e been carried on by other powers; but this policy,
while it gave activity and extent to our commerce, exposed it in the
same proportion to injuries from the belligerent nations. Hence have
arisen claims of indemnity for those injuries. England, France, Spain,
Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Naples, and lately Portugal had all in a
greater or less degree infringed our neutral rights. Demands for
reparation were made upon all. They have had in all, and continue to
have in some, cases a leading influence on the nature of our relations
with the powers on whom they were made.

Of the claims upon England it is unnecessary to speak further than to
say that the state of things to which their prosecution and denial gave
rise has been succeeded by arrangements productive of mutual good
feeling and amicable relations between the two countries, which it is
hoped will not be interrupted. One of these arrangements is that
relating to the colonial trade which was communicated to Congress at the
last session; and although the short period during which it has been in
force will not enable me to form an accurate judgment of its operation,
there is every reason to believe that it will prove highly beneficial.
The trade thereby authorized has employed to the 30th September last
upward of 30,000 tons of American and 15,000 tons of foreign shipping in
the outward voyages, and in the inward nearly an equal amount of
American and 20,000 only of foreign tonnage. Advantages, too, have
resulted to our agricultural interests from the state of the trade
between Canada and our Territories and States bordering on the St.
Lawrence and the Lakes which may prove more than equivalent to the loss
sustained by the discrimination made to favor the trade of the northern
colonies with the West Indies.

After our transition from the state of colonies to that of an
independent nation many points were found necessary to be settled
between us and Great Britain. Among them was the demarcation of
boundaries not described with sufficient precision in the treaty of
peace. Some of the lines that divide the States and Territories of the
United States from the British Provinces have been definitively fixed.
That, however, which separates us from the Provinces of Canada and New
Brunswick to the north and the east was still in dispute when I came
into office, but I found arrangements made for its settlement over which
I had no control. The commissioners who had been appointed