JEFFERSON.

MARCH 2, 1808.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

In compliance with the resolution of the Senate of November 30, 1807,
I now transmit a report of the Secretary of State on the subject of
impressments, as requested in that resolution. The great volume of the
documents and the time necessary for the investigation will explain to
the Senate the causes of the delay which has intervened.

TH. JEFFERSON.

MARCH 7, 1808.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

In the city of New Orleans and adjacent to it are sundry parcels of
ground, some of them with buildings and other improvements on them,
which it is my duty to present to the attention of the Legislature.
The title to these grounds appears to have been retained in the former
sovereigns of the Province of Louisiana as public fiduciaries and for
the purposes of the Province. Some of them were used for the residence
of the governor, for public offices, hospitals, barracks, magazines,
fortifications, levees, etc., others for the townhouse, schools,
markets, landings, and other purposes of the city of New Orleans; some
were held by religious corporations or persons, others seem to have
been reserved for future disposition. To these must be added a parcel
called the Batture, which requires more particular description. It is
understood to have been a shoal or elevation of the bottom of the river
adjacent to the bank of the suburbs of St. Mary, produced by the
successive depositions of mud during the annual inundations of the
river, and covered with water only during those inundations. At all
other seasons it has been used by the city immemorially to furnish
earth for raising their streets and courtyards, for mortar, and other
necessary purposes, and as a landing or quay for unlading firewood,
lumber, and other articles brought by water. This having been lately
claimed, by a private individual, the city opposed the claim on a
supposed legal title in itself; but it has been adjudged that the legal
title was not in the city. It is, however, alleged that that title,
originally in the former sovereigns, was never parted with by them,
but was retained in them for the uses of the city and Province, and
consequently has now passed over to the United States. Until this
question can be decided under legislative authority, measures have been
taken according to law to prevent any change in the state of things and
to keep the gr