cherish the federal union as the only rock
of safety--these, fellow-citizens, are the landmarks by which we are to
guide our selves in all our proceedings. By continuing to make these the
rule of our action we shall endear to our countrymen the true principles
of their Constitution and promote an union of sentiment and of action
equally auspicious to their happiness and safety. On my part, you may
count on a cordial concurrence in every measure for the public good and
on all the information I possess which may enable you to discharge to
advantage the high functions with which you are invested by your
country.

TH. JEFFERSON.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

DECEMBER 22, 1802.

_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_:

I now transmit a report from the Secretary of State with the information
requested in your resolution of the 17th instant.

In making this communication I deem it proper to observe that I was led
by the regard due to the rights and interests of the United States and
to the just sensibility of the portion of our fellow-citizens more
immediately affected by the irregular proceeding at New Orleans to lose
not a moment in causing every step to be taken which the occasion
claimed from me, being equally aware of the obligation to maintain in
all cases the rights of the nation and to employ for that purpose those
just and honorable means which belong to the character of the United
States.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 23, 1802.

_Gentlemen of the House of Representatives_.

In pursuance of the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 3d
of May last, desiring a statement of expenditures from January 1, 1797,
by the Quartermaster-General and the navy agents, for the contingencies
of the naval and military establishments and the navy contracts for
timber and stores, I now transmit such statements from the offices of
the Secretaries of the Treasury, War, and Navy, where alone these
expenditures are entered.

TH. JEFFERSON.

DECEMBER 27, 1802.

_Gentlemen of the Senate_:

I lay before you a treaty, which has been agreed to by commissioners
duly authorized on the part of the United States and the Creek Nation
of Indians, for the extinguishment of the native title to lands in the
Talassee County, and others between the forks of Oconce and Oakmulgee
rivers, in Georgia, in pursuance of the convention with that State,
together with the documents explanatory thereof; and it is submitted
to y