Those of Messrs.
Lewis, Clarke, and Freeman will require further time to be digested
and prepared. These important surveys, in addition to those before
possessed, furnish materials for commencing an accurate map of the
Mississippi and its western waters. Some principal rivers, however,
remain still to be explored, toward which the authorization of Congress
by moderate appropriations will be requisite.
I congratulate you, fellow-citizens, on the approach of the period at
which you may interpose your authority constitutionally to withdraw
the citizens of the United States from all further participation in
those violations of human rights which have been so long continued on
the unoffending inhabitants of Africa, and which the morality, the
reputation, and the best interests of our country have long been eager
to proscribe. Although no law you may pass can take prohibitory effect
till the first day of the year 1808, yet the intervening period is
not too long to prevent by timely notice expeditions which can not
be completed before that day.
The receipts at the Treasury during the year ending on the 30th day of
September last have amounted to near $15,000,000, which have enabled us,
after meeting the current demands, to pay $2,700,000 of the American
claims in part of the price of Louisiana; to pay of the funded debt
upward of three millions of principal and nearly four of interest, and,
in addition, to reimburse in the course of the present month near two
millions of 5-1/2 per cent stock.
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