But the commissioners appointed by that Government
to resume the negotiation have shewn every disposition to hasten its
progress. It is, however, a work of time, as many arrangements are
necessary to place our future harmony on stable grounds. In the meantime
we find by the communications of our plenipotentiaries that a temporary
suspension of the act of the last session prohibiting certain
importations would, as a mark of candid disposition on our part and of
confidence in the temper and views with which they have been met, have
a happy effect on its course. A step so friendly will afford further
evidence that all our proceedings have flowed from views of justice and
conciliation, and that we give them willingly that form which may best
meet corresponding dispositions.
Add to this that the same motives which produced the postponement of
the act till the 15th of November last are in favor of its further
suspension, and as we have reason to hope that it may soon yield to
arrangements of mutual consent and convenience, justice seems to require
that the same measure may be dealt out to the few cases which may fall
within its short course as to all others preceding and following it.
I can not, therefore, but recommend the suspension of this act for a
reasonable time, on considerations of justice, amity, and the public
interests.
TH. JEFFERSON.
DECEMBER 15, 1806,
_To the House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress a report of the surveyor of the public buildings,
stating the progress made on them during the last season and what is
proposed for the ensuing one.
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