
the commerce of the United States, I transmit to the House a report
from the Secretary of State containing the information required by
the resolution.

JAMES MONROE.

SEVENTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 2, 1823_.

_Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives_:

Many important subjects will claim your attention during the
present session, of which I shall endeavor to give, in aid of your
deliberations, a just idea in this communication. I undertake this duty
with diffidence, from the vast extent of the interests on which I have
to treat and of their great importance to every portion of our Union.
I enter on it with zeal from a thorough conviction that there never
was a period since the establishment of our Revolution when, regarding
the condition of the civilized world and its bearing on us, there
was greater necessity for devotion in the public servants to their
respective duties, or for virtue, patriotism, and union in our
constituents.

Meeting in you a new Congress, I deem it proper to present this view
of public affairs in greater detail than might otherwise be necessary.
I do it, however, with peculiar satisfaction, from a knowledge that in
this respect I shall comply more fully with the sound principles of our
Government. The people being with us exclusively the sovereign, it is
indispensable that full information be laid before them on al