To the Senate of the United States: DECEMBER 23, 1808. According to the request of the Senate in their resolution of November 14, that copies should be laid before them of all the orders and decrees of the belligerent powers of Europe, passed since 1791, affecting the commercial rights of the United States, I now transmit them a report of the Secretary of State of such of them as have been attainable in the Department of State and are supposed to have entered into the views of the Senate. TH: JEFFERSON. DECEMBER 27, 1808. To the Senate of the United States: According to the request expressed by the Senate in their resolution of November 14, I now transmit a report of the Secretary of the Treasury and statement showing, as far as returns have been received from the collectors, the number of vessels which have departed from the United States with permission, and specifying the other particulars contemplated by that resolution. TH: JEFFERSON. DECEMBER 30, 1808. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: At the request of the governor, the senate, and house of representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I communicate certain resolutions entered into by the said senate and house of representatives, and approved by the governor, on the 23d instant. It can not but be encouraging to those whom the nation has placed in the direction of their affairs to see that their fellow-citizens will press forward in support of their country in proportion as it is threatened by the disorganizing conflicts of the other hemisphere. TH: JEFFERSON. DECEMBER 30, 1808. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: I lay before the Legislature a letter from Governor Claiborne on the subject of a small tribe of Alabama Indians on the western side of the Mississippi, consisting of about a dozen families. Like other erratic tribes in that country, it is understood that they have hitherto moved from place to place according to their convenience, without appropriating to themselves exclusively any particular territory; but having now become habituated to some of the occupations of civilized life, they wish for a fixed residence. I suppose it will be the interest of the United States to encourage the wandering tribes of that country to reduce them |