At New Orleans two separate systems of defense are necessary—­the one for the river, the other for the lake, which at present can give no aid to one another.  The canal now leading from the lake, if continued into the river, would enable the armed vessels in both stations to unite, and to meet in conjunction an attack from either side.  Half the aggregate force would then have the same effect as the whole, or the same force double the effect of what either can now have.  It would also enable the vessels stationed in the lake when attacked by superior force to retire to a safer position in the river.  The same considerations of expense and importance render this also a question for the special decision of Congress.

TH.  JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 13, 1809.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: 

I now render to Congress the account of the fund established for defraying the contingent expenses of Government for the year 1808.  Of the $20,000 appropriated for that purpose, $2,000 were deposited in the hands of the Attorney-General of the United States to pay expenses incident to the prosecution of Aaron Burr and his accomplices for treason and misdemeanors alleged to have been committed by them; $990 were paid to the order of Governor Williams on the same account, and the balance of $17,010 remains in the Treasury unexpended.

TH.  JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 17, 1809.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: 

I communicate to Congress certain letters which passed between the British secretary of state, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Pinkney, our minister plenipotentiary at London.  When the documents concerning the relations between the United States and Great Britain were laid before Congress at the commencement of the session, the answer of Mr. Pinkney to the letter of Mr. Canning had not been received, and a communication of the latter alone would have accorded neither with propriety nor with the wishes of Mr. Pinkney.  When that answer afterwards arrived it was considered that, as what had passed by conversation had been superseded by the written and formal correspondence on the subject, the variance in the two statements of what had verbally passed was not of sufficient importance to be made the matter of a distinct and special communication.  The letter of Mr. Canning, however, having lately appeared in print, unaccompanied by that of Mr. Pinkney in reply, and having a tendency to make impressions not warranted by the statements of Mr. Pinkney, it has become proper that the whole should be brought into public view.

TH.  JEFFERSON.

JANUARY 24, 1809.

To the Senate of the United States: 

According to the resolution of the Senate of the 17th instant, I now transmit them the information therein requested, respecting the execution of the act of Congress of February 21, 1806, appropriating $2,000,000 for defraying any extraordinary expenses attending the intercourse between the United States and foreign nations.